The Upstairs Room
Encyclopedia
The Upstairs Room is a Holocaust survivor autobiography by the author Johanna Reiss
documenting her childhood in occupied Holland during the Nazi invasion. The book received an enthusiastic review by Elie Wiesel
and has won many awards including the Medal of Honor and MW3 and the Jewish Book Council
award for best children's book.
Because she was Jewish, the occupation put Annie and her family in grave danger. Fortunately, a Gentile family, the Oostervelds, offered to help. Annie and her elder sister Sini have been kept hidden for two years. They struggle through many hardships, such as their mother's illness and death.
Compared with Anne Frank’s
“Diary of a Young Girl,” it is sparer and sterner: Frank, unaware of her tragic fate, radiated lively, optimistic, girlish intensity, while Reiss wrote “The Upstairs Room” after much of her hope and appetite for life had been extinguished. One expects the survivor to be the more expansive writer, but like so many Holocaust victims, Reiss was left emotionally crippled, fearful of being violently murdered, always ready to hide.
Johanna Reiss
Johanna Reiss is a Dutch-born American writer and longtime resident of New York City. Her most recent work, A Hidden Life, was published by Melville House Publishing in January 2009...
documenting her childhood in occupied Holland during the Nazi invasion. The book received an enthusiastic review by Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
and has won many awards including the Medal of Honor and MW3 and the Jewish Book Council
Jewish Book Council
The Jewish Book Council, founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of quality English language books of Jewish content in North America". It is the only...
award for best children's book.
Because she was Jewish, the occupation put Annie and her family in grave danger. Fortunately, a Gentile family, the Oostervelds, offered to help. Annie and her elder sister Sini have been kept hidden for two years. They struggle through many hardships, such as their mother's illness and death.
Compared with Anne Frank’s
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
“Diary of a Young Girl,” it is sparer and sterner: Frank, unaware of her tragic fate, radiated lively, optimistic, girlish intensity, while Reiss wrote “The Upstairs Room” after much of her hope and appetite for life had been extinguished. One expects the survivor to be the more expansive writer, but like so many Holocaust victims, Reiss was left emotionally crippled, fearful of being violently murdered, always ready to hide.