Zelda is being bullied at a new school, staying with Felix whilst her parents are doing charity work in Africa. In the third story, Now, Felix is eighty years old living in Australia, and grandfather to Zelda, aged ten. Her journey is to realize that not all Nazis had a choice and that there were good memories, too. She reacts with horror and hatred for her parents. Zelda’s prize possession is her parents’ photo in a locket, but she realizes that he is wearing a Nazi uniform. The relationship between Felix and Zelda is expanded in the second book Then. He leaves the orphanage and, whilst hiding out from the Nazis, saves a six-year-old girl, Zelda, from a burning house. Gradually the truth dawns that they shall not be coming back for him. The first book starts in a children’s orphanage run by Catholic nuns, where Felix waits for his parents to return for him. The reader knows the probable truth from the beginning, but has to wait until Felix has experienced both hope and despair before he achieves comprehension and acceptance. With Felix, a 14-year-old Polish Jewish boy, the reader witnesses terrifying, incomprehensible incidents, but as Felix grows in understanding he realizes the truth behind the events. A trilogy told from a child’s viewpoint about the Holocaust and the Nazi domination.
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