It’s finally over. Zofia Lederman has survived the soldiers, the ghetto, the trains and the concentration camps. She has survived the cold, the work, the starvation and the hate. Now the war is over, another battle has begun – find her little brother Abek. Only they survived the holocaust and the Nazi’s endless lines. She and Abek stayed together in one line and the rest of their family went left.

Now 18, Zofia knows Abek will be 12. She remembers his eyes and the fear and them, and ultimately the promise she made to him. She has been in hospital since her camp was liberated by the Allies, and she’s far from 100 percent, but she can’t wait any longer. She must find Abek.

Her first stop is her old home. But the apartment feels nothing like home without the people in it. The hate they left behind is still in the air, and there are circling vultures keen to take the little she has left.

She begins her search by train, going places she thinks Abek might have been taken. Quickly told by authorities, it is a fruitless way to search for a small boy she doesn’t even know survived, she refuses to give up.

She doesn’t have the patience to write letters to every organisation and wait for their replies. Thousands of people are searching, thousands more lost. How will she ever find him?

Without even looking for it, she finds love on her quest. It is strange and cautious, but the young man who eats his meals on his own and tends horses at their refugee camp, refuses to leave her thoughts. But finding Abek must come first.

Always intrigued by stories of the holocaust, They Went Left is something different, beginning after the liberation of the thousands of death camps across Europe. The war might have been over, but the hate and antisemitism was still alive and well, preventing surviving Jews from returning home to try and rebuild their lives.

This story shows the pain, terror, loss and grief of one of the worst times in history, but it also has hope, laughter, and the courage needed to stand up, “love those in front of you,” and forgive. Zofia’s memory snatches take the reader back to the ghetto, the trains, inside the camps and beyond. But are they memories or fairytales like the ones she used to read to Abek? Intriguing until the final pages.

The afterword from the author is sobering, but interesting. The human heart can bear so much, and the body too, but may we never forget.

Author – Monica Hesse

Age – 15+

(2020, Little Brown, Hachette, Holocaust, Jews, Nazi’s, Memories, Lines, Starvation, Hospital, Brother, Family, Loss, Grief, Nightmares, Refugee camps, Kindness, Empathy, Seamstress, Sewing, Wedding, Lies, Fairytales, Search, Fate, WWII, World War 2, Friends, Home, Historical, Poland, Germany)