She did not dwell on the details until the story came spilling out in a writing workshop. Before their wartime saga was done, Anita and her brother would march by night into the freezing January cold, heading for the notorious camp at Ravensbr ü ck.Īs she tells the gripping story in No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War, somehow she and her brother survived those years and set them behind them until they were older. Anita’s story took a terrifying turn after the children were caught, along with other Jewish refugees at the convent, packed into trucks, sent to the city prison, then transferred to Plasz ó w camp. But the children were still in hiding from the Nazis, who continued to hunt Jews relentlessly. For years the three barely got by, trading comforts from their old life in exchange for milk, bread, eggs - anything to keep them fed.Įventually, they took shelter in a convent with other refugees.
While most Jews were being rounded up and sent to concentration camps, Niania agreed to take Anita and her younger brother away from the city and ultimately to her cottage in the country, claiming them as her own children. Left alone when her husband was forced to flee, Anita’s mother possessed forged papers and believed she could stay in the city to survive, but she wasn’t willing to risk her children. All that was soon to change when the Nazis marched into Kraków.
Her mother had furs and jewels and employed servants to help with the housework and the children, including a beloved nanny, Niania. Born in Poland just before World War II, Anita’s father ran a chocolate factory and the family was rather well off. Anita Lobel, opens a new window by Emilia Bergmark-Jimenez, opens a new windowįor years, Anita Lobel shied away from many memories of her childhood, and she had good reason to do so.
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