I picked up this book (purchased from Gleebooks Kids) to read yesterday and finished it this morning. The Year we Escaped is one of the 2026 CBCA Younger Readers Notable titles.
This story explores a different aspect of the Holocaust and World War II where over six thousand five hundred Jewish people from the German regions of Baden and Saapflaz were transported to the Gurs Internment Camp in the Free Zone of France.
The author of this book Suzanne Leal heard about a small French village called Le Chambon-sur-Ligon. During the war some communities like these gave refuge to Jewish children. Suzanne stayed "at a guesthouse called Chez Tante Soly, where twenty-two Jewish children had been hosted and protected throughout the Second World War. ... What a story, I thought as my mind kept turning to the lives of these children caught up in that dangerous time. Where had they come from, I wondered, and how had they found their way to this remote village?"
This is the basis of The Year we Escaped which covers the period November 1938 to September 1941. We meet children from two different families. Klara lives in Germany and you will watch with horror as she experiences first hand the persecution of the Jews - smashing of her parents shop windows (Kristallnacht), horrible treatment by people in her town and then her dismay as she has to change schools. Her experiences reminded me of Dancing on the Bridge of Avignon by Ida Vos. Klara's mother decides they urgently need to leave but mother and daughter do not reach safety, instead they are taken to the Gurs Internment Camp. It is an utterly horrible place. The descriptions of the latrines will 'turn your stomach'. (There are extensive notes at the back of the book about Gurs and other aspects of WWII).
Meanwhile Lucien and his brother Paul live in Paris. Their father is a doctor but he is left behind when they are also forced to leave with their mother. By chance there are now four kids - Klara, her friend Rachel, Lucien and his younger brother Paul - in this camp. They quickly become friends. Klara works out a way to leave the camp and she and Lucien enjoy picking the blackberries (they are on the back cover of the book) but the kids don't appear to think about escape. Then suddenly Klara and Rachel are 'rescued' and taken by train to Le Chambon-sur-Ligon. Lucien and Paul's mother decides her boys need to find a way to get there too but for the boys it means sneaking out of the camp and embarking on a 750km train journey. This journey takes up the second half of the book - Suzanne Leal creates some terrific tension on their train journey and at every turn I kept anticipating that terrible things would happen to the young brothers.
You can read a chapter sample and find teachers notes on the publisher web page.
Awards: Winner 2025 ARA Historical Novel Prize – Children & Young Adult Category
As an adult reader you know that the people left behind in the Gurs camp will be taken to places like Auschwitz but younger readers aged 10+ are sure to feel great relief knowing (spoiler alert) the four children will be safe right through the war years.
Things are very hard for everyone in the Gurs camp but I kept expecting harsher descriptions of the starvation and inhumane conditions. Parts of the story were filled with tension for example when Klara is used to demonstrate the awful Nazi doctrine in class and when everyone is forced to leave their suitcases on the station platform but if you have a sensitive reader this book is nowhere near as harsh or confronting as other holocaust middle grade novels. Older students could compare the conditions in the Gurs camp with those described in Let the Celebrations Begin.
Companion books:
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