Parallel Journeys [Hardcover]

Eleanor H. Ayer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1995 | Age Level: 10 and up

Presents the stories of Eleanor Ayer, a Jewish girl who hid in the Netherlands before she was arrested and sent to Auschwitz, and Alfons, a Nazi boy who became a commander at age sixteen, in a dual tale that demonstrates Hitler's impact on German youth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Weak execution undermines the premise of this volume, a dual biography of Waterford, a Jewish woman who survived Auschwitz, and Heck, a German who had risen to the highest circles of the Hitler Youth organization. As the book states, Waterford and Heck currently speak publicly as a team, together explaining the horrors of WWII and the importance of compassion in healing that war's wounds. As the editor of Renaissance House, Ayer has already published Waterford's and Heck's individual memoirs (respectively, Commitment to the Dead; and A Child of Hitler and The Burden of Hitler's Legacy); here she excerpts passages from these works and interpolates a chronicle of the war. However, her account skimps on facts-even so basic a matter as Waterford's date of birth is obscured, and battles and campaigns are only roughly situated ("Early in 1942, the Allies struck back. For the first time, British troops defeated the Germans"). This soft-focus approach allows Waterford's and Heck's statements to go unchallenged-a particular problem with Heck, whose story seems self-serving and incomplete at best. Accordingly, the thesis is hard to swallow-that Waterford and Heck were both Hitler's victims. Ages 12-up. (June) q
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up?This is a book to make your blood run cold. Through Ayer's narrative and excerpts from Heck's memoirs, A Child of Hitler and The Burden of Hitler's Legacy, readers learn how Alfons changed from a loving, wholesome boy to a "Nazi devil" (even the Germans called the elite Hitler Youth by that name). It is frightening to see how easily young people can be swayed, and readers learn just how it happened. Alternating chapters reveal Helen Waterford's story through excerpts from her book, Commitment to the Dead, and Ayer's background material. Fleeing with her fiancee to Amsterdam after Kristallnacht, Helen was again caught in the Nazi noose and struggled to survive. As her plight grew more desperate, Alfons rose higher and higher in the Hitler Youth. Eventually, when he and his ragged corps faced annihilation by the Russians, he realized how Hitler had sacrificed his "children." When Alfons and Helen met in the U.S. 40 years after the war, they found that they shared a common purpose: to help young people understand that peace and compassion are possible between individuals, and on a larger scale as well. Their first-person accounts are interwoven with Ayer's words so seamlessly that readers are unaware of the intrusion of a third person. She is an excellent biographer, capturing nuances of her subjects' characters and personality traits. A fascinating work.?Marcia W. Posner, Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County, Glen Cove, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1St Edition edition (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689318308
• ISBN-13: 978-0689318306
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,843,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, February 10, 2000

By 

Devin (Us) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Parallel Journeys (Paperback)

This is a great book. It contrasts the views of a Hitler Youth and follower and a Jewish Prisoner very well. If you are interested at all in the Holocaust, this book is a must read. It is filled with interesting and horrifying facts. The author arranged this book well

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Parallel Journeys By Eleanor Ayer, November 20, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Parallel Journeys (Paperback)

Parallel Journeys

By:Eleanor Ayer

This book turned out to be a very good book. The front cover features Adolf Hitler with

thousands of his young supporters hailing him during World War Two. Books about the war

usually depress me so usually I wouldn't read them, but this book appealed to me because of the

faces of two teenagers on the front cover. That lead me to read the back cover which simply

said-He was an ardent member of the Hitler Youth. This is a story of the parallel journey through

World War II with Alfons Heck, and Helen Wohlfarth. It compares the two people who had

completely different experiences of the war and to let them tell their stories side by side. It tells

how Helen was treated bad during the war, and how Alfons was training to treat people like

Helen badly and get ready for the war. When I first started reading this book I noticed how

different it was to some of the other novels I have read about the holocaust. It's very chilling to

realize that it is non-fiction. It isn't based on a true story

I learned many things that I didn't know about the Holocaust. I never realized how bad it

was until I read this book. I was surprised to know how young some of the men were while in the

army. It was really sick to know that if they disobeyed an order they could be put to death. For

example, when Alfons thought an order he was given was a mistake and didn't follow it. He was

punished but luckily not killed. After he punished he never disobeyed an order again even if it was

to kill himself. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes war books especially World

War Two books.

Written by: Joe Boggs Madison Middle School

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Nazi son and a Jewish daughter -- together at last, April 10, 2001

By 

Brooke (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Parallel Journeys (Hardcover)

While they aren't from the same family, Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck have developed similar respect for one another that siblings have for each other. In their childhoods, these two never would have dreamed that they would be traveling the country together giving lectures at high schools and colleges. Heck was a rising power in the Hitler youth; Waterford a young Jewish girl suffering through concentration camps and death marches. Eleanor H. Ayer weaves the stories of both these survivors together beautifully. She incorporates the history of the Holocaust as well as personal testimony from Waterford and Heck. This really is a must read for anyone interested in the Holocaust or the oppression of Jews from 1933-1945.