In 1938, Edith Westerfeld, a young German Jew, is sent by her parents to Chicago, Illinois, where she lives with an aunt and uncle and tries to assimilate into American culture, while worrying about her parents and mourning the loss of everything she has ever known. Based on the author's mother's experience, includes an afterword about a little-known program that brought twelve hundred Jewish children to safety during World War II.

In 1938 Berlin, Germany, a cat sees Rosenstrasse change from a peaceful neighborhood of Jews and Gentiles to an unfriendly place where, one November night, men in brown shirts destroy Jewish-owned businesses and arrest or kill Jewish people. Includes facts about Kristallnacht and a list of related books and web resources.

In 1936 Berlin, fourteen-year-old Karl Stern, considered Jewish despite a non-religious upbringing, learns to box from the legendary Max Schmeling while struggling with the realities of the Holocaust.

"In the summer of 1941, Irene Lorch must perform the most perilous balancing act of her life. Irene grew up traveling around Germany with her family's circus, surrounded by her loved ones and thrilling the crowds with her performance on the high wire...until one day, the audience boos. The Lorch family is Jewish, and the increasing power of Adolf Hitler's Nazis has put them all in grave danger."-- Irene grew up traveling around Germany with her familys...

After a school trip to Israel, Johanna discover's that her German grandfather acquired a clothing store during the Nazi regime according to the anti-Semitic laws of the Third Reich rather than starting it himself as her family has always stated. She struggles with whether to keep silent or to question her family's history.