After winning a grant from the Conseil des arts et des Lettres du Quebec, the author took advantage of the opportunity to further explore her mother's experiences during the war. The result is this young adult novel.

Anneke Van Raalte is living with her parents and her younger brother in Holland as the full force of the Holocaust kicks in. The newly arrived German conquerors arrange to have them shipped to Theresienstadt, a community in Czecholsovakia named after the Empress Maria Therese (mother of Marie Antoinette). The citadel, originally built in 1780, has been set aside as a work camp for Jews. This was different from most concentration camps people are more familiar with. It was set up to be a model community that highlighted how "well" Jews were being treated by the Nazis.

While there is not the constant fear of the gas chambers, Jews are continually brought into Theresienstadt placing more and more of a strain on the resources and space. Everyone is hungry and in threadbare clothes. As time goes by, there is also the fear of the transports that start shipping the Jews to the more well known death camps.

In some ways Anneka is lucky. Because her father is an artist, he is assigned to work on all sorts of materials to promote the Nazi state and the things it is doing for the German people. People think of him as a traitor for helping the Germans, and those feelings become more intense when the community is "cleaned up" for the Embellishment, a time with the Dutch Red Cross is coming through to make sure the Nazis are not breaking rules about human rights.

It is a very different look at the Holocaust, but I have to admit that I had a hard time connecting with the characters. There is no shortage of the horrors and the cruelty faced by Anneka, her family and those around her. I think part of it might be the awkward shifting through time experienced throughout the book. The tale just seems a bit rushed, and most of the characters seem flat. Readers only get glimpses of most of them, producing archetypes rather than fully developed characters for the reader to connect with.

It is not a bad book, but it is also not great.