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The Blood Years by Elana K. Arnold tells the story of Frederieke "Rieke" Teitler, a young Jewish girl trying to survive the atrocities of Nazi-controlled Romania. Throughout the war, many of Rieke's friends are deported to Transnistria, a small country to the east where Jews were sent to live in camps and ghettos. Rieke and her family, however, are exempt, as her grandfather and brother-in-law are deemed to be essential city workers and thus granted authorizations to stay. While their authorizations are signed by the governor, many others are signed by the mayor, Traian Popovici, whose heroic role in the book reflects a true story.
Traian Popovici was born in 1892 in a small village in Austria. His father and grandfather were Orthodox priests, and while his family generally disliked foreign rule—the Bukovina region was occupied by various countries throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, changing culture and laws and causing friction between individuals from different ...
