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The BookBrowse Review
The BookBrowse Review
Published February 12, 2025
ISSN: 1930-0018
The BookBrowse Review
Published February 12, 2025
ISSN: 1930-0018
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From Michael L. Printz honoree & National Book Award finalist Elana K. Arnold comes the harrowing story of a young girl's struggle to survive the Holocaust in Romania.
Frederieke Teitler and her older sister, Astra, live in a house, in a city, in a world divided. Their father ran out on them when Rieke was only six, leaving their mother a wreck and their grandfather as their only stable family. He's done his best to provide for them and shield them from antisemitism, but now, seven years later, being a Jew has become increasingly dangerous, even in their beloved home of Czernowitz, long considered a safe haven for Jewish people. And when Astra falls in love and starts pulling away from her, Rieke wonders if there's anything in her life she can count on—and, if so, if she has the power to hold on to it.
Then—war breaks out in Europe. First the Russians, then the Germans, invade Czernowitz. Almost overnight, Rieke and Astra's world changes, and every day becomes a struggle: to keep their grandfather's business, to keep their home, to keep their lives. Rieke has long known that she exists in a world defined by those who have power and those who do not, and as those powers close in around her, she must decide whether holding on to her life might mean letting go of everything that has ever mattered to her—and if that's a choice she will even have the chance to make.
Based on the true experiences of her grandmother's childhood in Holocaust-era Romania, award-winning author Elana K. Arnold weaves an unforgettable tale of love and loss in the darkest days of the twentieth century—and one young woman's will to survive them.
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
Elana K. Arnold's YA novel The Blood Years narrates the story of Frederieke "Rieke" Teitler, a young Jewish girl in Holocaust-era Romania. As the oppression of Jews escalates in the city of Czernowitz, Rieke and her family find themselves forced to do whatever it takes to survive and stay together.
Rieke and her family are based on the author's grandmother, Frieda, and other relatives. Many of the events depicted in the book came directly from stories Frieda told Arnold, including the circumstances of Frieda's birth, the family's abandonment by Frieda's father, and Frieda's time as a dancer. Also true are the antisemitic episodes that led to the loss of Frieda's grandfather's shop, the terror of Frieda's tuberculosis, and the horrific murder of a family member outside the Teitler's home. Arnold blends fiction with the truth to portray the trauma of the Jews who survived the war years in Romania, many of whose stories have remained untold, and to pay tribute to those who didn't survive.
In the book's foreword, Arnold mentions that when asked if she'd been imprisoned during the war, her grandmother would answer, "Not exactly." Many books about World War II feature characters that are sent to concentration camps, but as The Blood Years makes evident, Jews didn't have to be sent to the camps to experience atrocities at the hands of the Nazis and their allies. For Rieke, it's almost worse to remain in the city that no longer resembles the place she once loved. The name of the city has changed, businesses have been destroyed or abandoned, and people are disappearing day after day, including many of Rieke's close friends. The restrictions placed on the Jewish people continuously change depending on what country and what person is in charge, and people who have authorizations that allow them to stay and work suddenly find their passes revoked for having the wrong signature (see Beyond the Book).
It's a world of constant uncertainty, and readers feel Rieke's resulting anxiety. On top of these bigger problems are smaller but still consequential setbacks, such as Rieke's brother-in-law being unfaithful and Rieke's own uncertainty about the existence of God. These everyday problems show that life goes on despite the chaos and death infiltrating the city. Babies are born, people adopt pets, and sisters fight, including Rieke and her sister Astra. Rieke and Astra have a very typical sibling relationship — Rieke looks up to Astra, and Astra pretends to dislike Rieke tagging along on her outings. The two often disagree, but they defend and lean on each other when times are tough. As the oppressive environment of Czernowitz continues to worsen, both sisters make tough choices to take care of their family, even at the cost of their own emotional and physical well-being.
These choices bring them closer while ultimately taking them in different directions, but most importantly, they're made with love. This is a pervasive theme throughout the story—the love of God, the love of family, the love for one's city and country—and although Rieke's future remains unknown, it's clear that Frieda's story ended with a family who loved her and a granddaughter determined to share her experiences with the world. The Blood Wars is a story of love, faith, and perseverance that honors both the Jews in WWII-era Romania and a young woman who found the strength to hope in the face of darkness.
Reviewed by Jordan Lynch
Dashka Slater, Stonewall Book Award-winning author of The 57 Bus
E. Lockhart, New York Times-bestselling author of We Were Liars
Nina LaCour, Michael L. Printz Award-winning author of We Are Okay
Ruta Sepetys, New York Times-bestselling author of I Must Betray You
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 nations who immigrated to the area—Popovici himself was known to respect other ethnic groups. After earning a law degree in Czernowitz (the German name for the city and the name preferred by the Jews; now Chernivtsi in Ukraine) in 1919, he practiced for many years in the city before moving to Bucharest after the Soviets invaded in 1940.
In 1941, Romanian dictator and Prime Minister Ion Antonescu requested that Popovici return and serve as mayor of what was now called Cernauti. Popovici initially refused to serve under a fascist government, but he was eventually persuaded by friends to accept the position and began to push back against antisemitic decrees already in place. Popovici was then ordered to create a Jewish ghetto within Cernauti; he considered leaving his position but ultimately decided he couldn't abandon the Jewish people, so he tried to defy the order. However, his efforts failed to stop the creation of the ghetto, and Jews continued to be deported to Transnistria, upwards of 28,000 by November 1941.
Popovici was disturbed by the Jews' suffering and wrote a passionate letter to the governor asking, "Do you really want to go down in history along with someone like Robespierre?" in reference to the amount of blood on his hands. The governor agreed to let Popovici nominate 200 Jews for exemption from deportation, but Popovici responded that many Jews held essential positions in the city and that they were necessary for the economy to function. The governor allowed Popovici to expand the list, which came to include the names of 20,000 Jews who received authorizations that exempted them from deportation and allowed them to leave the ghetto and return home.
Although authorizations were meant to be given only to essential workers and their families, Popovici provided them liberally, using his position to keep as many Jews as possible out of Transnistria. However, in the spring of 1942, his actions caught up with him; he was removed as mayor for granting "unnecessary" permits and deported to Bucharest. Approximately 5,000 Jews were deported shortly thereafter. A total of around 189,000 perished in Transnistria. After the war, Popovici lived in Bucharest until his death in 1946.
In the following decades, he received several honors for his heroic efforts, although his work remains largely unknown outside Romania and among the Jewish people. In 1969, he was recognized by Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial for Holocaust victims, as Righteous Among the Nations. This honor acknowledges non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, and Popovici was the first Romanian to receive it. A street in Bucharest was named after him in 2000, and in 2009, a memorial plaque was placed on his home in Chernivtsi; the memorial was created through the activism of Mimi Taylor, a Jewish woman who was saved as a child from deportation by Popovici's authorizations. Taylor, like the fictional Rieke, had her life changed by the efforts of Popovici and others like him who risked everything to help the Jews during the horrors of the Holocaust. The Blood Years shines a light not only on those bent on destroying the Jews but also on those who stood up for the lives of others.
Traian Popovici, 1934, from Gazeta ilustrată
Filed under People, Eras & Events
By Jordan Lynch
A heartrending story about a young mother's fight to keep her daughter, and the winds of fortune that tear them apart by the USA Today bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things and The Last Year of the War.
From three-time National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor author Steve Sheinkin, a true story of two Jewish teenagers racing against time during the Holocaust - one in hiding in Hungary, and the other in Auschwitz, plotting escape.
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