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32 WWW.UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, СІЧЕНЬ 2020 Br. 88 Donates Must - Read Books to Library by Irena Gramiak Donating the books to UECC library. Photo by Talia Biggs On November 25, 2019 , members of UNWLA Branch 88 in Philadelphia presented the Ukrainian L ibrary at the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center (UECC) with a series of books written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. The five books we donated were Stolen Girl , Making Bombs for Hitler , The War Underground , Don't Tell the Enemy and Hope’s War . These b ooks tell the story of Ukrainian children during WWII. They are written in English, on a preteen level , and they are riveting. I picked up the first book on a Saturda y evening and was finished by Sunday afternoon . (Readers who don't have small children will probably finish even faster. ) Using beautiful descriptive writing, Skrypuch paints a graphic scene of the daily horrors many Ukrainian children endured. Each o f the books shed s light on the atrocities the Soviets and Nazis carried out in Ukraine. Ch ildren who possessed Ar y an features ( such as blond hair and blue eyes ) were taken by force from their families and sent to live with German families. Brainwashed and beaten down , they were expected to live as proper German children. Those who didn't po sses s the proper features were taken as slave laborers , often put to work in ammunition factories building bombs. They were beaten, starved and even worked to death. They were not viewed as human, but simply as labor machines. Those few who managed to escape l ived life on the run, hunted through fields and woods. The stories are captivating . All t he books left me with many emotions : a nger and disgust that Ukrainians were treated so badly , honor and respect for those who endured so much , and gratefulness that M s. Skrypuch wrote these books and that S cholastic sells them at school book fairs and online right beside better known classic books about WWII , such as The Diary of Anne Frank . My nine - year - old son Marko has already finished reading Stolen Girl . It has be en a great learning and bonding experience. He asks questions and tries to comprehend how people could ever treat others in such terrible way s . He said, “I feel really sad for the little girl. She’s been through so many terrible things. I can’t believe the y did that to her.” Author’s Postscript . When my parents were growing up , no one outside the Ukrainian community had even heard of Ukraine. Some thought that it was just a part of Russia. I encountered this same phenomenon when I was growing up . Currentl y, the word “Ukraine” has become a constant presence on all news outlets, but not in a positive way. There is no better time to share our history with others. And to that end, Br. 88 encourages all UNWLA members (and others in the diaspora comm unity) not only to read these books, but to ask for them at your local public libraries. The more requests a library gets for a certain book , the more likely the library staff is to order it and put it on the shelf. Let’s help spread the word and help make this happen . Editor’s note . See related article on page 15.
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