In My Enemy's House

by Carol Matas

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689824009
• ISBN13: 9780689824005
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Simon Pulse
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 4.2" x 7.0"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

I hope you get the same vibes out of this book as I did.

When I was first told about this book I thought it would be just another book about World War II and how a Jew went into hiding to escape Hitler. This book is about a girl named Marisa and how her blonde hair and blue eyes disguises her as a Polish worker. Marisa's family is separated and she is left alone with her cousin Shmuel, who she is in love with. He knows that the only way for Marisa to survive is to get papers from a family friend and take the identity of a Polish girl and work as a servant, to hide her true identity of a Jew. So that is what she does, she goes to Germany to get work and ends up working on a large farm for a Nazi family. The longer she stays on the farm the more confused she gets about her feelings toward this family. She gets very close to the oldest daughter on the farm named Charlotte. Charlotte has a secret and Marisa has to decide to betray her and tell her father about it to protect Charlotte and her own secret or to further endanger herself and Charlotte. Marisa is surprised that Charlotte and the rest of the family treat her like part of the family. Although Marisa kind of loves the Reymanns family she also hates them for some of the things they stand for, like all the insults and their hatred towards Jews, and for basically being Nazi. Can she stand pretending to be someone she's not? At first I didn't think I would enjoy this book very much, but it shows you different views about how people thought about Jews and Hitler. Like the view of a Jew to the view of a Nazi. Even the view of anti-Hitler groups, they hated Hitler's ideas but they hated Jews too. This book would be enjoyed by mature children and adults. I hope you get the same vibes out of this book as I did.

A GREAT World War 2 book!

What would you do if the only way to survive was to hide in the enemy's country? And even worse, in the enemy's house? This is exactly what Marisa has to do to save her own life. Her blonde hair and blue eyes disguising her as a Polish worker, Marisa goes to work in Germany, the papers of a Polish girl named Maria hiding her real identity as a Jew. Eventually, Marisa ends up working on a large farm for a Nazi family. As she stays on the farm longer, Marisa wonders- What should I think of these people?- as she becomes closer to Charlotte and the rest of the family and remembers her own family members, killed at the hands of the Nazis. The words of her father, cousin, and many more guide her through the toughest times as she learns that her heart should open up to see the real person inside everyone- even some of her enemies.I loved this book, along with the many other World War 2 fiction books by Carol Matas. These books are great if you like to read historical fiction- they have real facts, great characters, intreging plots, and even a little bit of romance! I hope you like this book and maybe even the other Carol Matas books as much as I do!

Absolutely wonderful

This book is a wonderful piece of Holocaust literature. The perspective that it is told from, the eyes of a Polish girl living as a servant in Nazi Germany, is one rarely written about in any teenage Holocaust books. This book is a must read for any teenager interested in the Holocaust, especially interested in the daily life of an Aryan youth. Once again, Carol Matas adds another spectacular addition to the world of teenage Holocaust literature.READ THIS BOOK NOW!

Superb!

This is a great book for people wanting to learn more about the Holocaust. This one is especially unique because the story is told through the perspective of a child. The novel is entitled, 'In My Enemey's House' because...she is! She is posing as a Pole (treated like rats at the time, but not nearly is bad as the Jews were treated), and goes through an organization, where she is sent to stay with an important Nazi officer and his family. In fact, a game played by the children is called "Jews Out," which was actually a non-fictional game played at that time period. How do I know this, do you ask? Carol Matas came to my school and had a speech of her books. This one was one of my favorites. Read it!

In hiding.....in your enemy's house.

This book tells what it would be like if you had to hide, in plain sight of your enemy. Marisa, who is Jewish, is fifteen when Nazis invade her city in Poland. Her entire family is killed in a roundup, except for Marisa and a brother and sister. The brother and sister flee into the woods to join the partisans. That is their chance to live. But Marisa's chance is to pose as a Christian girl and work as a servant to a German Nazi. She will have to keep silent, forget who she is, forget everything except that she must not tell the truth, no matter what she does