Such Good Girls

“Powerful . . . [Rosen] makes us see how the Holocaust’s hidden children succeeded against the odds” in this #1 New York Times bestselling biography (Wall Street Journal).

Only one in ten Jewish children in Europe survived the Holocaust, many in hiding. In Such Good Girls, R. D. Rosen tells the story of these survivors through the true experiences of three girls.

Sophie Turner-Zaretsky, who spent the war years believing she was an anti-Semitic Catholic schoolgirl, eventually became an esteemed radiation oncologist. Flora Hogman, protected by a succession of Christians, emerged from the war a lonely, lost orphan, but became a psychologist who pioneered the study of hidden child survivors. Unlike Anne Frank, Carla Lessing made it through the war concealed with her family in the home of Dutch strangers before becoming a psychotherapist and key player in the creation of an international organization of hidden child survivors.

In braiding the stories of three women who defied death by learning to be “such good girls,” Rosen examines a silent and silenced generation—the last living cohort of Holocaust survivors. He provides rich, memorable portraits of a handful of hunted children who, as adults, were determined to deny Hitler any more victories, and he recreates the extraordinary event that lured so many hidden child survivors out of their grown-up “hiding places” and finally brought them together.

“Rosen . . . tells the story of these women and the varied community of survivors with sensitivity and genuine affection.” —Library Journal

“The three women at the heart of Such Good Girls have lived remarkable lives, and Rosen has limned them with both empathy and grace.” —Daniel Orkent, author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition</DESC>

Don’t Call the Wolf