Renata Calverley's Let Me Tell You a Story: A Memoir of a Wartime Childhood
In this short video, Renata introduces her story which begins in Przemysl, Poland in 1939 when she is three years old. "Woken by her Mamusia in the middle of the night, Renata is bundled into the basement. The peacock quilt she is wrapped in reminds her of a story about a giant who guards a mysterious place called the Underworld. She drifts back to sleep as the sound of thunder rages around her.
No-one has explained to Renata what war is. She knows her Tatuś is in Europe working as a doctor in the Polish Army and that her mother is not allowed to work at the university anymore. But she doesn't understand why their frequent visitors have stopped coming and why they have to wear little six-pointed stars. Renata thinks that they will keep them safe.
June, 1942. Two soldiers burst into their apartment carrying guns. The family are taken to the Ghetto and crammed into one room with other frightened families. Renata's mother and grandmother are forced to work long hours at the factory, until one day they don't come back. Renata is five years old; utterly alone, she is passed from place to place and survives through the willingness of ordinary people to take the most deadly risks. Her unlikely blonde hair and blue eyes and other twists of fate save her life, but stories become her salvation.
A remarkable account of the horrors of war, Let Me Tell You a Story is a powerful memoir of growing up in traumatic times, and of the magical discovery of books."
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