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After the War: From Auschwitz to Ambleside

Tom Palmer,

Violet Tobacco (Illustrator)

4.47 · Rating details · 149 ratings · 33 reviews

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Paperback, 176 pages

Published May 7th 2020 by Barrington Stoke

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· 149 ratings · 33 reviews

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Oct 22, 2020 Jae rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, young-adult, novellas, middle-grade, war-wartime

It's quite a skill to portray an important subject so tenderly and and with such compassion in only 118 pages. An incredible story of survival and loss, and of eventually finding a little peace and a sense of belonging. I found this book very moving and am so glad I came across it.
For adults, middle-grade children and just about everyone.
...more

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Jan 04, 2021 Wendy Bamber rated it it was amazing

Really beautifully written book that moved me to tears on a number of occasions (though this isn’t difficult, I’m incredibly soft). I likened this in standard of writing to the Once, Then and Now series - really! Told from the perspective of a teenage boy, this was easier to read because it is set at the end of the war when we know Yossi and his close friends are safe at a beautiful hostel in The Lake District being cared for by kind people and community. There are multiple flashbacks which are ...more

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Jul 22, 2020 Steph rated it really liked it

This is incredible. The friendship between the boys is a thread of love, pair this with some gentle kindness throughout from the people of the village and you’ve got a winner. I loved all of the characters - big or small, they added so much to the story. A real feeling of community and belonging. There are some scenes in this which are harrowing and thought provoking. I appreciate the care and research that went into this book

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Feb 05, 2021 Freya rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 18, 2020 Tricia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020

A touching portrait of the refugees welcomed to Ambleside after the Second World War.

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Mar 28, 2020 A Severs rated it it was amazing

Tom Palmer's latest run of war-themed stories continues with 'After The War: From Auschwitz to Ambleside' - a story focusing in on three Polish teenagers who are brought to the safety of the Lake District for recuperation after Europe is liberated in 1945.

The story follows Yossi and his friends Mordecai and Leo as they arrive on the Calgarth Estate beside Lake Windemere and begin to attempt, with the help of a multitude of kind heroes, to rebuild their shattered lives. As they gain in strength a Tom Palmer's latest run of war-themed stories continues with 'After The War: From Auschwitz to Ambleside' - a story focusing in on three Polish teenagers who are brought to the safety of the Lake District for recuperation after Europe is liberated in 1945.

The story follows Yossi and his friends Mordecai and Leo as they arrive on the Calgarth Estate beside Lake Windemere and begin to attempt, with the help of a multitude of kind heroes, to rebuild their shattered lives. As they gain in strength and trust they have to make decisions about what to do and where to go next. Yossi lives in hope that the Red Cross will find his father yet life inevitably must move on whilst the search continues.

In this heartwarming tale of true and beautiful friendship, Tom Palmer communicates to a young audience with crystal-clear clarity the atrocities and the fall-out of war. As seen before in his books, he doesn't avoid the harsh realities, nor does he glorify them or play them down. Instead, he says just the right amount for the intended readership - a real skill. And, given the publisher Barrington Stoke's mission to provide credible, yet easy-to-read books for less confident readers, it is remarkable that a book written in a more simplistic style than others in its category has emotional depth beyond that of its peers.

In fact, perhaps the low use of complex language is all a technique to help us to understand Yossi. Here is a teenager who speaks no English, yet finds himself in the middle of the English countryside. Here is a teenager whose life has been devastated and dominated by cruelty beyond words. The narration of the story only serves to help us to know and love the character as he finds the meaning to life once more, as he learns to express himself to those around him and as he finds and understands himself once more.

With lots of World War Two references, particularly to warplanes, and the trademark sport references (I was pleased to read Yossi's celebration of the bicycle), this is exactly what I wanted from a new Tom Palmer novel. A tale of hope, friendship and altruism that is all too relevant in the current times we are living through.
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Sep 07, 2020 Lindsay rated it it was amazing

Shelves: childrens, historical-fiction

Moving, powerful, important story told with honesty, skill and compassion. The kindness and hope shown to the children arriving in the Lake District after seeing and suffering the worst of humanity, and the bravery of the children in surviving, rediscovering a semblance of normality, and slowly being able to try and look to the future, whilst carrying the awful memories of those they have lost. The strong bond of friendship between Yossi, Leo and Mordecai was portrayed so well. I was eager to re ...more

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Aug 12, 2020 Strawberry rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mg-children-s, historical-fiction

This is a wonderful and hopeful story inspired by real events. Yossi and his friends Mordecai and Leo are among a group of children who arrive in the UK after surviving the horrors of the Holocaust and World War II. Their stay is supposed to help them recover from the terrible life they had been experiencing, but while the children start to adjust to their new lives, Yossi is haunted by memories of what happened to his family.

This is quite a powerful novel and one which I think many children sho This is a wonderful and hopeful story inspired by real events. Yossi and his friends Mordecai and Leo are among a group of children who arrive in the UK after surviving the horrors of the Holocaust and World War II. Their stay is supposed to help them recover from the terrible life they had been experiencing, but while the children start to adjust to their new lives, Yossi is haunted by memories of what happened to his family.

This is quite a powerful novel and one which I think many children should read. The story is both a happy and sad one and shows just how difficult it was for children to adjust to normal living after being subjected to some horrific conditions by the Nazis. The book follows Yossi as he and the other children land on a plane in England and then are taken to a place called the Calgarth Estate near Lake Windermere in the summer of 1945. It is here that the children spend the next few months getting used to living a normal life, something which isn’t as easy as it first seems. Having been used to living in a concentration camps and Jewish ghettos the children’s reaction to simple things like meal times are drastic. Many of them do things like steal extra food from the table, worried that they won’t get another meal, though of course they do. Other simple things like seeing men in uniforms also upsets them and it’s these little things we wouldn’t even notice in our own lives that really show how difficult it was for these children to readjust to normal life, at the time.

As the story moves forward Yossi and his friends begin to adapt and get used to life in England, feeling less fear and worry every day. However Yossi is haunted by terrible memories of his past and it’s these very powerful and sad memories that really touched me as a reader and made me feel so much for Yossi’s character. Although this book is aimed at children, the dark things the Nazis did are not sugarcoated and there are moments that show beatings and other horrible things that so many people were subjected to. However, despite how dark or sad some of these moments are they are well written in a way that aren’t too shocking for children to read, although anything the Nazis did will probably shock children a bit, especially those who have no knowledge of this before reading.

The ending of the story is good and satisfying and while it doesn’t resolve one aspect of Yossi’s story which I had hoped it would, it does leave you with a feeling of hope for Yossi and his friends and makes you wonder what would happen to them in the future. There is a forward in the book as well as some author notes at the back which detail how this book is based on the real life ‘Widermere Boys’ who did come to the UK after suffering the horrors of the war. It’s worth reading the author’s notes to get a good sense of how real some of the events in the story are, and it might just make you more interested in learning more about the real Windermere Boys, like I now am.

At the start and end of the book are some photographs of the real boys in 1945. Throughout the book every page has a lovely illustration running along the bottom of the three friends, Yossi, Mordecai and Leo. The text is also easy to read making this a great book for anyone who would usually feel a little reluctant or have difficulty in reading books.

It’s not easy for anyone to ever read about what happened with the holocaust but this book does a good job of introducing this terrible event to children and helping them to understand it, and while there are some truly sad and difficult moments to read, this story is one of hope and has a good and over all happy ending. I would recommend this book to everyone to read, whatever your age.
-Thanks to Barrington Stoke for a free copy for review. ...more

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Oct 20, 2020 The Library Mouse Tales rated it it was amazing

This was inspired by the incredible true story of the Windermere Boys. After surviving the Nazi Concentration Camps, 300 hundred child Holocaust Survivors were brought to stay in the wartime village of Calgarth Estate in 1945, near Windermere were they could start to recover from the horrible things they had experienced.
The story is set in the Summer of 1945, after the end of the Second World War. Three boys (Yossi, Leo and Mordecai) are among three hundred children who arrive in the English La ...more

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Aug 05, 2020 Jo rated it it was amazing

I picked this up in a little local bookshop having loved the other books I've read by Tom Palmer. I knew it was going to be heartwrenching, I knew it might not have a happy ending. I did not expect the first 20 pages to be the first point I welled up!
Yossi, Mordecai and Leo are Polish, Jewish teenagers who have survived the horrors of concentration camps and been brought to Lake Windermere, a place they can feel safe and at peace. Focussing mostly on Yossi's story, we learn how there were fight ...more

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Aug 05, 2020 Hannah Miles rated it it was amazing

This is one of the most thought provoking books I have read. At times it is an uncomfortable read, but good, the content of this book should never ever happen again.

The main protagonist is 15 year old Yossi who has arrived in Ambleside along with his friends Mordeci and Leo and the other children rescued from concentration camps including Auschwitz.

You as a reader relive true life events that Jewish people would have endured and witnessed through memory flash backs that Yossi has. Tom Palmer h ...more

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Dec 03, 2020 Stephen Connor rated it it was amazing

Shelves: community, friendship, journeys, history-and-historical-fiction, outsiders, war, religion-and-faith, 2020

A moving story of three Polish boys who have moved to England after their persecution at the hands of the Nazis.

Primarily, the story is about their rehabilitation and reintegration into an accepting and tolerant society. The community at Windermere cares for the boys, and that in itself is alien to them. Every act of kindness that is shown towards them invites a memory of their time at the concentration camps, or at home as the Nazis came for the Jews. The time-slips, for me, are the most poign ...more

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Aug 21, 2020 Helen Tamblyn-Saville rated it really liked it

Shelves: wonder-bookshop

I read this thoughtful and compassionate book in one sitting. It is clear the amount of research and care that went into this lovingly written story, inspired by the tragic real-life events.

I loved Yossi and his friends, the hope that they clung to as they adjusted to their new lives. We experience Yossi's flashbacks which are harrowing, leaving the reader with a very real lump in their throat, and the author shows the clear PTSD that is unsurprisingly suffered.

An emotive read, that is written i ...more

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Nov 08, 2020 Zoe Antoniades rated it it was amazing

Poignant, moving and very well told.

The subject of the Holocaust is never an easy one to read about and I can imagine it would have been even more difficult to write about. To be able to do this in a way that is clear, accessible and manageable for young readers is a great achievement and Tom Palmer does this with sincerity and true expertise. He has put his heart, mind and soul into this book, researching the truth behind the stories meticulously, respectfully and with admirable commitment. A t ...more

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Oct 15, 2020 Cathy rated it it was amazing

I really loved this sensitively told story of Jewish children rescued from Auschwitz and brought to an estate on the banks of Lake Windermere. Here it is hoped they can begin to heal and throughout the story the smallest details of things we take completely for granted today are shown to have such a huge significance for these survivors of concentration camps. From not having to fight for food, clean sheets, being able to learn... it's all written so beautifully. Mixed with the tragedy there is ...more

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Dec 05, 2020 Emma Ellis rated it it was amazing

I'm a Primary school librarian from Leeds and Tom recently visited our school. I'd heard alot of buzz about this book so wanted to give it a go. My favourite thing about the book is how it doesn't talk down to it's audience, there is so much additional information for a KS2 reader.
I loved the references to Leeds and the links to real history. I enjoyed that Tom went to realism rather than a Hollywood ending and wrote in the way that discussion can be opened up in the classroom. Perfect for reluc ...more

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Jan 13, 2021 Lisa Day rated it really liked it

Based on a true story, author Tom Palmer did an amazing job of explaining what life was life after about 300 children were freed from various Nazis concentration camps and sent to a real camp in Britan where they can recover. This book is and perhaps even more heartbreaking than other Holocaust stories as we learn what life was like for these children during the Holocaust but also after it - including coming back from starvation and waiting and hoping for their families to find them. My heart br ...more

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Sep 22, 2020 Jean Kirby rated it really liked it

This is the story of the children (mostly orphans) who were rescued from Auschwitz concentration camp at the the end of the war, They were sent to Windermere for a few months, where they found kindness, food and clothing and ways to deal with the grief and trauma.
The book is very interesting and brings out many emotions as the boys relive their experiences during the war.
It is a very easy read and suitable for dyslexics

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Feb 06, 2021 Anna Wigley rated it really liked it

This book really shows how terrible the Holocaust was especially for children. It's set after the war when three hundred children move to the English Lake District where they are fed and recovered. They are also being tried to reunite with their families.

This book made me feel so many emotions as I learned about life after the war. I would definitely recommend this. It's a great book and really makes you realise how terrible the Holocaust was. ...more

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Nov 07, 2020 Clare Marie rated it really liked it

This book is extremely powerful informative and well written. It's written in a manner that shows how children felt but it's written sensitively. I learnt a lot about Judaism, as well as the war from reading this book. I was hoping for a different ending, but it finished honestly and shows that after everything they'd been through they still didn't have the outcome they wanted. ...more

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Jan 09, 2021 Lauren Stewart rated it it was amazing

A simple story, exploring the life of 3 concentration camp survivors (teenagers) and what the first few months of freedom had in store for them. The flashbacks to experiences of the war were very emotive and straight talking to allow the reader an insight to the horrors that were experienced, but without gory detail to allow access for children.

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Jan 19, 2021 Fiona rated it really liked it

A very touching story based on the true experiences of Jewish children brought over to the Lake District after the end of the Second World War. Survivors of the Nazi Concentration Camps, the horrors and loss that they suffered are heartbreaking. The central friendship between the three boys is very moving and sensitively told and the lasting message is one of hope.

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Feb 06, 2021 Anne rated it really liked it

A sensitively written story about the Windermere Boys - Holocaust survivors who were among 300 children who were taken to the Lake District to begin to recover and rebuild their lives, drawn from real stories. This is a snapshot of the immediate post war months and includes flashbacks. Quite moving.

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Aug 05, 2020 Cal Littlehales rated it it was amazing

Byline reads From Auschwitz to Ambleside.
Everyone should read this book. It's not always an easy read but it is a necessary and essential read. From extreme sadness and despair through to hope for the future. Wholeheartedly recommend. ...more

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Aug 08, 2020 Mel Smith rated it it was amazing

Fantastic book. Well written and captured the events of the time. The main characters and their journeys makes you realise how hard it must have been. A fantastic, emotive book but definitely a must read!

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