Once (novel)

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Once is a 2005 children's novel by Australian author Morris Gleitzman. It is about a Jewish boy named Felix, who lived when Adolf Hitler ruled Germany. Although Once is a work of fiction, Gleitzman was inspired by the events of World War II and Hitler's attempt to destroy the Jewish population of Europe.

[edit] Plot summary

In 1942, Felix escapes from a Catholic orphanage in Poland in order to find his parents. Along the way, he meets Zelda, a girl who was orphaned by the Nazis, and they go to the city together to seek 'their' parents. When they reach the city, Felix gets a fever. He and Zelda are found by a kind man, an old dentist named Barney. He hides them and other Jewish orphans in the cellar of a print shop, away from the Nazi army. One night, however, the Nazis find their cellar and they are transported to the death camps...