| The Upstairs Room | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Johanna Reiss |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Young adult literature |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Publication date | 1972 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 196 |
| ISBN | 9780690851274 |
The Upstairs Room is a Holocaust survivor autobiography by the author Johanna Reiss documenting her childhood in occupied Holland during the Nazi invasion. The book received an enthusiastic review by Elie Wiesel and has won many awards including the Medal of Honor and MW3 and the Jewish Book Council award for best children's book.[1]
Because she was Jewish, the occupation put Annie and her family in grave danger. Fortunately, a Gentile family, the Oostervelds, offered to help. Annie and her elder sister Sini have been kept hidden for two years. They struggle through many hardships, such as their mother's illness and death.
Compared with Anne Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl,” it is sparer and sterner: Frank, unaware of her tragic fate, radiated lively, optimistic, girlish intensity, while Reiss wrote “The Upstairs Room” after much of her hope and appetite for life had been extinguished. One expects the survivor to be the more expansive writer, but like so many Holocaust victims, Reiss was left emotionally crippled, fearful of being violently murdered, always ready to hide. [2]