In August 1942, Alojzy and Maria Singer gave their only child, 7‑year-old Gustawa, to a nanny before reporting to a mandatory SS “Selection.” Within days, Maria was sent to the death camp Bełżec, Aloyse was taken for slave labor, and Gustawa was plunged into a clandestine existence with only the identity papers of a deceased Polish girl and a well-rehearsed cover story.
Passed between strangers with both honorable and self-seeking intentions, the girl spent the next three years hiding in plain sight, navigating situations that would paralyze most adults— beatings at the hands of a “caretaker,” Gestapo raids, and antisemitic attacks on one of the orphanages where she lived. The girl who would become Janet Singer Applefield, never thought of her story in terms of survival — how could she compare her experience to that of her parents? But rather than being a passive recipient of her rescuers’ immense bravery, Gustawa was an active participant at every turn in the events that saved her life. This is the story of Becoming Janet.
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Nonfiction
Becoming Janet: Finding Myself in the Holocaust
- From the Publisher
December 7, 2022
Discussion Questions
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