Before Mirjam Stern was old enough to remember what year she was born, her window to the world was darkened by German occupation of her homeland. She was less than five years old when she sensed a shift in the atmosphere of her small rural town in Czechoslovakia. When friends and neighbors were forced to leave, and her family was held at gunpoint by German officers, she knew that life was about to change forever.
Forced to flee with cousins and siblings as the threat of Jewish persecution became imminent, Mirjam's next few years of childhood were muted to shades of gray. She led a harrowing existence, moving from one place of confinement to another. She knew she was not where she belonged. For safety, she was told to change her name to Kata—but she never forgot that she was Mirjam.
This first-person account of one child's experiences during the Holocaust sheds light on the severe emotional toll experienced by millions of Jews separated from home, family, and safety. Mirjam's account of her "hidden childhood" is a testament to a part of history that the world should never forget.