Becoming Janet: Finding Myself in the Holocaust

Blessed with blond hair and green eyes, 4-year-old Gustawa Singer lived an idyllic life in Nowy Targ, a bustling town in the foothills of Poland's Tatra Mountains. Relatives doted on her and strangers admired her flawless complexion, comparing her to a porcelain doll. Her father worked in her grandfather's hardware store, and the family prospered. All of that was shattered on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. With nowhere to run or hide, her parents made the agonizing decision to give their daughter to a reluctant nanny and parted ways to maximize their chances of at least one of them returning for their only child. For the next several years, 7-year-old Gustawa lived a clandestine existence, harboring a secret that her looks hid so well: she was Jewish. By the end of the war, over 90% of her town's Jews were annihilated; she was one of the few children to return.

Becoming Janet is a mesmerizing account of how a young girl's quick wits and the courage of a few virtuous individuals combined to beat the odds. Passed between strangers with both honorable and deceitful intentions, Gustawa maneuvered through terrifying situations with only the identity papers of a deceased Polish girl and a well-rehearsed cover story. Paradoxically, those who inflicted lasting wounds on the girl were relatives, while a few brave, strangers protected her like family.

In May 1945 the girl's father emerged from the Theresienstadt "camp-ghetto" weighing 110 pounds. After months of searching, he miraculously found his only reason to live: Gustawa.  In 1947 she arrived in America and the past was quickly buried by the demands of assimilation. Her gold braids were cut, and her name was changed. This is the story of Becoming Janet.