When the Embellishment is successful the Germans decide to make a propaganda video called “The Fuhrer Gives a City to the Jews,” enlisting Anneke’s father’s help once again.Īnneke is caught between knowing the truth of life in the camp and hating her father for the farce he is helping to perpetrate, until she finds out he is secretly using his talents as an artist to make a visual record of the camp’s reality at great risk to himself and their family. She has trouble understanding when her artistic father participates in something called the Embellishment, a dressing up of the camp to convince Danish investigators the camp has no lethal intentions towards its inhabitants. Scrubbing cauldrons used to cook soup for the camp, keeping a low profile to avoid attracting Nazi soldiers attention, and being selective in who she befriends because the chance of losing them is so great, Anneke grows up quickly under harsh conditions. What World is Left by Monique Polak is an incisive, well-written look at the emotional cost of physical survival, based on Polak’s mother’s experiences living in Theresienstadt concentration camp during World War II.Īnneke is a strong, thoughtful character just trying to deal with her new life. Review: Survival, for those who’ve been faced with it, often comes with a price tag. Now 16, Anneke is forever changed, and must find a way to come to terms with everything her family had to do to survive.

But although death touches those around them, causing Anneke to lose friends and a romantic interest, Anneke’s family makes out of Theresienstadt alive. Only 14 when she enters the camp, Anneke quickly loses her innocent and childlike nature in favour of survival at any cost. Summary: Anneke and her family are forced to live in Theresienstadt concentration camp during World War II because they are Jewish.