Publication Date: April 15, 2025
Print Length: 304 pages
Previous Publications:
The Butcher’s Trail: How the Search for Balkan War Criminals Became the World’s Most Successful Manhunt. (2016)
SYNOPSIS
As the World Affairs Editor for the Guardian, Julian Borger was experienced in covering global crises, but after his father committed suicide, Borger discovered a family history that had previously been unknown to him. In the early days of the World War 2 as antisemitism spread in Austria, Julian’s grandfather placed an ad in the Manchester Guardian in 1938 seeking a British family that would foster his 11-year-old son, Robert, (Julian’s father) during the War.
Intrigued by this family history, Julian set out to investigate the fate of the other Jewish children whose names appeared in the same advertisement as his father. In the end he connected with the families of six of the other survivors, several of whom had written memoirs. While their family histories and wartime trajectories varied, each of the children shared resilience and courage in their will to survive and ultimately to prosper after the War. While investigating his family history, Borger details the horrors of the Holocaust while highlighting the good heartedness of the British families who agreed to shelter the Jewish children and to save them while others in their family perished.
REVIEWS AND AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corn, David, “A Holocaust tale for today.” Mother Jones, May 7, 2025. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/05/julian-borger-interview-i-seek-a-kind-person-holocaust/.
Elinson, Elaine, “I Seek a Kind Person: My Father, Seven Children and the Adverts that Helped them Escape the Holocaust.” Jewish Book Council, April 7, 2025. https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/i-seek-a-kind-person-my-father-seven-children-and-the-adverts-that-helped-them-escape-the
“Julian Borger in conversation with Rachelle Unreich.”I Seek a Kind Person” Melbourne Jewish Book Week, June 11, 2024. https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=i+seek+a+kind+person&mid=C58D723B52AA5B5B6100C58D723B52AA5B5B6100&FORM=VIRE
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
In addition to the resilience of the children who survived their displacement during WW2, what does Julian Borger’s book reveal about the heroism of the British families who fostered these children?
How difficult was it for Julian Borger to track down the identity of the children whose names appeared on the same advertisement with Borger’s father?
While some of the survivors wrote their memoirs, others chose not to reveal their experiences during WW2. What do we lose when we are not able to recover our family histories?
Despite their ability to create new lives after the war, in what ways were the survivors scarred by the trauma they experienced during the war? In what ways does trauma persist from generation to generation?
