Emma Macalik Butterworth (1928–2003)

This is an autobiography / memoir of a young girl growing up in Vienna. The time span covers Emmy from about age six to seventeen. As a child she and her family had a lovely apartment and she enjoyed the city’s many parks and coffee shops where she would get a treat of a rich mocha topped with whipped cream and powdered sugar. Their home was filled with books and music, and she loved to dance. That love of dance led her to become a ballet student at the Vienna Opera’s Ballet School – a world-renowned venue and totally state-supported, but highly competitive. After her first performance, a tiny role as a doll brought to life, she was even more dedicated to training to become the prima ballerina she wanted to be. But she did not foresee how World War II would affect her, her family, and her country.

This memoir is written for a young adult audience. It is very interesting to see how the historic events unfold through the eyes of a child, and how seductive the opportunities promised by the Nazis (summer camps, nice uniforms, trips to Paris) were to the young students they recruited. As the war progresses, Emmy and the citizens of Vienna are subjected to rationing, deprivation and bombings. The book is rated as being for age 12 and older; there are some horrific experiences related here, (students forced to dig out burned and decaying bodies from rubble, assault by Russian soldiers, kidnapping and rape) so it may not be the best book for particularly sensitive youngsters.… (meer)

I give this book 5 stars. It is one of the books that I read over and over. It is about a young girl who wants to become a ballerina and she is growing up the Holocaust. In some ways ballet is an outlet for her to forget all that is going on in the outside world. It also in some ways helps her family survive because she gets better rations that normal people. She struggles with having to find other ways to make money for her family and at one point she is kidnapped and raped. She has to try to survive all the horrors of the war. This is based on a true story of the author's life.… (meer)