just a girl: a true story of world war II.

The true story of Lia Levi and how her family managed to thrive let alone survive during life among the Italians during WW. II. as told from the heart and of her small girl childhood brings tears to the eyes. Lia, already a very shy little girl among her younger sisters Gabriella and Vera had only begun to start to desire finding a way to learn to speak up for herself better, as what she spoke of as a peep of a voice when she found out that her whole world was about to change. Soon, father becomes an oil painter at home starting with a portrait of Lia. He does not go to his job at that place anymore. But first, mother announces that, "Mussolini doesn't want Jewish children in Italian schools," anymore. Lia who does not yet fully understand what is really going on since she is such a young child begins to wonder if she has been removed from school as a punishment for being shy. However, once father explains the truth to her some things begin to become clear. It is such a hard thing for a child to bear. That oppression because one is Jewish and loves God and honors the Sabbath and lights the candle of life and bakes and breaks the bread of love for fullness of joy and fasts and celebrates Hanukkah should evoke ethnic prejudice among the country of her family home puzzles Lia throughout the war. "The Duce decides everything by himself," papa explains Mussolini's way of thinking to Lia. "I'll never chant 'Duce! Duce! again!" responds Lia. As a small child of yet innocent formulation, she is able to see straight through the situation. She understands even as a small girl that what Mussolini is doing is not right.

A miracle happens later on and as she and her sisters build sandcastles at the beach, mother and father show up to tell Lia she will be back in school before long at a Jewish school in Turin. One day after much preparation and during the time of the asking of the four questions for young Jewish children the asking almost seems prophetic for the way of the European war which was a holocaust against the Jewish people. And although the war represented the dark forces of cruel entities and the envy and jealousy of the light of the Jewish people, Lia and other Jewish children and families continue to pray to God for the help that would provide the proper housing and rescue and safety necessary to comfort Jewish families during this time of turmoil. "Why is tonight different from all other nights?" Teacher walks Lia around the room and by the end of the fourth question both mother and father are astonished as Lia's voice reaches each corner of the room at full volume. Lia has found her voice, but soon the war has found her way to her beloved Italy and father's and mother's savings that kept them after Mussolini silently froze Jewish men out of their places of business are very low. The next destination Rome, Italy and Lia and her family will find safety and provision on an upper floor of a thoroughly Jewish occupied apartment building. Security and safety at last seem on the horizon as a group of Catholic nuns also agree later to take the children and Lia's mother into their school and convent. Finally, there is some safety at last.

"At the boarding school there are parents who plead with the nuns to keep their girls: "Please, can you hide them?" The nuns always say yes, and another bed is added to our dormitory." As the war grows on Lia becomes a mother figure to a girl all alone at the convent known as little Spepetto and is able to hold and comfort her until she falls asleep. It seems as if the war drags on forever and as all of the children living at the convent find out, war brings more hunger for food and good common human love than any goodness at the initial battle of it all. Later on, as many good and interesting people and experiences come Lia's way though, she appears to become an altruistic and mature adult child. Although the majority of the Jewish children of the war throughout Europe did not survive the Jewish holocaust, something Lia would not have known during her stay with the nuns but would likely find out later - she did survive to tell her story and as the daughter of Leontina Segre and Alessandro Levi whose beautiful black and white family photos grace the back of book, she describes her 1938 - 1948 wartime experience as a happy childhood. At the end of the book, she writes an endearing letter to the young adult readers of her book. "In the book you've just finished reading, you saw what happened to me as a young girl in fascist Italy in the late 1930's and the 1940's. I experienced discrimination and persecution just because my family and I were Jewish. Our persecutors had transformed the word religion into race." Lia Levi wrote her story of Just A Girl about a war that probably should not have lasted as long as it did. And as you may also discover while reading the book, children and young adults often see things the way they really are better than adults. Although the book does have a glorious rescue ending, I encourage you to read the book for yourself to find out what that was all about. Also, think about and consider whether this war and the malignant dictators such as Adolph Hitler and Mussolini could have been stopped or prevented from harming so many innocent Jewish people before they had begun to go as far as they did in rebellion against God if people in Europe and throughout the globe would have been more spiritually awake.