They'll Have to Catch Me First
An Artist's Coming of Age in the Third Reich
"Berlin 1939. At eighteen, Irene Awret attempted to escape to Belgium but was arrested. After several weeks in jail, she was tried and sent back home. With her father's help, however, she and her sister met up with another smuggler who got them across the German border. Living in near poverty, Mrs. Awret found work in Brussels and eventually attended art school. Soon after the Nazi occupation, the young artist was forced into hiding. Though she obtained false identity papers, she was caught by the S.S. and jailed in a narrow cell, destined for deportation to Auschwitz. To calm her fears, she made a detailed drawing of her hand in the sketchbook she carried in her purse. While interrogating her, S.S. Captain Fritz Erdmann found the sketchbook and was struck by this single drawing. Unbeknownst to her, he gave orders that spared her from deportation. During her imprisonment, Mrs. Awret did sketches of camp life and of inmates, while surreptitiously painting portraits as well. The child pictured in "Redhaired Girl in a Green Coat" was a young prisoner who, like nearly all the children in the camp, would die in Auschwitz."--BOOK JACKET.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Nonfiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
Catalog signals suggest disturbing or confinement-related situations. These notes may not be complete; consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Warm tone · Steady pace
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
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This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.
Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.
This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.
A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-2991-8830-6
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL10317153M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
- Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
- How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
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