“From 1933 to 1945, six million of my people were killed.
Many were shot. Many were starved. Many were burned in ovens or gassed in chambers.
I was not.
I was born sometime in 1944.
I do not know my birthdate.
I do not know my birth name.
I do not know in what city or country I was born.
I do not know if I had brothers or sisters.
What I do know is that when I was just a few months old, I was saved from the Holocaust.
I often imagine what my family’s life was like the last few weeks we spent together. I imagine my mother and father robbed of everything they owned, forced from their home, and relocated to a ghetto.”

LA STORIA DI ERIKA
Text by Ruth Vander Zee
Illustrations by Roberto Innocenti
la Margherita Edizioni