Fortress of My Youth

Jana Rene Friesov was fifteen when she was imprisoned by the Nazis in the Czech ghetto town of Terezn. Her memoir tells the poignantly familiar story of a young girl who, even under the most abominable circumstances, engages in intense adolescent friendships, worries with her companions over her looks, and falls in love. Anne Frank's diary ends with deportation to a concentration camp; Fortress of My Youth, in contrast, takes the reader deep into the horrors of daily life in a camp that were faced by a young girl and her family. But Friesov also tells of love, joy, sacrifice, and the people who shared in the most profound experiences of her life.