A Different Story: About a Danish Jewish Girl During World War Two

There were eight children in the family, and Maya (Emilie( was the youngest. The family had lived in Denmark for many generations, and they were the only Jews in a small, sleepy village outside Copenhagen. Maya tells us about her life at home and in the fairytale garden, about her brothers and sisters, granny and nanny, and even the chimney sweep. Then World War Two breaks out, and Maya’s story becomes the marvelous tale of the rescue of Denmark’s Jews, and their escape to Sweden. We follow Maya and her family on the dangerous voyage across the sea, and stay with them in Sweden until the end of the war. More than 70 years have passed since that wondrous escape, and many children, as well as adults, have never heard of it. They have heard about the Holocaust and its horrors, but not about how one single country decided it would not abandon its Jewish citizens to their fate. And that is what makes this story so moving-and so different. Emilie Roi was born in Denmark. In October 1943, at the age of seven, she and her family fled the Germans in a fishing boat to neutral Sweden. After the war, they returned to Denmark. This book tells her story.