Title: A hidden life : a memoir of August 1969 /
Authors: Reiss, Johanna.
Publisher: Melville House Pub.,
Year: 2009
Subjects: Reiss, Johanna.; Reiss, Johanna Travel Netherlands.; Jews Netherlands Biography.; Hidden children (Holocaust) Netherlands Biography.; Bereavement Personal narratives.; Jews, Dutch New York (State) New York Biography.; Bereavement.; Netherlands Biography.
Abstract: For years, Johanna Reiss' American husband, Jim, encouraged her to return to Holland to chronicle the two years, seven months, and one day she had spent hiding from the Nazis in rural Usselo, Holland. In 1969, she finally made the trip. Accompanied by Jim and their two young children, Reiss intended to spend seven weeks researching the book that would eventually become The Upstairs Room, her Newbery Honor-winning account of her time hiding in the attic of a farmhouse in which for a time a contingent of Nazi soldiers was billeted. But unknown to the millions of people who went on to read her beloved classic, behind the dark and painful story of the book was a still darker tale: Reiss' husband returned to America early and committed suicide at age thirty-seven, leaving no note.