Few authors can tackle a topic as complex as the Holocaust and distill it into a book. Even fewer authors can write a book about a complex and adult topic for children. Morris Gleitzman was able to do that with his novel Once.
In Once, Gleitzman treats the Holocaust with the reverence it deserves. But he also addresses some of the more unsavory and violent aspects of the Holocaust that few others are willing to address. Specifically, Gleitzman talks about the death of children in the Holocaust. When shown throughout the novel, the images of the dead children that Felix, the main character and protagonist of the novel, sees shock and horrify readers.
Gleitzman explores themes of the importance of hope, the power of storytelling, being an orphan, genocide, and racism. Readers are meant to learn more about themselves and the world around them through these themes. It is simultaneously a deeply emotional and informative novel.
Once tells the story of a young man named Felix Salinger, who was dropped off at a Catholic orphanage in Poland by his parents, who wanted to save him from Nazi prosecution. Felix stayed at the orphanage for three years and was relatively happy and well-fed. However, he still missed his parents.
One day, after a visit from Nazi stormtroopers, Felix decides to venture outside of his orphanage into danger to find his parents. On his journey, he encounters several obstacles and is almost killed by Nazis, but he is saved by a kind man named Barney, who enlists Felix (a natural storyteller) to tell stories to his patients. Felix and Zelda, a young girl he befriended on his journey, spend some time with Barney but cannot find Felix's parents. Instead, they are sent to a concentration camp but ultimately escape on the train on their way there, showing how transformative an effect the Holocaust had on many people's lives and reflecting the nature of the Nazi's killing.
