Still Here: A Journey Taken Alone

A four-year-old Jewish girl is placed on a train and sent across borders during World War II, carrying nothing but her papers, a rag doll, and the hope that someone will be waiting at the end. She does not understand the politics, the danger, or the enormity of what is happening, only that she must sit still, be quiet, and survive. Set against the backdrop of German-occupied Europe, Swiss border crossings, Red Cross interventions, and long, silent train rides through snow-covered mountains, this memoir tells from a perspective rarely recorded: that of a very young child alone. The story follows her journey through yellow-star housing, marches, inspections, stations, and connections, from Hungary to Switzerland and onward to Geneva and Lausanne, where she is placed with a new family, in a new language, in a life that does not yet feel like her own. Written with spare, vivid prose, Still Here captures the physical sensations and emotional truths of childhood displacement: fear, home inspections, waiting on platforms, watching adults’ faces for clues, learning new words, and trying to feel safe again. It is not a story of escape alone, but of aftermath, of what it means to arrive and to continue living after everything familiar has been left behind.