The Tower of Life

Starred review from July 15, 2022

Gr 3-5-In the small town of Eishyshok, previously Poland, now Lithuania, lived a young Jewish girl named Yaffa. Her family roots went back in the town for 900 years. Her grandmother ran a studio where people from the village came to get their photographs taken for New Year's greetings and memories. But then the war came, and the Nazi soldiers rounded up the Jews in Eishyshok and killed all but Yaffa and her family who escaped and hid. Thirty-five years later, President Jimmy Carter reached out to Yaffa and asked her to help with a memorial being built for the victims of the Holocaust. Yaffa remembered the photographs her grandmother had taken, and the ones she had hidden in her socks as she fled the village. She decided to build the memorial not on bricks, but on photographs that were saved from Eishyshok. Traveling around the world, she found 6,000 photographs to display on what would later be called the Tower of Life. Not a memorial of the dead, but of the life that came from her beloved hometown. There are many picture books about the Holocaust, but this one stands out with Gal's beautiful watercolor pictures and the true account of one woman's goal that her community never be forgotten. VERDICT A beautiful tribute to one small town and the six million Jews across Europe who lost their lives during the Holocaust. Highly recommended.-Heidi Dechief

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2022
A Jewish Polish woman resurrects her hometown through photographs. Yaffa Eliach (1935-2016) grew up in the shtetl town of Eishyshok, Poland. She and her family lived there contentedly until the Germans occupied the town in 1941 and murdered most of its Jewish population. Yaffa and her family escaped and hid until the war ended. Before, one of Yaffa's favorite childhood activities was assisting her grandmother, the town photographer, who documented weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other celebrations; these photos were mailed to relatives around the world. Years later, Yaffa, now a married history professor and Holocaust scholar residing in America, was tasked by President Jimmy Carter with creating an exhibit for Washington, D.C.'s new United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Determined to celebrate life instead of destruction, Yaffa spent years tracking down thousands of photos of Eishyshok's residents and descendants, traveling around America and the world. The result: the Tower of Life, depicted in a 90-degree book turn. One of the actual photos contained in the memorial--included herein--shows Yaffa herself as a child in Eishyshok in her father's arms; another childhood photo of Yaffa is also included in the book. Though it tackles dark themes, this heartfelt story is ultimately uplifting. The illustrations, rendered in ink, watercolor, and digital collage, brim with warm, colorful details. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A loving testament to light and hope and the vision of a remarkable woman. (timeline, bibliography, author's note) (Informational picture book. 6-9)

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Starred review from October 24, 2022
The creators center th experiences of historian Yaffa Eliach (1937–2016) in this moving look at the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Tower of Faces, a monument built of photographs. Early lines paint an idyllic vision of Eliach’s birthplace, the shtetl Eishyshok. Gal’s saturated ink, watercolor, and digital collage illustrations show the deeply rooted community, which “pulsed with love, laughter, and light” and was often caught on camera by Eliach’s grandmother. When German troops and tanks arrive, the book’s palette darkens into harrowing wartime graphics. Following details around Yaffa’s family’s escape, the text next shifts to the subject’s 17-year global effort to recover 6,000 photos from those with family history in Eishyshok, and a concluding foldout pays powerful tribute to the resulting memorial: “The photos showed heroes, not victims. Dignity, not disaster. Lives lived, not lost.” A timeline and bibliography conclude. Ages 6–8.

Starred review from October 15, 2022
Grades 1-3 *Starred Review* Yaffa had an idyllic childhood in Eishyshok, a Jewish shtetl in modern-day Lithuania with centuries-old roots and a close-knit community. Her Grandma Alte, in possession of a rare camera, documented everyday life. When the rumble of occupying Nazi tanks changed life in an instant for the Jewish inhabitants, Yaffa's family miraculously escaped death by fleeing to the countryside, but not before Yaffa stuffed a pile of photographs into her shoes. She treasured the reminders of home as she traveled the world as a refugee, eventually landing in the U.S. and becoming a professor of history and Holocaust expert. When tapped by President Jimmy Carter to create a memorial in the new Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yaffa recalled her photographs and spent years reaching out to other families from the shtetl, collecting more than 6,000 images and compiling them into the stunning Tower of Faces, three stories of images of her Jewish community. (""Tower of Life"" is Yaffa's name for it.) It's a stunning tale, spanning decades and continents, and a tender introduction to a terrible time in human history. The watercolor illustrations, bursting with detail and life, utilize warm, bright colors in times of peace and deep reds and blacks in wartime. The drawings cleverly incorporate rectangular photograph frames into the village scenes, beautifully demonstrating the power of snapshots to memorialize beloved people and places. A magnificent and moving tribute to a loving community and an extraordinary woman.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from March 1, 2023
This picture-book biography of Holocaust historian Yaffa Eliach (1935�? 2016) begins with her happy childhood in the shtetl of Eishyshok in what is now Lithuania, emphasizing the village's deep connection to its nine-hundred-year history and its enthusiasm for preserving memories through photographs. When the Nazis invade, Yaffa and her family escape, and the approachable text continues to center the importance of memories, including the photos Yaffa saves in her shoes. Years later, when the adult Eliach is a renowned history professor in the U.S., President Jimmy Carter asks her to build a memorial in the new United States Holocaust Museum, and she seeks out photos saved by other survivors to "rebuild Eishyshok, not brick by brick, but photograph by photograph, story by story." The result is the Tower of Faces, which Eliach calls the Tower of Life. Gal's illustrations, created with ink, watercolor, and digital collage (including two actual photos), begin with cheerful blues and yellows on plentiful white space, then turn to angry, arresting reds and blacks when the Nazis appear. Photos and other ephemera in varied grayscale and sepia tones are creatively incorporated into broader scenes of memories as those scenes are reconstructed. An affirming tribute to a Jewish past that was lost in the Holocaust as well as to one survivor's work. Back matter includes a timeline, a bibliography, further reading, and an author's note. Shoshana Flax

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2023
This picture-book biography of Holocaust historian Yaffa Eliach (1935�? 2016) begins with her happy childhood in the shtetl of Eishyshok in what is now Lithuania, emphasizing the village's deep connection to its nine-hundred-year history and its enthusiasm for preserving memories through photographs. When the Nazis invade, Yaffa and her family escape, and the approachable text continues to center the importance of memories, including the photos Yaffa saves in her shoes. Years later, when the adult Eliach is a renowned history professor in the U.S., President Jimmy Carter asks her to build a memorial in the new United States Holocaust Museum, and she seeks out photos saved by other survivors to "rebuild Eishyshok, not brick by brick, but photograph by photograph, story by story." The result is the Tower of Faces, which Eliach calls the Tower of Life. Gal's illustrations, created with ink, watercolor, and digital collage (including two actual photos), begin with cheerful blues and yellows on plentiful white space, then turn to angry, arresting reds and blacks when the Nazis appear. Photos and other ephemera in varied grayscale and sepia tones are creatively incorporated into broader scenes of memories as those scenes are reconstructed. An affirming tribute to a Jewish past that was lost in the Holocaust as well as to one survivor's work. Back matter includes a timeline, a bibliography, further reading, and an author's note.

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)