Under the Rubble: The Hidden Letters of the Warsaw Ghetto

On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland setting off WWII. The following year Nazis forced nearly 450,000 Polish Jews into a crowded ghetto in the capital city of Warsaw. By the end of the war, most of those imprisoned had been killed, either in concentration camps or on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. But miraculously, their stories survived. HOW? That's a story in itself . . .

When the Jewish prisoners of Warsaw Ghetto realize that Nazi atrocities might go unanswered, they courageously risk their lives and resist with just pen and paper as their weapons. In an act of defiance, they write and bury deep underground a complete record of what they endured. After the war, Hersh Wasser, the only survivor who knows where the records are buried, leads the effort to recover them.

This true story of the Oneg Shabbat Archive was the subject of an award-winning adult book and documentary film.

Part mystery, part adventure, part tragedy, Under the Rubble tells this courageous, true story as an age-appropriate introduction to the Holocaust. The book includes notes from those who were part of the effort to recover the cannisters. Extensive backmatter includes a historical note, glossary, and a list of resources for further learning.

Elisa Boxer is an Emmy-winning journalist and Sydney Taylor Honor author whose work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Fast Company, and Inc. magazine. Elisa is the author of numerous children's books, including One Turtle's Last Straw  (which won the 2024 Maine Chickadee Award) and Hidden Hope: How a Toy and a Hero Saved Lives During the Holocaust, which won the Sydney Taylor Silver Medal, the Maine Literary Award for Best Children's Book, and was a Booklist Editor's Choice pick for 2024. Elisa lives in Scarborough, Maine.

Oksana Drachkovska graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Lviv, Ukraine, majoring in fine arts, she decided to focus on illustration. In 2016, she was granted scholarships from Gaude Polonia (Poland) and SAIA (Slovakia). In 2020, the book she illustrated, A Bunny Who Didn't Jump and His Brave Mother, won Lviv Book Forum's award as the best book for children aged 6 to 8. In 2021 and 2022, she was shortlisted for Bologna Book Fair's International Award for Illustration. An illustrator originally from Lviv, Oksana is currently living in Barcelona, Spain.