Johanna Reiss | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1932-04-04)4 April 1932 (age 93) Netherlands |
| Occupation | novelist |
| Period | 1969 - present |
| Subject | The Holocaust |
| Notable works | The Upstairs Room (1972) |
| Notable awards | Newbery Honor,ALA Notable Book,Jewish Book Council Children's Book Award, Buxtehuder Bulle Prize |
| Spouse | Jim Reiss (1955–1969) |
Johanna Reiss (/riːs/REESS; born 4 April 1932) is aDutch-American writer whose work focuses on her experiences as a Jewish child during the Second World War. Her books have been compared to the writing ofAnne Frank.
Johanna Reiss was born Johanna "Annie" de Leeuw on 4 April 1932 inWinterswijk inThe Netherlands, one of three sisters. Reiss was from aJewish family and survived theHolocaust, along with her older sister Sini, by hiding in the attic of a farming family (Johan and Dientje Oosterveld, and his mother, Opoe) in the rural village ofUsselo for three years.[1][2] Her mother was in hospital, where she died from causes unrelated to the conflict, and her father and oldest sister Rachel were in hiding, separately.[3]
AfterWorld War II, Reiss graduated from college and taught elementary school. In 1955 she moved to theUnited States, where she married Jim Reiss and brought up two daughters. Her husband encouraged her to write about her experiences during the war, which resulted in the young adult novel,The Upstairs Room.
Reiss's YA novelThe Upstairs Room, which outlined her experiences during the Second World War, was published in 1972. It won several awards, including aNewbery Honor Book, anAmerican Library Association Notable Children's Book, and a Jane Addams Peace Association Honor Book. It also won theNational Jewish Book Award,[4] the Juvenile Book Award and theBuxtehuder Bulle, a German children's book award.Elie Wiesel commented that The Upstairs Room was "as important in every respect as the one bequeathed to us byAnne Frank."[5][6]
The Upstairs Room's success led to Reiss writing a sequel,The Journey Back, published in 1976. This tells the story of Reiss and her family's attempt to rebuild their lives after the war.
In 2009, Reiss wroteA Hidden Life, a memoir about her childhood memories, as well as her husband's suicide.[7][8]
Reiss regularly visits schools in both the US and Europe to talk about her experience of the Holocaust in The Netherlands. In May 2018, she was awarded theKnight of Order of Orange-Nassau in recognition of her speaking efforts by the Dutch government.[9]
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