Seeking Shelter

Cynthia Ehrenkrantz was six in 1939 when Britain entered World War II. She was twelve in 1945 when the war ended. Seeking Shelter is her vivid child’s-eye account of life in wartime England as she lived it: an adored only child in a large Jewish clan whose comfortable existence becomes one of food shortages, gas masks and air-raid sirens, and – worst of all – being sent away for months and years at a stretch to escape German bombs.

Contending with bullies, rushing from a warm bed to a backyard shelter when sirens wail. Life is hard but also good: shining in a school play, collecting foil for the war effort, celebrating Passover… These are the mixed realities of wartime that mark young Cynthia forever in ways only adult Cynthia can understand.