The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Mordechai Anielewicz: No to Despair by Rachel Hausfater, translated from French by Alison L. Strayer Triangle Square Books for Young Readers (imprint of Seven Stories Press), 2022 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rachel J. Fremmer Buy at Bookshop.org Narrated by 13-year-old Feigele, a messenger in the Warsaw Ghetto, No to Despair tells the story of the three week insurrection in the ghetto by the Jews in April-May 1943. The book’s focus is on the 24-year-old leader of the insurrection, Mordechai Anielewicz, and emphasizes his belief in dying - and living - with dignity and not succumbing to hopelessness without a fight. Feigele idealizes Anielewicz, as probably most or all under his command did, referring to him repeatedly as an angel. While this depiction conveys the adoration and loyalty the fighters in the ghetto felt for him, it does mean that we miss out on a fuller portrait of Anielewicz as a human being with his own flaws and foibles. Although the narrator does give us some con