Hold On To Hope

The Red Ribbon by Lucy Adlington is a powerful historical YA novel that will break your heart and horrify you.

The action is mainly set in Birchwood, the name given to Auschwitz. We see all the action through the eyes of teenager Ella who is remarkably grown up and strong for her age.

We witness the dehumanizing of people but Ella clings to her identity. “I wasn’t a badge or a number. I was Ella.” When you lose sight of who you are, you lose the will to continue. You need to have something to fight for.

Beechwood brings out the very best and the very worst of human nature. There are pockets of kindness within a sea of cruelty.

To survive Birchwood you need hope, determination and luck. “The best thing we can do is live… The only way to beat them is by not dying.” If you can bond with a friend, there is strength in being together as you have to live and be strong for the sake of another. To lose a friend is to shatter a life. We are stronger together.

Lucy Adlington has captured the horrors of the camp and she has also captured a beautiful friendship too.

We witness the power of the story to lift people above their circumstances.

The Red Ribbon was a powerful tale of hope and the will to survive. We must read it in memory of the six million innocents who perished in the Holocaust.

JULIA WILSON