Fourteen-year-old Elfriede “Elfie” Hoffmann just wants her life to return to normal—back before her best friend became a Hitler Youth leader, back to when her father was allowed to practice medicine, back to the time when she wasn’t waiting for her friends to reject her. 

As Elfie begins to detach from her friends, who want nothing more than to be leaders in the girls’ division of Hitler Youth, she learns that her parents are active in a small group denouncing Hitler. Her parents tell her that they have Jewish heritage, which has major consequences for them in Nazi Germany. Realizing that her culture disdains her as a Mischling (“mixed-blood”), Elfie finds the courage to stand up for what she thinks is right. She helps her parents in their quiet way of resistance, even as the Nazis take away everything that is dear to them. 

Our world is filled with people and governments who want to hate “the other.” Taken Away shows the consequences of demonizing people. Readers will see the pain that emerges when whole groups of people are judged and condemned. 

About the author:

Deborah Lee Prescott is a Professor Emerita of English. Her doctoral studies were in 20th-century British and American literature, as well as cinema. Her primary interest was in studying Jewish Holocaust survivors’ autobiographies. This pursuit generated college classes, conference presentations, public lectures, academic papers, and a scholarly book examining Biblical imagery in Jewish Holocaust survivors’ memoirs. 

Taken Away emerged from a play of the same name, co-written with her theater colleague Don Butler. The play was performed at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, which is the major theater in West Palm Beach, Florida, and was seen by over six thousand students. 

When not reading or writing, Prescott enjoys walking her dog and traveling (unfortunately, those two activities are sometimes mutually exclusive!).