Rappaport, Doreen
Doreen Rappaport: Mission Possible and in Progress
There’s a common theme throughout Doreen Rappaport’s work: “I want to write stories that empower kids to know that other people empowered themselves.”
It’s evident in her biographies of Helen Keller and Martin Luther King, Jr. You can even find it in the life stories of presidents Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and in the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. And you can witness it in the pages of Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust.
“Women, blacks and Latinos have been told they have no history,” notes the author of dozens of books about just those subjects.
Many years ago — even before the internet — Doreen was deep in the archives at a branch of the New York Public Library. The 42nd Street Branch had a room devoted to Judaica and a reference librarian dutifully brought the texts requested by the author. In addition to books she asked for, he brought her three additional large volumes. “I told him I didn’t order them and he replied that he knew, but he thought I would be interested.”
“Every time I asked for specific texts, be brought them to me plus those same three books,” she recalled. When she finally opened them, she found that they were bound volumes of mimeographed materials about Jews who had resisted.” Doreen’s knowledge of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust was limited and suddenly she was in a world filled with first-hand accounts of brave people who did just that.
Thus began the decade-long saga of researching and writing Beyond Courage. The author’s impeccable and relentless research is revealed as a treasure hunt as she hunted down verification, hampered by a lack of footnotes in works published in the wake of the war, by shifting borders, and disappeared countries.
In addition to librarians who helped her track down obscure and rare texts, Doreen is also grateful to historians for their generous help. “They want it to be right,” she notes. Historians also know the reach of a book for children on such an important subject would have a bigger audience beyond academia.
As her research continued she began to see the shape of the book and knew that it must begin in Germany. Beyond Courage begins with Kristallnacht, “The Night of Broken Glass,” and the experiences of 17-year-old Ernst Gunther Fontheim. “I contacted the curator of one of the two remaining synagogues and he helped me find Ernst–he was living in Michigan!” Doreen was able to interview him personally.
Every account and every memory in Beyond Courage was researched by the author and vetted by historians. Every picture bears a direct relationship with the words on the page, providing an important and authoritative window into the tumultuous times.
“I wanted a variety of stories from the spectrum of countries that had been affected including Greece, Romania, Lithuania, and more.” She adds that she also wanted to compare and contrast the experiences. “It was easier to get help in Holland and Belgium than in other places, for example.” Many books had no footnotes because they were written by the people they happened to.
Doreen recently spoke at a middle school conference in Nevada and children wanted to know if the Holocaust really happened. “It’s my mission for kids to see how people have resisted throughout history.” She adds, “After all, it took women 82 years to get the vote.”
The author stresses that “We should never just be doing one history–we should always be looking at things in a multicultural way.” Some of her earliest memories of books are of sets her parents purchased for her including Richard Halliburton’s Book of Wonders.
Each one of Doreen Rappaport’s books could be called a book of wonder. By highlighting the themes of resistance and people empowering themselves, she gives a voice to the voiceless and shines a light on paths through history that can inspire new journeys.
Interviewed by Ellen Myrick, August 2014
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