Janna Eliot

Settela's Last Road Janna Eliot

Wartime Holland, 1944. Nazis occupy the land. Nine year old Settela - a Dutch Sinti Gypsy - tries to make sense of what's going on around her. But no one will tell her the truth. There are only sudden silences and unanswered questions. Distant gunshots and the rumble of German tanks on the roads.

Then, one dawn, policemen raid Settela's encampment. Settela and her family are hauled from their caravans and sent to Kamp Westerbork. Three days later they are transported to Auschwitz.

Struggling to understand the insanity of the adult world, Settela dreams of rescuing her people and leading them to safety.

Suitable for both adults and teenagers, Settela's Last Road tells a gripping story about an often ignored part of Holocaust Studies - the experiences of the Sinti/Romani people during the cataclysmic years of the Nazi regime.

Readers' comments -

"A kind of Gypsy Anne Frank. Every school should have a copy."

"Moving and beautiful - it made me cry."
(This novel is an imaginative interpretation based on historical characters and events. Inspired by the haunting photograph taken by Rudolf Breslauer in 1944, it uses details from SETTELA, a factual account by journalist Aad Wagenaar.)