The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy

Everybody knows the story of Hansel and Gretel, the two children abandoned in the woods by their father and evil stepmother, who then discover the witch's hut. In this moving book by Murphy the story is changed but, the main pieces are still there: the stepmother, the bread crumbs, and the 'witch'. This is WWII during the occupation of Poland and two children are left in the forest by a desperate father and stepmother who are trying to flee the Nazis. The children are told they must forget their names because their real names will reveal their Jewishness and are renamed 'Hansel' and 'Gretel'. The parents hope someone will take them in and think they are Christian. The first person they find in the forest is Magda, the village 'witch'. She takes them in and protects them in her small hut that is heated by an enormous old bakers oven. This is a gut wrenching story of the Holocaust. The voices of Jews who hid in the forests, of men and women who participated in resistance movements, and of Polish civilians.
Hearing those voices was chilling. And this author does a remarkable job at giving them all voices.