Renee Hartman author page

Renee Hartman biography

Renee Hartman is a Holocaust memoirist whose work for young readers records the persecution she and her younger sister, Herta, faced as Jewish children in 1940s Czechoslovakia. Born in Bratislava, she was the only hearing member of her immediate family and took on the role of warning her deaf parents and sister when danger approached. The sisters were arrested and imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen, where they endured severe deprivation until liberation.

Her memoir for middle grade readers, Signs of Survival: A Memoir of the Holocaust, was created from oral testimony and written with Joshua M. Greene. It recounts how the sisters relied on sign language, courage and resourcefulness to navigate persecution and camp life, and how they rebuilt their lives after the war.

Signs of Survival was published by Scholastic in 2021.