The Last Enemy

I have recently finished reading a wonderful book called The Last Enemy by Rhoda Kaellis. At first glance this book may seem like a childrens' or young adult book with light content and not that much substance. After reading through the first few chapters I began to realize this book is so much more than a narrative of a 12 year old child's experiences post WWII.
The story of Sarah Cardozo is told through her narrative. She describes her experiences dealing with her 11 year old cousin Lilly who has just come to live with Sarah and her family in New York after losing her parents in a concentration camp. Lilly was raised from the age of 5 in a Catholic orpahage as a means to save her from the Nazis.
Sarah first dreams of taking Lilly under her wing and teaching her all about Jewish life in America. She plans on having the sister she always wanted but never had. This dream is soon shattered when a "damaged" Lilly arrives from Belgium with dark hallow eyes and not a hint of life or happiness in her. Sarah has to deal with so much, from trying to communicate with the unresponsive Lilly to understanding why Lilly is so withdrawn.
Lilly has a lot of anger and pent up hatred towards her parents, her new family and Jews as she has been influenced by the nuns in the orphanage and her new Goyim friends.
Sarah tries to deal with Lilly and her issues on her own, scared to tell her parents of Lilly's odd behaviour and even more scared to tell them of Lilly's confession of a hatred of Jews.
This book left me thinking about how so many of us have no idea or understanding of what the survivors went through, they had so much to deal with on so many levels, from emotional, physical and psychological.