The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II
A powerful and personal account of family, history and the Holocaust from Michael Rosen.
When Michael Rosen was growing up, he knew that relatives who had lived in Poland and France before the Second World War had disappeared. Years later, he began searching for answers about what had happened to them.
The Missing follows Michael's journey to uncover the story of his relatives who “went missing” during the Second World War. He interviewed family members, searched through books and records, explored information online and travelled to America and France as he pieced together his family's history.
The result is a deeply personal account of the Holocaust, combining prose, poetry, family history, photographs and maps. Michael's own poems, both old and new, sit alongside the narrative, creating a moving account of his family's experiences and the persecution they faced.
Through his search, Michael explores the stories of his great-uncles and the family members who were there before the war but were no longer there afterwards. The book provides an accessible way for young readers to begin exploring how individual family stories can help us understand major historical events.
The Missing can support conversations around:
- World War II
- The Holocaust
- Family history and memory
- Jewish history and identity
- Persecution and prejudice
- Refugees and displacement
- Poetry and prose
- Remembrance
- Human rights and empathy
Written by Michael Rosen, The Missing combines personal history with poetry and narrative to explore what happened to members of his family during the Second World War and the Holocaust.