Reading Booklet

Year 6 Reading Assessment

The Missing: The True Story of

My Family in World War II

Page 1-8

Focus on the
Second World War
Page 9-14

On the Move
Page 14-18
 The Missing: The True Story
of My Family in World War II
Over the course of many years, the famous author, Michael
Rosen, worked tirelessly to discover the secrets of his
Jewish family’s past during the Second World War and to
map out his family tree.

121 22
© Text 2019 Michael Rosen (abridged) © Text 2020 Michael Rosen
From THE MISSING: THE TRUE STORY OF MY FAMILY IN WORLD WAR II written by Michael Rosen © Illustrations 2020 Quentin Blake
From ON THE MOVE: POEMS ABOUT MIGRATION written by Michael Rosen & illustrated by Quentin Blake
Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved.
www.walker.co.uk www.walker.co.uk
 The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II

I was born in 1946, the year after the Second World

War ended.

You probably know about the war already: that a group of

countries called the “Axis powers” were fighting another group
of countries called the “Allies”.

You probably also know that Nazi Germany was one of the
Axis powers, along with Italy and Japan. And that Britain
was one of the Allies – which, by the end of the war, also
included the USA and the Soviet Union.

I expect you know that the Allies won in the end. I was born
exactly nine months after Allied troops led a victory parade
through the ruins of Berlin.

And I’m sure you know that lots of people died during the war
– and not just on the battlefields.

Throughout my childhood, I didn’t know whether my relatives

were among them. Stories used to hang in the air about
French and Polish great-aunts and great-uncles, who were
there before the war and weren’t after.

What happened? I’d ask.

Don’t know, my family would say.

And it was true: they genuinely didn’t know. It didn’t make

any sense to me... How could people just disappear like that?
People with whole lives? People with families who loved them?
21
1 2
© Text 2020 Michael Rosen © Text 2019 Michael Rosen (abridged)
© Illustrations 2020 Quentin Blake From THE MISSING: THE TRUE STORY OF MY FAMILY IN WORLD WAR II written by Michael Rosen
From ON THE MOVE: POEMS ABOUT MIGRATION written by Michael Rosen & illustrated by Quentin Blake
Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved.
www.walker.co.uk www.walker.co.uk
The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II

So, over many years, I tried to find out exactly what

happened. And along the way, I uncovered awful and amazing
stories. Stories which deserve to be remembered.

This passage reveals some of the heart-wrenching details

Michael found out from his long-lost first cousin once
removed, Teddy, from letters written by his Great-Aunt
Stella about her family’s situation in Poland during
the 1940s.

Teddy had found another two letters from Oscar’s sister Stella
and her husband, Bernard. They had been living in west
Poland with their son Michael at the beginning of The War.
Michael was just seventeen when Poland was invaded – by the
Nazis to the west and the Soviets to the east.
This was because of a shaky, short-lived alliance between Nazi
Germany and the Soviet Union – who both wanted to claim
Poland as their own.
Stella and Bernard were desperate to do something for Michael
– and both of the letters to Max (my dad’s brother) beg him to
“take my only child”.

3
19 20
© Text 2019 Michael Rosen (abridged) © Text 2020 Michael Rosen
From THE MISSING: THE TRUE STORY OF MY FAMILY IN WORLD WAR II written by Michael Rosen © Illustrations 2020 Quentin Blake
From ON THE MOVE: POEMS ABOUT MIGRATION written by Michael Rosen & illustrated by Quentin Blake
Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved.
www.walker.co.uk www.walker.co.uk
 Never Again The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II

Here’s the first one from Stella:

The people who do it From:
can believe Rechnitz
that they are just getting Dombrowa 6/S
their own back. Schlesischestr. 14
22 January, 1941
That’s why
To: Mr Max Rosen
it can happen again.
West Cedar 96
It does happen again.
Boston Mass U.S.A.
It has happened again.
Dear Brother,

I have written to you several times and urged you fervently

to take in my only child, Micha Rechnitz in Joszkar – 6 Ta,
Maryjskoja A.S.S.R. pocstowy Jasscryk No. 8 barack / 7.
Soviet Union.

He was sent away from Lemberg and only America can rescue
him. Therefore I am fervently asking you to take the necessary
steps immediately. Many thousands have already gone to
America. I am asking you again to fulfil my request. I have
sent you my son’s birth certificate. Born 16 November, 1923 in
Dombrowa 6/S.

What are you doing, my dears? Kisses to you and your dear
wife. Maybe for now you can send him a few dollars? I beg
you very much.

19
3 4
© Text 2020 Michael Rosen © Text 2019 Michael Rosen (abridged)
© Illustrations 2020 Quentin Blake From THE MISSING: THE TRUE STORY OF MY FAMILY IN WORLD WAR II written by Michael Rosen
From ON THE MOVE: POEMS ABOUT MIGRATION written by Michael Rosen & illustrated by Quentin Blake
Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved.
www.walker.co.uk www.walker.co.uk
The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II Never Again

Thousands of Jewish people tried to make their way to

America, just as Stella says. But while some succeeded,
Never Again
many more were turned away – as they were by
governments all over Europe. We say, “Never again.”
One of the most famous examples is from 1939, when a ship But
called the St. Louis set sail from Nazi Germany carrying when people with power are pointing
more than 900 Jewish refugees. The ship made it all the in one direction
way to Cuba, a trip of some four thousand miles ... only for
the US government to send it and its passengers all the way when many minds are pointing
back to Europe. in that direction
Here is the next letter from Stella: when the guns and bombs are pointing
11 February, 1941 in that direction

Dear Brother, too,

I hope you have already taken the steps to take in my son. it can happen again.
Maybe you could adopt him to make this work? It does happen again.
Dear brother, I urge you. For now send him a few dollars It has happened again.
and packages with food because he has nothing. I fervently It can be furious and chaotic.
urge you to send something as soon as possible. Don’t be It can be calm and orderly.
upset with me but only you ... [remainder of the sentence
It can start with laws.
obscured by airmail stamp]
It can start without them.
Kisses to you and to your dear wife and children.
The people who do it
Your sister,
Stella can believe
they are saving their country.
Stella is frantic to do something for her only son: a
seventeen-year-old Jewish boy, whose world is falling apart all
around him, and who will surely die if he stays with his family
in west Poland.
5
17 18
© Text 2019 Michael Rosen (abridged) © Text 2020 Michael Rosen
From THE MISSING: THE TRUE STORY OF MY FAMILY IN WORLD WAR II written by Michael Rosen © Illustrations 2020 Quentin Blake
From ON THE MOVE: POEMS ABOUT MIGRATION written by Michael Rosen & illustrated by Quentin Blake
Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved.
www.walker.co.uk www.walker.co.uk
 The War The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II

and jugs and sauce bottle round the table. But did the letters work? What happened to Micha (Michael)?
“The Russians were here. This part of the puzzle, I knew already.
There was a moment when we thought
Not long after the end of The War, there was a knock on my
it was all over and the Russians had lost
Aunt Sylvia’s door in London. A young man was standing on her
and it would be all over for us. doorstep.
But then, look –” “Lady Sylvia?” he asked.
she moved the jugs and plates again –
She let him in – and, bit by bit, it became clear that the young
“they won! man was Michael!
We couldn’t believe it.”
We don’t know whether Max tried and failed to get him to
She stops. America, but, in the end, Stella and Bernard put Michael on an
She stares. eastbound train to get him away from the Nazis.
They lost millions. When Michael arrived in the Soviet half of Poland, he was
Millions and millions of people died. sent to a prison camp in Russia. But then, in 1941, the Nazis
decided they wanted to control all of Poland, not just the west
In the evening, after we’ve eaten,
Mum tells about the War.

17
5 6
© Text 2020 Michael Rosen © Text 2019 Michael Rosen (abridged)
© Illustrations 2020 Quentin Blake From THE MISSING: THE TRUE STORY OF MY FAMILY IN WORLD WAR II written by Michael Rosen
From ON THE MOVE: POEMS ABOUT MIGRATION written by Michael Rosen & illustrated by Quentin Blake
Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved.
www.walker.co.uk www.walker.co.uk
The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II The War

– so they fought their way east and their alliance with the counting to ten,
Soviets crumbled to bits. and I lay down in the gutter and waited.
When The War was over, Michael didn’t want to go back It landed just up the road from me.”
to Poland. Everyone knew, by then, that all the Jews had
“You lay down in the gutter, Mum? Really?”
gone from Poland. Nearly all of them killed. So he thought
he would try to get to America to In the evening, after we’ve eaten,
find his relatives there: his uncles Mum tells about the War.
Morris and Max.
She says that they thought it wouldn’t be long
In the end he only got as far
as London, where he stayed before Hitler would land in Britain
with Sylvia. He went on to but then she tells us about what happened in Russia.
become a taxi driver, got She says the Siege of Leningrad was so bad
married and had children and that people got so hungry they ate rats.
of his own.
She says that people crowded round the radio
Michael never saw his parents because they knew that if Hitler won in Russia
Stella and Bernard again. nothing would stop him.
He never found out what
“If he had come here,” she said,
happened to them. All he had
was one photo of his mother “we wouldn’t be alive.
... and now, these letters. You wouldn’t have been born,” she said to me.

But it was because of their We listened to the reports of the

actions that he survived. Battle of Stalingrad.

“You see,” she said,

“Hitler’s troops were lined up here...”
And she started moving the plates
715 16
© Text 2019 Michael Rosen (abridged) © Text 2020 Michael Rosen
From THE MISSING: THE TRUE STORY OF MY FAMILY IN WORLD WAR II written by Michael Rosen © Illustrations 2020 Quentin Blake
From ON THE MOVE: POEMS ABOUT MIGRATION written by Michael Rosen & illustrated by Quentin Blake
Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved.
www.walker.co.uk www.walker.co.uk
 The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II
On the Move
by Michael Rosen

The War
In the evening, after we’ve eaten,
Mum tells about the War.

“Doodlebugs,” she says,

“were bombs that came
flying over us –
rockets, they were,
and they made a noise,
but when the noise stopped
you knew that it was about to drop.
They said you had to run for cover.
If you were out, they said,
the best place to go was in the gutter,
lie down in the gutter.
Once, when I had just come out
of White City Station,
I heard one.
The noise stopped.
They said you had ten seconds to hide
so I ran towards the gutter
15
7 8
© Text 2020 Michael Rosen © Text 2019 Michael Rosen (abridged)
© Illustrations 2020 Quentin Blake From THE MISSING: THE TRUE STORY OF MY FAMILY IN WORLD WAR II written by Michael Rosen
From ON THE MOVE: POEMS ABOUT MIGRATION written by Michael Rosen & illustrated by Quentin Blake
Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved.
www.walker.co.uk www.walker.co.uk
 Focus on the Second World War

The History of Everywhere

February 1945 –
Focus on the Second World War Britain and America bomb the German
city of Dresden, killing 25,000 civilians.
AIR RAIDS
The fighting in the Second World War (1939–1945) affected
the whole of Europe, North Africa, East and South East Asia,
the Pacific Islands and the Atlantic Ocean. Although there May 1945 –
had been a few air raids during the First World War, it was The Russians capture Berlin and
only now that bombs were dropped in large numbers on cities Germany surrenders, ending the war
and industrial sites in countries including Britain, the USSR, in Europe.
China and Germany. The idea was to cause fear and damage
and to force surrender. German bomber planes attacked many
British cities in 1940–1941, and towards the end of the war
British and American air raids caused enormous damage to
German cities such as Dresden, killing hundreds of thousands
of civilians. The countries being attacked tried to defend August 1945 –
themselves with fighter aircraft and anti-aircraft guns. The United States drops atomic bombs on
Japan, ending the war in the Pacific.

9
13 14
© Text 2021 Philip Parker © Text 2021 Philip Parker
© Illustrations 2021 Liz Kay © Illustrations 2021 Liz Kay
From THE HISTORY OF EVERYWHERE: ALL THE STUFF THAT YOU NEVER KNEW HAPPENED AT From THE HISTORY OF EVERYWHERE: ALL THE STUFF THAT YOU NEVER KNEW HAPPENED AT
THE SAME TIME written by Philip Parker & illustrated by Liz Kay THE SAME TIME written by Philip Parker & illustrated by Liz Kay
Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved.
www.walker.co.uk www.walker.co.uk
Focus on the Second World War Focus on the Second World War

September 1939 –
War breaks out after Germany
invades Poland.

September 1940 – May 1941 –

German bomber aircraft attack many
British cities in the Blitz.

June 1941 –
Germany invades the Soviet Union,
but the attack ends in defeat for
the Germans.

December 1941 –
The United States joins the war after
the Japanese attack on its Pearl Harbor
naval base.

13
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© Text 2021 Philip Parker © Text 2021 Philip Parker
© Illustrations 2021 Liz Kay © Illustrations 2021 Liz Kay
From THE HISTORY OF EVERYWHERE: ALL THE STUFF THAT YOU NEVER KNEW HAPPENED AT From THE HISTORY OF EVERYWHERE: ALL THE STUFF THAT YOU NEVER KNEW HAPPENED AT
THE SAME TIME written by Philip Parker & illustrated by Liz Kay THE SAME TIME written by Philip Parker & illustrated by Liz Kay
Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved.
www.walker.co.uk www.walker.co.uk
 Focus on the Second World War Focus on the Second World War

THE BLITZ EVACUATION

In September 1940, having failed to defeat the British air To protect civilians, governments closed schools and
force, the German air force (known as the Luftwaffe) turned to evacuated children from towns and cities to the countryside.
bombing British cities instead. In this wave of attacks, called During raids, people were warned of the attacks by
the Blitz, London suffered German air raids every night for air-raid sirens and protected themselves in reinforced air-raid
almost two months. Many other British cities were attacked shelters. In London people slept underground on Tube station
including Liverpool, Coventry, Swansea, Belfast and Glasgow, platforms. Strict laws were passed in Britain that people
where the raids also targeted shipyards. Over 43,000 people had to cover their windows in blackout curtains to stop light
were killed, and tens of thousands of buildings were damaged, escaping and make it harder
including the Houses of Parliament. The Blitz ended in May for German bombers to see
1941. Later in the war, the British and Americans increased their targets.
their air raids on German cities, hoping to end the fighting by
destroying German morale. Hundreds of thousands of civilians
were killed.

ATOMIC BOMBS
During the war, the United States developed atomic weapons,
which were far more powerful than normal bombs. In August
KEY DATES
1945 the American air force dropped atomic bombs on the
Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. It’s estimated The Second World War involved countries in every part of the
over 200,000 Japanese civilians were killed: many died from world. It was the deadliest conflict in history, with over 70
the effects of the radiation released by the explosions. Japan million people estimated to have died. Here are some of the
surrendered soon afterwards, ending the Second World War. key events.

11 12
© Text 2021 Philip Parker © Text 2021 Philip Parker
© Illustrations 2021 Liz Kay © Illustrations 2021 Liz Kay
From THE HISTORY OF EVERYWHERE: ALL THE STUFF THAT YOU NEVER KNEW HAPPENED AT From THE HISTORY OF EVERYWHERE: ALL THE STUFF THAT YOU NEVER KNEW HAPPENED AT
THE SAME TIME written by Philip Parker & illustrated by Liz Kay THE SAME TIME written by Philip Parker & illustrated by Liz Kay
Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ. All rights reserved.
www.walker.co.uk www.walker.co.uk