By turns charming, shocking and heart-breaking, this is the true story of Rosen's search for his relatives who "went missing" during the Second World War, told through prose, poetry, maps and pictures. The six great-aunts and great-uncles had been living in Poland or France at the beginning of that war. They were there before the war, his dad would say, and weren't after. Over many years, Rosen tried to find out exactly what happened: he interviewed family members, scoured the internet, pored over books and traveled to America and France. The story he uncovered was one of terrible persecution-- and it has inspired his poetry for years since.

"'They were there at the beginning of the war, but they were gone by the end. I suppose they died in the camps.' Thats all young Michael Rosen, born in England just after the end of the Second World War, was told about the six great-aunts and great-uncles who had been living in Poland or France at the beginning of that war. This wasnt enough for him. So, as an adult, he started to search. He asked relatives for any papers they might have. He read book after book. He searched online, time and again, as more information was digitized and suddenly there to be found. In a unique mix of memoir, history, and poetry, scholar and childrens literature luminary Michael Rosen explores his family history, digging up more details than he ever thought he would and sharing them with readers so that now, a lifetime after the Nazis tried to make the world forget the Rosen family and the rest of Europe's Jews, his readers can do something essential: remember."--Provided by publisher.