Young adult nonfiction about a young Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust by moving into Nazi Germany and hiding in plain sight. Gucia Gomolinska grew up comfortably in Piotrkow, Poland, a devoted student, sister, daughter, and friend. Still, even in the years before World War II, she faced discrimination as a Jew—but with her ash-blond hair she was often able to pass as just another Pole. When her town was invaded by Nazis, she knew her Aryan coloring gave her an advantage, and she faced an awful choice: stay in the place she had always called home, or leave behind everything she knew to try to survive. She took on a new identity as Basia Tanska, and her journey led her directly into Nazi Germany. Planaria Price, along with Basia's daughter Helen West, tells this incredible life story directly in the first person. Claiming My Place is a stunning portrayal of bravery, love, loss, and the power of storytelling.

The true story of a young Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust by escaping to Nazi Germany and hiding in plain sight.Meet Gucia Gomolinska: smart, determined, independent, and steadfast in the face of injustice. Growing up in Poland in the 1920s and '30s, Gucia studies hard, makes friends, falls in love, and dreams of a bright future. Her world is turned upside down when Nazis descend upon Poland, establishing in her town of Piotrków Trybunalski the first Jewish ghetto of World War II. As the war escalates, Gucia watches friends and neighbors lose their livelihoods, their dignity, their lives. She knows her blond hair and fair skin give her an advantage, and eventually she faces a harrowing choice: to risk the uncertain horrors of deportation to a concentration camp or the certain death if whe were caught resisting. She decides to assume a false identity as a gentile. Gucia changes her name to Danuta Barbara Tanska, nicknamed Basia, and...