When I Grow Up

The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers.

Based on six of hundreds of newly discovered, never-before-published autobiographies written by Eastern European Jewish teenagers on the eve of World War II—unearthed in 2017 from a church cellar in Lithuania—When I Grow Up brings to life a lost world.

These autobiographies, long believed to have been destroyed by the Nazis, were originally submitted to writing competitions in the 1930s, just before the Holocaust would shatter the lives of their young authors.

In this moving and visually rich work, Ken Krimstein presents the stories of six teens through vivid, cinematic narratives—full of humor, longing, curiosity, ambition, and all the emotional turbulence of adolescence. It’s as if half a dozen new Anne Frank stories have surfaced, framed by the remarkable tale of their rediscovery.

Powerfully illustrated and deeply affecting, When I Grow Up not only honors voices nearly lost to history, but reminds us how urgently we must continue to hear them—before the past repeats itself.

An NPR Best Book of the Year.