Once
Morris Gleitzman
 A ten-year old Jewish boy named Felix escapes from a Catholic orphanage in the mountains of Poland after being left there by his impoverished parents. He returns to his hometown and sees that the town is empty. A mysterious man tells him that all the Jews have gone to the city. On his way to the city he sees a burning house and finds that two adults and a few chickens are dead. He sees a little girl who is unconscious and rescues her. When she awakes she keeps on crying for her mother and father. Felix sees a large number of Jews being led to the city, so Felix joins the group, carrying the girl, whose name is Zelda. He sees that they are being killed on the way. When he gets to the city Nazis are throwing all the children into a van, but he wants to go into the ghetto to find his parents. After Felix and Zelda refuse to go in the van, a man comes and saves them and speaks to the Nazis in German and persuades them to let them go. Felix and Zelda are taken to an underground cellar in the ghetto by the man, whose name is Barney. Not long after, Barney rescues many more kids who may've lost their families. There, Felix rests and recovers from the fever he has been trying to ignore. Once he is recovered he goes out with Barney and finds out Barney is a dentist. After the next few days the Nazis find their cellar and they are taken to a train, which is going to a Jewish Death Camp. On the train Felix finds that one of the wooden planks that have been nailed shut are fragile and he breaks it open. He and Zelda and Chaya, a girl also rescued by Barney, jump off the train and manage to survive but sadly, Chaya does not; she was shot by one of the Nazi soldiers that caught them trying to escape.