Orso

Orso tells the moving story of a teddy bear, a silent witness to the tragedy endured by Jewish children during the Holocaust. Given to David for his seventh birthday, Orso first shares moments of happiness and innocence with his young owner and David’s little sister, Sarah. But war changes everything: David’s family is marked by the yellow star, rejected by neighbors, and then brutally torn from their daily life.

Through Orso’s eyes, the reader follows the heartbreaking journey of David and Sarah, from their separation from loved ones to their deportation to the camps. Orso, powerless, witnesses the loss of innocence, violence, and cruelty, until he finds himself abandoned atop a mountain of teddy bears—a symbol of the millions of children who were victims of Nazi barbarity.

With sensitive narration and poignant illustrations, Orso addresses the memory of the Holocaust with accuracy and emotion, inviting readers of all ages never to forget.

Author of Grand-Père and Champion, and illustrator of Rolande Causse’s texts dedicated to Ita-Rose and the Children of Izieu, Gilles Rapaport drew inspiration here, a quarter-century later, from the famous picture book Otto to create this autobiography—neither quite the same nor quite different from that of the famous teddy bear conceived by Tomi Ungerer.