Fellowship of Australian Writers – Christina Stead Award, 2000

The Christina Stead Award is categorised as a biography, autobiography or memoir.

Judges’ report: Bill Anderson & Megan Peniston-Bird.

The standard of entries was high this year; there were many strong stories and a number of really outstanding books. The judges, however, found that they had little difficulty in deciding on the winning entries.

Hetty E Verolme’s stunning memoir “The Children’s House Of Belsen” is such an outstanding book that the judges had no hesitation in awarding it first prize. This is an important, moving and beautifully written book and deserves to become a classic – in terms of its importance as testimony and the quality of its prose, it bears comparison with “The Diary of Anne Frank”.