So many genres, so little time
Poland, 1944 The train slowed and halted with a squeal of the brakes. It felt like we waited in the carriage for an eternity, but eventually, the heavy doors opened, directly into the chaos outside. Sara Leibovitz, a 16-year-old Jewish girl, was a passenger on the train with her family. They spent their final moments together… Continue reading The Girl Who Survived Auschwitz by Eti Elboim and Sara Leibovits
With the cloud of the Holocaust still looming over them, twin sisters Bronka and Johanna Lubinski and their parents arrive in the US from a Displaced Persons Camp. In the years after World War II, they experience the difficulties of adjusting to American culture as well as the burgeoning fear of the Cold War. Years… Continue reading The Takeaway Men by Meryl Ain
Her beauty saved her — and condemned her.Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is. Forcibly separated from the other women prisoners, Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly taken, equals survival. When the war is over and… Continue reading Cilka’s Journey (The Tattooist of Auschwitz #2) by Heather Morris
You can pay a terrible price for keeping a promise…Evelyn Taylor-Clarke sits in her chair at Forest Lawns Care Home in the heart of the English countryside, surrounded by residents with minds not as sharp as hers. It would be easy to dismiss Evelyn as a muddled old woman, but her lipstick is applied perfectly,… Continue reading My Name is Eva by Suzanne Goldring
"I guess sometimes the search for freedom is enough to keep one alive." Melitta and her family's experience in Nazi Germany in WWII was something that no one wants to contemplate, but it happened and she has written a short, but stirring memoir about it. In Weimar, Germany, Melitta was born on September 3, 1944… Continue reading Hey Kids, Want Some Chocolates?: My Family’s Journey to Freedom by Melitta Strandberg
It is a tragic story of lost innocence, guilt, and regret. Hanna is a mysterious older woman who becomes involved with a young, 15-year old boy named Michael. Michael is drawn in by Hanna's mystery and enjoys reading to her during their meetings. When Hanna appears again a few years later--to Michael's horror and surprise--she… Continue reading The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
H. Peter Nennhaus grew up in Berlin during WWII; a volatile time in German and world history. The book is different in that he tells the story from a German boy’s point of view who saw things differently at that time in history. You can see Mr. Nennhaus’s interest in history by reading the historical… Continue reading The Shipwreck of a Nation: Germany: An Inside View by H. Peter Nennhaus