A desperate plea for help...

 The Unanswered Letter by Faris Cassell

From the blurb:

Dear Madam — You are surely informed about the situation of all Jews in Central Europe and this letter will not astonish you.

In August 1939, just days before World War II broke out in Europe, a Jewish man in Vienna named Alfred Berger mailed a desperate letter to a stranger in America who shared his last name.

By pure chance I got your address . . . I beg you instantly to send for me and my wife...

Decades later, journalist Faris Cassell stumbled upon the stunning letter and became determined to uncover the story behind it. How did the American Bergers respond? Did Alfred and his family escape Nazi Germany? Over a decade-long investigation in which she traveled thousands of miles, explored archives and offices in Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, and Israel, interviewed descendants, and found letters, photos, and sketches made by family members during the Holocaust, Cassell wrote the devastating true story of The Unanswered Letter.

My thoughts:

I loved this book so much! It's poignant and heartbreaking, thoughtful, gripping, unforgettable and beautifully written. Once I started, I didn't want to stop. No matter how many books I read about the victims or the survivors of the Holocaust, their stories always get to me. This one is no different. The history of the Berger family made me smile...and cry. And Faris Cassell is such a good writer! I was drawn to her own part in this story as well.

"Alfred and Hedwig Berger had been ordinary people, like most of humanity--like me. They were important because they were human. ... This dramatic letter had drawn me irresistibly and haunted me with questions that reverberated through my life. I hoped to understand, at least a little, how divisions that separate people could grow to Holocaust dimensions."

This is a such a compelling story. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of another favorite nonfiction read: The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn. Both are amazing books and well worth reading!

Happy Reading!

In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke

"I was only a girl, alone among the enemy.

What could I do?"

Irene Gut was only seventeen when Poland was invaded by Germany on the West and Russia on the East. Separated from her family, raped by Russian soldiers, and then forced to work for the German army, she found a way not only to survive, but to fight back. She snuck food into the Jewish ghetto, passed on information she overheard from the German officers she served, and managed to hide twelve Jews from the SS in the basement of the house where she worked. She even fought with the Polish Resistance. Her memoir is an amazing story of survival, courage, and sheer grit, and shows what World War II was like through the eyes and heart of a young Polish girl caught between countless enemies who refused to give up. It's honest and moving and several parts made me cry; I read it all in just one day and loved every single word. Irene Gut is such an inspiring person and her story is a truly memorable one. This is one book that's definitely going on my list of favorite reads in 2018!

"The war was a series of choices made by many people. Some of those choices were as wicked and shameful to humanity as anything in history. But some of us made other choices. I made mine. ... I did not ask myself, Should I do this? But, How will I do this? Every step of my childhood had brought me to this crossroad; I must take the right path, or I would no longer be myself. You must understand that I did not become a resistance fighter, a smuggler of Jews, a defier of the SS and the Nazis, all at once. One's first steps are always small:  I had begun by hiding food under a fence."

 Happy Reading!

 

Another Favorite Read...

The Girl in the Green Sweater by Krystyna Chiger

Krystyna Chiger is just a child when Poland is overrun, first by the Russians, then by the Germans. The Russians take away her father's business; the Germans take away their home and all their possessions. Before the Nazis can take away their lives, Krystyna and her family escape to the safety of Lvov's sewer tunnels, along with several other Jews.

None of these Jews would have survived the war without the help of Leopold Socha and two other Polish sewer workers. These men find them safe places in the sewers to hide, and they bring them food and other necessary supplies. At first, the Polish men charge the group 500 zlotys a day (about $100), but when their money runs out, Socha finds he cannot simply abandon them. In fact, saving Krystyna and her family becomes Socha's own quest for redemption. And when the war is over and they finally emerge from the sewers, Socha proudly announces to all the amazed Poles watching these thin and ragged survivors rising from the darkness, "These are my Jews. This is my work!"

This book made me cry. It's such an amazing story of friendship, miracles, hope, and survival. I'm glad so many survivors of World War II and the Holocaust have written down their stories so that we can read them. This is one of my favorite books from that time period. For me, this book is a definite must-read! I hope you read it, and think so, too.

Happy Reading!

Similar reads:

     The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

     Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz