In My Hands Memories Of A Holocaust Rescuer

"No matter how many Holocaust stories one has read, this one is a must, for its impact is so powerful."--School Library Journal, starred I did not ask myself, "Should I do this?" but "How will I do this?" Through this intimate and compelling memoir, we are witness to the growth of a hero. Much like The Diary of Anne Frank, In My Hands has become a profound testament to individual courage. You must understand that I did not become a resistance fighter, a smuggler of Jews, a defierof the SS and the Nazis, all at once. When the war began, Irene Gut was just seventeen: a student nurse, a Polish patriot, a good Catholic girl. Forced to work in a German officiers' dining hall, she learns how to fight back. One's first steps are always small: I had begun by hiding food under a fence. Irene eavesdropped on the German's plans. She smuggled people out of the work camp. And she hid twelve Jews in the basement of a Nazi major's home. To deliver her friends from evil, this young woman did whatever it took--even the impossible.

When Irena Gut witnessed a Nazi officer murder a baby and its mother in front of her eyes, she could do nothing. Then and there, she made a vow to God that if she ever had the opportunity to save a life, she would do it. But she did much more than that. When she was appointed the housekeeper for a German major, the highest-ranking German officer in Tarnopol, Poland, Irena saved thirteen lives by hiding twelve Jews in her employer’s basement, without his knowledge, for eight months. The thirteenth life she saved was a baby who was conceived in hiding. Now a major motion picture starring Sophie Nélisse, Irena’s Vow is one of the most remarkable, true stories of courage to come out of the Holocaust.

Memoirs of a non-Jewish Polish woman from Radom who, during the German occupation of Tarnopol, hid 12 Jews (who had fled from the Tarnopol ghetto) in the house of a high-ranking German officer. The officer discovered the Jews during the last stage of the occupation, but kept silent about them.

Recounts the experiences of the author who, as a young Polish girl, hid and saved Jews during the Holocaust.

Between 1939 and 1945 the Nazi regime systematically murdered hundreds of thousands of children and adults with disabilities as part of its "euthanasia" programs. These programs were designed to eliminate all persons with disabilities who, according to Nazi ideology, threatened the health and purity of the German race. Forgotten Crimes explores the development and workings of this nightmarish process, a relatively neglected aspect of the Holocaust. Suzanne Evans's account draws on the rich historical record as well as scores of exclusive interviews with disabled Holocaust survivors. It begins with a description of the Nazis' Children's Killing Program, in which tens of thousands of children with mental and physical disabilities were murdered by their physicians, usually by starvation or lethal injection. The book goes on to recount the T4 euthanasia program, in which adults with disabilities were disposed of in six official centers, and the development of the Sterilization Law that allowed the forced sterilization of at least a half-million young adults with disabilities. Ms. Evans provides portraits of the perpetrators and accomplices of the killing programs, and investigates the curious role of Switzerland's rarely discussed exclusionary immigration and racially eugenic policies. Finally, Forgotten Crimes notes the inescapable implications of these Nazi medical practices for our present-day controversies over eugenics, euthanasia, genetic engineering, medical experimentation, and rationed health care.

These 213 documents on the theory, planning, and execution of, and reaction and resistance to, the Nazi plan to exterminate European Jews date from the 1920s through the closing days of World War II and focus on the experience of eastern Europe. The crystallization of the principles of Nazi anti-Semitism, the policies of the Third Reich toward the Jews, the period of segregation and enclosed ghettos, and the stages through which the 'final solution' were implemented are some of the topics covered. Other documents shed light on Jewish public activities and the organization of the Underground and Jewish self-defense. Many of the documents of Jewish origin were not published previously. This comprehensive collection is essential for understanding the history of the Holocaust. Yitzhak Arad has written numerous books, including The Pictorial History of the Holocaust. Israel Gutman is a coeditor of Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Abraham Margaliot taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Introducer Steven T. Katz is a professor of religion and the director of the Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University.

Presents the story of a Holocaust rescuer to reveal the formidable risks she took to her own safety to save some 2,500 children from death and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.

What is death all about? What is life all about? So wonders thirteen-year-old Elli Friedmann as she fights for her life in a Nazi concentration camp. A remarkable memoir, I Have Lived a Thousand Years is a story of cruelty and suffering, but at the same time a story of hope, faith, perseverance, and love. It wasn’t long ago that Elli led a normal life that included family, friends, school, and thoughts about boys. A life in which Elli could lie and daydream for hours that she was a beautiful and elegant celebrated poet. But these adolescent daydreams quickly darken in March 1944, when the Nazis invade Hungary. First Elli can no longer attend school, have possessions, or talk to her neighbors. Then she and her family are forced to leave their house behind to move into a crowded ghetto, where privacy becomes a luxury of the past and food becomes a scarcity. Her strong will and faith allow Elli to manage and adjust, but what she doesn’t know is that this is only the beginning. The worst is yet to come...

All But My Life is the unforgettable story of Gerda Weissmann Klein's six-year ordeal as a victim of Nazi cruelty. From her comfortable home in Bielitz (present-day Bielsko) in Poland to her miraculous survival and her liberation by American troops--including the man who was to become her husband--in Volary, Czechoslovakia, in 1945, Gerda takes the reader on a terrifying journey. Gerda's serene and idyllic childhood is shattered when Nazis march into Poland on September 3, 1939. Although the Weissmanns were permitted to live for a while in the basement of their home, they were eventually separated and sent to German labor camps. Over the next few years Gerda experienced the slow, inexorable stripping away of "all but her life." By the end of the war she had lost her parents, brother, home, possessions, and community; even the dear friends she made in the labor camps, with whom she had shared so many hardships, were dead. Despite her horrifying experiences, Klein conveys great strength of spirit and faith in humanity. In the darkness of the camps, Gerda and her young friends manage to create a community of friendship and love. Although stripped of the essence of life, they were able to survive the barbarity of their captors. Gerda's beautifully written story gives an invaluable message to everyone. It introduces them to last century's terrible history of devastation and prejudice, yet offers them hope that the effects of hatred can be overcome.

Based on the true story explored in the Academy Award–nominated film, In Darkness, this holocaust memoir is “a gripping account of survival and friendship” (Booklist). In 1943, with Lvov’s 150,000 Jews having been exiled, killed, or forced into ghettos and facing extermination, a group of Polish Jews daringly sought refuge in the city’s sewer system. The last surviving member this group, Krystyna Chiger, shares one of the most intimate, harrowing and ultimately triumphant tales of survival to emerge from the Holocaust. The Girl in the Green Sweater is Chiger’s heartwrenching first-person account of the fourteen months she spent with her family in the fetid, underground sewers of Lvov. The Girl in the Green Sweater is also the story of Leopold Socha, the group’s unlikely savior. A Polish Catholic and former thief, Socha risked his life to help Chiger’s underground family survive, bringing them food, medicine, and supplies. A moving memoir of a desperate escape and life under unimaginable circumstances, The Girl in the Green Sweater is ultimately a tale of intimate survival, friendship, and redemption. “With a powerful story and a keen voice, Chiger’s Holocaust survivor’s tale is a worthy and memorable addition to the canon.” —Publishers Weekly “Chiger’s exceptional story . . . stands out among the many Holocaust survival narratives as one that will touch the hearts of teens and adults alike and bring home the horrors of this very dark period in history.” —School Library Journal “Through the eyes of the child that Krystyna Chiger was in Lvov, Poland in 1939 we see the whole moral universe.” —Naomi Ragen, author of The Saturday Wife and The Covenant “[A] gripping memoir.” —Kirkus Reviews