A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz (LWH)
Co-author of Rena's Promise
This is one of those book you don’t just read it….it becomes a part of you!
I was very touched by the memoirs of Rena and her story of surviving the Nazi concentration camps with her sister, Danka.
Until I read this book I wasn’t aware that this year, 26 March 2012, marks the 70th Anniversary of the first transport to Auschwitz concentration camp. That first transport in 1942 was almost entirely young women between the ages of 16 and 22. Among those 999 young Jewish women was #1716, Rena Kornreich, a 21yr old Polish Jew hiding in Slovakia. A few days later, her sister Danka #2779 arrived. This began a trial of love and courage that would last 3 years and 41 days, from the beginning of their journey in Auschwitz, to the death march through the snow, and on to the end of the war. Her motivation to keep her and her sister alive no matter what happened came from a promise to her parents to keep her younger sister safe. Her visions of her mother helped her through the most difficult times.
I also wasn’t aware that women's accounts of the Holocaust are rare, and until ‘Rena's Promise’, there has been no other book written by a survivor from the first transport of women, mainly because not many women survived. And for that reason alone she is historically important. Her details of events are confirmed in many archival documents and plans. There are many more testimonies published from male survivors than women's accounts, yet the fact remains that the first transport was not men but girls on the verge of womanhood. They were targeted by the Nazis as they wanted to stop the continuity of Jewish life.
This is a moving story and beautifully written by Heather Dune Macadam who partnered with Rena, who wanted to tell the story of her and her sister’s survival so the memories of those who had died and were brutally murdered would not go untold. She also thought by finally telling someone her story she would be free from those memories that are still so strong. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case. Perhaps by reading the stories of those that survived we can be more aware of the atrocities that happened during the Holocaust and we can ensure their stories are heard and never die.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/album_auschwitz/multimedia.asp
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