History books tell us that Hitler persecuted the Jews during WWII, but to read history in an emotionally detached factual recount is a lot less interesting than the autobiographies of the people involved.

"11 million people were killed during the Holocaust, of which 6 million were Jews." That is an interesting fact, but it is only through immersing ourselves into the life of one of these people that we can truly feel the enormity of the Holocaust. These were normal people that were removed from their homes and everything they had known, subjected to unimaginable inhumane acts. It scares me just to imagine myself suddenly losing everything I have, my family, my history, my dignity, my future. That such atrocities actually took place is so illogical that had it been the storyline of a fiction, it would definitely be shot down by critics for its implausible development.

To me, history is pointless when it is dissociated from the human factor. Its impact is the most powerful when you put yourself into the shoes of the people involved. What would you have done if it had been you in that situation.
( )

A harrowing book but one that needs to be read.

Back Cover Blurb:
There is a danger that we shall forget those things which are better not forgotten. Certainly, some things should be permanently recorded, so that posterity will remember what we would rather erase from our memories.
This is the story of a woman who was imprisoned for some years in the notorious extermination camp of Auschwitz. What she saw puts the story of medieval genocides into the same category as a child's cruelty.
This is her own autobiography, and she shows not only her own courage, but the terrible urge to live which possessed her fellow prisoners. Half-starved, suffering from lice, scabies, dysentery, mowed down by typhus and pneumonia, they worked in the fields in icy slush and mud and registered new arrivals - hundreds of thousands of women from Holland, Greece, Italy and Hungary, who did not know where they were or why they had been seized. That she survived, and finally managed to escape to tell the tale is one of many reasons why this book should be published and widely read, for most of her companions were murdered so that they would not bear witness. ( )