horror, hopelessness, survival, survivor-s-guilt, torture, concentration-camp, PTSD*****
How do you say you enjoyed a book of real horror? Because she survived alive and supported by other survivors. The nazi atrocities were real, the suffering, both then and remembered, is real. Never Forget.
Ann Richardson has just the right touch as narrator. ( )

Excellent book, but not for the faint-hearted.

This is one of those books that everyone should read. It is not enjoyable obviously due to the subject matter, but it is so important that everyone knows what happened so as to prevent it happening again.

Eva fled to Amsterdam with her family when the Germans invaded Austria, living on the same estate as Anne Frank and her family. Although she knew Anne, I believe they did not know each other well. The story follows Eva and her mother as they go into hiding separately from her brother and father. It goes on to follow the betrayal of their hiding places which resulted in them being sent to Auschwitz when Eva was 15. Eva was fortunate in that, despite a couple of short periods, she was not separated from her mother. Eva was also lucky in some respects as she had a cousin who was working as a nurse in the camp. This saved her mother from the gas chamber and ultimately helped the pair of them survive (barely) until the liberation of the camp. The story does not, however, finish there, but follows the pair as they are transported from the camp, eventually finding their way back to their home in Amsterdam. Sadly, Eva's father and brother did not survive.

Whilst at Auschwitz, Eva and her mother realised that Otto Frank was also there. After they had returned to Amsterdam, Otto and Eva's mother became friends through sharing their experiences together. They eventually married, making Eva the posthumous step-sister of Anne Frank. ( )

This is the sequel, if that is possible, of Anne Frank's diary. This autobiography is from a Jewish girl who knew Anne Frank. She too, was sent to Auschwitz and went through the same life in the camp as Anne would have experienced. But she lived.

She wrote this many years later. When asked why she waited so long to write this, toward the end of the book, she relates that she wants the world to remember what they suffered. She wants people to know that those who would deny the holocaust happened are wrong. And that this story should never be repeated.

Worth the read. ( )

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