Destined to Live - One Woman's War, Life, Loves Remembered
Publisher: 4th Estate; Fourth Estate
Published: Apr 02, 2008
Language: eng
Number of pages: 302
ISBN-13: 9780732285227
Description: "Sabina Wolanski was a 12-year-old in Poland when World War II broke out. As the youngest daughter of a privileged Jewish family, she witnessed rapid and horrifying changes to her life as Hitler's Nazi regime encouraged neighbour to turn against neighbour, and Europe to turn against Jews. In her diary, along with innocent adolescent longings for boys and clothes, she recorded daily humiliations and terror, and, finally, the murder of her beloved family. She escaped death by being hidden in a series of underground cellars. To survive post war in Europe and later in Australia, Sabina had to use her wits and her natural optimism. She also suppressed her past, believing that if she dwelled on the trauma, she would end up - like countless others - too damaged to carry on. But in May 2005, when she was selected to be the sole 'voice' of six million murdered Jews and many more survivors, at the opening of Germany's Memorial to Europe's Murdered Jews a controversial memorial in Berlin, she had to at last examine the forces which has changed her life - and reflect on how they had shaped her. Though the Holocaust had taken everything she valued, it had also shown her the futility of hatred and discrimination. Her refusal to succumb, her ability to forgive, is, for her, her greatest triumph. "--Provided by publisher.