This is a young adult book based on the early childhood of Miriam Brysk, one of the four women featured in Women of Valor: Polish Resisters to the Third Reich.
The Triumphant and Unforgettable Story
of an Indomitable Little Girl
Who Joined the Anti-Nazi Partisan Fighters in the wild forests of Belarus.
You’ll fall in love with brave Miriam as she confronts and overcomes the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi Blitz and Occupation of Warsaw.
Here’s a preview:
During the warm, beautiful summer of 1939, when I was four years old, the Polish people went on about their lives, never imagining that World War II was about to explode over Europe. Like most little kids in Poland—or anywhere else—at that time, I didn’t have any idea that a war was coming. Or even what “war” really meant. But on September 1, 1939, when the Germans invaded Poland with their terrifying, deadly, Blitzkrieg, my life, along with the lives of all Polish Jews, abruptly changed. And I learned all too well what war meant. And I learned that I would never feel safe again.
I remember all too clearly my first bombing experience. It had been an ordinary afternoon until I was suddenly shaken by the terrible sounds and felt the powerful vibrations of bombs as they crashed into my neighborhood, rattling our five-story apartment building. I scrambled up on the sofa and tried to peek out the window, but my Aunt Ala, who visiting at the time, quickly reached over and closed the shutters so I couldn’t see outside. She told me get under the dining room table, while she and my mother, whose face was deathly pale, ran around the apartment, gathering food, clothes, and blankets.
Then they rushed into the room to get me. The terrified, yet determined look on my mother’s face was something I’d never seen. And it scared me more than the bombs and fires that seemed to be destroying the whole world. Without a single word, she grabbed one of my hands, and my Aunt grabbed the other.