I'm A HUGE lover of books!!

Right now I'm reading 'Thanks To My Mother' by Schoschana Rabinovici. WOW! Dreadfully sad. Heartbreaking. Tears rolling down my cheeks sad. I don't cry easy. Books and movies can make me feel really sad but I'm not one to cry during them. And then I read THIS book!

It's about a Jewish girl of 8, who in 1941 is captured by the Germans. They invaded her Lithuanian city of Vilnius. She tells in her own words what happened to her and her family. She and her mother were able to stay together the entire time they were in the camps.
What strength these amazing men and women and CHILDREN had! It's so incredible to hear what one will do to survive. To LIVE. How even someone who is the most gentle and calm person under normal daily life will become a wild animal to get even the smallest morsel of food.
Could you imagine standing naked, after been "given" a short, freezing cold shower, outside in the freezing winter? For HOURS!?!?!?!? Having to do the "death march" with your young child?!?!?!? Begging your child to not give up in the living hell you are "living" in.
One part of the book that touched so much and gave me bone chilling goosebumps was the following words.....
(One of the good German solders was able to save a women named Niussia but not her young, young son, Rafik, who was going to be taken away from her to be murdered)
He (Hans) went to Niussia, pulled her by the arm, and tried to persuade her to stay. ( at the labour camp)But Niussia wouldn't let go of Rafik's hand. When everyone was being loaded onto the truck, the guard came to take Rafik, and Niussia went with her son, quietly and resolutely. Together, hand in hand, they climbed into the truck.
Hans was still trying to persuade Niussia yo stay; he said that her young son didn't have much longer to live anyway. But Niussia, who was already standing in the truck, said loudly and firmly, in purest German, "IT IS WORTH SACRIFICING MY WHOLE LIFE, SO THAT MY SON CAN FEEL SAFE AND BE AT PEACE FOR HALF AN HOUR!"
Those were Niussia's last words.

OK all teary again typing it out! COULD YOU IMAGINE??? There was also a women in the book who had to CHOOSE between her 2 children, they made her choose!?!?!?!?

My grandparent's, my dad's parent's lived in Holland during the war and had my 2 uncles at the time. My dad was born in Holland shortly after the war. My grandfather didn't like to talk about the war, for obvious reasons, but my grandma was very open about it with me and I asked her many questions and documented her words and dates.
My grandfather worked for the Underground and a few times the SS came barging into their home. No knocking, but barging in and demanding that my grandfather leave with them. Each time my grandparents didn't know if he would live. My grandparents had phones hidden in their home, which the monsters tore apart a few times. But they had them hidden too well for the idiots to find.
Once my grandmother was pretending to wash dishes because they had some parts in a jar on the counter. They came into the kitchen tearing through the kitchen looking for parts and she started to scream and wail and she said she was acting like a crazy women and the SS literally looked at each other and walked out the door. YOU GO GIRL!!!! She said the anger that her and my grandfather felt when the SS walked into their home was overwhelming. Could you imagine someone barging into your home and breaking things and going through your stuff and you know that if you do ANYTHING these monsters will just shoot whoever and not give a shit?!?!?!?
They stole my grandmother's hope chest that her father had made for her. My grandparent's had it full of soap, towels, food etc...after the war my grandparents where allowed to go to a huge building where there were hundreds of peoples personal things that were taken from them. And there was the beautiful hope chest that my great grandfather made. I have it now and it is one of the first things I would grab in a fire (after my children!)

So I LOVE books like these. It blows my mind how humans can treat other humans WORSE than dog's! That's why I think it is so important that we do not forget!