The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister
In April 2009, Tyndale House releases The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister, with Nonna Bannister, Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin.
Born in 1927 to an educated and wealthy Russian family, Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister hid her dark secrets of the Holocaust from her husband, Henry, their children and friends for almost half a century—while living a normal American life. Before she died, Nonna transcribed the diary she kept as a young girl during the horrors of the Stalin era and the Nazi prisons camps. The original diary was written in six languages so Nazi soldiers would be unable to read it if discovered.
Hidden inside a small ticking pillow tied around her waist, Nonna kept the family photos and documents throughout the prison camp and the war. She reveals in her own words how her hometown is taken over by Hitler’s army; how her beloved father is brutally beaten and eyes gouged out by drunken Nazi soldiers; how she and her mother, Anna, leave Konstantinowka, in the Ukraine and travel on a cattle car to a concentration –work camp in Germany; how Nathan, a little Jewish boy saves her life; and how her mother is thrown into the concentration camp ovens. But she also tells about her happy childhood, of being part of a large family and the joys of a Russian winter. Numerous original poems are interwoven throughout the book.
Giving her husband permission to publish the diary after her death, Nonna wanted people to know the story of the Holocaust—so these horrors would never happen again. A true story of courage and strength, this Russian girl shows how love conquers evil and how her strong faith in God gave her the will to survive.
From a family of 35 people, Nonna was the only known member to survive the war and escape the cruel injustice of Hitler’s regime.
And why did Nonna wait so long to tell her husband and children about her past? She wanted to give her family a loving home, not one filled with bitterness and hate—but one filled with love and laughter.
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