My favorite book (1)

In My Hands

by Irene Gut-Opdyke

I read this book a few months ago, and it was so good, I couldn’t put it down. It’s a true story about a Polish girl’s experiences during the Holocaust. Here’s what one review says:

“Many wartime memories, including a brutal rape at the hands of the advancing Russian soldiers, haunt Polish teenager Irene Gutowna. But none more than the vision of a Jewish baby thrown into the air like a bird and shot. Irene’s story–from happy eldest of four daughters to laborer in a German officer’s mess hall to member of the Resistance–makes for gripping reading. Witness to the Germans’ answer to the ‘Jewish problem,’ Irene begins to ‘not do nothing.’ She works, at first in small ways, against its evil; ultimately, she risks her own life by hiding her Jewish friends. Irene takes joy in the secret knowledge that, because of her, her town is not judenrein (free of Jews) as the Nazis proclaim. When her betrayal is discovered, the reader’s breath stops. The power of Irene’s true story keeps the reader spellbound. The postscript that details, in words and photographs, the bittersweet histories of Irene and her Jewish ‘family’ comes as a welcome relief.”

I’m telling you–you have got to read this book. Go get it. Now. Seriously.