I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree

I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree
Author: Laura Hillman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2010-05-11
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN: 1439108021

"HANNELORE, YOUR PAPA IS DEAD." In the spring of 1942 Hannelore received a letter from Mama at her school in Berlin, Germany--Papa had been arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Six weeks later he was sent home; ashes in an urn. Soon another letter arrived. "The Gestapo has notified your brothers and me that we are to be deported to the East--whatever that means." Hannelore knew: labor camps, starvation, beatings...How could Mama and her two younger brothers bear that? She made a decision: She would go home and be deported with her family. Despite the horrors she faced in eight labor and concentration camps, Hannelore met and fell in love with a Polish POW named Dick Hillman. Oskar Schindler was their one hope to survive. Schindler had a plan to take eleven hundred Jews to the safety of his new factory in Czechoslovakia. Incredibly both she and Dick were added to his list. But survival was not that simple. Weeks later Hannelore found herself, alone, outside the gates of Auschwitz, pushed toward the smoking crematoria. I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree is the remarkable true story of one young woman's nightmarish coming-of-age. But it is also a story about the surprising possibilities for hope and love in one of history's most brutal times.

The Road to Rescue

The Road to Rescue
Author: Mietek Pemper
Publisher: Other Press, LLC
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 159051999X

“A deepening of the story” of Schindler’s List: A Holocaust survivor recounts how he extracted Nazi intel for Oskar Schindler in this moving memoir of courage and resistance (New York Times Book Review). Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film Schindler’s List popularized the true story of a German businessman who manipulated his Nazi connections and spent his personal fortune to save 1,200 Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust. But few know those lists were made possible by a secret strategy designed by a young Polish Jew at the Płaszow concentration camp. Mietek Pemper’s compelling and moving memoir tells the true story of how Schindler’s list really came to pass. Pemper was born in 1920 into a lively and cultivated Jewish family for whom everything changed when the Germans invaded Poland. Evicted from their home, they were forced into the Krakow ghetto and, later, into the nearby camp of Płaszow where Pemper’s knowledge of the German language was put to use by the sadistic camp commandant Amon Goth. Forced to work as Goth’s personal stenographer from March 1943 to September 1944—an exceptional job for a Jewish prisoner—Pemper soon realized that he could use his position as the commandant’s private secretary to familiarize himself with the inner workings of the Nazi bureaucracy and exploit the system to his fellow detainees’ advantage. Once he gained access to classified documents, Pemper was able to pass on secret information for Schindler to compile his famous lists. After the war, Pemper was the key witness of the prosecution in the 1946 trial against Goth and several other SS officers. The Road to Rescue stands as a historically authentic testimony of one man’s unparalleled courage, wit, defiance, and bittersweet victory over the Nazi regime.

Minding The Garden

Minding The Garden
Author: Brian Bixley
Publisher:
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2020-04-23
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 9781525555367

What can a gardener learn from Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony? Are perennial plants symbols of friendship? Is gardening in the Whig tradition? Are 'non-native' plants 'aliens'? Can the art of writing a novel be compared to gardening? Is Monty Don right about the presence of flowers in the great Renaissance Italian gardens? Do gardens exhibit Late Style? Can mowing be a creative activity? Why is the creation of a new path such a delightful experience? Should gardens open to the public be 'reviewed' in the same way as exhibitions of paintings and newly-published books? Minding The Garden: Lilactree Farm combines brief commentaries on garden history, on rare and familiar plants, on the tantalizing connections between the garden as art form and the other arts, on the pleasures and follies of gardening, in a collection of 125 'Notes' presented in the context of a composite gardening year. Discover how Lilactree Farm evolved over the years, through six retrospective 'plans, ' spaced sequentially throughout the text, and through Des Townshend's spell-casting photographs. Minding The Garden: Lilactree Farm is sure to captivate gardeners, both armchair and active, in the English-speaking world and perhaps beyond....

In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer
Author: Irene Gut Opdyke
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2008-12-18
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN: 0307557022

IRENE GUT WAS just 17 in 1939, when the Germans and Russians devoured her native Poland. Just a girl, really. But a girl who saw evil and chose to defy it. “No matter how many Holocaust stories one has read, this one is a must, for its impact is so powerful.”—School Library Journal, Starred A Book Sense Top Ten Pick A Publisher’s Weekly Choice of the Year’s Best Books A Booklist Editors Choice

Where Lilacs Still Bloom

Where Lilacs Still Bloom
Author: Jane Kirkpatrick
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012-04-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1400074304

One woman, an impossible dream, and the faith it took to see it through, inspired by the life of Hulda Klager German immigrant and farm wife Hulda Klager possesses only an eighth-grade education—and a burning desire to create something beautiful. What begins as a hobby to create an easy-peeling apple for her pies becomes Hulda’s driving purpose: a time-consuming interest in plant hybridization that puts her at odds with family and community, as she challenges the early twentieth-century expectations for a simple housewife. Through the years, seasonal floods continually threaten to erase her Woodland, Washington garden and a series of family tragedies cause even Hulda to question her focus. In a time of practicality, can one person’s simple gifts of beauty make a difference? Based on the life of Hulda Klager, Where Lilacs Still Bloom is a story of triumph over an impossible dream and the power of a generous heart. “Beauty matters… it does. God gave us flowers for a reason. Flowers remind us to put away fear, to stop our rushing and running and worrying about this and that, and for a moment, have a piece of paradise right here on earth.”

My Survival: A Girl on Schindler's List

My Survival: A Girl on Schindler's List
Author: Joshua M. Greene
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Total Pages: 85
Release: 2019-12-26
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1338593803

The astonishing true story of a girl who survived the Holocaust thanks to Oskar Schindler, of Schindler's List fame. Rena Finder was only eleven when the Nazis forced her and her family -- along with all the other Jewish families -- into the ghetto in Krakow, Poland. Rena worked as a slave laborer with scarcely any food and watched as friends and family were sent away. Then Rena and her mother ended up working for Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who employed Jewish prisoners in his factory and kept them fed and healthy. But Rena's nightmares were not over. She and her mother were deported to the concentration camp Auschwitz. With great cunning, it was Schindler who set out to help them escape. Here in her own words is Rena's gripping story of survival, perseverance, tragedy, and hope. Including pictures from Rena's personal collection and from the time period, this unforgettable memoir introduces young readers to an astounding and necessary piece of history.

Divided Lives

Divided Lives
Author: Cynthia A. Crane
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2003-03-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781403961556

This book brings together the horrifying real life stories of women who woke up one day and were not who they thought they were. The government changed and they suddenly no longer had the right kind of blood, the right name, the right family background, the right physical features to be considered a member of society, city, or state. These stories are from German women who were a part of a Jewish-Christian "mixed marriage" and were subsequently persecuted under the Nuremberg laws. Hitler called them "mischling"- half-breeds, however, they have often been passed over in studies of the Holocaust--perhaps because they are often not considered "real Jews." But these women are still struggling with the nightmares of the Third Reich and the Holocaust, the loss of family in concentration camps, and with their own identity-divided between their Jewish and Christian roots. Often their Jewish background was revealed to them only after Hitler's laws were passed. These are the narratives of eight women who remained in Germany, struggling to reclaim their German heritage and their cultural and religious identity. The narratives are compelling and sensitively written, addressing questions of cultural and ethnic identity.

Why Grow That When You Can Grow This?

Why Grow That When You Can Grow This?
Author: Andrew Keys
Publisher: Timber Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2012-11-13
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 1604692863

It's a tired turn of phrase, but the grass is always greener on the other side. And for gardeners, it's not just the grass—it's the flowers, the shrubs, and the trees. No longer! Pining to grow lilac but lack the full sun? Try the fragrant pink and white flowers of Korean spice viburnum. Love the drama of canna but need something hardier? Try the bold foliage of variegated fleece flower. Why Grow That When You Can Grow This? offers hundreds of all-star alternatives that replace—and often outshine—popular problem plants. Garden designer Andrew Keys makes it easier than ever to skip over the fussy plant prima donnas and move toward the equally gorgeous understudies. Each profile shows the problem plant and offers three alternatives that include three or more of the original plant's characteristics—hardiness, shape, color, texture, light, and size. With this fun and accessible guide, you can discover the secret to choosing the plants destined to be the new stars of your garden.

The Redhead of Auschwitz: A True Story

The Redhead of Auschwitz: A True Story
Author: Nechama Birnbaum
Publisher:
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2021-11-28
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 9789493231818

Rosie was always told her red hair was a curse, but she never believed it. She often dreamed what it would look like under a white veil with the man of her dreams by her side. However, her life takes a harrowing turn in 1944 when she is forced out of her home and sent to the most gruesome of places: Auschwitz. Upon arrival, Rosie's head is shaved and along with the loss of her beautiful hair, she loses the life she once cherished. Among the chaos and surrounded by hopelessness, Rosie realizes the only thing the Nazis cannot take away from her is the fierce redhead resilience in her spirit. When all of her friends conclude they are going to heaven from Auschwitz, she remains determined to get home. She summons all of her courage, through death camps and death marches to do just that. This victorious biography, written by Nechama Birnbaum in honor of her grandmother, is as full of life as it is of death. It is about the intricacies of Jewish culture that still exist today and the tender experiences that are universal to all humanity. It is a story about what happens when we choose hate over love.

The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales

The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales
Author: Ruth Ann Musick
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 212
Release: 1965-12-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780813101361

" West Virginia boasts an unusually rich heritage of ghost tales. Originally West Virginians told these hundred stories not for idle amusement but to report supernatural experiences that defied ordinary human explanation. From jealous rivals and ghostly children to murdered kinsmen and omens of death, these tales reflect the inner lives—the hopes, beliefs, and fears—of a people. Like all folklore, these tales reveal much of the history of the region: its isolation and violence, the passions and bloodshed of the Civil War era, the hardships of miners and railroad laborers, and the lingering vitality of Old World traditions.