FIRST tour: "The Secret Holocaust Diaries: the Untold Story of Nonna Bannister" by Nonna Bannister

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is:

Nonna Bannister

and the book:

The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister

Tyndale House Publishers (March 4, 2010)

***Special thanks to Vicky Lynch of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nonna Bannister was a young girl when World War II broke into her happy life. She went from an idyllic early-twentieth-century Russian childhood, full of love and comforts, to the life of a prisoner working in labor camps—though she was not a Jew—eventually bereft of her entire family. But she survived the war armed with the faith in God her grandmother taught her and a readiness to start a new life. She immigrated to America, married, and started a family, keeping her past secret from everyone. Though she had carried from Germany the scraps of a diary and various photographs and other memorabilia, she kept it all hidden and would only take it out, years later, to translate and expand her writings. After decades of marriage, Nonna finally shared her secret with her husband . . . and now he is sharing it with the world. Nonna died on August 15, 2004.

Visit the author's website.



Product Details:

List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers (March 4, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1414325479
ISBN-13: 978-1414325477

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:






My Opinion:


When we think of the Holocaust we think mainly of the Jews who were murdered because of their Faith - but rarely do we realize that many others were also murdered by an evil man. These included those who were handicapped, Russians, Poles and many others and it was only because of who they were or where they lived. Along the lines of Anne Frank, Nonna Bannister kept a diary, actually several diaries through out the War and she kept them hidden, even from her husband.


Atrocities abound and Nonna doesn't try to make it seem better than it was. In reading this book - her diaries - you'll feel the pain of the women as they watch a Nazi kill an infant and the heart ache when Nonna realizes she will never see her mom again this side of Heaven (or any of her other family). Nonna requested that her diary not be published until her death, which occured in 2004, she kept her life secret from everyone. You will cry, especially upon reading the words written by one of her son's and her husband.


For those who would deny that the Holocaust happened, there is proof, read this book. I can't for the life of me imagine why some want to deny, as it's been said before when we forget the past we'll be doomed to repeat it. Pictures that Nonna was able to keep hidden as well as copies of papers from that time will substantiate her claim as well as help the reader realize this was a human person who suffered and fortunately survived to one day tell her tale so we can't forget!