Every Holocaust survivor memoir is a difficult but important read. When she was writing Rena′s Promise, Heather Macadam was asked, ″What′s it to you?″ I find that both an easy and difficult question to answer. To never forget. To honor those lost and those who survived. To try and understand. But I also feel a personal imperative that is difficult to put in words. It′s a self-directed reflection. What would I have done when faced with impossible choices? Where would I have fallen on the moral spectrum? Rena Kornreich′s focus was clear: everything she did and the choices she made were to save her little sister, Danka, and bring her home.

Rena was the third oldest of four sisters in a conservative Jewish family living in a small village in Poland. Danka was the baby of the family. When Nazi soldiers began harassing the girls, their parents sent them to stay with relatives in nearby Slovakia where conditions for Jews were slightly better. Unfortunately they ended up on the first registered transport of Jewish women to Auschwitz on March 25, 1942. The two sisters spent the next three years first in Auschwitz, then Birkenau. As liberating armies neared, they were forced on a death march to Ravensbruck in January 1945. These two facts—being on the first transport and surviving three years in the camps—make this memoir stand out from others, but the reason as to why they survived intrigues me too.

In The Train in Winter, Caroline Moorehead discusses how women who were communist were more likely to survive in prison and the concentration camps because they organized for each other. Similarly I think Rena survived in part because she was driven by the thought of bringing her baby sister home to her parents. Protecting her sister gave her a reason to life and continue to fight, when she might otherwise have given up. Nationality also played a cohesive role; several male Polish prisoners were instrumental in supplying the sisters with food and warmer clothing. Finding commonality was key to survival.

Although Rena′s Promise is of necessity dark, it was not a dismal read. Rena focuses on all the people that helped them: from Andrzej, who guided her across the border to Slovakia; to Emma, the work kapo who protected her; to Malek, the Polish captain who provided food and clothing. She also focuses on the love she found before, during, and after the war. Upon finishing the book, I was left with a feeling of hope and happiness, not despair. That's not always the case with these types of memoirs. Recommended. ( )

Every real story is so harrowing. It never becomes easier to digest. These stories are so necessary. ( )

A captivating and heartwrenching story of courage, selflessness, hope, and survival. This book was eye opening and humbling as Rena shared her tale of survival in Auschwitz while trying to remain humane and trying to keep her promise to her sister. Although it takes place during the Holocaust, this memoir does not put a lot of focus on the evils during the time. Rena's will to survive, her selflessness, and her strength during such a tumultuous time were admirable. The story telling was great and at times I had to remind myself that this was her reality for 3 years. There are a few pictures of Rena and Danka included as well.  Two thumbs up ( )

This is the updated edition of a book first published in 1995 that tells the story of Rena and Danka Kornreich, who were on the first transport of women to Auschwitz in 1942. They survived this terrible ordeal, and this book, in the form of experiences told by Rena to Heather Dune Macadam, is a record of their bravery and survival. It includes a bibliography and questions for book groups as well as drawings and footnotes that give the timeline of the story. There is also a website, http://www.renaspromise.com/, with more information.

This is the sort of important book that must be read, even when it contains terrible truths. As survivors of the Holocaust dwindle, their stories must be told and retold, digested and remembered. This is truly a story of survival, one in which humans triumph over unspeakable evil and conquer, even through many scars and setbacks. I struggle to put words to my emotions and to their experiences, but it was deeply felt and truly appreciated. Some survivors close the door on such horrific memories, locking away their personal witnesses. I can't begin to imagine what personal toll it would take to relive and retell these experiences, but I am humbly grateful that these stories are told. ( )