Powerful, emotional, haunting, chilling, yet filled with such beauty. This is not a grab your favorite drink and sit underneath your shadiest tree kind of read. It is not that afternoon pick me up read. This read left me breathless. It moved me to tears. There were quite a few times I closed the page to just absorb what I had read. To go back to the story was difficult.
What kept me reading? Wanting to know the story of Helene Hannemann, her husband, and five children. I didn't want to stop until I had read the last page about this brave, selfless, and beautiful woman. She is filled with such grace. Walks with a mighty mercy for others.
This novel is based on the true story of Helene Hannemann. We go back to 1943 in Berlin, Germany. This precious wife and mother is married to a Romani, a Gypsy. She with her blond hair and blue eyes, her family with their dark hair and chocolate eyes. To those SS this combination is unsettling. They thought they were safe in Berlin, but it wasn't to be.
She a nurse, her husband a violinist. They lived a quiet life. Until the morning when the SS men bombarded the staircase to their apartment. They just wanted her husband and children. She was safe. But like any mother she was not to leave her children. This was the beginning of their journey to Auschwitz.
We journey with Helene and others who are encamped with her. We follow the chilling days and dark nights for these thousands of families. These pages are filled with the evil practices of Dr. Mengele and others like him. Such secrets. These doctors held such power. But what I admire, what touches me the most, is the grace that Helene and those like her carried daily. They chose to walk in faith, to believe, to have hope. It is this Spirit inside of them that made them more powerful than any evil they faced.
Based on a true story, this is a work of fiction. A story beautifully shared. One that goes beyond simply touching the heart, but allows a raw emotion to fill the depths of the soul. This is an unforgettable story about the strength and bravery of Helene Hannemann. We read about her journey from her apartment to the days journey in this camp that held death and fear, doctors doing experiments on children, hunger and pain, until the last day when the chambers would fill once again.
For me it would be impossible to read this story and not be changed. May we never forget. May each day we live with the same grace and hope that transcends all fear and doubt into an illuminating life that points to One far greater.
If there was something I could have changed or added it would be the lullaby. Let me explain. Helene sings this beautiful lullaby to calm the children. The lullaby is shared early in the novel, but it isn't translated. I would so love to read the words of this lullaby. Since the title of the book is, Auschwitz Lullaby, it would have been an extra blessing to have the words translated as the rest of the novel.
If there was something I could have changed or added it would be the lullaby. Let me explain. Helene sings this beautiful lullaby to calm the children. The lullaby is shared early in the novel, but it isn't translated. I would so love to read the words of this lullaby. Since the title of the book is, Auschwitz Lullaby, it would have been an extra blessing to have the words translated as the rest of the novel.
This novel was a gift from Thomas Nelson for sharing my review with you.
Mario Escobar, with a licentiate's degree in history and an advanced studies diploma in modern history, has written numerous books and articles about the Inquisition, the Catholic Church, the age of the Protestant Reformation, and religious sects. Passionate about history and its mysteries, he has plumbed the depths of church history, the different sectarian groups that have struggled therein, and the discovery and colonization of the Americas. www.marioescobar.com.
