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Putnam
September 2013
On Sale: September 5, 2013
208 pages ISBN: 0399168540 EAN: 9780399168543 Kindle: B00DUGZZ1U Hardcover / e-Book
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Fiction | Historical
A novel based on a true story, a mother and daughter risk
their lives to provide shelter to two families and a German
soldier--all unbeknownst to each other--in a tiny two-room
house in Sokal, Poland, during the Nazi invasion. Based on a true story, MY MOTHER'S SECRET is a profound,
captivating, and ultimately uplifting tale intertwining the
lives of two Jewish families in hiding from the Nazis, a
fleeing German soldier, and the clever and "righteous"
mother and daughter who teamed up to save them. Franciszka and her daughter, Helena, are unlikely heroines.
They are simple people who mind their own business and
don't stand out from the crowd. Until 1939, when crisis
strikes. The Nazis have invaded Poland and they are starting
to persecute the Jews. Providing shelter to a Jew has become
a death sentence. And yet, Franciszka and Helena decide to
do just that. In their tiny, two-bedroom home in Sokal,
Poland, they cleverly hide one Jewish family of two brothers
and their wives in their pigsty out back, another in a
makeshift cellar under the kitchen floorboards, and a
defecting German soldier in the attic--each group completely
unbeknownst to the others. For everyone to survive,
Franciszka will have to outsmart her neighbors and the
German commanders standing guard right outside her yard. Told simply and succinctly from four different perspectives,
MY MOTHER'S SECRET is a reminder that you don't have to be
extraordinary to make a difference. You can become
extraordinary by making a difference. This book was inspired by the true story of Franciszka
Halamajowa, who, with her daughter, saved the lives of
fifteen Jews in Poland during the Second World War. She also
hid a young German soldier in her attic at the same time.
Before the war, there were six thousand Jews in Sokal,
Poland. Only thirty survived the war and half of those did
so because of Franciszka.
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