For decades, Russian-born Bannister hid her holocaust diaries in her Tennessee home---until sharing them with her husband, Henry, before her death. Published for the first time, her journals reveal the trauma the 14-year-old suffered when the Nazis murdered her parents---and lessons she learned about forgiveness amid the brutality of a concentration camp. 300 pages, hardcover from Tyndale.
Nonna Bannister carried a secret almost to her Tennessee grave: the diaries she kept as a young girl experiencing the horrors of the Holocaust while learning compassion and love for her fellow human beings. Nonna’s writings tell the remarkable tale of how a Russian girl, born into a family that had known wealth and privileges, was exposed to the concentration camps and learned the value of human life and the importance of forgiveness.
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5 out of 5 stars)
3 of 3 Reviews Showing:
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Ginger Clifton (Sylacauga, ALn), June 03, 2009
Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin presented Nonna Bannister's story with insight in the comments necessary for understanding the brutality of Nonna's experiences.Nonna's ability to move past her hurts and her desire for a peaceful life with her husband and children clearly make her a survivor with a compelling, encouraging story. This book takes you back to a history lesson we must not forget, but it is full of heart, which
may be its best quality.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Susy Flory (Castro Valley, CA), April 15, 2009
I bought The Secret Holocaust Diaries a few weeks ago and started reading it. What an amazing book! Nonna Bannister was a gifted young Russian girl from a loving, warm, and wealthy family. Caught up in the horror of World War II, she watched everything and everyone she knew and loved disintegrate before her eyes. Yet Nonna miraculously survived, with her faith intact and her secret diaries hidden away, known only to her until recently. What is most astonishing to me was Nonna's lack of bitterness and hatred for the perpetrators of the savagery she witnessed--possible only with divine forgiveness, I'm sure, but still difficult to fathom.
Reading The Secret Holocaust Diaries is like sitting down to tea with Nonna, as she unveils the secrets carefully packed away in her locked green trunk in the attic. Even her husband didn't learn about her past until their twilight years, when she decided it was finally time to tell him. I'm so glad she decided to share. Nonna's voice is powerful; after I read a passage and close the book, her lovely and heartwrenching prose stays with me. This is the type of book you don't want to read too fast; I'm savoring it, page by page.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Kimberly L. Smith (Birmingham, AL), January 17, 2009
Breath-taking joy and heart-crushing anguish so poignantly recounted – with a purpose.
Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin have meticulously sorted and ordered the beautiful life and writing on Nonna Bannister while leaving intact and even illuminating its magical force.
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