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Holocaust Survivor True Stories WWII #5
Shoes of the Shoah: The Tomorrow of Yesterday
Henny had just graduated from high school when the Germans invaded Lithuania. Her care-free life rapidly changed from a life of privilege to a living hell. Simply because she was Jewish.
The horrors inflicted upon the Jews of Kovno, taken place in the old forts built during Czarist Russia, are not as well known as what happened in the German Nazi camps during World War II.
Henny recounts her beautiful life in Kovno before the invasion by the Nazis when she and 35,000 other Jews were put in the ghetto. We hear about the acts of cruelty done to her family and friends. How can one describe seeing friends and relatives ripped from their lives and being cruelly and viciously murdered?
Travel with her to the filth and stench of the Kovno ghetto and the Stutthof concentration camp, and walk with her on her death march. Hear about the shoes that miraculously saved her.
Henny’s story is one of courage, hope and the will to live. It is the heart-breaking story of surviving the most horrible experiences imaginable. Hopefully, her story will inspire those in dire conditions and remind us of what we as humans are capable of doing.
The horrors inflicted upon the Jews of Kovno, taken place in the old forts built during Czarist Russia, are not as well known as what happened in the German Nazi camps during World War II.
Henny recounts her beautiful life in Kovno before the invasion by the Nazis when she and 35,000 other Jews were put in the ghetto. We hear about the acts of cruelty done to her family and friends. How can one describe seeing friends and relatives ripped from their lives and being cruelly and viciously murdered?
Travel with her to the filth and stench of the Kovno ghetto and the Stutthof concentration camp, and walk with her on her death march. Hear about the shoes that miraculously saved her.
Henny’s story is one of courage, hope and the will to live. It is the heart-breaking story of surviving the most horrible experiences imaginable. Hopefully, her story will inspire those in dire conditions and remind us of what we as humans are capable of doing.
144 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 1, 2020
498 people are currently reading
232 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy Pierce
1 book1 followerDr. Dorothy Pierce is a retired educator and school administrator. After retirement, she became involved with Jewish organizations, most notably Brandeis University National Women's Committee and was national president for two years. She instituted the Jewish Cultural Society at Florida Atlantic University in 2008 and served as its president from 2008-2012. Dr. Pierce served as president of the Gilda Malin chapter of Hadassah from 2011-2016.
For the past 6 years, she has chaired the Jewish Cultural Club, a club that provides Jewish cultural programs to the members of her community-Boca Woods Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida. She is on the board of Congregation Beth Ami in Boca Raton. Besides her Jewish activities, Dr. Pierce serves on the board of Boca Woods PAP Corps., a South Florida organization that raises money for cancer research at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Institute at the University of Miami. Dr. Pierce wrote Shoes of the Shoah, a biography of her friend Henny Aaronson, who survived the Kovno Ghetto and the Stufhoff concentration Camp. She wanted the world to know Henny's story. The book won the International Impact Book Award in February.
For the past 6 years, she has chaired the Jewish Cultural Club, a club that provides Jewish cultural programs to the members of her community-Boca Woods Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida. She is on the board of Congregation Beth Ami in Boca Raton. Besides her Jewish activities, Dr. Pierce serves on the board of Boca Woods PAP Corps., a South Florida organization that raises money for cancer research at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Institute at the University of Miami. Dr. Pierce wrote Shoes of the Shoah, a biography of her friend Henny Aaronson, who survived the Kovno Ghetto and the Stufhoff concentration Camp. She wanted the world to know Henny's story. The book won the International Impact Book Award in February.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
November 23, 2021
Sometimes a book comes along that leaves me speechless. This is one of those books. I have been reading books about the Holocaust since high school thinking one day I might be able to understand how and why this could happen. Now I know. Some people are evil in every aspect of the word. Completely evil in every way.
July 7, 2021
Stories of the holocaust are always different, yet all have a directness to them. Henny's story is much the same as others I have read, direct and to the point in describing what happened to her. Henny's grace and strength shine through how she tells her story, in how she chose to carry on in impossible circumstances.
September 7, 2020
Such an amazing book. As the author, Dorothy Pierce, said “there can never be enough told about the Holocaust because each story is different”. I couldn’t agree more. Shoes of the Shoah made me emotional, hard to believe what happened during the war, how people can be so mean and disrespectful. The book tell the history of a Lithuanian extraordinary woman, her family and friends during the war. Henny Aronson struggled to remain alive and human against all the odds. I couldn’t put it down until I finished, the story captivated me from the beginning. I recommend this book to everyone who likes a great story.
January 26, 2022
I read this in one shot, like ripping off a band aid: I knew that it was going to hurt. It is my firm belief that everyone should read at least one book written by a survivor. Shoes of the Shoah was written by the friend of the survivor after she related her story through extensive videotape interviews.
I deeply admire Amsterdam Press's project of publishing True Holocaust stories as both biographies and autobiographies. While I am a great lover of Fiction, I feel that it is all to easy to romanticize or diminish the horrors of the Holocaust. I am also at a point in my life where I am no longer interested in reading stories about the Holocaust that were not written by a member of an affected community, namely Jewish, Sinti and Roma people (although there were other people persecuted as well). What I mean here is that too often non-affected people cast their gaze upon the story and render it changed. It is dangerous for people to sympathize with a fictional Nazi character, or even worse hope that a Nazi and a Jewish concentration camp victim fall in love 🤮. While the Holocaust (like all things in life) is complex, one thing that just isn't complex is that what happened to the Jewish community (and others) is not acceptable. It is genocide. This can never be debated and this can never be forgotten. This is why we say, never forget.
Shoes of the Shoah follows survivor Henny Aronson before, during, and after her harrowing tale of survival in the Kovno ghetto and the Stutthof concentration camp. As many Holocaust stories focus on concentration camps in Germany, this was the first I had heard about the experience of the Jewish population in Lithuania. It was tremendously upsetting, but a history that we cannot ignore and we must learn from to ensure this never happens again.
Henny's story is in turns funny and heartbreaking. It's definitely one that deserves to be read.
4.5 Stars Rounded Up
I deeply admire Amsterdam Press's project of publishing True Holocaust stories as both biographies and autobiographies. While I am a great lover of Fiction, I feel that it is all to easy to romanticize or diminish the horrors of the Holocaust. I am also at a point in my life where I am no longer interested in reading stories about the Holocaust that were not written by a member of an affected community, namely Jewish, Sinti and Roma people (although there were other people persecuted as well). What I mean here is that too often non-affected people cast their gaze upon the story and render it changed. It is dangerous for people to sympathize with a fictional Nazi character, or even worse hope that a Nazi and a Jewish concentration camp victim fall in love 🤮. While the Holocaust (like all things in life) is complex, one thing that just isn't complex is that what happened to the Jewish community (and others) is not acceptable. It is genocide. This can never be debated and this can never be forgotten. This is why we say, never forget.
Shoes of the Shoah follows survivor Henny Aronson before, during, and after her harrowing tale of survival in the Kovno ghetto and the Stutthof concentration camp. As many Holocaust stories focus on concentration camps in Germany, this was the first I had heard about the experience of the Jewish population in Lithuania. It was tremendously upsetting, but a history that we cannot ignore and we must learn from to ensure this never happens again.
Henny's story is in turns funny and heartbreaking. It's definitely one that deserves to be read.
4.5 Stars Rounded Up
June 13, 2022
It is my firm belief that everyone should read at least one book written by a survivor. It should be complusory in schools.
Shoes of the Shoah is the true story of Henny, a Holocaust Survivor, in Lithuania. Written by her friend Dorothy after Henny related her story through extensive videotape interviews.
It is a story of harrowing evil but also one of courage, hope and the will to live. It is the heart breaking story of surviving the most horrible experiences imaginable. Hopefully, her story will inspire those in dire conditions and remind us of what we as humans are capable of doing. Lest we forget.
******************************
Henny had just graduated from high school when the Germans invaded Lithuania. Her care-free life rapidly changed from a life of privilege to a living hell. Simply because she was Jewish.
The horrors inflicted upon the Jews of Kovno, taken place in the old forts built during Czarist Russia, are not as well known as what happened in the German Nazi camps during World War II.
Henny recounts her beautiful life in Kovno before the invasion by the Nazis when she and 35,000 other Jews were put in the ghetto. We hear about the acts of cruelty done to her family and friends. How can one describe seeing friends and relatives ripped from their lives and being cruelly and viciously murdered?
Travel with her to the filth and stench of the Kovno ghetto and the Stutthof concentration camp, and walk with her on her death march. Hear about the shoes that miraculously saved her.
Shoes of the Shoah is the true story of Henny, a Holocaust Survivor, in Lithuania. Written by her friend Dorothy after Henny related her story through extensive videotape interviews.
It is a story of harrowing evil but also one of courage, hope and the will to live. It is the heart breaking story of surviving the most horrible experiences imaginable. Hopefully, her story will inspire those in dire conditions and remind us of what we as humans are capable of doing. Lest we forget.
******************************
Henny had just graduated from high school when the Germans invaded Lithuania. Her care-free life rapidly changed from a life of privilege to a living hell. Simply because she was Jewish.
The horrors inflicted upon the Jews of Kovno, taken place in the old forts built during Czarist Russia, are not as well known as what happened in the German Nazi camps during World War II.
Henny recounts her beautiful life in Kovno before the invasion by the Nazis when she and 35,000 other Jews were put in the ghetto. We hear about the acts of cruelty done to her family and friends. How can one describe seeing friends and relatives ripped from their lives and being cruelly and viciously murdered?
Travel with her to the filth and stench of the Kovno ghetto and the Stutthof concentration camp, and walk with her on her death march. Hear about the shoes that miraculously saved her.
December 10, 2023
Excellent book and highly recommend reading this book!! Learning more about the Kovno, The Kovno Ghetto and Sttuthof was eye opening as my father, Naftali was born and raised in Kovno and worked in the airport building the runways during his internment in Kovno Ghetto. He then learned to fix sewing machine needles in the Werkstatten so he could stop working in the airport as he knew that he would eventually die working out in the cold with limited nutrition. Reading this book and reading about other people's survival in the ghetto really moved me.
My father never spoke of his experiences until at the age of 80, my daughter asked him to share his experiences and he finally started sharing with her. She published a book called Kovno's Mechanic thanks to her teacher, Amy Jurskis and the entire family finally learned my dad's history.
Thank you for writing this book and sharing the history of the Lithuanian Jews.
My father never spoke of his experiences until at the age of 80, my daughter asked him to share his experiences and he finally started sharing with her. She published a book called Kovno's Mechanic thanks to her teacher, Amy Jurskis and the entire family finally learned my dad's history.
Thank you for writing this book and sharing the history of the Lithuanian Jews.
December 28, 2021
This tale takes us through Hennys life in Lithuania, living under Russian invasion & rule, with building resentment from Lithuanians towards the Jewish population, and subsequently the German Nazi invasion. By the time the Germans invaded, Lithuanian partisans released all the prisoners from the prisons left unguarded by retreating Russians and were encouraged to go on Jewish killing sprees. This follows Henny into the ghetto, forced labour camps, concentration camps, and death marches! Even when liberated her guard had to be up as Russians and locals around her were known to take advantage of the refugees in need. Henny has a remarkable story and experience in a part of the war that is less known. Survival was down to a series of luck at times. Great and tragic tale of hope and survival.
January 28, 2022
A heartfelt story of survival
Dorothy Pierce tells about the true story of a Holocaust Survivor in such a way that it truly hits deep in the readers heart. Especially if the reader has a family member who lived during the Holocaust. My experience reading this book and others like it feels very personal for I am a 2nd generation of a Holocaust Survivor who would never open up about what happened during that horrible time in his life.
Dorothy Pierce tells about the true story of a Holocaust Survivor in such a way that it truly hits deep in the readers heart. Especially if the reader has a family member who lived during the Holocaust. My experience reading this book and others like it feels very personal for I am a 2nd generation of a Holocaust Survivor who would never open up about what happened during that horrible time in his life.
September 13, 2022
Strength To Survive
“When people are dying or being killed, the initial shock is terrible, but then you do get used to it. The only thing pushing you forward is the thought of making it out alive.”
My heart and prayers to all who survived and for the unfortunate that didn’t!
I also pray that history does not repeat itself!!
“When people are dying or being killed, the initial shock is terrible, but then you do get used to it. The only thing pushing you forward is the thought of making it out alive.”
My heart and prayers to all who survived and for the unfortunate that didn’t!
I also pray that history does not repeat itself!!
June 5, 2021
Good Reading
This should be required reading in all schools. Our public schools are not teaching that the Holocaust occurred. Relating human experiences in the 1st person is one way to overcome this.
This should be required reading in all schools. Our public schools are not teaching that the Holocaust occurred. Relating human experiences in the 1st person is one way to overcome this.
November 16, 2021
Shoes of the Shoah
This is a story of Henny’s life before, during and after the war. She suffered loosing loved ones, forced labor, inhumaine treatment and still bonded and cared for other women.
This is a story of Henny’s life before, during and after the war. She suffered loosing loved ones, forced labor, inhumaine treatment and still bonded and cared for other women.
November 29, 2020
Heartbreaking yet inspirational
Terrific book describing the hardships and suffering in Lithuania for people of the Jewish faith and how they survived the Nazi invasion!
Terrific book describing the hardships and suffering in Lithuania for people of the Jewish faith and how they survived the Nazi invasion!
February 4, 2021
Engrossing
Another harrowing story of hardship beyond imagination and survival. Thank you for sharing this incredible story of your friend Henny.
Another harrowing story of hardship beyond imagination and survival. Thank you for sharing this incredible story of your friend Henny.
February 22, 2021
Good book
Thank you for sharing this book about your friend. It was very interesting and educational and different from the Holocaust experience in Europe.
Thank you for sharing this book about your friend. It was very interesting and educational and different from the Holocaust experience in Europe.
April 28, 2021
The story is heartbreaking but it is written like an account of facts, so it´s a pretty dry read.
July 16, 2021
Very educational
Read this lol finding myself almost living her life trying to understand as she did to hate that much as a human...
Read this lol finding myself almost living her life trying to understand as she did to hate that much as a human...
Read
December 2, 2021Very good book. I enjoyed it and found it informative.
February 11, 2022
informative
This book tell the story of Henry and her husband during the Second World War. What they went through after being taken to the concentration camp.
This book tell the story of Henry and her husband during the Second World War. What they went through after being taken to the concentration camp.
November 2, 2022
Excellent book taught me so much about the holocaust in Lithuania
March 11, 2023
Compelling
It never ceases to amaze me, the hell ww2 was. Thank you for sharing your story and keeping the lives lost into our history, not to be forgotten
It never ceases to amaze me, the hell ww2 was. Thank you for sharing your story and keeping the lives lost into our history, not to be forgotten
Read
June 19, 2023""
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 3, 2024
I would have loved to meet Henny. Now that’s a in lightened star
January 17, 2026
5⭐️
The writing was quite simple, but that’s all this sort of topic needs.
The writing was quite simple, but that’s all this sort of topic needs.
October 16, 2020
Shoes of the Shoah: The Tomorrow of Yesterday; Holocaust Survivor True Stories WWII Book 5 is written by Dorothy Pierce. It is based on the true story of Henny Fletcher Aronson from Lithuania.
The story as told to Dorothy covers Henny’s live from birth on. Henny’s life was not extraordinary; but pretty mundane until the Germans invaded Lithuania during WWII. Henny was born in Kovno . She led a happy childhood. Her father encouraged her independence and self-confidence. She believes this independence and self-confidence helped her survive the camps and death march.
This is one of the very few memoirs I have read of the Kovno Ghetto. Ironically, the first survivor I ever met was from the Kovno Ghetto and her description of going across the bridge into the Ghetto sounds a lot like the description that Henny gives. Henny’s meeting up with Zlata, Rachel, and Yochevid at the camp and making friends with them was fortuitous and led to her survival.
The book is not the most exciting I have read but you get her horror and fright right from the beginning.
The story as told to Dorothy covers Henny’s live from birth on. Henny’s life was not extraordinary; but pretty mundane until the Germans invaded Lithuania during WWII. Henny was born in Kovno . She led a happy childhood. Her father encouraged her independence and self-confidence. She believes this independence and self-confidence helped her survive the camps and death march.
This is one of the very few memoirs I have read of the Kovno Ghetto. Ironically, the first survivor I ever met was from the Kovno Ghetto and her description of going across the bridge into the Ghetto sounds a lot like the description that Henny gives. Henny’s meeting up with Zlata, Rachel, and Yochevid at the camp and making friends with them was fortuitous and led to her survival.
The book is not the most exciting I have read but you get her horror and fright right from the beginning.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews