Ritika Chhabra’s Reviews > The Promise: The Moving Story of a Family in the Holocaust > Status Update

“My life felt like a see-saw, up and down, up and down. Sometimes I laughed, sometimes I cried. My feelings were mixed up. At times I felt very old, and other times I was like a little girl, not a sixteen-year-old. I would wake up from nightmares, screaming until Mutti came to my side. She always stayed with me as long as I needed her.”

“Some of the Nazis on duty lived with their families just outside the camp. After sending hundreds of Jewish parents and children to their death in the gas chambers, they went home to read stories to their own children, or sit down to a family meal. They even went to church!”

“Children, I promise you this: everything you do leaves something behind; nothing gets lost. All the good you have accomplished will continue in the lives of the people you have touched. It will make a difference to someone, somewhere, sometime, and your achievements will be carried on. Everything is connected, like a chain that cannot be broken.”

“People were hungry, afraid and discouraged. Hitler gave them something they desperately needed - hope.”