Shattered Crystals

Shattered Crystals

By

4.5
(2 Reviews)
Shattered Crystals by Mia Amalia Kanner

Published:

1997

Pages:

320

Downloads:

2,520

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Shattered Crystals

By

4.5
(2 Reviews)
In Shattered Crystals, Mia Amalia Kanner recounts the true story of her desperate struggle to save her family from annihilation in Nazi Germany and war-torn France. Yet this is much more than a Holocaust history. It is about a courageous Jewish woman who, on finding herself destitute, becomes a cook in a home for war-displaced Jewish children. She faces an agonizing choice. Is giving up her three young daughters necessary to save their lives?Mia's odyssey is also a love story of a remarkable woman who secures her husband's release from Buchenwald concentration camp. Then, during the darkest days of the war, he is arrested in France. Now she must find a way to save him from deportation to the death camps.Before Hitler, they had been an ordinary family. As Mia and her husband face ever increasing danger and persecution, readers find themselves asking, “What would I have done?”

Book Excerpt

en floor that Friday, and rose with sore knees, aching shoulders, and red, rough hands. I never forgot the lesson Mama taught me. I must understand and respect those who might work for me.

Around that time, Mama entered into a business partnership with Meyer Weinrauch. Meyer's line of business was shoes, and he was opening a new store. While Meyer obtained merchandise from various wholesalers, Mama was to be in charge of the store.

The store was one the Eisenbadstrasse, outside the main Jewish district. Mama ran the business as smoothly and efficiently as she did her home. None of my friends had mothers who worked, but I accepted that my mother was different. I always believed Mama was a genius and could do whatever she set her mind to.

My friends were Jewish children who lived in our building and girls from clubs to which I belonged. I joined youth groups and we met on Shabbos afternoons to sing Hebrew songs and discuss religion and debate Jewish concerns. On Sundays, we went on outings