Like Birds In Black and White

Imagine being 9 years old, and seeing your entire family slaughtered in front of you.This is Miriam's story, and how she managed, as a young girl alone, to survive in rural Poland, during WWII.Like other survivors, she had an incredible will to live, to be able to tell the world about the atrocities of the Nazis.She has written an incredibly moving story, through the eyes of a child.Then, as an adult, she struggled to memorialize the hundreds of Jews killed in her small Polish village. This she achieves, but her feelings of grief and sorrow, of course, lasted throughout her life.Despite this, Miriam married, and happily had children and grandchildren, so her legacy continues.

It was very interesting for me to read the store from an actual survivor of WWII's Hitler's killing machine, and the ways the Nazi's created in order to trap them and keep them disconnected from the rest of Europe and the world. History teaches us of the global machinery created by them, but the personal details were a first for me.Miriam's experience was incredibly sad and her survival is due to her tenacity and the promise she made to her mother, as her family was being taken to their grave, blindly and willingly obeying the supposed help they were going to receive from the German government in their own country (Poland). How incredibly sad that a majority of the Polish population turned a blind eye to what was happening to the Jews in their own small towns and communities, as they knew each family from birth, and their children played together before the war.There is much to learn from her experience, especially in the current climate of fear and terrorism we are living, not only in the US, but in Europe (all over again), Africa and the Middle East.

I am Jewish and have read countless Holocaust books but none as amazing as this one. I was moved to tears throughout the story of her indominitable spirit and desire to survive when giving up would have been the easier choice. To see your entire family and village murdered for no reason other than the Nazi's desire to rid the world of all Jews still is unfathomable to those of us that live in a civilized world. How she survived and lived to tell her story is amazing. It is clear she suffered for years even after she emigrated to Israel and had her ownfamily. Even after the war ended it is sad that very few in Israel really understand what survivors had to live with and the fact that she triumphed over such horrible anti-semitism in Poland in her quest to memorialize her dead family and tge other Jews in her village is a testament to her inner strength. Poland was and still is worse than any other western European country when it comes to hatred of the Jews. If the Nazis had not murdered so many children, we would likely have already seen cures for cancer and heart disease by now.I plan to recommend this book to all my friends. It is a "must" read.

Like Birds in Black and White is a vivid autobiography of a woman that in 1942, when at 9 years old, was the only survivor to the murdering by the NAZIS of all the Jews (320) living in her little town Wereszczyn, located in Western Poland. She recalls: “Still today, their cries echo in my ears at night, and there no one pays attention.”It deserves to quote what Mrs. Miriam Raz-Zunszajn-Winograd says in the last page of her book: “I hope that if my words are ever printed for all to read, that they will serve as further firsthand evidence of the ability of human beings, even the highly enlightened and cultured ones, to behave like beasts. It’s also important for me to point out that despite all the evil I have met in my harsh past, I have also learned that in every place – even in the case of the most evil – there is always a handful of righteous people ready to endanger their own lives for the good of others”.

Rating chosen on the fact that it is not only well written but touches also of my family history. Not being jewish but some family members lived and still live nearby Terezin. The place from which European jews were transferred to Poland for elimination .

This was an fantastic book. The book begins from the view point of a nine year old child who has lost EVERYTHING in one day. Her safe world disappears in the space of less than one day. Her parents are killed, her brothers are killed, her house is taken from her and even people that just the day before were her friends and neighbors not only treat her like she is worse than a rat but they even steal the clothes off her back. A nine year old CHILD. The book really gives you such a good view what those poor children of war faced and went through, each with their different experiences. The book continues with the author's experience of war survival and obviously there was overwhelming evil but she found good people who reached out and helped her to live through those terrible times. These books must be read so we shall never forget that this evil can so, so easily happen again.

I couldn't put this book down, I have read many books on the Holocaust. I couldn't believe a six year old could survive such harsh conditions. This was astonishing to me how this beautiful, strong, woman survived it all.

At the age of six, when the Nazis kill her parents and the other Jews of her Polish village, MIriam is confused as well as bereft. The last thing Miriam's mother said to her was to survive and tell. The little girl is determined to do just that. But how can such a young child do this in such a hostile environment? Miriam's determination (frequently coupled with a child's selfish inability to see the bigger picture) and her creative solutions to problems eventually bring her to Israel. This first person story of a Polish Jewish girl, told now when she is a grandmother is worth reading.

You can't 'enjoy' a book like this - it's too harrowing for that, but it is an exceptionally good read from a completely different view of the Holocaust. I've read many books by survivors of the concentration camps, but this book tells the sad story of a little girl who dodged the massacre that killed her family, and who survived the rest of the war in hiding. The depths of her fear and despair are felt page after page, and it's so terribly sad. I can't imagine what it must be like to be left with no living relative so brutally and suddenly. But survive she dud, with a steely determination to honour the request her beloved mother asked of her. Download this book, be prepared to shed tears, but it's worth it, because we must never forget the atrocities that were carried out against the innocent Jews - God's chosen people.

Miriam lived in Wereszczyn, a small Polish village sixty kilometres from Lublin. Her young parents were slaughtered by the Nazis, falling into their own graves! At 6 years old her parents left and never returned. Bewildered and in terror with two little brothers and unable to prevent them from tearing away to their deaths, Miriam wandered alone escaping, sometimes receiving, always in fear. At 12 yrs she managed to find a safe haven in Israel. Her life is one of the most moving of books.

This must be one of the finest personal accounts of survival during the vicious period of WW2 known by the general term "Holocaust". I rank it alongside "Parallel Lines" by Peter Lantos, another moving memoir written by someone caught up in tragedy when a small child.The language is simple and the narrative completely honest with vivid details of a life suddenly shattered by the mass murder of almost an entire community. Maria's life in hiding is painful to read, almost incomprehensible to me, a near contemporary born far away on the Isle of Man.The strength of her faith, the dogged determination to fulfil her vow and her on going search for love shine out in the bitter darkness surrounding this brave child.I strongly recommend it, both as further evidence of "Man's inhumanity to Man" and also as an outstanding contribution to the body of literature on The Holocaust.

I was born after WWII and remember my father telling me stories of the war. Poland in particular he spoke about. Reading this story is shocking that such cruelty was going on out of sheer ignorance and racism. I found I was compelled to keep reading as one heart breaking tragedy followed another. What I find hard to get my mind around is how people turned their backs on friends and innocents. Stories like this one should be compulsory reading in our schools. We should never forget.

This book is well written and extremely moving. You go on a journey with Miriam which you could hardly imagine a small girl could survive. It is a very important historical story and will move you to tears but should be read in order that what happened is never forgotten. I admire Miriam for sharing her story and her loyalty to her family which she honours at the end. I will never forget this book.