If I Survive: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 100-year-old Lena Goldstein's Miracle Story

Written by Barbara Miller

Narrated by Nikki Delgado

“If I Survive.” This thought haunted Lena. Her loved ones were cruelly forced from her arms in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland and perished in Treblinka Death Camp. This is a true story of Holocaust survival. In ww2 books, it is a searing story of human rights abuses and genocide.

The story of Nazi Germany and the Jews is a story of anti-Semitism, Nazi concentration camps, gas chambers and World War 11 (wwii). The Warsaw ghetto where the Nazis had imprisoned the Jews was being emptied as Hitler’s Final Solution to murder all of European Jewry was put into action. Lena kept thinking, “It’s my turn next.” As some Jews escaped Treblinka and exposed it as being a death camp not a labour camp, young men and women in the ghetto decided to make a stand.

Lena helped in the resistance which became the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by gathering light bulbs from empty houses which could be used for Molotov cocktails. By a miracle, she escaped the ghetto before it became an inferno. But where could she hide? When it was over and she could walk free, the tears she had held back flooded out because she was all alone and there was no one to care that she had survived and no one to go to.

Author Barbara Miller adds to Holocaust history and ww2 German history by skilfully weaving her research with Lena’s diary and interviews to bring her ww2 biography to life. Lena helped her companions in hiding to survive with her humour and compassion. She turned 100 in January 2019 and her miraculous story of survival against the odds will inspire you to not give up no matter how dark the time or difficult the situation or cruel the people around you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barbara Miller Books
• Release date: Jun 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9780648870906

Barbara Miller

Barbara Joyce Miller, historian, researcher and sociologist co-founded, with her husband Norman, the Centre for International Reconciliation and Peace in 1996. She has been recognized by Worldwide Who’s Who for showing dedication, leadership and excellence in humanitarian affairs. She lives in Cairns, Australia with her husband Norman and son Michael. Barbara is very passionate about Aboriginal advancement, and liaises with religious and other communities worldwide through the Centre for International Reconciliation and Peace, which provides services focused on healing the wounds of history and reconciliation between people groups. With her husband, Norman, she pastors the Tabernacle of David congregation and she leads groups of Australians to Israel for Christian conferences and prayer tours. Barbara has 40 years of professional experience not only in Aboriginal affairs, but also as a psychologist and mediator. She has her own business - Mediation Works Qld and is an expert in mediating workplace and large scale community disputes and family law matters. Barbara is a motivated, inspiring teacher and counsellor who holds a postgraduate degree in sociology and a Bachelor of Arts with honours in psychology. As a social justice campaigner, she helped the Mapoon people north of Weipa move back to their land after being forcibly removed and she is presently writing a memoir on this experience. In the 90s, Barbara served as the CEO of the Aboriginal Coordinating Council through which she lobbied state and federal governments and wrote reports on topics such as native title, Indigenous resource management, local government, human rights, crime prevention in Aboriginal communities, health and deaths in custody. She has also authored various books and articles, including a book titled William Cooper, Gentle Warrior: Standing Up for Australian Aborigines and Persecuted Jews, 2012 and The European Quest to Find Terra Australis Incognita: Quiros, Torres and Janszoon 2014.

Reviews for If I Survive

[Rudi Vizental · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's hard, but necessary, to read such books, so that such things should never happen again.
I also liked the reader's performance, EXCEPT the numerous mispronunciations of the foreign words.