Survivor Biography

Dark skies and barbed wire fences were all Bluma Plaskovsky saw as she stepped down from the train onto the main platform of Auschwitz-Birkenau. After surviving the Wehrmacht’s decimation of her hometown, Bluma and what remained of her family were finally put on the long, harsh train ride through inhuman conditions that seemed to last an eternity.

For more than 30 years, Phillip Maisel has worked selflessly to record the harrowing stories of Holocaust survivors. Volunteering at Melbourne's Jewish Holocaust Centre, Phillip has listened tirelessly to their memories, preserved their voices and proven, time and time again, just how healing storytelling can be. Each testimony of survival is a miracle in itself - earning Phillip the nickname 'the Keeper of Miracles'.

This is the story of a girl raised into exploitation who wakes up one night, when she is 14, in the middle of the hardcore porn industry. Faced with the worst version of herself on the screen before her, in a moment of shattering light, Jewell must decide if she will continue going with the flow or if she will fight to become a better version of herself.

When Brother Nathan was a child in Egypt, he witnessed the unthinkable - his own father's murder at the hands of terrorists. At first he struggled with his powerful urge to seek revenge against his father's assassins. Today he ministers in the very village where his father was killed as well as in countless other cities and villages across Egypt and throughout the Middle East.

“Don’t cry darling. We need this baby. You will see.” With these words from her husband, Zoltán, Ibolya Rechnitzer’s fear of being pregnant during the uncertainty of wartime is somewhat eased. But in November 1942, four months after their baby, Andy, is born, Zoltán is drafted into the forced labour service of the Hungarian army and Ibolya must cope, alone, as a single mother and a Jew facing persecution in Budapest. Her son gives her a reason to fight, and Ibolya protects him fiercely during the war and after, when she must make a crucial decision that will forever alter their lives.

What would you do if you took a picture of your child and saw a bright white glow in her eye? How would you feel if the eye doctor said: “Your child has eye cancer and will need emergency surgery to remove the tumor or one or both eyes?” This audiobook tells the story of a 27-year-old deaf-blind female retinoblastoma cancer survivor through the eyes of the survivor and her mother.

Gidon Lev, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, has lived an extraordinary life. At the age of six, he was imprisoned in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. Liberated when he was ten, he lost at least 26 members of his family, including his father and grandfather.

Stowed away on top of a train, twenty-year-old Wim Aloserij escapes the obligatory work camps in Nazi-ruled Germany in 1943. The young man from Amsterdam then goes into hiding on a farm—sleeping for months in a wooden chest hidden underground. But it's not to last. In the cover of night, Wim is captured during a raid and transported to the infamous Gestapo prison in Amsterdam. There, his life changes forever as he is thrown into the nightmare of the Holocaust and transported to Camp Amersfoort—the first of three concentration camps he must endure.

Gidon Lev’s life can be, in some ways, expressed through numbers, symbols and dates. He was born in 1935, an only child. He was put on Transport M as number 885 and imprisoned in the Terezin (or Theresienstadt) Nazi concentration camp from the ages of six to ten. Gidon is one of two thousand children estimated to have survived the camp. His father was sent to Auschwitz, where he was tattooed as prisoner B12156. Gidon has lost twenty-six family members to the Holocaust. He was liberated in 1945. And, as of 2023, he has lived 87 years.

When she was a young girl, Jadie (and her missionary family) experienced a brutal attack while on the island of Palau in the South Pacific. That one hellish night left her physically, emotionally, and spiritually damaged. Jadie had the choice to live the life of a victim or to walk the hard road of healing that leads to wholeness in Christ. Though she faced physical injury, emotional scarring (including avoidance, memory loss, and regression), and spiritual attacks, Echoes of Darkness is a story of hope.

On 28th March 1944, Italian sisters Tati (six) and Andra (four) were roused from their sleep and taken to Auschwitz, to the infamous Kinder Block, presided over by Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death. By the time Auschwitz was liberated, 230,000 children had been murdered, and Andra and Tati were among 70 child survivors. They were sent to Lingfield House in Britain, a home for children orphaned or lost at the end of the war.

Selma van de Perre was 17 when World War Two began. Until then, being Jewish in the Netherlands had been of no consequence. But by 1941 this simple fact had become a matter of life or death. Several times, Selma avoided being rounded up by the Nazis. Then, in an act of defiance, she joined the Resistance movement, using the pseudonym Margareta van der Kuit. For two years 'Marga' risked it all.

This is a book about my faith journey from a young adult to my senior years. Being a survivor of COVID, I knew the LORD still had a purpose for my life. I listened to the voice in my heart and knew I needed to write this book as an encouragement to others. Events happen in life that can cause us to see ourselves as victims or survivors. I choose using my Faith "hat" to be a survivor; an overcomer in all things. You will hear about my 60-day hospital stay and 4-month home health journey and how my identified "hats" brought me through it all.

At the 16 week foetal stage, Paul Whymark’s brain development was frozen as a consequence of the drug, Thalidomide. His journey is one of considerable self discovery, but also reveals greater societal insights. “16 Weeks and Everything After...” uncovers the remarkable fact that over the last 50-60 years the establishment has failed to genuinely independently review Thalidomide, and as a consequence, harms on developing life continue to have the potential to occur into the future.

When Leah Cik Roth decides to write memoirs for her children, writer Menucha Meinstein walks into her life as a volunteer. The two develop the deepest of human bonds as together they uncover Leah's lifelong bitterness and suppressed Holocaust memories. Through soul writing, they struggle to relive Leah's stories, revealing heroic patterns of resilience from the young age of five. Her memories bring out fresh pain and renewed feelings of loss and loneliness. The Holocaust is merely a backdrop to Leah's life. Together, the two women share joy in the legacy that Leah leaves for the world.

Hope Through Cancer is a unique book about a cancer survivor's journey with hope. Faith, my wife, has ovarian cancer. She can close her eyes and see a mental image of a path, calm waters, shade, light, and hope. We turned this into an official painting about her journey that she mentally envisioned and was created by me. The painting is an artist's perception of a survivor's journey with hope in the light of Psalm 23. She has found the 23rd psalm to be in harmony with each aspect of her journey finding a new life, having settled fear about death.

Have you ever been told that you can’t do something, even if that something is your dream? Mohammed Yousuf’s Ascending Adversity will prove to you that you can.

"Stolen Plates: A True Story of Crime, Cars, and Redemption" is a captivating memoir that takes readers on a journey through the author's childhood in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Growing up with three older siblings and their parents, Larry and Vicky, the author stumbles upon a shocking discovery of stolen DMV registrations. Unbeknownst to them, their father had a connection to Jimmy Burke and the notorious Lucchese Crime Family. As the story unfolds, the author delves into the world of car theft, revealing their father's role in stealing cars and earning for Jimmy Burke. The demand for printing ...

La historia de un joven que estuvo encarcelado injustamente desde sus 20 años hasta sus 33 y de cómo venció al sistema para quedar libre.

A story of an abused woman's journey through life, from the dreary post-war days to the present day. She struggles with her narcissistic husband at home. She also faces issues during her employment with a retail giant that portrays a wholesome public image....