And Peace Never Came

By Elisabeth M. Raab

Book Overview

"It is Easter Sunday, April 1945, early in the morning, maybe just dawn. We stand still, like frozen grey statues. Us. Seven hundred and thirty women, wrapped in wet, grey, threadbare blankets, standing in the rain. Our blankets hang over our heads, drape down to the soil. We hold them closed with our hands from the inside, leaving only a small opening to peer out, so that we save the precious warmth of our breath." (from Chapter 5)

So begins the author's sojourn, her search for freedom that begins with the chaotic barrenness in which she found herself after her liberation on Easter Sunday, April 1945, and takes her across several continents and half a lifetime.

Raab paints a brief yet moving picture of her idyllic life before her internment and the shock and the horrors of Auschwitz, but it is in the images of life after her liberation, that Raab imparts her most poignant story - a story told in a clear, almost sparse, always honest style, a story of the brutal, and, at times, the beautiful facts of human nature.

This book will appeal to a number of audiences - to readers interested in human nature under the most trying circumstances, to historians of World War II or Jewish history, to veterans and their families who lived through World War II, and to those interested in politics and the evils of political extremism.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0889202923
• ISBN13: 9780889202924
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Length: 205 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

A Triumph

Raab has written that type of book where you can't turn each page without contemplating every word, though, and emotion. Her memoir is a beautiful lesson, 'that no matter how much hatred and pain there is in the world, it is always important to see that there is still some beauty left.' Her book is a triumph to the human spirit.