Inspired by extraordinary true events, this book is a
testimony that connects two horrific moments in human
history, separated by nearly a century: the Holocaust
and the terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, in Israel. That day,
from my home in Phoenix, Arizona, I followed the news of the massacre
perpetrated by Hamas in a state of shock.
I felt then that something ancient awakened in me: the voice of my family
history reminding me that antisemitic hatred doesn't disappear, it only
changes symbols, flags, and slogans.
I remembered then my father, Edward, an officer in the KOP-the Polish
Border Guard-Catholic and a man of unwavering integrity. Who survived
Soviet labor camps in Siberia, fought against the Nazis of the Afrika Korps
in the Sahara Desert and in the bloody battle of Monte Cassino, where he
was decorated by the British 8th Army.
But at the heart of this story is always my mother, Maria, a young Italian
woman, also a devout Catholic. In Nazi-occupied Urbino, when the
Gestapo and SS were raiding houses searching for Jews to deport them to
extermination camps, she made a courageous decision: she hid Sara, her
best friend, who was Jewish, in the attic. She knew that a single mistake, a
single denunciation, could cost her, Sara, and my grandparents their lives.
Her gesture, as fragile as it was brave, was an act of moral resistance, a flame
lit in the midst of darkness.
And there, amid the chaos of a burning Europe, a love story also emerged:
that of my parents, Edward and Maria, two young people from different
worlds whom destiny brought together in the ruins of war.