Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz

by Rena Kornreich Gelissen and Heather Dune Macadam

Book Overview

An expanded edition of the powerful memoir about two sisters' determination to survive during the Holocaust featuring new and never before revealed information about the first transport of women to Auschwitz In March 1942, Rena Kornreich and 997 other young women were rounded up and forced onto the first Jewish transport of women to Auschwitz. Soon after, Rena was reunited with her sister Danka at the camp, beginning a story of love and courage that...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807093130
• ISBN13: 9780807093139
• Release Date: March 2015
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Incredible & gripping story!

This book is amazing. I was moved to tears reading about Rena’s life and her bravery. There were times I wanted to cruise through and keep reading but chose to take a break and collect myself after what I read. Rena essentially describes her survival of Auschwitz’s over the course of three years and her life leading up to that point. As heart wrenching as it is, this is a story that must be told. So the world will never forget and I’m so glad it was written for the world to read.

Horrific and uplifting

I am still trying to come to terms with the Holocaust,although it happened long before I was born. I am trying to understand how humans could act with such incredible hatred and cruelty toward their fellow humans. This book has helped me in a different way.It has shown me how holding on to the sanctity of life can allow you to act in a totally selfless way.Rena promised she would bring her baby sister Danka back to Mama.The two endured years of struggle,and starvation,and disease and unspeakable cruelty,and they did it with the goal of freedom in sight. Day after miserable day.Year after miserable year.Rena's tenacity in keeping her promise shows just how good a human being can be when she is without greed,or vindictiveness. When she is faced with seemingly one insurmountable challenge after another. I will keep the memory of Rena and Danka and her family,and the lives of the women that Rena touched in Auschwitz the rest of my life. If you have a need to reaffirm your belief in the basic goodness of human nature,I suggest you read this book.In it you will find the worst a human can be,but in the end,who won out? Not the nazis .But Rena and Danka and thousands of others who simply hung on and endured.

Outstanding tale of love and evil.

There have been many first person accounts of the concentration camps. Rena's story is among the most detailed and gripping. Rena as a young woman turned herself in as a Jew in order to prevent problems for a family that was helping her. Little did she know of the ordeal that lie ahead. And when I say ordeal that does not begin to describe the terrifying journey that Rena takes. In the camps, Rena is eventually reunited with her sister Danka and makes a promise to her (hence the title of the book) that if she (Danka) is to be killed Rena will go with her. They will die or live together. As the story unfolds you really grasp the utter evil of the Nazi's as they played their evil games with the prisoners. How Rena and Danka manage to escape deaths door on so many occasions is a miracle. But they do. Yet the pain and suffering they experience is unimaginable. And the pain and suffering of those who meet untimely, unthinkable torture and deaths is described too. Whenever I am tempted to whine or moan or b*tch about something, I think of Rena and Danka and their incredible endurance. It puts my problems in perspective. The book also has made me appreciate the little things, like a hot shower or good book, a warm meal or a lazy morning sleeping. Things that Rena and Danka never received but could only dream of. This is a graphic book, but one that can change your way of thinking of life. A truly bold tale that opens your eyes to the deepest evil and the strongest love.

Raw and moving

This was a very involving and detailed book; even though the content can be too much for some people, I really like how many specific details were given about what happened every day, instead of, like some other Shoah memoirs, just skipping between the most important events during the author's incarceration, or not giving enough details about daily life. I've read some pretty detailed Shoah memoirs, but this one by far has been the most intricately detailed one, complete with footnotes elaborating even further on the event or date being described. Rena and Danka were also prisoners in the camp from practically the very beginning, among the first civilian transports, as opposed to how there were originally only male political prisoners there. These incredible sisters had some incredible strokes of luck the way they escaped nearly certain death so many times, like when they just walked away from the roll call taking place before Mengele was to begin medical experiments or when Rena evaded detection at several roll calls after she stole potatoes in the last camp they were in. I would have liked some extra chapters on how they got by after the liberation too, but the afterword sufficed, telling us the basics about what happened to them and their friend Dina, as well as the fates of the various other people we met throughout the book, like the male prisoners who helped to save them at various points, or the fate of their other relatives and friends. I also liked how the story was told in nonlinear perspective at the beginning (i.e., in different voices and at different times). It was also surprising to read at the beginning that Rena had had her tattoo surgically removed and kept it in a jar of formaldehyde; I've only heard of a handful of survivors who elected to have their tattoos removed.

Danka's Grandson

Hey everyone, I am Danka (Dina) Brandel's grandson, Andrew Brandel. Rena is my great aunt. It's really great to hear all of your praise about the book, and that you enjoyed reading about the stories I grew up on. My grandma gave these first hand accounts often, especially when I was younger and I know our whole family was very excited when my Tante Rena wrote it all down. They are both as amazing people in real life as they are portrayed in the story, I can assure you first hand. Anyway, I am glad you all enjoyed their story!

Rena's Promise is a testimony of love, survival & triumph.

Rena's Promise is the beautifully told story of two remarkable young women in their early twenties who endure and survive nearly three and one half years as prisoners of the Nazis in Auschwitz and Ravensbruck. The love that Rena has for her younger sister, Danka, sustains her and helps her to endure the atrocities and indignities forced upon them on a daily basis by the Nazis. During the time they are prisoners, Rena never once forgets the promise to her mother to take care of her younger sister. There are numerous times when Rena unhesitatingly gives up her daily crust of bread in exchange for medicine or a much needed salve for Danka. And at times when Rena is able to "organize" an extra tidbit of food such as a tiny piece of potato peeling, she meticulously divides it and without exception shares it with her beloved sister. Although Rena is the stronger of the two sisters, Danka's strength emerges during the death march when Rena becomes so weak she cannot stand and walk without assistance. Danka refuses to leave her and with the help of a friend, they support Rena until she regains sufficient strength to walk. In the mist of thousands of starving prisoners when a crust of bread could mean the difference of life or death, Rena retained both dignity and honesty. She was once chosen unanimously by more than a hundred women prisoners with whom she worked to divide ten Red Cross packages of food that miraculously made their way into Rena's block. Numerous footnotes are provided by Rena's freelance co-author which helps the reader to place the events of Rena's story into the sequential order of previously documented facts of the Holocaust. Rena's Promise is a testimony of how the love for her sister gave her the will to go on and how something so simple as the offering by a Nazi of a rag to clean her beaten and bloody face was viewed as a great act compassion.