The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust's Shadow

by Daniel Paisner and Krystyna Chiger

Book Overview

In 1943, with Lvov's 150,000 Jews having been exiled, killed, or forced into ghettos and facing extermination, a group of Polish Jews daringly sought refuge in the city's sewer system. The last surviving member this group, Krystyna Chiger, shares one of the most intimate, harrowing and ultimately triumphant tales of survival to emerge from the Holocaust. The Girl in the Green Sweater is Chiger's first-person account of the fourteen months...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031237657X
• ISBN13: 9780312376574
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A book that casts light on what is happening today to Children at the southern border of the USA

I could not put this book down! It was so interesting to see it written from the insight and thoughts of a child/woman looking back at her childhood. She stated what was happening along with what her feelings and thoughts were during this terrible, turbulent time. This book should be required reading for Pre-teens and teenagers especially during this time filled with UNBELIEVERS about the Holocaust and suffering of the Jewish people. This book can also cast a direct light on what the CHILDREN who were separated from their parents at the southern borders and put in DENTENTION camps

The Girl in the Green Sweater

I liked the book, but it was kind of boring.

A Story That You Will Never Forget..

I highly encourage everyone to read this book. I have read countless books on World War 2 and The Holocaust and this is a book that I will truly never forget..it is right up there with The Diary Of Anne Frank. This book is about jews that are forced to go into hiding in the sewers. Had it not been for the help, bravery and courage of a man named Socha they most certainly would have not survived their time there. The story is gripping, harrowing, and a page turner. It is the story of what the human spirit is capable of! This is a holocaust story that you don't want to miss.

The Righteous Among Nations

The 11 customer reviews on THE GIRL WITH THE GREEN SWEATER reflect readers' impressions with the tribulations endured by Krystyna, a seven year old girl. They are touched profoundly by the indomitable spirit manifested by eleven people staying for fourteen months in a sewer. I am prompted to comment about Socha's characteristis and his two coworkers, Wroblewski and Kowalow. Leopold Socha was a ruffian. Most of his life, since adolescence, had been spent behind bars. When he met and married Wanda she convinced him to turn his life around. He had rediscovered his Catholic roots. He learned in the church that by helping others, you can help yourself. He came to believe that he might absolve himself of past sins by becoming a decent and a compassionate person. When Socha had met Ignacy Chiger, Krystyna's father, and several other persecuted Jews, on their exploration into a sewer he offered his help. The actual risk to Socha's life, as well as to the life of his two coworkers outweighed the initial recompense from Chiger. Only the human kindness of those three men stood between them and certain death for the twenty two, which later dwindled to eleven, Jewish people. Socha and Wroblewski were crawling through the sewage, two kilometers each way, to bring food and other basic necessities to the people living in a dungeon. They provided the downtrodden with access to the outside world. Socha's wife, Wanda, who had no love for Jews, had tried incessantly to dissuade her husband's from helping Jews. Socha listened to the dictates of his heart and kept his loyalty to the persecuted Jews whose life depended on him. Socha even prepared shelters for them when the Russian liberators arrived. Socha was a wonderful human being, a righteous person among many wicked Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators as well as some Polish sympathizers. A German woman who risked her life to help me during the Holocaust, as narrated in a book "From A Name to A Number" is my heroine till the last day of my life. So will Leopold Socha be. Tragically, Socha was killed after the war in a traffic accident. I hope that God had rewarded Socha for his noble deeds. THE GIRL WITH THE GREEN SWEATER is a truly amazing life story. It is a heart-breaking, very informative and well written. Although I had personally experienced and witnesses atrocities committed by the Nazis, I find this book very informative and enhancing my knowledge about the Holocaust and its ramifications. Thanks Krystyna for writing this book.

Harrowing

While I can't say that most of the events in this book are surprising (since we know of the cruelty and evil of the Nazis), it is still a harrowing story. I love the fact that the author is able to speak in the voice of her 7 year old self, and it is agonizing to imagine what affect each of these events had on this little girl. This is a story of love, of survival, of courage and of family love, so utlimately it is uplifting. This is deinitely a worthy addition to Holocaust literature, most especially because it is personal and told through the eyes of an innocent.

Girl in Greene Sweater

I recieved my item in just a few days and it was in the condition that it was supposed to be.

amazing courage in the face of the SS Nazi's

This book was absolutly fantastic. It tells of the story of this families struggle with communist Russia and then the invasion of the German Nazi's in Poland. The unbelievably cruel acts of the Germans and the SS black guards will break you heart. She vividly recalls her possesions going to the germans, the lack of food, the hiding places her ingenius father made and the long hours of boredom and fear the family had to face. When they are finally hunted down like rabbits they escape to the sewers of Lvov. Dank, terrible and dark, they live in these sewers for over a year, aided by a kind benefactor, a catholic sewer worker. This is a amazing tale of truth, fear and courage in the face of inbeatable odds.

READ THIS BOOK

This book was gripping, riveting, well-written....I was unable to put it down. I was compelled to finish this book. I will never forget the author's story, and urge everyone to read it. Inspiring!