Nine-year-old Bronia lives a happy life in Poland with her large extended family—until the Nazis begin pulling Jewish people from their homes and sending them to concentration camps. Bronia's parents are taken by the Nazis, leaving her and her siblings to fend for themselves. So Bronia, who looks German, begins to smuggle cloth and exchange it for food.

At age eleven, Bronia and her siblings are taken to Auschwitz, where her family is broken up once again. She manages to survive by sticking with her sister and befriending a woman named Bozenka, who becomes a surrogate mother to the girls. Through a combination of luck and circumstance, Bronia makes it through the horrors of the concentration camp, several near-fatal illnesses, and the loss of her family.

This memoir, a straightforward presentation of some of the most horrifying events in human history, is both a heartbreaking and inspiring addition to any library.