The Secret Holocaust Diaries by Nonna Bannister

Add to Goodreads

Title: The Secret Holocaust Diaries

Author: Nonna Bannister

Genre: Memoir, History

Length: 299 pages

Published: 2009

Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Nonna Bannister carried a secret almost to her Tennessee grave: the diaries she kept as a young girl experiencing the horrors of the Holocaust while learning compassion and love for her fellow human beings. Nonna's writings tell the remarkable tale of how a Russian girl, born into a family that had known wealth and privileges, was exposed to the concentration camps and learned the value of human life and the importance of forgiveness.

My Review:

I give this book a 5 out of 5. 

Nonna Bannister spent her life after WWII keeping the secret of her heritage from her husband and children. Some time before she died, she showed her husband everything: the secret diaries she had kept throughout her youth and WWII which she had painstakingly translated over the years. After her death, the diaries were published.

A lot of the book focuses on her youth and the happy times with her family. There are a lot of very interesting facts about Russian culture and history that I did not know prior to reading this book. the book starts out with a few chapters about how her mother and her ended up on the train heading west into Europe. After a heartbreaking scene, it delves into Nonna's family history and diary entries from her youth. It resumes with everything that happened to her and her mother in WWII. 

You can really see the bubble of innocence that Nonna lived in growing up and how that bubble was shattered by the war. She ended up coming through stronger than ever. Most memoirs from WWII seem to be mostly written by Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, so this was a refreshing change since it gave insight on WWII from the perspective of a Russian labor worker. 

You can purchase The Secret Holocaust Diaries through Amazon in either hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read The Secret Holocaust Diaries? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.