Margit Chinkes, age 14-15, survived the Holocaust but she did not tell her story during her lifetime. How this 14-year old German girl in Frankfurt am Main was picked up by the Gestapo in 1944, endured and survived Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, slave labor conditions, rescued herself, and went on to lead a seemingly perfect life in the United States, was a story she left to her daughter, the author, to discover. 

 

This unique true story is unembellished beyond the ascertainable facts but is as riveting as any Holocaust novel. Margit's several cards and letters written from the detention center and the concentration camp are heart-rending but reveal the inner strength that sustained her through the ordeal. The book fills in "the rest of the story" about Margit's life after the war, how she found love with an American GI, immigrated to the US with the author (a baby in arms), adapted to life in the American West, and raised a family of three. 

 

The book includes the back-story of how Angie Osborne, motivated by her faith and her grandchildren, traveled Europe, scoured archives, and conducted interviews to uncover her mother's story from only a few fragments shared by Margit. The account of how Angie accomplished this project 67 or more years after the events and 20-years after her mother's death is simply inspiring. Finally, in a Hollywood-like ending, her research led to the re-discovery of her mother's Jewish family, torn apart in 1930's Vienna, and finally reunited 86 years later. 

 

This story will resonate with anyone intrigued with personal stories of WWII survival, students of WWII, especially adolescents, and those interested in how innocents suffer in  a world ruled by ethnic and racial divisions.