Natalie Hess

This is Natalie Hess's memoir from a five-year-old living in Poland in 1941 until present day in Pennsylvania at 80+ years old. Her story shows not only her strength but also her will to survive and be grateful for her life.

When Natalie was 5 years old, her parents were exterminated at Treblinka. She went to live with a non-Jewish family but when they became afraid about having a Jewish girl living with them, they sent her to the Jewish ghetto. As the ghetto was being cleared out, she was sent to Ravensbruck and through the help of some people, she survived and was sent to Switzerland at the end of the war - she was 9 years old. After she lived in Sweden for seven years, she was sent to America to live with her aunt and uncle. When she moved to America, she made the trip by herself and didn't know any English at all. She excelled in school and received a Master's Degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. She met and married John and they had three daughters. They moved to Israel and then back to the US. Over the years, she was a teacher in six different countries. Despite the horrific early years of her life and the memory of those years that was always tucked away in her mind, Natalie managed to have a happy life. She was married for over 50 years and had 3 daughters and 6 grandchildren and was proud of her years as a teacher and educator and the students that she helped. At the end of her memoir, she writes: "Yes, there is constant misery in the world...But we can - for one brief moment each day hear the symphony and sense the miracle of life." (p 238)… (mehr)