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. Back Cover Copy For a half century a horrible secret lay hidden locked in a trunk in an attic... Photos official documents and scraps of a diary written by a nine-year-old girl... I kept secret my horror stories. I am an old woman now. It is time to tell my story. Front Flap Copy The Secret Holocaust Diaries is a haunting eyewitness account of Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister a remarkable Russian-American woman who had seen and survived the unspeakable evils of the Holocaust as a young girl. For half a century she kept her story secret while living a normal American life. She locked all her photos documents diaries and dark memories from World War II in a trunk. Late in life she unlocked the trunk first for her husband and now for the rest of the world. Nonna's story is one of suffering torture and death--but also of incredible acts of kindness that show the ultimate triumph of faith and love over despair and evil. The Secret Holocaust Diaries is in part a tragedy yet it's also an unforgettable true story about forgiveness courage and hope. Born into an aristocratic Russian family Nonna Lisowskaja fully expected to enjoy a cultured privileged life. Her family had many advantages at a time when other Russians struggled to buy food. By her sixth birthday Nonna spoke four languages. She had a good life. But then her life fell apart. The Nazis invaded Russia. And though her family was not Jewish she lost everything . . . except a few family photos and scraps of a journal hidden from the Nazis in a small pillow. This is her story.
