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The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister
The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister
The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister
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The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister

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Nonna Bannister carried a secret almost to her Tennessee grave: the diaries she had kept as a young girl experiencing the horrors of the Holocaust. This book reveals that story. Nonna’s childhood writings, revisited in her late adulthood, tell the remarkable tale of how a Russian girl from a family that had known wealth and privilege, then exposed to German labor camps, learned the value of human life and the importance of forgiveness. This story of loss, of love, and of forgiveness is one you will not forget.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 21, 2011
ISBN9781414341774

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is the extraordinary personal account of Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister, b. 1927 in Taganrog, Russia to educated parents of Ukrainian and Polish heritage. At the age of 15, she carefully journals her fondest memories of early childhood, her exposure to Stalinist Russia, the Collectivization of Agriculture and the Holdomor (Great Famine) of the Ukrainian people. She endured horrific living conditions, the invasion of the Ukraine by German troops in 1941 and their cavalier killings. After her father's early death, Nonna and her mother are faced with fleeing to the west or risking probable expulsion to Sibera, (or worse). They accept an offer by the Germans to work in Germany. The arduous train ride alone was foreboding and they questioned whether they had chosen wisely. It appeared that they stepped from the frying pan and into the fire. "Survival" became the watchword. I was amazed by Nonna's cleverness, bravery, strength, thirst for knowledge and shear endurance. She was committed to surviving and seeking a much improved existence. Her account exposed me to an historical record of Stalinist Russia/Ukraine about which previously I had known very little. It also reiterated that yes, the Jews were horribly treated yet they were not the only victims of Nazism. She carefully documented, at great risk of life, all that she saw and experienced so that such inhumanity was exposed and hopefully, could never happen again. Sadly, we have come to know otherwise.This book was not highly polished by its editors and its effectiveness is more in its raw presentation. The sidebars, although a bit distracting, did provide some important reference points while following the story. The fact that so many photographs and her personal account remained almost fully intact through all she endured is almost a miracle in itself.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I tend to forget that there were groups and individuals who weren't Jewish who were persecuted by the Nazis during the Holocaust years. Nonna Bannister was one of those individuals. Nonna's father was Polish (possibly of Jewish background) and her mother was Russian. She spent her childhood in Russia, and her immediate family was living with her grandmother in Ukraine at the beginning of the war. Most of the Russians left their town before the Germans reached it. Nonna's father had long been attempting to move his family westward, so he chose to stay put, not realizing what his family would suffer under the Germans. Eventually Nonna and her mother were sent to labor camps in Germany. Nonna was the only one in her family to survive until the end of the war. She trained as a nurse and eventually emigrated to the United States.Nonna married within a couple of years of her arrival in the U.S., She didn't tell her husband and children about her childhood experiences. A few years before her death, she finally showed her husband the English transcriptions she had made of the diaries she kept during those years. After her death, Nonna's family made contact with a publisher, and a writing team compiled her transcriptions into a book. Nonna's diary transcriptions form the main body of the book, with occasional comments inserted by the compilers to clarify passages that call for additional explanation. This format gives the book an unfinished feel. Usually the professional writer will polish the subject's material to enhance its readability and appeal, and the finished product will read as if it has been written by the subject rather than by multiple authors. I think footnotes might have been a better method for adding comments to what Nonna had written. Recommended for readers interested in non-Jewish Holocaust memoirs who are prepared to tolerate the unusual presentation.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I listened to the audio version and really liked it. I have read a lot of books about the holocaust and this was an interesting one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a so-so book that covers the time period from about 1918 (Lenin's Revolution) until the author leaves a German hospital in about 1949. The pre-holocaust information is fairly good. However, the author was not i the general population of any camp and therefore information on THE holocaust is very skimpy. An easy read, if not redundant in some places.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing true account of Nona Bannister, a child surviver of the Holocost. Raised in the Ukraine by a loving family, she and her mother were forced to leave with the German Army as slave labor for Hitler. Nona kept her diaries a secret for decades until she was ready to share the horrors she experienced over 30 years later. We are fortunate to have such a first hand account from an intelligent, talented and brave person. Everyone interested in the history of WWII would benefit from this account as Nona wanted everyone to know what happened to avoid persons denying it happened or worse yet repeating it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've read quite a few Holocaust memoirs and diaries, especially over the past few months. I have to say that Nonna Bannister's work is perhaps not one of the most comprehensive I've read, but does certainly deserve to be held up with the rest of Holocaust literature as an important work to be read. In the scope of Holocaust literature, it is important to value all opinions, as the history is based as much on feeling as it is on fact. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in the period.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I really was fascinated with Nonna and her diaries that she kept. I was amazed at all the work she did to keep her diaries in her possession and all the work she did translating them. I also admire her family for putting those translations together and making a book out of them and telling the world about Nonna's story.I was astounded with some of the horrible things that were done to Nonna and her family. Getting to actually read what Nonna wrote about what happened to her really made me connect with her.I have to say that although I did enjoy reading this, I think this could use more editing. To me the way some of the diary entries were ordered made it a little confusing. I would have liked to have seen this completely in chronological order. I just feel like this could have been polished more.Overall I thought this was good. I really felt for Nonna and her family and am glad to have read her story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a so-so book that covers the time period from about 1918 (Lenin's Revolution) until the author leaves a German hospital in about 1949. The pre-holocaust information is fairly good. However, the author was not i the general population of any camp and therefore information on THE holocaust is very skimpy. An easy read, if not redundant in some places.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Nonna Bannister records a fresh, unique perspective about the Holocaust. As an elderly American woman, she began translating her childhood diaries into English and eventually shared them with her husband. After her death, they were edited and published in this form. There are various stories here. Some are heartbreaking, some are sweet, and some are even humorous. Together, they provide a glimpse into the life of a young girl struggling to understand the changes in her life and cope with the loss of everyone she loved.Nonna Bannister was not a professional writer; therefore it falls to the editors to choose which entries to include, which ones to omit, and to arrange the order in a logical pattern. The editors do add notations to help the reader understand the context of certain passages, but the pacing is flawed. I found myself skimming through some entries to reach a more active narration. In short, Nonna Barrister has written a living, breathing historical account that is both worthwhile and enjoyable to read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Well written. Heart wrenching, as you'd expect from something covering the holocaust, but also extremely interesting. The pre-holocaust accounts of life in Russia were fascinating.I didn't care for the sidebars throughout, which made this feel life a gradeschool textbook. There was a definite tone of talking down to the sidebar text. I think they detracted from an otherwise remarkable book.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Please keep in mind this review is based on an advanced reader's copy and hopefully the things mentioned here have been remedied.There are so many things disturbing about the book itself that its lack fo editing and repetitive, mundane horrors exceed that of the limited descriptions of the Holocaust itself. Nothing is added to one's information about the event, and do we really care about Nonna's childhood, family history, and the bucolic life she led up to the Holocause years? I think not! i CAN NOT RECOMMEND THE PURCHASE OF THIS BOOK TO ANYONE OTHER THAN THE MOST FANATICAL HOLOCAUST LIETERATURE COLLECTOR. It needs continuity and other things (correct spelling, elimination of repetitition) that a good editor could provide. If this book was edited, then Elvis is indeed, alive. We are told at least half a dozen times that Anna is a talentee pianist and artist, and that is exactly the problem. We are told. Writing 1101 states, you show, not tell. If books fall unused to the wayside and robotic electronics "poublish" words in future years, it will be because of publications like this one.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Nonna bannister grew up in a Christain home in Russia during the reign of Stalin and Hitler. The story told withing the pages of this book were taken from her diary that she kept on scraps of paper in five different languages, tied up inside a small pillow she wore tied around her waist. It was with her throughout her time in the labor camp until she died. She came to America the only survivor of her family and never let her husband know of her past. She slowly translated her diaries into English. A few years before her death she shared it with her husband with a promise that he would do nothing with it until she was gone. He kept his word. As a child she witnessed the love of her parents and her grandmother and the Christian values they taught her. On her way to German labor camp she watched the horrors of the Nazi soldiers as they killed a baby a Jewish woman had tossed into her mothers arms as the woman ran along side the train.This book reminded me of Anne Frank's diaries and of the book "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom. All three of these women chose to find the positive side of things and chose not to hate those who oppressed them. There were many places where I cried and just as many where I laughedThere were only two things I found wrong with the book. The editors made comments to help explain things that might not have been clear. I would have preferred they had done this as footnotes on each page, because it was a little distracting. The other thing that disappointed me was that the only pictures were the two on the back cover, yet the editors comment about the pictures she managed to bring to America with her. Since I received an ARC it is possible that they have included pictures with the final book. This is a definate must read for anyone who loves this subject or time period.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Please note that this review is based on an advanced reader copy and changes may have been made to the final published edition.Nonna Lisowskaja Banninster's story is full of potential, however its carrying out was poorly done. With its disjointed structure and inconsistencies it is hard to determine what of the book from Bannister's original diaries, from her translations of these diaries made years later, or from the editors. The greatest flaw of the work is the editors' fault, as the story is broken up by their indented notes, including reiterations of what we just read and unwelcome commentary. Even when they are useful explanations of historical fact, they distractingly break up the text and take you out of the moment.Still, Bannister's story is tragic and inspiring, and I hope that it can be redone in a more accessible form. At a young age, she witnessed Stalin's persecution of his people, the horrors of World War II when the Germans invaded, was shipped East to several concentration camps, and was saved thanks to the kindness of Catholic hospital workers.Most moving, is that while Nonna witnessed humanity at its worst, she did not lose her faith in God or her love of beauty.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this publication. It was a poignant firsthand account of a terrible period in human history. I found the chronology a little difficult in places, as it seemed to jump around a bit, but it didn't deter too much from the readability of the book. I recommend this to anyone interested in WWII or Holocaust memoirs.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Upon first glimpse of the synopsis of The Secret Holocaust Diaries one is reminded of Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl. While there are some similarity between the two there also are vast differences. The first being that Nonna Bannister was a Russian Christian and Anne Franks was a Jew. The second is that Bannister lived to write and revise her story while Frank did not.The Secret Holocaust Diaries is a tale of how a young girl survives not only World War II but also the early years of Communist Russian. The reader gets snippets into the authors life during these troublesome years and get to see some of the hopes, joys and fears of Bannister as she narrates her early life. The one downside to Bannister narration is that sometimes the emotions that she tries to convey are flat and do not come through as well as one would hope. This could be because the "entries" are not directly from Bannister's diaries rather she wrote out her story based her diary entries and the reader only gets what she released. Bannister is able to reflect on her entries and included or take out what she wants. She may have excluded the emotional reflections in order to make it easier for her to complete her task.It is always informative to read about history from those who have lived it. Reading memories like Bannister's and Frank's has a way of linking historical events in a way that is not done in a history class. Many people (self included) know something about World War II and maybe even less about the formation of the Soviet Union. The Secret Holocaust Diaries mesh this two events together and lets one see how they affected each other. There is a lot of information about the treatment of Jewish during Hitter's reign but Nonna's diary gives insight of the treatment of Christian captives during this time. It's interesting and heartbreaking to see the differences and similarities in the treatment of Germany's Christan and Jewish prisoners.Nonna Bannister came from a remarkable family and in turn grow up into a remarkable girl. Both her and her mother used their abilities to make themselves assets to the Germans. Her mother was an acomplished painter and musician. Nonna had the ability to speak in six lanugauges. But the educational achivements of Nonna and her family also made them suspect while they were in the Soviet Union. The Soviet authorities believed that Nonna's father was not loyal to their cause and while they were right, he just wanted what was best for his family.There were some minor issues that can be found in the book. That can be because the copy used for this review was and ARC (Advanced Reader Copy). One of those issues were that the were repeated references to the pictures that Nonna was able to save and that were still around. But there were no pictures in the book. It would have been nice to see the pictures that Nonna was able to save. There also was a mention about the fact that Nonna father might have been Jewish. I don't think enough attention was paid to this speculation, which could be because Nonna didn't included but it was rather mentioned by the editiors. The editors Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin included historical clarifications and story references throughout the book. They were useful but sometimes they were misplaced or repetative. They would try to clarify stuff that Nonna wrote before the reader got to that point.The editors also included serval appendixs that gave more insight into what is known about Nonna's family on her maternial side. Those were not reviewed or read but could be highly informative to those that are interested in getting futher information about Bannister and her family.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What a wonderful story about an extraordinary woman. Her life before the war was as interesting to me as her accounts of the war and her life in the labor camps. I especially loved her accounts of Christmastime with her grandmother. The editors notes throughout the book were very helpful with clarifying when her memories may have been biased or unclear. Overall, a great read and I think that people who knew her when she was alive were very lucky to have known someone with such a truly lovely...more What a wonderful story about an extraordinary woman. Her life before the war was as interesting to me as her accounts of the war and her life in the labor camps. I especially loved her accounts of Christmastime with her grandmother. The editors notes throughout the book were very helpful with clarifying when her memories may have been biased or unclear. Overall, a great read and I think that people who knew her when she was alive were very lucky to have known someone with such a truly lovely and heartbreaking story.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed some of this book very much, I found it to jump around a lot chronologically with no clear direction at times and I felt that the under writers, or co-authors footnotes were preachy at times and often did not add but rather distracted from Nonna's story. Some I thought was pure conjecture on their part and this put me off a bit. Nonna's story however was fascinating and heartbreaking and yet uplifting.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The title is a misnomer: very little of this book is diary entries. Almost all of it is memoirs written by Nonna Bannister decades after World War II, along with poems she wrote in her youth. Historical notes attempt to add context to Bannister's disjointed and at times confusing narrative.I didn't find this book to be all that interesting. Bannister writes in great detail about her happy childhood in a wealthy, educated Russian/Polish family, but practically skims over her experiences as a slave laborer in Germany during the war, and that's really what this book is supposed to be about. A lot of stuff is left unexplained -- for instance, why is she so certain her brother must have been killed in the war? If she made any attempts to locate him afterward, she doesn't say. I think she also spends way too much time on her genealogy.This has a somewhat original perspective of the bourgeoise Russian, oppressed by both Stalin and Hitler, but I'm sure there are other, better books out there from the same point of view.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was interesting to read an account of the Holocaust from the view of a young Russian girl, particularly as I hadn't previously read much about the experiences of the Russian people during that time in history. However, I found the historical comments throughout distracting. They broke the continuity of Nonna's story and would have, I believe, been better suited as footnotes. The story is compelling, however, and worth a read for individuals interested in experiencing a new perspective on the events of that period.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Reason for Reading: I am always interested in reading survivors' memoirs of the Holocaust. Comments: Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister, a Russian girl, lived through the Holocaust caught when the Germans invaded her city. She kept diaries from her childhood through the war up until the time she arrived in America in 1950 to start a new life. She never told a soul, not ever her husband or children, what happened to her during those war years. Then one day about 10 years before she died in her eighties she told her husband it was time and she took him up to the attic and showed him all the letters, memorabilia, photos and diaries (which she had written in several languages). She also showed him that she had been spending her time over the years transcribing her diaries into English and was finished as she pulled out stacks of yellow legal sized writing pads for him to read. She wanted her story told to the rest of the family and perhaps published but not until her death. And now that she has passed ... here is her story.Nonna was born and raised Russian Orthodox. She was a believer her entire life and became a Baptist later on in her new American life. She occasionally writes of her religion but no more so than anyone else's memoir might. However, the book is published by a Christian publisher, Tyndale, and does contain Christian content in the editorial comments.Nonna goes right back to her childhood years and spends a great portion of the book describing life in Russia during the 1930s. Her father's main goal in life was to get them out of Russia to a better place but he was never able to obtain permission through any channels he tried. Once the Germans invade her city it doesn't take long for various reasons that her brother and father are gone leaving her and her mother alone to fend for themselves. They spend their time going from one Nazi prison work camp to another until they end up working in a Catholic hospital because of Nonna's language skills. This at first seems a God-send but tragedy is not far behind. During this whole time they experience the brutality of the Nazis firsthand but even worse than that, they see with their own eyes the unimaginable horrors inflicted upon the Jewish people. When Nonna finally arrives in America in 1950, as far as she knows, she is the only living survivor of her entire family on both her maternal and paternal sides.When Nonna transcribed her diaries she didn't just translate them word for word. Instead she, now being an elderly woman having lived the majority of her life in America, has mostly used the past tense to tell her story though she does occasionally tell a few stories in first person. The story is also in many places obviously being told through the eyes of her present mature self, reflecting upon the past rather than translating her childhood words as they appear on paper. Finally, we can tell that her American self has taken over the little Russian girl as she interjects American slang or American phrases quite frequently into her transcriptions.The book contains a frequent editorial commentary running through the book. Some of this is used as reference points, historical explanations, background information, cultural explanations, etc and make for interesting reading. One thing that bugged me quite a bit though were the Christian comments. I myself am Christian but these comments felt very patronizing. Whenever Nonna or her mother, Anna, did a kind or brave deed, the comment would tell us how this act showed their Christian character shining through. Well, yes, it does. But I don't need someone telling me that every time, it felt rather grade school-ish. Nonna has an interesting, powerful story to tell and it's a shame she kept it secret from her family. I think she would have found great solace in sharing it with her husband earlier and with her children when they had grown. Thankfully, she choose not to keep her secret forever and to share with the world so that her story would not be forgotten. For that I thank you, Nonna.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Having read and seen many different perspectives of the Holocaust i was surprised to find a much different view. This book follows the life of a young Russian girl and her family. Nonna's family is very well off, her father an inventor and a whiz with languages (five of which he taught Nonna), her mother a very bright and gifted artist and musican, and her beloved grandmother the rock of the family. This book shows the reader Nonna's life before Stalin through the German invasion to work camps, to a brush with the Gestapo, to near death from illness .to living her fathers dream of life in America. This story is very heart felt and inspiring. A fresh perspective as most Holocaust stories are from the Jewish and Polish view point. This shows another horrible aspect of the war that most people are not even aware happened.This Diary is really a rewritten account of Nonna's Childhood diary from her adult persective and not the daily diary that she kept each day. Diaries and letters and photos that Nonna managed to keep all throughout the Holocaust. The book can be a little hard to follow as it jumps around quite a bit, different years and countries. The two editors did not do the book any favors with their heavy handed explnations of perfectly clear text, I really did not need them to point out such simple things as Nonna's father had taught her to speak and understand German when Nonna herself had just stated that very fact. The editors also seemed to try to place a religous twist on the book every chance they could, While Nonna had a strong belief in God that was in no way the point of her diary. I feel tha the editors should have used footnotes to convey their points as these would not have disrupted Nonna's Story.I would recommend this book as it is a story that should be remembered and shared, it shows all the best and the worst that life and people can be, it shows the grace, courage and love of a remarkable girl who surrived and lived her life never forgetting the joy as well as the pain. This is her story a personal window into her soul she shows you the love and joy of family alone with the pain of loss and horror that was the Hohocaust.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Nonna Bannister's diaries were incredible and moving to read. She relates her life as a young Russian girl trying to survive the horrors of the Holocaust through diaries she kept during the whole ordeal. Nonna was a strong, remarkable person. Her story is amazing and it is more amazing that she not only survived, but survived with a sense of compassion even for the people who murdered her family. It was interesting to learn new information about the Holocaust itself through this book. The Russian part in it is often overshadowed by the German story. The book gave me new insight on what happened there. Occasionally I felt the editors added unnecessary notes. Nonna tended to explain herself well and often the editors' notes were repeating what Nonna had already or was about to say. But there was not an overabundance of editor additions, so the book's powerful story still rings through. This is a good read for anyone with an interest in the Holocaust or in a horrifying, beautiful, moving book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    How do you "review" the diary of a young girl who gets caught up in the machination of WW11? The answer is - you don't. You read it and weep (metaphorically speaking) for all the senseless brutality and the torn fabric of society, homes, families. Nona kept her "secret" from her American family, until a few years before her death. Her husband helped her transcribe her diary, written on scraps of paper and sewn into pillow ticking (hence the book cover). The pillow held her memories and was with her during her life and even in death. I have more questions than answers - As the Germans were fastidious record keepers is it possible that information on Nona and her relatives is housed in the the Holocaust archives, in Bad Arolsen, Germany? Is her Babuskas' 37 room house still standing? What happened to all the Mills that her Grandfather owned - all destroyed by the War? I found the comments by the authors to be intrusive and a bit condescening. I don't believe they added anything to the story line. This book joins the pantheon of memoirs about the Holocaust, even though the author was not jewish.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    ** Advanced Reader Copy**The Secret Holocaust Diaries is an interesting book written from diaries kept during World War II by a Russian girl who chooses, between a rock and a hard place, to go off to perform slave labor. They were "secret" in that they were not revealed by the author until near her death, and only published afterwards. Unlike better known holocaust memoirs, this is from the perspective of a non-Jew living in the '20s and '30s in the Ukraine, in some comfort. It is interesting to have a very small window into the challenges of post-Revolution Russia, and the cultural and religious customs in the Ukraine during that time. While the story is grim, it is less harrowing than many recountings of concentration camps and violence, and could be appropriate for some younger readers. Readers - and teachers - may find the coauthors' efforts to provide brief summaries/annotations within each chapter to be intrusive. I found some to be informative but, for the most part, they distracted from the story recounted from Mrs. Bannister's diaries. The book is supplemented with a chronology, genealogical information, and letters written after Mrs. Bannister arrived in the U.S. The co-authors do a great job of interpreting when certain entries were written out of sequence, either as reminiscences or possible additions while Mrs. Bannister transcribed her original journal entries into English.Mrs. Bannister's story is an interesting one and a good addition of a different perspective to any collection of World War II autobiographies.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Attention all homeschoolers you must read this book! It covers details of World War II that we don't read about often in other books. For example, what was happening in Russia? What was happening to some Christians in Europe? The attention to detail was greatly appreciated from a teaching stand point. How tragic that these things really occured in countless peoples lives. We must never forget it. This book is a tool in helping us to remember yesterday so as not to repeat it. My only negative comment is that the narrator seemed at times to needlessly repeat facts that Nonna had shared quite clearly.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the story of Nonna, a young Orthodox girl born in Russia. She tells of her life during WWII.The story itself is excellent. Since Nonna was a Christian and Russian it gives a different perspective on the Holocaust which is valuable. The fact that it was transcribed from her diaries, written when the events actually happened, also makes it a valuable resource. The story is well told and flows nicely. The biggest downside to this book is the editorial comments. While they are occasionally helpful, or even necessary, to the story, all too often they interrupt the flow of the narrative. Many times they are repetitive or just not necessary. I would have preferred more of the actual diary and less comments. It also would have been nice to see the pictures since it was so often mentioned that they survived everything.All together though, I would recommend this book as an excellent first hand source of the events during the Holocaust.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a so-so book that covers the time period from about 1918 (Lenin's Revolution) until the author leaves a German hospital in about 1949. The pre-holocaust information is fairly good. However, the author was not i the general population of any camp and therefore information on THE holocaust is very skimpy. An easy read, if not redundant in some places.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very heavy and emotional reading. I never knew some of the things that was written in this book even happened during the Holocaust. I recommend it, but once again, it’s a pretty heavy read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An amazing story of survival. I found this to be a great read from a Russian/Ukrainian point of view.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I found this hard to follow. Nonna Bannister was born into a relatively wealthy Russian family. Several of her family members were killed during the German ww2 occupation and Nonna and her mother decide therefore to flee to Nazi Germany (presumably not knowing what was going on there.) They end up working in a labour camp alongside Jews and Poles. They witness the serious atrocities at the hands of the Nazis. At the end of WW2 Nonna is the sole survivor of her family and she moves to America where she marries and lives a relatively normal life for the next 50 years. She had three children when she died.

    Nonna's American family state that she was always very secretive about her past and they didn't really know where she had come from or why she had come to America. Even her husband didn't ask her, he just sensed that she would tell him when the time was right. Eventually she revealed her past and her diaries documenting the events to her husband just a few years before she died. She swore him to secrecy until after her death, hence the delay in publishing this book. I hope this lady died trusting in Jesus but that isn't clear from her first hand account.

    The first half of the book was various genealogies and details of family life that wouldn't really interest a typical reader. The second half was more interesting but it was choppy and dis-jointed. Although I have read many books/accounts about activities by the Nazis, the terrible inhumanity never fails to shock. There are several incidents documented in this book of murder by Nazi SS Officers, including one of a baby, who clearly have lost all capacity for any type of normal human behaviour. There are other gruesome details recorded for the sake of historical accuracy but I wouldn't want to read them for interest' sake.

    There is not really any Christian content in this book apart from brief references to God according to the Catholic tradition. I wouldn't recommend this book as it's hard to read due to the flow and contains disturbing scenes that will definitely upset some readers. For those who are researching the subject it might be useful but it doesn't appear to be particularly well documented.

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Book preview

The Secret Holocaust Diaries - Nonna Bannister

Preface

This is the true story of a Russian-American woman named Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister.

The material within these pages comes from the private, handwritten transcripts that Nonna made of her diaries from childhood, World War II, and the years immediately following the war. She expanded and compiled them during the late 1980s, with further commentary based on her memory of events. Translating into English from her original documents, which were written in five languages, Nonna wrote her life story on yellow legal pads and kept them hidden from everyone, including her husband, Henry.

In the 1990s, after decades of marriage, Nonna finally told Henry about her secret past. She also made him promise that he wouldn’t share any of her hidden material until after her death. Henry kept his promise to Nonna, only now making her writings public after her death in 2004.

Nonna had kept a lifetime of secret diaries. She began writing as a young girl and received a diary of her own from her father when she was nine years old. In this childhood diary she described her life, her family, and her dreams, and she included some of her poetry. She also kept a formal diary during the latter years of World War II, when Catholic nuns at a German hospital hid her from the Nazis and nursed her back to health. She continued this diary in the years immediately following the war.

During World War II, when Nonna left the Ukraine and traveled to Nazi Germany, she kept a pillow made of black and white ticking tied around her waist. In this small pillow, she kept her thin childhood diary, various bundles of paper scraps on which she kept notes of her wartime experiences, and several photographs and family documents. In addition to the written record that Nonna left of her memories—transcribed onto pads of paper and then typed by Henry Bannister—the Bannister family has in its possession one of Nonna’s diaries, dated 1947–48; postcards from Nonna’s mother, dated 1944–45; and many other personal documents and photographs from the Word War II era.

Fluent in at least seven languages, Nonna did the translation work herself. She transcribed her diaries from the various languages in which she had written them into English, one of the last languages she learned—which may account for some of the awkwardness of English grammar and sentence construction in her memoir. Also, transcribing the diaries years after the events described in them and adding her own present-day commentary in places, she did not always adhere to a linear progression. Thus, though translation was not necessary, some minor editing was. Efforts were also made to bring Nonna’s family names to a consistent spelling, though it was not possible to maintain any one style of transliteration.

The editors have in some cases combined into one place events that Nonna recorded in different places in her transcripts, as well as giving explanation to the historical chronology in the appendix. Throughout her text, editorial comments have been added where an explanation seemed helpful for better understanding of the transcripts, the historical settings, and Nonna’s family. Some of this commentary comes from Henry Bannister’s remembrances of Nonna’s stories.

Though similar to other memoirs of the war and the Holocaust years, Nonna’s account provides a rare glimpse into the life of a girl who was born to a wealthy family in the Ukraine, experienced great suffering in Stalin’s Soviet Union, and eventually lost her family and her own freedom at the hands of Nazi Germany. It is a story with unusual significance as one of the few firsthand accounts of a girl from a once-privileged family, who fell into the ranks of the Ostarbeiter—the primarily Ukrainian Eastern laborers transported to Germany during the war as slave labor under Adolf Hitler’s regime. The fact that she not only survived such turmoil and tragedy but also moved on through faith in God to forgive those who took away so much makes her story all the more remarkable.

Carolyn Tomlin

Jackson, Tennessee

Denise George

Birmingham, Alabama

Summer 2008

Introduction

I have now decided that the time has come when I must share my life story—not only with my loving family, but perhaps with all those who are interested to know what life was like for many of us on the other side of the world before and during World War II. I wish to speak the truth and nothing but the truth—but some things I shall keep to myself—nobody needs them but me. I doubt that anyone reveals the whole truth about oneself, even in confession. There are things in everyone’s life that are known only to oneself and our almighty Father God.

The events described in the following pages were written from my diaries and notes that were transcribed from the four to six languages in which I had written them—starting when I was nine years old. I have translated the poems and thoughts and scripts into English. I have worked on keeping these all together since 1942, when Mama and I left our homeland and were sent to Germany, where we were to be slave labor. In these notes, I kept a record of all the terrors, atrocities, and the new life into which we were thrown. Throughout these ordeals, I never forgot my grandmother and the rest of my family, which had been torn apart and ultimately destroyed—when I would hear a train whistle in the distance, I would immediately think that my dear brother, Anatoly, would be on that train and on his way back to us. This work is an effort to tell the truth about what took place during World War II under the direction of Hitler and his Gestapo troops.

There are not many of us remaining that lived through those very difficult and troubled times and are now free to tell the true stories of life. Many, including my own family, perished before having a chance to reach freedom. I am compelled to write this story because I was a witness to many events that took place then and because I am the only survivor of my entire family.

I do regret that I did not write this story sooner. But when I came to America in June of 1950, I was overwhelmed by my new life. I wanted so much to forget the unhappiness of the past and to make a new and happy life for myself that I actually shut the door to the past and had no desire to dwell on it. And a happy life I have made for myself by falling in love with the most kind and wonderful man and marrying him on June 23, 1951.

When my first son, Hank, was born on October 30, 1953, there was just no end to my happiness. I engrossed myself completely in motherhood, and I loved my husband and my son too much to ever even think of my sad past. So I became a wife and a mother full time. Then my daughter, Elizabeth, was born on July 11, 1957, and my happiness and duties as a full-time mother increased. My youngest son, John, was born on March 27, 1959, which happened to be on Good Friday of that year. My family became my only concern, and my entire interest was now directed exclusively to my husband and my children. I was filled with love and the responsibilities of taking care of them and loving them with all my heart and mind.

There were times when I would think about my family that I had lost, and I would think about how close and loving we had been. However, I just could not bring myself to inflict my sad memories on my husband and my still-young children. I did not want anything to interfere with the happiness that we had, and certainly when the children were growing up, my only concern was to protect them from anything that would leave them with depressing impressions. I wanted so very much to create a healthy and happy environment for all of them.

Now that the children have grown up and are well-adjusted and intelligent human beings, I feel that they should know more about their ancestors from my side of the family—that my children must know how they lived and how they died. I also feel that by telling my true life story, I may be revealing some facts from the past that could make a contribution, however small it may be, to the history of mankind.

It is very difficult for me to relive that part of my life even through the memories that are still with me—so precise and vivid. However, I have an uncontrollable desire to write about those years of my life, which were filled not only with sad events but also with happy times when I was growing up and still had all my family. It took great effort to put my story together, but I have had tremendous support from my loving husband. I feel very fortunate to have had him by my side and to have his encouragement. Without this encouragement, it would have been very difficult to go through with it.

When I left Russia, I took with me a passionate love for my homeland the way it was before the Bolshevik Revolution—the Russia I knew from the stories that were told to me by my dear grandmother and my loving parents. My hope and desire is to live long enough to see my homeland, the country so dear to me, become free again as it was before I was born. The hope that I live with and my prayers to God are that I will see—or at least my children and grandchildren will see—Russia become the "Old Mother Rossija" as it used to be—to see Russia return to its beauty and magnificence.

Is it really possible for this to ever happen again? The Rossija shall become free again—those were the words of my dear grandmother. It was a promise that she made to us, her grandchildren, as well as to her children. The beautiful land where creativity, art, and music would flourish again someday, free and independent. The land where the Russian people would be able to exercise their talents freely.

I get furiously angry at the thought of what has been done to my ancestors and to the land I love so much. But I do feel very fortunate to have at least some knowledge, which was passed on to me by my own family before I lost them. I shall try to pass this on to my own children so that they will know the truth and be as proud of their roots as I am.

How can one tell the story, especially write the story, without knowledge of the writer? The story is so real and so full of horrors. How can I describe the things that I have seen and felt and that made me the sole survivor of my family—all the troubled times and horrors and terror that surrounded all of us? It is difficult for me to put my thoughts into proper perspective, especially since my English vocabulary is somewhat limited.

Though I have lived in America for forty-seven years, I still find it difficult to express my thoughts properly. I have yet another problem, which is that I have allowed myself to forget the languages I knew so well when I came to this country. I spoke six languages very well, and most of my notes and some of my poems, which I wrote between nine years old and nineteen years old, were written in the Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Latvian, and German languages.

I kept diaries during those years, and even as I lay in the hospital stricken with rheumatic fever and the ensuing heart problems, I continued to write in my diary for some time before I left Germany. My diary was written in several languages, but it was written with the deep feelings of one who had gone through a great deal of sad times. Most of my writings were about my mother, father, and my brother, Anatoly. I also became very close to God Himself, and my writings were full of expressed feelings toward faith in God and His mercy on me. I felt very close to God, and I felt that He had chosen to keep me alive for a very definite purpose. So I put into writing all my feelings—as best I could—and all that I had learned about God from my dear grandmother and my parents.

Translating from my own notes and diaries, I find myself in a great state of confusion, because it is difficult for me—after so many years—to understand my own writing, especially since the languages it was all written in became somewhat estranged to me. However, with extra time and much effort, it finally comes to me, and I am able to put it into English so that at least I can understand the meaning of my own thoughts during those troubled times. When I wrote some of my poems, I wrote them under the influence of grief, which was still with me after losing my entire family. It was so recent, and I was still in shock from the whole ordeal.

My age has become a hindrance to me in remembering some of the events that took place during the very early part of my childhood. But it seems that I manage to block out the sad times in my memory and to concentrate only on the happy ones. Little by little, all of it comes back to me as though by chain reaction. It may take me some time to put it all together, but I am so inspired to write that I don’t think anything can prevent or discourage me from writing my true life story now. I only wish that I had some education in writing stories, even if it is the story of my own life.

Perhaps someday I will be able to put it all in proper perspective, but right now I only want to get it out of my head and just write it down the best I know how. What I write is all true, and I have witnessed all of it. Most of all, I like to write about things that I learned from my grandmother and my loving parents.

Nonna L. Bannister

Wedding photo of Henry Bannister and Nonna Lisowskaja

Prologue

Henry Bannister met Nonna Lisowskaja in 1951. He knew little about her when she agreed to marry him. She was a mysterious woman with a painful secret—a secret she hid from him for more than forty years of marriage.

A decade before Nonna died, she took him by the hand and led him to the attic of their small house in Memphis, Tennessee.

It’s time, she said.

Henry had waited a long while for those words. He didn’t know what secrets the attic held, but he had watched his wife climb those stairs many times, disappearing into the night for some unknown reason. He never asked why she went or what she did up there, knowing that she could not speak about it and deeply respecting her privacy.

He also never inquired about the black-and-white-striped ticking pillow Nonna held to her heart each night at bedtime. He just knew she couldn’t sleep without it.

Nor did Henry ask Nonna about her family back in Germany or Russia, or wherever she had come from. He knew she’d tell him when she was ready. So he waited.

Only once did Nonna give Henry a glimpse into her painful past. They and their three young children attended a church service at Central Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at which the guest speaker told of his harrowing Holocaust experiences at the hands of German Nazis. Nonna shocked Henry by jumping up from the pew and running out of the sanctuary, crying. He quietly gathered the children and took Nonna home. She immediately went to bed—and stayed there for several weeks. Henry didn’t know how to help her.

What’s wrong, Mama? their younger son, John, asked again and again. Mama, what’s wrong? John received a mother’s embrace, but no answer to his question.

Again, Henry didn’t pry into Nonna’s past. He simply took care of the house and children, and he waited for her to get up from her bed, to reveal what had so disturbed her.

Many years later, he was still waiting. The children had grown up, married, and built lives of their own. Nonna suffered with her health—her heart and her back—and underwent several surgeries. Her fingers knotted with painful arthritis, Henry’s eyesight dimmed, and together they grew old. Then one day, out of the blue, she spoke the words he longed to hear: Henry, it’s time.

They climbed the attic stairs and sat down beside the old heavy wooden trunk Nonna had painted lime-green—the color of living things. She picked up a worn key and turned the metal lock. She showed Henry old photographs, introducing him one by one to her family: grandmother, aunts and uncles, mother and father, cousins, friends—all of them dead, long buried a world away in unmarked graves. The last photograph Nonna pulled from the trunk was one of her only sibling, Anatoly.

He’d be almost seventy years old now, she said.

Nonna reached into the trunk. She took from it a fragile, hand-sewn diary, its pages filled with writing in Russian.

My childhood diary, she said. Papa gave it to me on my ninth birthday.

Then she put into Henry’s hands a small pad of paper—diaries she had written immediately after the war, each page covered with microscopic pencil marks.

He held the small pad of paper up to the attic’s ceiling bulb and tried to read the faded words.

My eyes are too weak to read them, Nonna. What do they say?

They’re hard to read, Henry. I wrote in such tiny print.

How am I to learn your secrets, Nonna, if I can’t read your diaries?

Nonna smiled. Then, from the trunk she pulled a thick stack of legal pads, each long yellow page filled with hand-penned words.

The translations of my diaries, and my story, she said. In English.

Then Nonna climbed down the attic stairs, and Henry began to read.

Train to Agony

CHAPTER 1

BOARDING THE TRAIN

August 7, 1942—Konstantinowka, Ukraine

It is fourteen hours and fifteen minutes (2:15 p.m.), and we were just loaded on the train! My God—this is not what we thought it would be like to make this journey! We are packed like sardines in a can into the cattle cars of the train. The German soldiers with their rifles are with us and Mama is scared. (I know that she is.) Mama still thinks we can get off the train and leave our luggage behind and walk home. There is Grandmother standing about twenty feet away, looking so shocked and in dismay—she is crying—with the tears running down her face as she waves good-bye. Somehow, I know that we will never see her again.

As the train starts to move, Mama and I just look at Grandmother until she is out of sight. At the hour of 1600 (4:00 p.m.) everyone inside our car is very quiet and nobody is talking. Some are crying quietly—and I am glad that I have my diary and two pencils.

I got into the corner as far as I could so I would have some room to write. Now the door of our car is open, but I can hear some noises from the top of the roof. The German soldiers had positioned themselves on the top of the train, and they are talking and singing—I think they are drinking—they sound drunk to me.

It is almost midnight—the moon is so full—and we are crossing large fields. I need to get closer to the door so I can get some fresh air. As I approach the open door, I see a pair of legs in black boots dangling right above the door—then this face leans down and the soldier yells, Hi, pretty one! and I get away from the door very quickly. Mama pulls me closer to herself, and I think I am getting sleepy.

August 8, 1942

When we wake up, we can look into the horizon and see the sun rising from the edges of the biggest fields that I have ever seen—it is a beautiful sunrise! Where are we? How close are we to Kiev? The train is slowing down, and it looks as though we will stop moving.

August 9, 1942

We are in Kiev, but the train stopped at least a block away from the large train station. The Germans jumped down, and I could see how many of them there were—we were surrounded. They were telling us to get out—"Raus, raus." We saw trucks approaching the train, loaded with German soldiers and German shepherd dogs (lots of dogs). There was a truck loaded with food (soup made with cabbage and potatoes, and there was black bread). They passed out some bowls to us, and as we walked to the food truck, I looked to the back of the train and I saw two cars loaded with Jews. They were not allowed to get out—the doors of their cars were barred with heavy metal bars, and the

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