This is the true story of a group of women who did their best to resist the Nazi occupation of France during the early 1940's. Their group of 230 included writers, teachers, students, scientists, homemakers, a dental surgeon and many others. The youngest was a teenager and the oldest was in her 60's. They were all arrested for resisting, one simply for writing in a letter that she hoped the Nazis would lose. Betrayed, rounded up and then,imprisoned at first in France in January of 1943, they were sent to Auschwitz and Birkenau. The horror of their internment is something I will never forget.

They were called, as a group, Convoi des 31000. Only 49 of the 230 survived the experience.

Their survival depended on their strength and on sticking together. They did their best to maintain a unity that is amazing and breathtaking.

My only complaint is that I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. But, I guess that is the point. It is the group that had the strength to survive, not the individuals.

That is what I took from this book.

reminding people in today's world of how good we have it. What these women went through in their service to others (especially Jewish women) is amazing and heartbreaking at the same time.

Germany. I have never been there and would never want to go there because of what I have read about the way their citizens behaved.

cry over man's humanity to man. Those horrifying Nazis were not that long ago to be forgotten. I will never forget this book.

if you want to learn about the horror that was occupied France and, later, the internment camps with the the gas chambers, this is a good place to start.

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Created Aug 25, 2014 at 1:33pm • Submit your own review...