J. L. Witterick

What an amazing story But this is a fictional account inspired by the courage of Franciszka Halamajowa and her daughter Helena. The characters in this novel are fictional but a lot of the events are true with the happenings at the time.

Its an amazing story but unfortunately I found the writing very childish and disjointed and wasn't sure exactly what was real and what was fictional until the end where the author does explain in her Epilogue.

Five stars for bringing this story of two remarkable and courageous people to my attention. Franciszka and her daughter Helena risk their lives to shelter Jews in Nazi occupied Poland although the penalty for doing so is the death sentence and yet they saved the lives of 15 people in their tiny home.
I love reading stories of ordinary people in times of war who go above and beyond to make a difference and what a difference these two people made and it is heart warming and inspirational to read stories like this.

However while this book is a moving story I felt the writing was a bit of a let down. Character development was poor and the story felt quite disjointed. While I know the characters were fictional I couldn't get a sense of any of them and really felt there could have been so much more to each of these characters. The book lacked a sense of time and place also and this was disappointing also.

However at the HEART of this novel is a remarkable true story of two amazing and courageous women who put the needs of others before their own and not only did they save 15 people they probably saved hundreds as those 15 people have probably gone on to have families populate the world all because of Franciszka and Helena.

A remarkable story simply told.… (more)