Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz [Paperback]

Rena Kornreich Gelissen (Author), Heather Dune Macadam (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 1996

Sent to Auschwitz on the first Jewish transport, Rena Kornreich survived the Nazi death camps for over three years. While there she was reunited with her sister Danka. Each day became a struggle to fulfill the promise Rena made to her mother when the family was forced to split apart--a promise to take care of her sister.

One of the few Holocaust memoirs about the lives of women in the camps, Rena's Promise is a compelling story of the fleeting human connections that fostered determination and made survival a possibility. From the bonds between mothers, daughters, and sisters, to the links between prisoners, and even prisoners and guards, Rena's Promise reminds us of the humanity and hope that survives inordinate inhumanity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Imagining that, by volunteering for a work camp, she would somehow be protecting her family from the Nazis, Rena, at age 17, put on her best clothes, left her fiance and the Polish village of Tylicz in the Carpathian Mountains and was sent off to Auschwitz. Presently, her sister Danka arrived, as did cousins, schoolmates and neighbors. As a child, she had promised her mother to look after her baby sister, and that promise obsessed her throughout her incarceration in the camp. It gave her reason to survive, so that one day she could bring Danka safely home. How they escaped starvation, beatings, the crematorium, the medical experiments of the notorious Josef Mengele and survived the end of the war is all recounted here in this spirited survivor's testament, written with freelancer Macadam. After the war, Rena married a Red Cross worker and emigrated to the U.S., following her sister.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Gelissen, who was on the first Jewish transport to Auschwitz, describes in this account the constant struggle for survival in the camp. She soon learns there were no guarantees. Rena's motivation came strongly from a promise to her parents to keep her younger sister, Danka, safe. Her account describes the relentless specter of death while at the same time showing how prisoners would risk their lives to smuggle medicine, clothes, and food to other prisoners. Because Rena was an early prisoner in Auschwitz, she describes some of the confusion at the beginning and the realization of what was really happening to the Jewish people. Helpful features of the book include historical notes and a section describing the fate of the people the sisters knew. This memoir captures the horror of Auschwitz in a clear way that helps the reader understand the atrocities perpetrated there. Recommended for Holocaust collections.
Mary Salony, West Virginia Northern Community Coll. Lib., Wheeling
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (October 30, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807070718
• ISBN-13: 978-0807070710
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (105 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > Holocaust
  • #38 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Jewish

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding tale of love and evil., May 15, 2005

By 

Lee Mellott "Skin Care For Wrinkles" (Frederick, Maryland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz (Paperback)

There have been many first person accounts of the concentration camps. Rena's story is among the most detailed and gripping.

Rena as a young woman turned herself in as a Jew in order to prevent problems for a family that was helping her. Little did she know of the ordeal that lie ahead. And when I say ordeal that does not begin to describe the terrifying journey that Rena takes.

In the camps, Rena is eventually reunited with her sister Danka and makes a promise to her (hence the title of the book) that if she (Danka) is to be killed Rena will go with her. They will die or live together. As the story unfolds you really grasp the utter evil of the Nazi's as they played their evil games with the prisoners. How Rena and Danka manage to escape deaths door on so many occasions is a miracle. But they do. Yet the pain and suffering they experience is unimaginable. And the pain and suffering of those who meet untimely, unthinkable torture and deaths is described too.

Whenever I am tempted to whine or moan or b*tch about something, I think of Rena and Danka and their incredible endurance. It puts my problems in perspective. The book also has made me appreciate the little things, like a hot shower or good book, a warm meal or a lazy morning sleeping. Things that Rena and Danka never received but could only dream of.

This is a graphic book, but one that can change your way of thinking of life. A truly bold tale that opens your eyes to the deepest evil and the strongest love.

64 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Danka's Grandson, August 10, 2004

By 

ABrandel05 "Andrew Brandel" (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz (Paperback)

Hey everyone, I am Danka (Dina) Brandel's grandson, Andrew Brandel. Rena is my great aunt. It's really great to hear all of your praise about the book, and that you enjoyed reading about the stories I grew up on. My grandma gave these first hand accounts often, especially when I was younger and I know our whole family was very excited when my Tante Rena wrote it all down. They are both as amazing people in real life as they are portrayed in the story, I can assure you first hand. Anyway, I am glad you all enjoyed their story!

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Raw and moving, January 2, 2005

By 

Anyechka (Rensselaer, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz (Paperback)

This was a very involving and detailed book; even though the content can be too much for some people, I really like how many specific details were given about what happened every day, instead of, like some other Shoah memoirs, just skipping between the most important events during the author's incarceration, or not giving enough details about daily life. I've read some pretty detailed Shoah memoirs, but this one by far has been the most intricately detailed one, complete with footnotes elaborating even further on the event or date being described. Rena and Danka were also prisoners in the camp from practically the very beginning, among the first civilian transports, as opposed to how there were originally only male political prisoners there. These incredible sisters had some incredible strokes of luck the way they escaped nearly certain death so many times, like when they just walked away from the roll call taking place before Mengele was to begin medical experiments or when Rena evaded detection at several roll calls after she stole potatoes in the last camp they were in. I would have liked some extra chapters on how they got by after the liberation too, but the afterword sufficed, telling us the basics about what happened to them and their friend Dina, as well as the fates of the various other people we met throughout the book, like the male prisoners who helped to save them at various points, or the fate of their other relatives and friends. I also liked how the story was told in nonlinear perspective at the beginning (i.e., in different voices and at different times). It was also surprising to read at the beginning that Rena had had her tattoo surgically removed and kept it in a jar of formaldehyde; I've only heard of a handful of survivors who elected to have their tattoos removed.