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The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister

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I bought The Secret Holocaust Diaries a few weeks ago and started reading it. What an amazing book! Nonna Bannister was a gifted young Russian girl from a loving, warm, and wealthy family. Caught up in the horror of World War II, she watched everything and everyone she knew and loved disintegrate before her eyes. Yet Nonna miraculously survived, with her faith intact and her secret diaries hidden away, known only to her until recently. What is most astonishing to me was Nonna's lack of bitterness and hatred for the perpetrators of the savagery she witnessed--possible only with divine forgiveness, I'm sure, but still difficult to fathom.

Reading The Secret Holocaust Diaries is like sitting down to tea with Nonna, as she unveils the secrets carefully packed away in her locked green trunk in the attic. Even her husband didn't learn about her past until their twilight years, when she decided it was finally time to tell him. I'm so glad she decided to share. Nonna's voice is powerful; after I read a passage and close the book, her lovely and heartwrenching prose stays with me. This is the type of book you don't want to read too fast; I'm savoring it, page by page.

[...]

When 23-year old Nonna Bannister arrived in the United States in 1950, she closed the door on her disturbing past. She married and raised three children and never told a soul about her experiences in Russia, the Ukraine, and Germany during the Holocaust. After 43 years of marriage, she finally introduced her husband to her past, the photographs and diaries she had miraculously saved and painstakingly transcribed into English. This book is her story.

The book, a compilation of Nonna's diary entries and family stories, opens with her 1942 transport from the Ukraine to Poland, bound for a "labor camp" in Germany. The horror is quickly realized as fifteen year old Nonna witnesses firsthand the murderous brutality of the German soldiers toward the Jewish prisoners.

After this shocking opening, the editors return us to Nonna's earliest childhood memories and stories about her unusually comfortable life in Russia post-Revolution, embracing family and Russian Orthodox Christian religion as the foundation of her character. Embedded in these childhood tales, Nonna becomes more aware of the outside world and dangerous influences. In the mid-1930s, the communist Soviet laws were heavily enforced, ending her Grandmother's prosperity and Nonna remembers that everything had to be "donated" to the "collective farms." Religion was forbidden and her parents send away her older brother to an unknown location for his safety. Nonna never saw him again. As German troops approach from one front, the family chooses not to evacuate with the retreating Soviets and hide in the cellar. They later learn that Aunts, Uncles, and cousins who did retreat were killed.

When the Germans invade in 1941, Nonna and her mother are sent to another village for safety, while her father hides; but he is discovered. The rest of the book cover Nonna's darkest experiences. After her father's death, she and her mother are transported to Germany. Nonna's compassion and brief futile attempt to help a young Jewish boy leads her to be put in the middle of a massacre, where she is miraculously saved by the same boy, who dies seconds later.


She survives her experiences at the labor camp and soon her knowledge of five different languages, especially German, is recognized as a valuable asset. She and her mother are moved to a Catholic hospital where Nonna works as a clerical translator and her mother serves as a nurse's aide. But an incident that happened on that first train ride from the Ukraine causes the Gestapo to arrest Nonna's mother and transport her to Ravensbruck and then Flossenburg.

Nonna's story is a valuable contribution as a primary source and witness to the Holocaust. While the editors notes interrupt the flow of the narrative, and should have been added as sidebars or footnotes, they enhance the reader's understanding with background information. The book would benefit greatly from a map showing the various locales discussed, and despite being told that the diaries and photographs survive, there are no photographs included in the book and would be a valuable addition.

Don't pass up reading this book because it addresses an uncomfortable topic. If this teenage girl could live through this and write it as it happened, then we, in our comfort sixty years later, can definitely read it and be witness to her life and the truth. Despite the struggle, this is a tale not only of survival, faith, and courage, but also forgiveness, strength, and hope.

Nonna Bannister left behind the horrors of her European childhood when she relocated to the United States alone. Having lost all of her family, including her brother Anatoly with whom she was quite close to the Nazi regime, Nonna closed the door on her life in Europe and started afresh in the United States. Throughout her marriage, the birth of her children, and her latter years, she did not speak of the immense cruelty she suffered at the hands of the Germans, however one day, she opened her secret place in the attic to her husband. Looking at her journals written in many different languages (Nonna knew at least five fluently) her husband wondered how he would read these memoirs that were written in a tongue he didn't know. It was then that Nonna produced the legal pads. Piles of legal notepads full of her translations. This book is the meat of those notepads.

the secret Holocaust Diaries is Nonna's true story of her experiences at the hands of the Germans. It chronicles her childhood before the Germans came to power and continues through he imprisonment at a labor camp through until her death. With a memoir, I feel the story cannot be critiqued because this is not a plot fabricated in the mind of an author--this is a person's life; their experience. Therefore any critique is my opinion on the writing style and/or how much I enjoyed the book.

That being said, I don't think 'enjoy' is the correct word to use when referring to reading a true story about the Holocaust. This book was intriguing and poignantly written. I will warn that it is a detailed account of Nonna's experiences and there are some VERY disturbing interactions that take place. What more can one expect from a Holocaust memoir. If you enjoy reading memoirs or Holocaust based titles, this book is a must-read. Again, I would caution however that one should be mindful of the age of those who read this.

This book was provided by Tyndale House Publishers for review purposes.

Readers will find this memoir of the mid-twentieth century a powerful reminder of the heights and depths of the human condition. It tells the story of a woman who lives contentedly in the late twenties and early thirties in Western Russia, moves to the Ukraine in time to be caught, in 1939-40, between the fierce invasion of the Nazis and the fearful retreat of the Russians, each hating the other, and destroying the innocents in the territories between the two nations. The woman, Nonna Bannister with her mother, finds herself captured by the Germans and sent to a number of camps in Poland and Germany to serve as slave labor. What she witnesses and its impact on her life lies at the heart of this autobiographical reflection - assembled late in her life from diaries and scraps hidden in secret recesses. Nonna's story contains all the violence and horror we associate with the Holocaust. It also illustrates the powers of courage, incredible bravery, human solidarity and hope in face of the worst we can do to one another. The two collaborators in the story's telling, Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin inevitably discover themselves engaged in Nonna Bannister's life, and eagerly seek to assist us in interpeting that life as a unique testimony to an undergirding Christian faith. They - and Ms. Bannister- succeed fabulously well.

I was born in Poland about the same time when Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister was born in Ukraine/Russia. I come from a religious, loving, warm, wealthy and close knit family; so was Nonna. I became a victim of Hitler's war of conquest, and Nonna became a victim of Stalin's communism and Hitler's fascism. Nonna and I were caught up in the horrors of World War II. There were different pitfalls on our way, but we did survive with stabbed souls and traumatic memories in forefront of our minds.

The Secret Holocaust Diaries were written on scraps of paper. Being a captive in slave and concentration camps, I could not record my experiences. I had no access to paper to write on, neither a pencil nor pen to write with. I am glad that Nonna, had the courage and the ability to write and keep her diaries. Thus, enabling contemporary and future generations to learn what dictatorship and racial prejudice may lead to. Any student learning the history of WWII, or individual, who remembers or witnessed the events of that tragic war, will benefit from reading this unusual book.

During the Third Reich's occupation of Poland, I saw the Germans looting, expropriating, beating, torturing, shooting, hanging, burning alive, starving innocent people. However, being enslaved in concentration camps for three years, I had no access to a newspaper or radio. Ergo, I could not have been aware of the many phenomenal events that took place, in and outside Poland, Russia or Germany as transmitted in Nonna's book.

Nonna saw a Jewish woman tossing her baby into Nonna's mother's arms. Later on that Jewish baby was taken away from her mother and Nonna watched a Nazi soldier killing that baby. What a traumatic experience this was for Nonna who was a young child at the time! I still have nightmares about the murder of my father when I was only thirteen years old.

Although I have, after the war, read many books about WWII, I find The Secret Holocaust Diaries, very informative, compelling and obviously authentic. How ironic and painful it is to read in (9/1/2009) NY Times, the seventieth anniversary of WWII outbreak, that Hamas leader, Yunis al-Astal had said "Adding the Holocaust to the curriculum would amount to marketing a lie and spreading it." This is a reckless prevarication unpalatable to Holocaust survivors. Nonna Bannister, a Christian, impacted by and witnessed atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, kept a diary of factual events in her life. She did not show her diary to anybody. For forty years, she was reluctant to share her traumatic past with her loving husband. Such diaries are obviously not lies.

I am grateful to Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister for her efforts to keep her diaries and to the editors, Carolyn Tomlin & Denise George, for the compilation. The atrocities that Nonna had experienced and witnessed had been committed against defenseless civilians from numerous nations. It corroborates that every Jew was a victim, but not every victim was a Jew. Racial prejudice is contagious. As a Jew, the Nazis categorized me as subhuman, (Untermentch). So were all Slavs, denizens of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia and other European countries. Hitler's imposition of a pernicious regime would not have stopped in Europe if the Allies had not won the war.

Alter Wiener, Author "From A Name to A Number"

By the time Nonna Lisowskaja turned nine years old, she'd learned four to six languages. Also, she was on a path of learning forgiveness, courage and hope, especially from her mother, maternal grandmother, and her father.

April 21, 2009 was Holocaust Remembrance Day. Just prior to 10:00 o'clock in Israel that day, horns and sirens blared, followed by two minutes of silence. Traffic stopped. Pedestrians stopped. Most bowed their heads remembering the 11 million who perished during the Holocaust, six million were Jews.

I read The Secret Holocaust Diaries the Untold Story of Nonna Bannister a few weeks ago. Nonna, of Russian lineage, was the lone survivor of her family of 35. Later, a young adult, she arrived in New Orleans June 6, 1950 aboard the USNS General Haan, determined that her new life in America would look forward to happier times and not look backward at the evil that caused the loss of her entire family.

She brought with her a packet of documents, photos, post cards, and secret diaries that she had written from an early age on miniscule scraps of paper, in different languages. She kept the striped ticking packet hidden under her clothes and slept with it every night of her life.

She married Henry Bannister soon after her arrival, and they had over 50 years together, rearing three children. Her loving husband knew that Nonna had a painful past, but he also knew that when she was ready, she'd talk about it. He honored her time schedule.

Later in life, Nonna began to translate her diaries into English, transcribing them onto many yellow legal pads. One night she took Henry's hand and leading him to the attic of their home, she said, "It's time."

There amid the dusky lighting and unadorned timbers, she opened a double locked truck. Her past unfolded, as Henry read the transcribed pages. First, he read about her beautiful childhood lived out in Russia with her privileged family. Yet, the later sheets of yellow paper told stories of unspeakable loss and sights that no child should witness.

What makes Nonna's recounting so outstanding is an overriding sense of joy because of the goodness in others during wartime, often at great risk to themselves. Nonna adopted an attitude of forgiveness and compassion from her family and her Heavenly Father, often giving thanks in her diaries.

I admit, her tender account of her father's dying is difficult to read, and it's difficult to comprehend the cruelty that mankind is capable of committing. Having been severely beaten by German soldiers and his eyes gouged out, he lingered with only in-home care for six weeks before he succumbed to his injuries. Nonna said he "remained the same gentle and kind person" forgiving the soldiers who had beaten him.

Rich in spiritual gifts, Nonna's grandmother left indelible legacies of faith to her granddaughter. Nonna also tells about gentle faith building moments with her mother. Among those are the times she witnessed her mother lovingly caring for frozen German soldiers, their enemies.

Instead of gathering fiction for summer time reading, read The Secret Holocaust Diaries. The charity you find within the pages is like a vacation for the soul. I promise you'll have new "insights."

Definitely an intriguing read. I did not have any problem with Nonna's self editing. What I did have a problem with was the frequent interruptions in the text from the two editors constantly explaining things that at times were quite obvious. I can understand the occasional interjection to explain history, but even those became redundant towards the end. I would have liked to have seen this piece stand on it's own.

Disclaimer: Tyndale House Publishers provided me a complimentary copy of this book.

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Nonna Bannister lived the majority of her life without sharing her Holocaust experiences with those she was closest to, not even her husband. Near the end of her life, however, Bannister revealed her complete story, first to her family and now with the world. The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister is a haunting and poignant memoir of a young lady whose innocence was shattered by the brutal savagery of WWII.

Although Nonna's story is a powerful one, the book drags early on. Nonna's attention to detail is quite impressive, but the myriad details with regard to her family context (names of family members, dates of birth, anecdotal material re: how family members met, etc.) contribute to a too-slowly developing narrative. Nonna's memoir would benefit from tighter editing; the first 120 pages could easily be edited down to around 40-50.

But the narrative really takes off as Nonna recounts the tragic death of her father and the ensuing experiences she and her mother faced in SS Germany. It is a chilling tale; by the age of 16, Nonna was the lone surviving member of her family. Hers is a tale of innocence lost and a commentary on the enduring quality of the human spirit, persevering in spite of all odds.

The text's editors (Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin) provide copious notes throughout, providing readers with insights taken from Nonna's other writings, explanations of untranslated words and phrases, etc. I found these notes to be quite helpful.

The Secret Holocaust Diaries is a collection of writings by Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister, compiled by Carolyn Tomlin & Denise George. The front cover is a photo of Nonna when she was about 8 years old and it seems to just draw you in and make you want to read her story. What a story it is.

Nonna was born in 1927 and endured World War II in Russia / Ukraine. She had been through some very troubling times in her childhood and kept records of what was happening to her as she was growing up. She kept them hidden from others for many, many years and didn't talk about her past. Finally, in the 1980's or 1990's (the preface states 1990's and the appendix states 1980's), she shared her experiences with Henry, her husband since 1951.

Nonna survived the Holocaust and thankfully told her husband about her life before she passed away so we could read her story. Nonna lost every family member yet forgave those that took them away from her. She was a Christian and after reading her book, I am thankful she told her story and didn't let her secrets die with her.

Reading books concerning the Holocaust can be very difficult, but we need to read them to help us not repeat the past. As Nonna said, "...we must not forget what happened to those who were tortured, tormented, and murdered by the hands of evil men. They (the victims) did not commit any crimes except that they were born and were just there in those troubled times."

This true story is well worth reading.

Quote from Booklist review above: "The added-on heavy messages celebrating Nonna's Christian forgiveness seem intrusive and unnecessary, no matter how heartfelt."

Take out the word "Christian" and read that sentence again. How can a message of forgiveness in the face of unspeakable horror be "intrusive" and "unnecessary"?