Fiet's Vase and Other Stories of Survival, Europe 1939-1945, links together harrowing yet ultimately inspiring personal accounts of World War II. Meditating on such themes as kindness, love, and art, these stories shed light upon the various strengths that people drew upon in this dark period in human history. From the story of a young Jewish woman who defied death to keep a promise to her dead mother to protect her baby sister, to the story of a young Berlin boy, the son of a Nazi, who separated from his father to discover a lifelong passion for the theatre, to Wladyslaw Szipilman, the subject of Roman Polanski's film, The Pianist, whose love of music was indestructible, the individual experiences recounted in this book offer a rare glimpse at the personal face of World War II.
"We must be grateful to Alison Leslie Gold for having done the difficult work of collecting these
stories of survival, and for telling them as they should be told: in language as transparent as pure
water. This book is about the deepest kind of human suffering, and as such it is a holy book.”
—Singrid Nunez, author of For Rouenna and A Feather on the Breath of God
"This important collection of stories preserves more than the memories of ordinary men and women
living through one of the most terrible periods in history. They remind us of the survival of human
strength, courage and love against all odds, something we all need to remember.”
—Sharon Salzberg, meditation teacher and author of Faith: Trusting Your Own
Deepest Experience and Loving Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness