I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree : A Memoir of a Schindler's List Survivor

"HANNELORE, YOUR PAPA IS DEAD." In the spring of 1942 Hannelore received a letter from Mama at her school in Berlin, Germany--Papa had been arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Six weeks later he was sent home; ashes in an urn. Soon another letter arrived. "The Gestapo has notified your brothers and me that we are to be deported to the East--whatever that means." Hannelore knew: labor camps, starvation, beatings...How could Mama and her two younger brothers bear that? She made a decision: She would go home and be deported with her family. Despite the horrors she faced in eight labor and concentration camps, Hannelore met and fell in love with a Polish POW named Dick Hillman. Oskar Schindler was their one hope to survive. Schindler had a plan to take eleven hundred Jews to the safety of his new factory in Czechoslovakia. Incredibly both she and Dick were added to his list. But survival was not that simple. Weeks later Hannelore found herself, alone, outside the gates of Auschwitz, pushed toward the smoking crematoria. I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree is the remarkable true story of one young woman's nightmarish coming-of-age. But it is also a story about the surprising possibilities for hope and love in one of history's most brutal times. In 1942 Hannelore Wolff made a difficult decision, one that changed her life forever. She left the comfort and safety of her boarding school in Berlin, Germany, and volunteered to be sent to a Polish ghetto. The Gestapo had already killed her father and were deporting her mother and brothers. Hannelore could not bear to be separated from what was left of her family so she chose to go with them. It was the beginning of her long journey through what turned out to be eight concentration camps, including Auschwitz. In one of the camps, Hannelore fell in love with a young man named Dick Hillman. After a few months they were separated, but Dick told Hannelore, "I will find you, wherever you are." He kept his promise. They were both put on Oskar Schindler's famous list and married when they were reunited. I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree is one woman's incredible story of finding courage, strength, and love during one of the most horrific times of the modern era. Presents the true story of a young girl from a Polish ghetto who was sent to a series of concentration camps and survived the war after being placed on Schindler's List, finally marrying a fellow survivor