Rena's Promise

An expanded edition of the powerful memoir about two sisters' determination to survive during the Holocaust featuring new and never before revealed information about the first transport of women to Auschwitz

In March 1942, Rena Kornreich and 997 other young women were rounded up and forced onto the first Jewish transport of women to Auschwitz. Soon after, Rena was reunited with her sister Danka at the camp, beginning a story of love and courage that would last three years and forty-one days. From smuggling bread for their friends to narrowly escaping the ever-present threats that loomed at every turn, the compelling events in Rena’s Promise remind us that humanity and hope can survive inordinate brutality.

Heather Dune Macadam (Hampton Bays, New York) is a writer and educator, and the director and president of the Rena’s Promise International Creative Writing Camp. She divides her time between New York and Herefordshire, England.

CONTENTS

Preface to the Expanded Edition xi
Prologue xix
Chapter One Rena 1
Chapter Two Tylicz 8
Chapter Three Slovakia 32
Chapter Four Auschwitz 53
Chapter Five Birkenau (Auschwitz II) 91
Chapter Six Stabsgebaude (Staff quarters) 183
Chapter Seven Neustadt Glewe 234
Epilogue 244
Acknowledgements 256
Bibliography 259
Study Guide 261