My March Through Hell by Halina Kleiner, Edwin Stepp

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A Young Girl’s Terrifying Journey to Survival

Holocaust Survivor Memoirs WWII

A young girl is suddenly all alone and on the run from the Nazis in her hometown in Poland. Having survived an aktion that was intended to completely rid Czestochowa of all the Jews, she and her father try to make their way back to their home during the late hours of the night.

Confronted by a policeman, Halina Goldberg unexplainably runs away from her father and begins her long journey of survival. When tired of fleeing, she volunteers to go into a work camp. That decision buys her some time because the Germans need labor for the war effort. Halina works in three different camps from the Fall of 1943 to January 1945. At first, the camps are bearable even though they are worked hard and fed very little. But as the Germans begin to lose the war, the conditions turn deathly. The Jews become overrun with disease and their captors grow crueler and crueler.

As it becomes clear that the war is lost, the SS empty the camps and set over 2,000 women on a four-month long march that would cover over 800 kilometers during one of Europe’s coldest winters on record. Halina was one of the only 300 who survived the Volary Death March and finally felt the need to record her hellish story of survival.

Year first published: 2022