The Secret Holocaust Diaries

This year’s Easter celebration was a catharsis for many – a look back to why we can experience joy today in a world filled with so much pain. Our Lord is risen! And because He is, we have hope. May we never forget the price Jesus paid. And may we also never forget our History and gloss over events that reveal man’s darkest side. Here’s a book to help us:
The Secret Holocaust Diaries by Nonna Bannister with Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin. This book goes beyond simply reminding us of our tragic past. It offers unusual hope.

Introduction

Nonna Bannister appeared to be a typical American housewife. She married Henry, the love of her life, in 1951 and together they raised three children in Memphis, Tennessee. But Nonna was far from average. For half a century, she kept her story secret while living a normal life. She locked all of her photos, documents, diaries, and dark memories from World War II in a trunk in her attic.

Tyndale House Publishers announces the publication of The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister written by Nonna Bannister with Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin (April 2009, Tyndale House), the haunting eyewitness account of Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister, a remarkable Russian girl who saw and survived unspeakable evils during World War II.

Questions & Answers

1. The Secret Holocaust Diaries is written by Nonna although she passed away in 2004. Did she write the book before she died?

Yes, she slipped up into the attic each night, translated her diaries (from several different languages), and recorded them in English onto yellow legal pads. Much later, after she told her husband, Henry, about her incredible past, she showed him the stacks of yellow legal pads on which she had translated her diaries and recorded her thoughts about her past, and he typed them up into a manuscript.

2. Many people assume most of the people killed by the Nazis were Jewish. Was Nonna’s family Jewish?

Although it is estimated that approximately 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis, other nationalities experienced suffering and death, also. Nonna's family was Russian and owned seven grain mills and homes in southern Russia and the Ukraine. Her father, Yevgeny, and his family were from Warsaw, Poland, which included a large population of Jews. Due to border restrictions, Nonna never met her father's family. Yevgeny never told Nonna and her brother, Anatoly, if his family was Jewish. If the children didn't know, they could not let it slip. The admission of being Jewish could have meant deportation or certain death. There is speculation, but no one is certain.

3. Nonna saved many documents from her time at Nazi camps; what are these artifacts?

In a small ticking pillow she kept tied around her waist, she kept many one inch square photos of her family and friends in the Ukraine. She also kept her small childhood diary. On tiny slips of paper, she wrote her experiences (in diary form) and also kept these in the little pillow.
Later she kept all these in a small trunk, which she painted bright green.

4. Why did Nonna keep her devastating secret for so many years?

Nonna kept her secret past from her family/friends because she had, at last, found such happiness with her husband, Henry, and her three children. She didn't want to express her past pain--she didn’t want it to interrupt the family's happiness and cast a shadow of despair over them.

5. What can people of Christian faith or Jewish faith/descent take from The Secret Holocaust Diaries?

That grave injustice exists--Nonna learned that from the Red Army (who killed many of her family members) and Hitler's army (who also killed many of her family members and imprisoned her in a labor camp). But that God's love and forgiveness for those who hurt us are stronger than even Hitler's evil and injustice. Nonna came out of the whole experience with her heart still filled with love. She experienced none of the bitterness and hatred that some Jewish Holocaust survivors have held onto. She was able to marry, raise children, and bring them much joy and happiness through her own love and through introducing them to God's love.

6. Why did Nonna feel it was so important to share her story?

The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister is a true story of a young Russian girl whose family was caught up in the Russian Revolution and in World War II. In spite of the injustice inflicted on her family and millions of others, it is a story of love and forgiveness. Nonna wanted others to know the horrors that occurred during the Hitler and Stalin era so that it might never happen again.
Nonna felt compelled to tell her story because she was an eyewitness to many dramatic events, and she was the only survivor of her entire family.
Conclusion

Late in life, Nonna unlocked her trunk filled with memories from World War II first for her husband, and now for the rest of the world. Nonna’s story is one of suffering, torture, and death—but also of incredible acts of kindness that show the ultimate triumph of faith and love over despair and evil. The Secret Holocaust Diaries is in part a tragedy, yet ultimately it’s an unforgettable true story about forgiveness, courage, and hope.

In a day when life is filled with fluff and lies, I recommend this book to help us remember the truth and what really counts.

Janey L. DeMeo M.A.
Copyright © April 13, 200

Slumdog Millionaire, Orphans First -- & Me!

Well, well, well . . . I’m barely back from a deeply soul-searching retreat in the Colorado mountains—where my life in France, Italy, England, Africa, India was a relevant discussion point—and I see flashbacks of my days in India in the award-winning film, Slumdog Millionaire. (Btw, this picture is not from the movie, but is an actual street child I’ve worked with in India.)

No, I was never on Millionaire (not that smart!). And I wasn’t born in a slum (although parts of my native London are close). But I have visited India several times. (In fact, Orphans First has an orphanage there with some ninety children.) And I have been to Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay). It was in Mumbai, more than a decade ago, that God allowed me to help start a children’s home. More on that later. For now, let’s focus on the film.

Slumdog Millionaire is about orphans, corruption, exploitation of the poor and defenseless, and cruelty to the innocent. It is a story of extreme suffering, love and beauty. The real India—and India’s beautiful victims enslaved to the harsh hand of poverty.

Slumdog Millionaire reminds me a little of Pursuit of Happyness, Blood Diamond, or City of Joy inasmuch as its suspense-driven plot is more nerve-wracking than entertaining. I spent most of the movie riveted to my chair, gripping my husband’s arm and feeling sick. (Not what you’d usually opt for after a retreat—but no doubt what I needed to remind me why I’m here.)

Still, in spite of the reality shock about what life in India is really like, the story line is brilliant, with unexpected twists, and exquisite artistry. But beyond art and plot--even Oscars--lies a far greater kinship between Slumdog and me. For me, it stung me to the core because I know children in India—children like Jamal, Salim, Latika, Arvind. I’ve hugged children who lived in Mumbai’s slums or at the train station. The pain they’ve borne has given them an unusual perspective.

Mani lived in the streets. He used to tell me, “Mummy, it’s not that I lost the toy you gave me, it’s that they stole it from in the streets.” Ganesh had only one leg because he got hit by a train: We bought him a prosthesis, but somehow it never seemed to feel comfortable for him. And Vijay--beloved Vijay who fought back tears the day I left, his face so worn with worry and stress that he looked like an old man. Vijay hugged me so hard, I felt as if he was trying to keep me with him forever. How I wish I could have kept him. I will never forget those children (now young adults).

I met many of these children In 1996, during a visit to my orphanage in Guntur, India. We went with a team of friends from France, and spent some time with the street children of Mumbai. It was there and then that the seed for a children’s home was planted. Orphans First began funding the upkeep of 20 street children, providing food, school (thanks to two saintly women), and church life. This initiative was catalyst to the founding of a home which then became an independent entity – no longer needing Orphans First funding. It was a miracle. However, because life in India is so precarious, most of the original children we’d worked with ended up back in the streets—something which has kept my heart broken ever since. Still, a home was established and we’ve been able to do more in India since.

With regards to India, Orphans First has its largest children’s home in Guntur and helps poor children in Delhi—and, of course, in many other countries. Check out the Orphans First updates.

India, land of dreams and demons,
Of poverty, despair and misplaced hope,
Yet land of beauty,
Simplicity of survival,
Humbled humility,
Land of squalor, shame, scum and slums,
Disguised diamonds,
Born in muck,
Cut and carved by pain’s sharp tool,
Fashioned by destiny’s cruelty,
Slumdog millionaires!
Oh, not because of money—
but because of heart.
Because of the heart of the One who died for them.
His name is Jesus.

Janey L. DeMeo M.A. © Copyright March 2009
www.orphansfirst.org / www.JaneyDeMeo.com