Two Rings
A Story of Love and War
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Judged only as a World War Two survivor's chronicle, Millie Werber's story would be remarkable enough. Born in central Poland in the town of Radom, she found herself trapped in the ghetto at the age of fourteen, a slave laborer in an armaments factory in the summer of 1942, transported to Auschwitz in the summer of 1944, before being marched to a second armaments factory. She faced death many times; indeed she was certain that she would not survive. But she did.
Many years later, when she began to share her past with Eve Keller, the two women rediscovered the world of the teenage girl Millie had been during the war. Most important, Millie revealed her most precious private memory: of a man to whom she was married for a few brief months. He was -- if not the love of her life -- her first great unconditional passion. He died, leaving Millie with a single photograph taken on their wedding day, and two rings of gold that affirm the presence of a great passion in the bleakest imaginable time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
From Fordham University professor Keller's interviews with Werber comes the expertly-told tragic story of a short-lived and star-crossed marriage during the Holocaust. Werber's tale begins in Radom, Poland where she shared a two-room apartment with her mother, father, and brother. In 1941, Radom was established as a ghetto and the family was required to move into a one-room apartment with Werber's aunt, uncle, and cousins. The next year, she was forced to live and work at an ammunitions factory at the age of 15. It was here that Werber met Heniek Greenspan, a Jewish man working as a police officer at the factory. In the span of a few months, they fell in love and surreptitiously married. She cannot recall exactly how long they were married before he was betrayed by a fellow officer and, presumably, sent to a death camp. He knew he was to be sent away and he brought his wedding band back to her, hoping she might sell it and increase her chances of survival. Throughout the war including a horrific tenure in Auschwitz Werber managed to hold on to both wedding rings and her wedding photo. Werber survived, married again, made it to the U.S., and had children, but the two rings serve as constant reminders of Heniek and their brief and hopeful love. B&W photos.