Synopses & Reviews
From the memories of Anna Heilman, comes a wrenching and raw memoir of a young girl’s fight for survival in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Born into the comfort and security of an assimilated Jewish family in prewar Warsaw, Anna’s once simple life quickly turned into a life of tragic loss, infinite resilience, and enduring love. Descriptions of Anna’s Jewish-Polish life before war along with remembered stories of her sister, who was hanged by the SS for her role in the Gunpowder Plot to destroy Auschwitz crematoriums, and her struggle to go on in the face of ineffable Nazi dehumanization culminate in an unforgettable story of the triumph of the human spirit. With gripping immediacy, Never Far Away immortalizes one woman’s love for her sister and the painful search for closure to a nightmare that has haunted her for over fifty years.
About the Author
Anna Heilman was born in Warsaw, Poland. After being liberated at Neustadt-Glewe in 1945, she finally settled in what was then Palestine. She married her husband Joshua and obtained her Social Work degree in Israel. Anna, Joshua and their two daughters came to Canada in 1960, where Anna worked with the Childrens Aid Society.