Read more
I am 33 years old when my mother Annette finally is ready to tell her story. About her growing up in France during WWII, what she calls her first life. The life she has to forget about to be able to start a new life in Sweden, after the Holocaust. For the first time she tells about being forced out of a cattlewagon together with her parents in Auschwitz, end of May 1944. How the men were forced to line up on the platform with women and children in another row. "At the front of the platform, behind a table, sat Dr. Joseph Mengele. When it was our turn, he hesitated for a few seconds. He did not seem to be able to make up his mind. Perhaps we were both to go either this or that way. I did not know, but I dared to look him in the eyes. Then he decided - sending my mother to the left and me to the right. On my way to the right, I turned to Mom and wanted to encourage her. I shouted: "Courage!" to Mom. I do not really know what I was thinking then, perhaps courage to endure. And then we parted ways. So, we separated there on the platform, forever."
About the author
Rolf Tardell has been working as journalist for more than 30 years (since 1990 at Swedish Television as reporter, commentator and editor at the news department). He is currently editor at Agenda, a weekly current affairs programme. Beside this book he has also published a book about the female prisoner in Nazi concentration camp Ravensbrück.
