My Bridges of Hope: Searching for Life and Love After Auschwitz

Elli Friedmann was fourteen years old in April 1945 when American soldiers liberated her from her Nazi captors and the harrowing year she spent at Auschwitz and other concentration camps where Jews were mass murdered. At the opening of this book, Elli, her mother, and brother, recently reunited, return to their home in Czechoslovakia, expecting to pick up the lives they left behind. Instead, they confront the harsh realities of a house stripped bare, a town occupied by strangers, and the news that Daddy will never return. The anti-Semitism that still remains makes life there so oppressive that Elli and her family decide to immigrate to America -- a journey that will take six harrowing years of waiting in one temporary shelter after another. Along the way Elli builds bridges of hope for other Holocaust survivors. She rescues Jewish orphans from rioting Slovak partisans, smuggles Jewish refugees to Palestine, and becomes a headmaster of a Jewish school, all the while struggling with her nightmarish past and questions about her future. Her teenage years, which culminate in a daring escape from behind the Iron Curtain, are a dizzying merry-go-round of danger, excitement, and love. Thrilling, touching, and thought-provoking, this sequel to "I Have Lived a Thousand Years" offers a firsthand glimpse into post-war Europe. Elli's indomitable spirit shines through every page, making this an inspiring memoir.