Lalechka

By: Amira Keidar

Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley, Neil Hellegers

Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

It's a warm and muggy Saturday night in August of 1942. The Nazis are liquidating the ghetto of Shedlitz, an industrial town east of Warsaw, Poland. Zippa, a 27-year-old Jewish woman, finds temporary shelter in a small attic, together with her baby daughter and 100 frightened Jews.

When the Nazi noose is tightened around her neck, Zippa asks her husband Jacob, a Jewish policeman in the ghetto, to save their little girl from certain death. The young father manages to smuggle his wife and daughter to the gentile part of town, where Zippa's childhood girlfriends Sophia and Irena reside.

This is the real story of one Jewish family confronted by the terror of Nazi rule. The book follows Lalechka, the little girl born into the chaos of war and holocaust and forced to struggle with the reversals of fortune that led her each time into foreign and terrifying regions. But, beyond that, it is the story of the true friendship of three girls in early 20th-century Poland, a friendship that won't cower before government dictates.

©2015 Amira Keidar (P)2017 Tantor

Overall, awesome!

Loved this book if anything about the Shoah is to be loved. Nice to learn about a baby who was not murdered and the lengths to which a mother went to save her life. Only thing that irritated me was at one point in the story where Zippa was in terror, the reading sounded too melodramatic and forced and really took away from the “moment”. Overall, though, excellent with proper pronunciation

Incredible story

First off, the narrator is wonderful. Elizabeth Wiley. I have listened to her before. This was a beautiful yet tragic story of three girls in a close friendship in their youth, growing up but never apart. Despite the Holocaust turning their world's upside down, they persevered and stayed friends. And better yet, they included a new little life in their circle of friendship.

A Heartwrenching Story of the Holocaust

This was an incredibly sad story that is true and leaves you with such an agonizing feeling that humans could do what they did others. For those who read stories of the Holocaust, this is a must-read or listwn to book. The narrators were terrific.

Very personal and candid story

Thank you for bringing this story to print and audio. It was well written and created a place in my heart as though I knew the individuals. This tells the story with compassion of one family and circle of loyal friends willing to risk everything to save a little girl from what would have been sure death. With so many stories like this that have gone untold or lost due to horrific wartime circumstances, this account is a genuine true story of love in a time of so much hate.

A must listen

Makes you thankful for all you have and never to take for granted. Loved it.

it was captivating!

it was amazing but hard to follow towards the end and some of the words were hard to understand but all in all it was amazing.

love it

i couldnt stop listening i very much enjoyed every page of this book, great read!

Extraordinary

This is a fascinating and different story about the power of friendship and the resilience of an amazing, doomed mother and her orphaned daughter. I had never read about what happened to the Jewish children hidden from the Nazi occupiers. Each story of their lives was different, of course, but this book gave a compelling and interesting look at one child's journey through those awful years

Important to remember.

Very moving. Since I visited Warsaw recently and saw the remaining ghetto wall, I could easily visualize the story.

Wow! Tragic, harrowing, loving & brave

It’s a beautiful story of friendship and a mother’s love during WW II. I was confused at first, as each chapter was told from a different character’s perspective. It took me a while to figure out who’s who and their relationship as well as the time period their telling the story from. Other than that complaint, I highly recommend reading it.