Sala's Gift

the long version

"For nearly fifty years, Sala Kirschner kept a secret: she had survived five years as a slave in seven different Nazi work camps. We know surprisingly little about the vast network of Nazi labor camps, where imprisoned Jews built railroads and highways, churned out munitions and materiel, and otherwise supported the limitless needs of the Nazi war machine. This book gives us an insider's account. In the first years, Sala was aided by her close friend Ala Gertner, who would later lead an uprising at Auschwitz. Sala was also helped by other key friends. Yet above all, she survived thanks to the slender threads of support expressed in the letters of her friends and family. She kept them at great personal risk, and it is astonishing that she was able to receive as many as she did. Her daughter Ann now tells her story through them"--