I received this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Selma van de Perre is a Holocaust and Ravensbrück camp survivor and in this book, she tells her experience of the war starting from her early childhood, her memories of the war as a young woman growing up in the Netherlands and her eventual separation form her family. her work in the Resistance and her capture.

This was a really interesting look at the war from the eyes of someone who truly lived it, experiences the trauma of losing family members and almost dying herself and finding ways to rebuild her life afterwards. The tone of this book is very conservational and Selma's story is an easy one to follow and understand. Her love for her family really comes through in every word she writes about them which makes it all the more heartbreaking when we know they didn't survive the war.

Selma's work in the Resistance was interesting to follow though I felt at times, she almost rushed through her stories and I would have loved some deep dives into particular trips she had to take undercover. I think Selma herself seems really humble about her war efforts and it seems like she really doesn't understand what an extraordinary woman she is!

The time in the concentration camp was hard to read about and knowing Selma was at death's door so often, it's just amazing to think about the strength and fortitude she displayed to keep going, to keep getting up every day never knowing if she was ever going to be saved.

I definitely think Selma kept the readers at arm's reach in this book, and I'm not sure if I really understood who she was deep down (for example Edith Eger's The Choice, I really felt like I knew Edith and her personality). But also I find this extremely understandable as Selma is telling us about an extremely traumatic time in her life that she might not want to deep dive into too much,
and she's also a very old woman now too so this style of storytelling was probably easier too!

I really liked that Selma also put an emphasis on how hard it was to keep going after the war and the depression she struggled with and that she knew other people struggled with as well. And the fact that many survivors were told to just 'keep living' and not to think about the atrocity that had happened to them and their families. As well, Semla briefly described the trauma young Jewish children experienced both living during the war as well as from being separated from parents at a young age, loving their foster parents and then bein returned to parents who were, tragically, all but strangers to them. And that many children never really got over this.

This is a really wonderful read full of sadness and heartbreak but also full of love, friendship and survival. What a lady!