Stefania Heilbrunn

Stefania Heilbrunn, born in Radomsko Poland and now living in South Africa, is a Holocaust survivor who wrote "Children Of Dust and Heaven: A Diary from Nazi Occupation Through the Holocaust". At the end of World War Two, when the author, as a young teen was searching the ruins of her town for other survivors, thrust upon her was a partial diary of a young girl, written by a teenager named Miriam, who died during the war. This teenager's diary propelled the author to research and tell this riveting collective memoir.

Stefania is the daughter of Joachim and Helena, who she credits for having taught her "to love my town and my people". She is thankful to her husband Siegfried for being "encouraging, offering wise advice and criticism."

Her historic, non-fiction book is based on years of research, interviews and her own harrowing experiences. Stefania Heilbrunn gives a vivid account of how the Nazis occupied her hometown in Europe and ruthlessly, systematically captured, tormented and killed almost all 14,000 Jews, living in her town with a total population of 30,000. Starting with Hitler's orders and the Nazi Occupation, the author details the travesties beginning with the over-crowding of the ghetto, the countless beatings and ruthless killings. She describes the heroic acts of those who fought back to survive, as the Nazis ordered mass deportations to the concentration camps, work camps and death camps, slaughtering thousands upon thousands.

Heilbrunn describes the day to day banalities of evil, as well as the courageous acts of bravery and miracles that enabled survival to just a few hundred Jews of her town.

Stefania wants her book to bear constant witness, and promote constant vigilance. She states, "the young must know their past, in order to be ready and able to defend their future."