"In 1945 the war ended. The Germans surrendered, and the ghetto was
liberated. Out of over a quarter of a million people, about 800 walked
out of the ghetto. Of those who survived, only twelve were children. I
was one of the twelve." For more than fifty years after the war, Syvia,
like many Holocaust survivors, did not talk about her experiences in the
Lodz ghetto in Poland. She buried her past in order to move forward. But
finally she decided it was time to share her story, and so she told it
to her niece, who has re-told it here using free verse inspired by her
aunt. This is the true story of Syvia Perlmutter--a story of courage,
heartbreak, and finally survival despite the terrible circumstances in
which she grew up. A timeline, historical notes, and an author's note
are included.