The Children’s Nurse: A WWII Historical Survival Novel Based on a True Story($13.99Value)

Description

Warsaw, 1939. Merie watches as the flames of war engulf the place she and her husband once called home. As bombs fall and the sound of gunfire fills the once-peaceful streets, Rafal urges his wife to flee with him to Russia. But Merie’s thoughts are on her patients. A pediatric nurse at the city’s only Jewish hospital, Merie dutifully tends to Warsaw’s injured and orphaned children. When the occupation of Warsaw is complete, the plans the Nazis have for the Jews of the city become clear. Knowing that staying in Warsaw would spell her death, Merie has no choice but to follow her husband east on a long and arduous journey toward the Russian border. But with every step she takes, the war follows close behind. From a small Jewish orphanage in war-torn Tashkent to the comfortable life of a diplomat’s wife in Moscow, Merie experiences extreme poverty and grief but also unbelievable acts of kindness. With her empathy and resourcefulness as her weapons, she ferociously fights for the lives of Jews wherever she goes, discovering a strength she never knew she had. Though will it be enough for her and her children to not only survive – but heal? Based on the riveting true story of a pediatric nurse’s journey during WWII, The Children’s Nurse is an unforgettable page-turner, perfect for lovers of Surviving the Forest and Heather Morris. In "The Children's Nurse" Ehud Regev brings to life the turbulent times that Polish Jews lived through during Second World War. The book recounts the story of the author's parents, Merie, the children's nurse, and her husband Rafal against the backdrop of the cataclysms that visited Poland in Russia in those fateful years. The fascinating story tracks the flight of Merie, Rafal, and people they met on their itinerant way as refugies, moving from town to town, finding inventive ways to survive and support themselves, navigating their life course in circumstances filled with danger and uncertainty. Regev skillfully shows how the ideologies of Communism and Zionism, deeply absorbed in the respective souls of Rafal and Merie affected the trajectories of their lives and their eventual separation. Issues of career versus family, of identity as Jews or as Poles played out in the dramas that shaped people's lives in precarious times that few of us can even imagine. Above all, however "The Children's Nurse," is a testimony to human strength and ability to cope and fashion lives full of meaning and worth, even though the world is burning, and the "dogs of war" spread death and destruction, seemingly leaving no safe haven to turn to. In that sense it was the worst of times, and the best of times (citing Dickens) where human nature revealed its darkest and its brightest potential. Regev's book does a wonderful job in conveying both sides of this coin. I highly recommend it. Professor Arie Kruglanski "The story of my mother Merie's life story from the time she was 25 years old to the time she was 35 years old, from the onset of World War II until December 1949, is a model of the human spirit amid a struggle to survive through every condition imaginable. She was persecuted by the German army in Poland, Ukraine, and Russia, on an epic 2,800-mile journey to the city of Tashkent in Uzbekistan, all while carrying her three-month-old baby in her arms. Not only is this a fascinating life story, but one that must be brought to as many readers as possible. I spent over six years researching and writing this book, studying the histories and the dramatic events that transpired." - Ehud Regev