Agnes Grunwald-Spier examines comprehensively the experiences and contributions of women in the many roles and guises in which they acted. Her book preserves a record of suffering, endurance, courage and achievement without which no-one can hope to understand the totality of the Holocaust as a historical reality. (Ben Barkow, Director of the Wiener Library)<br \><br \> In recent years we have seen many fine books on the Holocaust, among them works from Agnes Grunwald-Spier. Few have looked at the experience of women. As a writer and a doughty campaigner Agnes s clear eye and wonderful prose have made the Holocaust accessible to a new generation. This new book will, I am certain, give a neglected part of the most shameful act of the twentieth century the scrutiny it deserves. --Rt Hon Sir Eric Pickles, UK Special Envoy On Post-Holocaust Issues
Agnes Grunwald-Spier's books are always very well researched and her convincing arguments are deployed against the background of her own history as a child survivor. What is more, her books are very well written and make fantastic reading. --Sascha Feuchert, Professor of Holocaust Literature at Giessen University, Hesse, Germany
A woman protects her children. Now that is true for any woman anywhere. She pushes others, she fights for them. This is not specific to Jews. But in this extreme circumstance it changes a Jewish tradition. She draws strength from certain types of Jewish traditions, and opposes others in order to fight. Jewish women (for the first time for thousands of years in Jewish communities) assumed leadership positions. Politically, Jewish women had always been disenfranchised, but in the Holocaust, there was no room for this disenfranchisement. They became leaders of political and social groups in France, Holland, Bohemia and Slovakia, as well as the underground groups in Eastern Europe. --Professor Yehuda Bauer
