Samuel S Bruner

From Hell's Heart Samuel S Bruner

Nazis force Mates Bruner, a Jew growing up in Poland, to build the very concentration camps that kill his people. He escapes and is hidden by a courageous farmer, but at the end of the war he discovers that of his entire family, only his two sisters have survived.

Wanda Drapacz and her family avoid the concentration camps...but not the effects of the conflict, deported to Russia where they suffer hunger and disease in harsh conditions.

Both survivors, Wanda and Mates eventually marry-but happiness doesn't come easily. The impact of their experiences linger for years to come, periodically erupting into episodes of domestic violence. Their fight for survival isn't over.

Written by their son, Samuel Solomon Bruner, this raw and gripping account details their struggle-and shows that the hell of war didn't end in 1945-it crept on and struck out at children and other family members, as well as those who also faced death and survived.

"From Hell's Heart has literally been raked from the ashes of the Holocaust," says reader and Samuel's high school English teacher, Bruce L. Marcoon. Their story burns in this emotional memoir.