Beyond These Walls: Escaping the Warsaw Ghetto - A Young Girl's Story

Janina Bauman was a year older than Anne Frank when World War II began and Hitler's decree forced her family into the Warsaw Ghetto. Janina, an intelligent, lively girl, suddenly found herself in a cramped flat, hiding with other Jewish families. At first even curfews and the casual cruelty meted out by the German occupiers could not dim her passion for books, boys, and romance. Then came the raids, and Janina, with her sister and mother, had to keep on the move, hiding in the ruins of the ghetto to avoid being one of thousands rounded up every day and deported to concentration camps. Their escape to the "Aryan" side was followed by two years in hiding, taking shelter with those willing to help them, and living in constant fear of betrayal. Told through her teenage diaries, giving her story a rare immediacy, this is the extraordinary tale of a passionate young woman's courage and survival.