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    Two Rings: A Story of Love and War
    Two Rings: A Story of Love and War
    Two Rings: A Story of Love and War
    Audiobook7 hours

    Two Rings: A Story of Love and War

    Written by Eve Keller and Millie Werber

    Narrated by Yelena Shmulenson

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Trapped in Poland in 1941, like many Jews, Millie Werber went from the Radom Ghetto to slave labor in an armaments factory, survived Auschwitz, and toiled in a second factory until liberation came on April 1, 1945. She faced death many times but lived to marry a good man and fellow survivor. Meanwhile, she concealed a photograph in her closet and carried a secret in her heart. Many years later, Millie began telling her story to writer Eve Keller. Together, the two women rediscovered the teenage girl Millie had been during the war-and the man to whom she was married for a few brief months. Betrayed by a fellow Jewish guard, he died, leaving Millie with their wedding rings and a single photograph. Nothing else remained to prove that he ever existed. Millie never told her family about him, but she never abandoned his memory. A worthy addition to the bestselling tradition of Holocaust coming-of-age memoirs, this is a spare, unsentimental, and indelibly poignant tale of a history reclaimed.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateMar 27, 2012
    ISBN9781611747553
    Two Rings: A Story of Love and War

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    Reviews for Two Rings

    4.5/5

    50 ratings15 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This was a quick but powerful read of one woman's story of her time during the Holocaust. Millie Werber suffered in numerous ways during that period -- living in the Jewish Ghetto, seeing family members killed before her, having her family members rounded up and taken away, working in arms factories and finally ending up in a concentration camp, where her own young husband was rounded up and marked for death. The author's courage is remarkable, and she is able to convey the horror of what she has seen and experienced without being graphic. The book is not bogged down with background information -- it is just the "meat and potatoes" of the author's experiences. Those with an interest in Jewish history, WW II history or the Holocaust should read this true story. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Absolutely wonderful book. Mille tells her story so eloquently. She adds small side stories to the bigger picture being presented and some of those are quite eye opening and heart wrenching; ie: the wagons on the long walk and the wooden shoes. Both of these for some reason stick with me. It is also interesting to hear how "family" treated her after the war. Just another point of humiliation where there should have been love and understanding. The story of Heneik seems to be at the heart of the book, but there is so much more to it.: More that paints a vivid picture of the live of Millie Werber. A must read for those interested in Holocaust studies as there are so many small nuances covered that have been missed in previous memoirs.
    • 4/5
      I have read a number of books written by Holocaust survivors but this one seemed to rescinate more. I will never know what she really went through but she told her story in such a way that for brief moments, I could almost feel her hunger, her fear, her anger. The book isn't just one, but two love stories, each so very different. It is also about people, experiencing horrific things, and how they react differently to it. Some became very protective of others at the risk of their own lives while others saved themselves by turning on their own. I think the book was simply meant to be an outlet for a woman looking for peace but it really is more than that. It is not an easy read by any means but I think it is an important one.
    • 5/5
      This is a very beautifully written story about a woman who survives World War II as a 17-year-old Jew. It spans her entire life. I'm always fascinated with experiences dealing with World War II and this is another one that tells of the horrors endured and how one survivor made it through and found love.
    • 5/5
      This is a powerful book/memoir and I have been giving some thought on how to review it. I appreciated that in the introduction the writer clearly places herself as part of the story, and explains the details behind her interpretation of events and how the story was told to her. I am grateful that she took the time to hear the story, and grateful to Millie for being brave enough to tell it. It is a story that deserves to be told and I am thankful that it was not lost. This is the story of a teenage girl during the holocaust. First being forced into the ghetto, then working in a factory, and finally an Auschwitz. But within that story there was also a secret story that had not yet been told. A story her current family knew nothing about. While working in the factory she was briefly married. How she managed to save the rings and a picture (her only mementos) through her horrible experiences is a miracle. A wonderful book and a must read for anybody interested in stories of survival, love, and history.
    • 5/5
      Considering that this book was written as a collaboration between the memoirist and a woman who hardly knew her before the project started, it is a remarkable work of writing. Eve Keller talks in the foreword about the process and some decisions she made in writing but after that the book is in Millie Werber's words. And what a story she has to tell. She was a young girl when the Nazis took power in Poland. She was naive and shy and had never been out of the city of Radom. Her family, consisting of her mother, father and brother, were moved to the ghetto in 1941. There they had to share a small room with Millie's uncle and aunt and their two children. It was her uncle who convinced Millie to go to work at the munitions factory, a decision that saved her life. Anyone who didn't or couldn't work was shipped to the death camps and that included Millie's mother. Her brother was shot before he even left the city.Like any Holocaust survivor's story Millie was subject to horrible conditions and unbelievable cruelty. However, Millie found love too. It was brief, as her husband was removed from the factory a few months after they married, but it was the grand passion of her life. The picture on the front cover of the young couple could have been of any couple at that time. They look happy and Millie, at least, looks hopeful.Millie feels her survival was a matter of luck. She was helped several times and she thinks it was just random chance that she managed to survive. But I think she must have had an inner core of strength that allowed her to carry on when most people would have given up. Whatever the case, it makes for a remarkable story. I'm very glad that Millie and Eve were able to put it on paper and get it published. These stories are so very important to preserve so we remember that awful period and never repeat it.
    • 4/5
      Absolutely wonderful book. Mille tells her story so eloquently. She adds small side stories to the bigger picture being presented and some of those are quite eye opening and heart wrenching; ie: the wagons on the long walk and the wooden shoes. Both of these for some reason stick with me. It is also interesting to hear how "family" treated her after the war. Just another point of humiliation where there should have been love and understanding. The story of Heneik seems to be at the heart of the book, but there is so much more to it.: More that paints a vivid picture of the live of Millie Werber. A must read for those interested in Holocaust studies as there are so many small nuances covered that have been missed in previous memoirs.
    • 4/5
      This was very well written. The things this woman had to endure! Yet I think there were some miracles that helped her to survive. A very touching story. Recommended for those who enjoy reading about the Holocaust.
    • 5/5
      Two Rings, by Millie Werber, is not just a story of war and darkness. The book begins in the Polish ghetto at the start of the Holocaust and is the true story of a young Jewish woman - a girl really - who lives through this horrifying time. She experiences starvation, separation from her family, brutal factory work, death marches, betrayal and Auschwitz. War and darkness to be sure.During her time at the factory, Millie meets a young Jewish policeman - Heniek - and experiences first love - a love that stays with her throughout the rest of her life - even during a very happy 60 year long marriage to Jack. The author does not spare us the horrific. She does not bury her opinions or feelings under a veneer of political or religious correctness. However, she also speaks of bright moments when her life was spared by unpredictable acts of kindness by strangers; when she experienced love and joy with her Heniek; when someone shared a crust of bread - simply out of kindness.I did not find this an easy book. My own parents experienced the Holocaust in Europe during their early teens. I did, however, find the author's ability to experience hope and even joy during this time to make the book immensely readable. I have passed the book on to my mum and dad.Thank you, Mrs. Werber for sharing this part of your life with me.
    • 4/5
      Sometimes I fear that after having read so much about the Holocaust, I will begin to become numb to the personal tragedy as I try to grasp the enormity of the horror. Two Rings, however, is a personal narrative that cannot be read impersonally. Millie Werber is in her eighties, her husband has been gone for several years, and she has decided to share her story at last, for her children's sake and in the memory of her first love. The story begins in Radom, a small city in Poland, where Millie lives a sheltered life with her parents and brother. In 1941, when the Germans create a ghetto for Jews, her family is forced to move into a small apartment, with her aunt, uncle, and two cousins. Millie is only fourteen and scared of everything: the hunger that won't go away, people in the streets being tortured at the whim of bored soldiers, and, most of all, the danger of being taken away by the Germans and never seen again. When her uncle finds her a potentially life-saving job at the Steyr-Daimler-Puch factory just outside of town, she is terrified. She has never slept apart from her mother or traveled. But her family forces her to go, and she begins a new chapter in her life, as a slave laborer in a Nazi ammunitions factory. Barely fifteen, Millie is put to work at a huge machine for twelve hours a day, with only a fifteen minute break at noon. She cannot sit, rest, or make a mistake. As awful as it is, her job does save her, for in August 1942, the ghetto is liquidized. Fearing for her family and feeling terribly alone, Millie becomes friends with a young Jewish policeman who works in the factory. Heniek Greenspan is charming, slightly older, and solicitous of the women workers in his care. Millie and Heniek's relationship is a heart-warming, heart-breaking story of first love. Although their time together is brief, Millie never stops loving Heniek, not through her deportation to Auschwitz, and not through her wonderful marriage to Jack, with whom she spends 60 happy years. To create this book, Millie told her story to Eve Keller, a professor and writer, whom she came to trust over a number of years. With patience and love, Keller worked to capture the story in Millie's own voice, and I think she does a wonderful job. The writing is simple and straightforward, conveying not only the mundane and the tragic, but also the fierce judgments that Millie does not try to hide. She tells her story as she remembers it, with strict, self-imposed honesty, and Keller gives the story to us with simple language and carefully verified details. The result is a beautiful story of a young girl, told with the thoughtfulness of age. I applaud Millie Gerber for her willingness to share such a personal memoir with us and Eve Keller for writing with such devotion. This is truly a remarkable book.
    • 5/5
      Told in the voice of Millie Werber, a holocaust survivor, and compiled by a family friend and journalist Eve Keller, this is a fine collaboration recounting the memories of Millie as she stuggled to hang onto life during World War II. Together, Millie and Eve do a fine job of telling a story of unfathomable cruelty while also remembering almost random acts of kindkness that helped Millie endure those dark days. I recently read "In the Garden of Beasts," a novel based on an account of the years leading up to the war and the events that brought Germany under the spell of Hitler. Millie Werber's family and friends were leading quiet lives at that point and could never have fathomed the horrors before them. Read Millie's story and be aware that "absolute power corrupts absolutely," and indeed "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." ,The lives of the Jews in Germany changed overnight , and we should be aware that no nation or people is immune from something likewise happening.As I read her story, it didn't take long to come to really like the sweet young girl who survived to become a woman of integrity and strength as she built a new life for herself in America. I was saddened at the end of book to hear Mrs. Werber proclaim that she had lost her faith in God during those terribly years and pray He will reveal Himself to her again before she leaves this earth.
    • 5/5
      To say that I enjoyed reading Two Rings would not be accurate. At times, I was brought to tears by the brutality of it. I was even disgusted and sickened by so many of the events. What I can say is that I honor this book. It is an honest, sincere memoir of Millie Werber a true survivor. Many people claim to be a survivor of something but truly Millie Werber and those like her are the real deal. Millie has written this book with the help of Eve Keller. She has finally told the complete story of her darkest days as she lived through World War II a prisoner because she was a Jew. From her home in Poland as a young girl to her arrival in America as a young married woman, Millie carried the burden of her imprisonment and her secret love with her. As the story ends, she is a widow. She had been married to Jack Werber for 60 years but she never spoken of her first love, her first husband Heniek. In her words telling the story has liberated her and ensured that Heniek is remembered. Millie, I too, will not forget your story. I have been touched by your bravery and moved to tears by your pain. It has been an honor to read Two Rings and I intend to pass it along so that everyone can know for themselves what it means to survive.
    • 5/5
      Two Rings: a Story of Love and War is the gut-wrenching memoir of a young Jewish girl from the ghettos of Poland. Millie Werber was just a young teen when the Nazis invaded Poland. Sent into the slave labor camp, she was forced to endure unspeakable cruelty and horrors. Grief and fear were her daily companions. While working at the camp she met and fell in love with Heniek Greenspan. They married and for a short time Heniek made Millie feel vibrant and protected. Their love was the light that substained them through the brutal days of the camp. Heniek was taken away by the security service and was never seen again. All that she had left of him were their wedding rings and a single photograph. Millie unflinchingly communicates her memoir with tremendous courage. She presents her testimony as a witness for all who suffered and were lost in the Holocaust. Words fail in describing the emotional wallop the reader experiences throughout the pages of her journey. Highly recommended .
    • 5/5
      As a Jew in 1941 Poland, Millie made the difficult choice to survive by working in an armaments factory near the Radom Ghetto. Despite the horrendous circumstances and physically demanding labor, Millie managed to meet and fall in love with a Henreich, a Jewish policeman. Shortly after they were married he was betrayed and led out of the factory. Millie never saw him again. Left with a single photograph and their wedding rings, Millie survives a hellish time in Auschwitz and a second factory before she was liberated. Not only a story of love and family, this is also a story of hidden strength and a young girl coming-of-age. I thought the story was heart breakingly beautiful. It is a monument to love and what one can endure. Overall, I highly recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      I have read a number of books written by Holocaust survivors but this one seemed to rescinate more. I will never know what she really went through but she told her story in such a way that for brief moments, I could almost feel her hunger, her fear, her anger. The book isn't just one, but two love stories, each so very different. It is also about people, experiencing horrific things, and how they react differently to it. Some became very protective of others at the risk of their own lives while others saved themselves by turning on their own. I think the book was simply meant to be an outlet for a woman looking for peace but it really is more than that. It is not an easy read by any means but I think it is an important one.