Survivor Biography

She was only four years old when she was sold into the sex trade. White picket fences and steepled churches all guarded secrets that were not ever supposed to be told. In kindergarten, she began praying every night that Jesus would let her die. In second grade, she sat in church on a Sunday morning swinging her feet from a wooden pew behind the man who had paid to rape her the night before. Her perpetrators were from all walks of life. Here is the true account of how she was brought out of captivity and into a life of freedom.

Meet Barbara Reichmann, once known as Gucia Gomolinska: smart, determined, independent, and steadfast in the face of injustice. A Jew growing up in predominantly Catholic Poland during the 1920s and ’30s, Gucia studies hard, makes friends, falls in love, and dreams of a bright future. Her world is turned upside down when Nazis invade Poland and establish the first Jewish ghetto of World War II in her town of Piotrko´w Trybunalski.

Across the US, student activists are exposing a pervasive cover-up of sexual assault on college campuses. Every day more survivors come forward. But other survivors choose not to. We Believe You elevates the stories the headlines about this issue have been missing - more than 30 experiences of trauma, healing, and everyday activism, representing a diversity of races, economic and family backgrounds, gender identities, immigration statuses, interests, capacities, and loves.

In 2010, at the age of 37, he began feeling a constant ticking inside his body, not knowing that what he was feeling was a virtual time-bomb that could explode at any moment. Seven months later, he was diagnosed with a rare and malignant form of cancer. In From Fear to Faith, author Matt Talford takes you on a journey through his personal war on cancer and shares the physical, mental, and spiritual tools that inspired him to reverse what he referred to as “a slow death”.

December 1944, whilst heavy snows fall over Budapest and soldiers battle for the streets, Georgina, a young Jewish woman, is nearly starving to death with her newborn son. The battle outside is one of the most savage in the entire war. She knows that to go into the streets is virtually a death sentence or rape, but she must find food within the next few hours, or her baby will certainly die. For Georgina, there is no choice. Alone and completely vulnerable, she heads out into the freezing cold.

Assigned to the 504th Bombardment Group in the Pacific Theater, Hanley became a flight engineer on a B-29 bomber squad. On his seventh mission, he and his crew were shot down over Japan. In Accused War Criminal, Hanley shares his experiences from his training and commissioning to his deployment on a failed mission that led to his capture. He recounts how he managed to survive as a prisoner of war until his eventual rescue and recovery. With candid honesty and telling details, this is a humbling and harrowing tale of one man's bravery under unimaginable circumstances.

Henny had just graduated from high school when the Germans invaded Lithuania. Her care-free life rapidly changed from a life of privilege to a living hell. Simply because she was Jewish. The horrors inflicted upon the Jews of Kovno, taken place in the old forts built during Czarist Russia, are not as well known as what happened in the German Nazi camps during World War II. Henny recounts her beautiful life in Kovno before the invasion by the Nazis when she and 35,000 other Jews were put in the ghetto. We hear about the acts of cruelty done to her family and friends.

The Terrible Truth About the Truth is an all-in-one dramatic, romantic, horrific, true story, not without some humor. As a Tutsi who experienced a number of close calls during the Tutsis genocide conducted by extremists Hutus, Emma identifies herself as a Tutsi and a genocide survivor, but many of her compatriots question that reality.

This is a survivors guide to a chronic illness. The book isn't full of, or contain medical advice. However, there is common sense advice on how to face it and keep your dignity intact.

In the tranquil towns of New England during the 1970s, a sinister mystery unfolded when several boys vanished without a trace, and the community’s peace was shattered. One boy’s body was found years later, but what happened to the others remained a mystery. In 2013, author David McGrath, a former host on the Law Enforcement Today Network and an investigator with a relentless drive for justice, watched a documentary about the missing boys.

This book details Alice’s struggles in navigating life and climbing up the ladder of success. It is about taking a step ahead from the fear of failure and conquering all the challenges that life lays in front of you with persistence. Remember, when struggling in life, you have a choice; you can either dwell on your miseries or you can use them as a stepping stone to be stronger.

For the first time, Euna Lee - the young wife, mother, and film editor detained in North Korea - tells a harrowing, but ultimately inspiring, story of survival and faith in one of the most isolated parts of the world. On March 17, 2009, Lee and her Current TV colleague Laura Ling were working on a documentary about the desperate lives of North Koreans fleeing their homeland for a chance at freedom when they were violently apprehended by North Korean soldiers.

When little Hannelore Zack left Cologne, Germany, on a train bound for London as a seven-year-old mädchen (young girl), she had no way of knowing that she was part of the Kindertransport, an epic rescue effort that would save 10,000 Jewish children from Hitler's Nazi regime. Written over a four-year period, A Garland for Ashes is both a gripping detective story recounting the heartbreaking process of discovering her family's fate and a poignant account of her journey from vengeful hatred to forgiveness and release from bitterness.

At twenty-six, Gaby felt like her life was just beginning. Newly married and pregnant with her first child, she was on top of the world. But that joy was shattered when a routine blood test led to a diagnosis of AML Leukemia—and the treatment she needed could harm her baby or save them both.

For seven years, Shannon Kopp battled the silent, horrific, and all-too-common disease of bulimia. Then, at 24, she got a job working at the San Diego Humane Society and SPCA, where in caring for shelter dogs, she found the inspiration to heal and the courage to forgive herself. With the help of some extraordinary homeless animals, Shannon realized that her suffering was the birthplace of something beautiful. Compassion.

Gary Lee Veale's memoir, "I Survived A Thousand Times", is a heart-wrenching and ultimately triumphant account of his journey from childhood abuse to successful adulthood. With unflinching honesty, Veale shares his story of physical and mental abuse, and the long and difficult path to recovery and healing.

With an audacious persistence to reclaim her life, Tia set off on a 15-year path to psychological health. The result is an emotionally regulated, actualized, self-aware woman able to tell her hard story without retraumatizing herself, a woman able to reach a hand back to help others claim what’s theirs. If trauma took your past, it shouldn’t get your present and future too. Through a series of personal stories, therapeutic stages, and resources built around a multi-step model, Tia Levings will guide you through the journey that helped her leave abuse, rediscover selfhood, and heal her mind.

After a 25-year career spent fighting for women's rights around the globe at the expense of time with her family, Karen Sherman looked around and realized she didn't really know her children and felt little connection to her husband. With her world - work, marriage, family - crashing down, she made the rash decision to move to Rwanda with her three sons, an experiment she dubbed "our year of living dangerously".

Lolly has always known her mum was different. Sometimes Angela Bruce was ill in a quiet sort of way, but other times she roamed the Mansfield estate shouting about whatever had wormed its way into her head that day. Either way, Lolly was on her own, so she learned how to look after herself pretty quickly. Mal Fury has never got over the disappearance of his daughter all those years ago, but there's still hope because the police never found Kay's body.

Jason Sommer's father, Jay, is ninety-eight years old and losing his memory. More than seventy years after arriving in New York from WWII-torn Europe, he is forgetting the stories that defined his life, the life of his family, and the lives of millions of Jews who were affected by Nazi terror. Observing this loss, Jason vividly recalls the trip to Eastern Europe the two took together in 2001.