Faith Amid Darkness

Book excerpt: While growing up during the 1930s in Lodz, Poland, Adrian Nowak befriends Misha Coen, a Jewish boy who lives in his apartment building. As they play together and learn about each others cultures and religions, the two boys look forward to the future. They have no idea of how things will change in 1939 when Nazi Germany invades their beloved country. On the day of Mishas Bar Mitzvah, he and his family are taken away by the SS. A few months later, Adrian is forcibly taken into German service and put to work at Treblinka and later Auschwitzthe two most notorious concentration camps in World War II. Subjected to years of subjugation and horror, Adrian is left in deep despairuntil the day he catches a glimpse of Misha in a selection yard at Auschwitz. Thrilled to be together once again, Adrian and Misha find strength, faith, and hope in their morning prayers, the sacred Teffilin that Misha managed to save from his old life, and their friendship, as they both attempt to survive in the face of horrifying conditions. Faith amid Darkness provides a heartrending and surprising glimpse inside the brutality of the Holocaust.