Olga Lengyel was one of the first Holocaust survivors to publish an account of the Nazi death camps, describing with unflinching honesty and precision her experiences in Auschwitz and Birkenau. From the Midwest Book Review Having lost her husband, her parents, and her two young sons to the Nazi exterminators, Olga Lengyel had little to [...]

HEN Director Sondra Perl has known Mimi Schwartz for many years. They share interests in the teaching of writing, recently collaborating on the textbook ­Writing True: The Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction. They also share interests in teaching and learning about the Holocaust. Our featured book for Spring 2011 is Mimi’s memoir about the [...]

Fifteen years ago, Sondra Perl journeyed into alien territory: Austria, Hitler’s birthplace, and the territory of her own hatred. In this book, she describes what happened when she found herself teaching Austrians whose parents had been Nazis. Her students preferred to bury their parents’ shameful past, but under Perl’s guidance and encouragement, they began to [...]