Bannister Nonna - The secret Holocaust diaries: the untold story of Nonna Bannister

Front Matter

Endorsements

You have only to dip into this astounding memoir to see that the suffering that marked Nonnas early years was the very thing that God used to shape this remarkable woman. Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin have managed to give Nonna Bannister the same feeling of literary and historical importance that John and Elizabeth Sherrill brough to Corrie ten Boom in The Hiding Place. Read it and weep or read it and rejoice, but above all, read it.

Calvin Miller, Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School.

What a marvelous service has been provided by Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin in bringing to light the untold story of Nonna Bannister! This inspiring volume provides a window into the personal and painful reflections of one of the darkest periods in humna history. Yet readers will be strengthened by reading this most moving and hopeful account of courage, faith, and forgiveness.

David S. Dockery, President, Union University

This book is absolutely captivating. It is an extraordinary glimpse inside the oppressive nature of Russian Communism and the viciously evil heart of Nazi Germany. But, the revelations of human depravity manifested in horrific acts of brutality and murder notwithstanding, rays of Gods Light appear in the form of a Russian Orthodox grandmother, a frail Jewish boy, and a group of Christlike German Catholic nuns and priests. These diaries are at once heartbreaking, hopeful, and unforgettable.

Lyle W. Dorset, Billy Graham Professor of Evangelicalism, Beeson Divinity School

THE SECRET HOLOCAUST DIARIES

by

NONNA BANNISTER

with Denise George

and Carolyn Tomlin

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Carol Stream, Illinois

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The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister

Copyright 2009 by NLB Partners. All rights reserved.

Cover and interior photos are used by permission from the Nonna Bannister family collection.

Published in association with the literary agency of WordServe Literary Group, Inc., 10152 Knoll Circle, Highlands Ranch, CO 80130.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bannister, Nonna, 1927-2004.

The secret Holocaust diaries : the untold story of Nonna Bannister / by Nonna Bannister ; with Carolyn Tomlin and Denise George.

p. cm.

ISBN: 978-1-4143-2546-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4143-3022-8 (MS Reader)

ISBN: 978-1-4143-3023-5 (Mobipocket)

ISBN: 978-1-4143-3024-2 (Palm)

ISBN: 978-1-4143-3025-9 (Sony)

1. Bannister, Nonna, 1927-2004. 2. World war, 1939-1945WomenUkraineKostiantynivka (Donetska oblast)Biography. 3. World war, 1939-1945ChildrenUkraineKostiantynivka (Donetska oblast)Biography. 4. World War, 1939-1945 Prisoners and prisons, German. 5. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)Ukraine. 6. Kostiantynivka (Donetska oblast, Ukraine)Biography. I. Tomlin, Carolyn Ross.

II. George, Denise. III. Title.

DK508.835.B36A3 2009

940.53'18092dc22

[B] 2008050099

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Dedication

circa 1990

I would like to dedicate this book to the memory of all those who perished during the Holocaust in World War II, who are no longer here to tell their stories, and also to those who survived the horrors of it all but lost their families and loved ones.

I thank God for the little Jewish boy named Nathan, who died so that I could live.

I want to express my gratitude to the Catholic priests and nuns who were brave enough to hide me from the Gestapo after they had taken my mother away.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to my loving and caring husband, Henry, who has given me his support and his understanding and caring for mefor sharing my feelings with me and helping me throughout our forty-six years of marriage to cope with the many sad memories of the past. I feel that God sent him to me because He knew what I needed to survive the many hard times. Henry took care of me while I struggled through very bad health, and without him and his love and support, it would have been extremely difficult to write this book and to cope with so many horrible memories.

I thank God for giving me three beautiful childrentwo sons: W. H. (Hank) Jr. and John D., and a beautiful daughter, Elizabeth J. They also have given me a lot of support and love, which I will cherish until I die.

Nonna L. Bannister

TO THE PAST

To the past, the way has been barred,

And what do I need the past for now?

What is there? Bloodied flagstone

Or a bricked-up dooror an echo

That still cannot die away...

However much I beg.

Nonna L. Bannister

Preface

This is the true story of a Russian-American woman named Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister.

The material within these pages comes from the private, handwritten transcripts that Nonna made of her diaries from childhood, World War II, and the years immediately following the war. She expanded and compiled them during the late 1980s, with further commentary based on her memory of events. Translating into English from her original documents, which were written in five languages, Nonna wrote her life story on yellow legal pads and kept them hidden from everyone, including her husband, Henry.

In the 1990s, after decades of marriage, Nonna finally told Henry about her secret past. She also made him promise that he wouldnt share any of her hidden material until after her death. Henry kept his promise to Nonna, only now making her writings public after her death in 2004.

Nonna had kept a lifetime of secret diaries. She began writing as a young girl and received a diary of her own from her father when she was nine years old. In this childhood diary she described her life, her family, and her dreams, and she included some of her poetry. She also kept a formal diary during the latter years of World War II, when Catholic nuns at a German hospital hid her from the Nazis and nursed her back to health. She continued this diary in the years immediately following the war.