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Heather Dune Macadam

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Nonfiction, Literature & Fiction, Memoir

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There are so many, but in terms of literature Rena's Promise was deepl ...more

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VOTE for 999! A Goodreads Choice for 2020 - History and Biography

999 - The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz brings together stories of girls on the first transport along with historic research that will astound new fans and former fans of Rena's Promise.
999 places the young women of the first transport front and center in Holocaust history and women's history, and I am hugely excited about the reception it is already having—you will meet Edith, who is very much like, Rena (vivacious, generous and compassionate). You can find more on our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/999themovie/

Or subscribe to the 999 newsletter by visiting: https://www.999thebook.com/

Sadly, Edith passed away two weeks VOTE for 999! A Goodreads Choice for 2020 - History and Biography

999 - The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz brings together stories of girls on the first transport along with historic research that will astound new fans and former fans of Rena's Promise.
999 places the young women of the first transport front and center in Holocaust history and women's history, and I am hugely excited about the reception it is already having—you will meet Edith, who is very much like, Rena (vivacious, generous and compassionate). You can find more on our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/999themovie/

Or subscribe to the 999 newsletter by visiting: https://www.999thebook.com/

Sadly, Edith passed away two weeks after her 96th birthday this year (2020). A short memorial is on Youtube: https://youtu.be/X_eRoFu_8Sk

You can also find my Vlog on the Rena's Promise YouTube Channel and follow some of my journeys to Auschwitz, Slovakia and Tylicz, Poland. That channel started as a desire to fight Holocaust denial by promoting truth and helped spur the rebirth of Rena's Promise: The Story of Sisters in Auschwitz and made the digital edition an Amazon BEST-SELLING Holocaust Memoir for 6 months in 2012. Since then a new edition of Rena’s Promise has been released, as well as an audio book. RP has been translated into Japanese, Turkish, Portuguese, Dutch, German and published in the UK and commonwealth. The website for RenasPromise.com offers teachers free curriculum on innovative ways to teach the Holocaust and provides a map called the Promise Project that shows where girls from the first transport lived and the towns they were deported from.

My novel, The Weeping Buddha, was released by Akashic Books in 2003. I really want to write fiction, but even this murder mystery is based in part on my attempt to deal with an unsolved mystery in my life. It was a finalist in the Nero Wolf Awards and Best Mystery, Lambda Awards (2004).

While NPR doesn’t seem to do commentaries anymore, you can find some of my quirky essays in the archives of ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Additionally, I have been published in The New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, Marie Claire, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, YOU Magazine (Sunday Supplement to Mail on Sunday), The Advocate and Racing Home: Short Stories By Award-Winning North Carolina Writers.
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Hi, Heather! I wanted to thank you again for Rena's Promise and 999. My grandfather is a holocaust survivor and does not speak about his experiences. His mother, of blessed memory, was also a survivor. I read Rena's Promise and 999, and it is a gateway into my great-grandma's world. If you could ask Rena one more question, what would it be?

Heather Dune Macadam Wow... That is a great question. I have to say that the answer would have been quite different before I met Edith. Edith was able to answer all of the…moreWow... That is a great question. I have to say that the answer would have been quite different before I met Edith. Edith was able to answer all of the questions that I had, which I only became aware that I needed or should have asked Rena. 999 is actually those answers. What I wish I could share with Rena--though I speak to her in my heard often!--was information I unearthed that would have given her a sense of closure.
1) SS Taube was executed for his crimes; Caroline Moorehead found evidence of that and wrote about it in her book "Train in Winter."
2) SS Juana Borman, the woman with the dog--who I think was the SS who murdered the young girl in that horrible scene in Auschwitz I--was also executed. I suppose I would have like Rena to see the photo of Borman to confirm that she was the one we wrote about, but evidence points to that fact.
3) I found out what actually happened to Mama and Papa. This is not comforting, as they were murdered, but they were not gassed and they were not dragged to death in Tylicz. They were shot with about 200 other Jews and their gentile friends in April 1942, in the Jewish cemetery outside of the Jewish ghetto in Nowy Sacz.
4) I would like her to see the photos of Adela and to know that I know Adela's family and that Rena's memory of Adela is why 999 was written. It all goes back the the beautiful redhead, whom we lost.

And so, in many ways, Rena's prayer as the children went to the gas chamber, asking God to smite just one Nazi, was answered many times over. When I stand outside Block 10 and look up at the still boarded up windows that look out at the execution wall, I often have a sense of a fissure in time. I imagine that Rena is looking out and witnessing Russian POWs being shot, and I send her a message: you are going to survive this thing and you are going to tell the world what you saw, and I am going to help you. It is our covenant.

And this: When I went to Tylicz in 2015, I wanted to find Andrzej's grave. I spent two days and was about to leave when I noticed a graveyard I hadn't seen before. There was about 2-feet of snow. (I posted this on Youtube!) What the short film does not show is what I say in my mind's eye when I found the grave. I saw the shadow of a German guard standing at the gate, and as I pushed the snow away from the headstone, I heard Rena's voice, saying "Thank you, Heather." I have never wept so hard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2OPl...(less)

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On behalf of the Syosset Library Readers’ Services Department, thank you to author Heather Dune Macadam for visiting with us virtually to discuss 999. Attendees were so interested in the program, we have some additional questions as noted in a follow-up blog post “5 Questions with Author Heather Dune Macadam”. Do you enjoy meeting with your readers?

Heather Dune Macadam Hi Jackie! It is so great to see you here on Goodreads and thanks for posting your questions from the Syosset Library Blog, which is a great resource …moreHi Jackie! It is so great to see you here on Goodreads and thanks for posting your questions from the Syosset Library Blog, which is a great resource for readers - no matter you read! I simply love doing events and meeting with readers of my books, even though Zoom keeps us at a distance, we are able to meet with readers all over the world and that is wonderful.

You know writers live fairly solitary lives, so getting to do events and meet our readers is like being let out of a cage. Sometimes I feel like my Dalmatian, I want to jump up and down and wag my tail with joy! (less)

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Average rating: 4.34 · 9,728 ratings · 773 reviews · 13 distinct works • Similar authors

	999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz by Heather Dune Macadam (Goodreads Author), Caroline Moorehead (Foreword) 4.51 avg rating — 1,182 ratings — published 2019 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Weeping Buddha 4.22 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2002 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	THE LESBIAN AND THE WOMANIZER - A Collection of Humorous & Naughty Essays 2.75 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Will and the Magic Mirror by Heather Dune Macadam (Goodreads Author), Winn Macadam it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2011	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	MY SUBPRIME LIFE - A Memoir of Sex, Love and Mortgage (Part I - Toxic Assets) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2011	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Summer with Pelé: A Young Dancer meets the God of Soccer on the Field of Life did not like it 1.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Las 999 mujeres de Auschwitz (Narración en Castellano): La extraordinaria historia de las jóvenes judías que llegaron en el primer tren a Auschwitz by Heather Dune Macadam (Goodreads Author), Rosa Campillo (Reading), Rosa Mariscal (Reading) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Dunes of Pilgram Lake 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2009	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz by Rena Kornreich Gelissen, Heather Dune Macadam (Goodreads Author) 4.32 avg rating — 8,585 ratings — published 1995 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dear James, Love Pussy - The Secret Correspondence Between JB and Pussy Galore. by Priscilla May Galore, J. B., Heather Dune Macadam (Goodreads Author) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2009	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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78th Anniversary of the First Transport

I held a Livestream event on Facebook on 26 March, talking about some of my research and about the anniversary. I also take to task the issue of why the Holocaust Museum (US) and Auschwitz were tweeting about the 999 Ravensbruck prisoners who arrived in Auschwitz but NOT our 999 innocent young Jewish girls. WHY CAN'T THEY GET THIS RIGHT?
You can find that event at:
https://www.facebook.com/999themov Read more of this blog post »

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Published on March 27, 2020 05:03 • Tags: auschwitz, girls-history, girls-rights, holocaust, holocaust-survivors, women-s-history, women-s-rights

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Heather Macadam voted for Felix Ever After as Best Young Adult Fiction in the Final Round of the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards. Cast Your Vote
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Heather Macadam answered Tay's question: Hi, Heather! I wanted to thank you again for Rena's Promise and 999. My grandfather is a holocaust survivor and does not speak about his experiences. His mother, of blessed memory, was also a survivor. I read Rena's Promise and 999, and it is a gateway into my great-grandma's world. If you could ask Rena one more question, what would it be? Wow... That is a great question. I have to say that the answer would have been quite different before I met Edith. Edith was able to answer all of the questions that I had, which I only became aware that I needed or should have asked Rena. 999 is act See Full Answer
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Heather Macadam commented on Heather’s update " Fascinating! I hope more people join this conversation and discuss their experiences. " Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars Heather Macadam shared a note from 999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz by Heather Dune Macadam (Goodreads Author) Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee in Best History & Biography See all Heather’s notes and highlights for this book I love that this is a popular highlight! I was so astonished when I read the scientific research on this and thought about all of the times my own mother mysteriously called me when I was in danger, or something horrible had just happened. Her voice, “Are you okay? I was just thinking about you...” is the backdrop to my misspent youth. How many of you have had similar experiences, either as children or as parents? It also makes me wonder about an even bigger mystery of a connection beyond life. In Rena’s Promise, Rena shared instances where she felt her mother’s presence beside her in ...more
Nov 16, 2020 05:58AM
Heather Macadam rated a book it was amazing 999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz by Heather Dune Macadam (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I have to give it 5 stars. I wrote it!
Nov 09, 2020 12:05PM · 15 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of 999 by Heather Dune Macadam. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — 999 by Heather Dune Macadam <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Heather Macadam wants to read Claudette: Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1942-1945. Recherche en laboratoire by Claudette Bloch-Kennedy	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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“Bamboo blooms rarely, maybe every sixty to one hundred years, but when the parent plant flowers, its offspring—no matter where in the world they are—also bloom.”
― Heather Dune Macadam, 999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz

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