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To Life
"WE ARE FREE!"
When Russian soldiers liberate Grafenort, the Nazi labor camp where she is a prisoner, nineteen-year-old Riva discovers that liberation doesn't mean the end of her hardship and suffering.
Cold and starving, threatened with rape by the same Russian soldiers who were her saviors, Riva makes her way to her old home in Poland, searching like so many others for family who may have survived. Strengthened by her mother's credo, as long as there is life, there is hope, and by the promise of a new love and a new life, Riva endures the long years of waiting for real freedom and a real home.
Picking up where her acclaimed memoir The Cage leaves off, Ruth Minsky Sender has written another inspirational document of the power of hope and love over unspeakable cruelty.
When Russian soldiers liberate Grafenort, the Nazi labor camp where she is a prisoner, nineteen-year-old Riva discovers that liberation doesn't mean the end of her hardship and suffering.
Cold and starving, threatened with rape by the same Russian soldiers who were her saviors, Riva makes her way to her old home in Poland, searching like so many others for family who may have survived. Strengthened by her mother's credo, as long as there is life, there is hope, and by the promise of a new love and a new life, Riva endures the long years of waiting for real freedom and a real home.
Picking up where her acclaimed memoir The Cage leaves off, Ruth Minsky Sender has written another inspirational document of the power of hope and love over unspeakable cruelty.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Ruth Minsky Sender
4 books40 followersRuth Minsky Sender is a Holocaust survivor. She has written three memoirs about her experience: The Cage, To Life and Holocaust Lady.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Min...
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Min...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
January 2, 2010
I finished this book last night, and sat down and read The Holocause Lady in a few hours.
I love the simple language she uses. Her story is so important for everyone to read. I enjoyed hearing about the displaced peoples' camps and her journey to America. Thank you Riva for writing your story so that all of us could learn from the past.
I love the simple language she uses. Her story is so important for everyone to read. I enjoyed hearing about the displaced peoples' camps and her journey to America. Thank you Riva for writing your story so that all of us could learn from the past.
August 26, 2015
This book looks at a part of the Holocaust that is often overlooked in fiction- what happened to the prisoners after they were freed from concentration camps. Life was not immediately improved for them. They were in poor physical condition, frightened, and worried about the fate of their families. This book shows the struggle to find a place in the world again and to locate their remaining family members. From the nonfiction that I have read, this book gives a very realistic account of what could have happened to a survivor of the concentration camps.
October 13, 2024
The book I’m reading is called “To Life” by Ruth Minsky Sender. This is the second book she wrote. Her writing style is easy reading and it is still a powerful and amazing testimony of the human spirit. You can't put it down. In this book, she have been expressed how she felt being not free yet, but her mother told her in her own words “as long as there is life, there is hope”. For the last 6 years she was stuck in a cage in the ghetto and the camps and for the last 5 years she felt stuck in a displaced camp, this time reunited with her loved ones. She was hearing all the stories from other people how they experienced and expressed their grief, where women specifically were treated, raped by their Russian soldiers, non-Nazi in Germany, and even the poles took their homes when they were gone. She felt Poland is not her home anymore and is not liberated from her yet until she had to wait for visa approval to become a citizen that she can call home for entity. She died earlier this year in January at the age of 96. Her legacy lives on with by her children, her grandchildren and their partners as well.
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July 22, 2026What happened after America won the War and “freed” the Jews? Did life go back to the way it was before the war? A story of what happens after it all that we don’t talk about enough.
September 23, 2016
What if after going through the hardest experience you’ve ever been through in your life there were even more hardships that you had to endure? In the beginning of To Life by Ruth Minsky Sender we meet a 19-year-old Jewish girl, Riva who just escaped from a concentration camp in Germany after the Russian Army liberated her. In this book we discover her struggle throughout her life to find her forgotten family, move to America, and of course survive the after effects of a world changing chapter in history.
What makes this book such a page-turner is the suspense that the whole novel is centered around. There are so many conflicts and challenges that the main character has to overcome while still being focused on protecting her family. One example of a challenge Riva had to go through was searching for her sisters and brother in Russia while raising her children and applying to get visas so her family could live in America. When she does find her family only one of her sisters survived the horrible conditions of the German death camps. Later on after living with her siblings she has to leave them for a better opportunity in America. This caused her to choose between her old life in Poland and a new life in America.
This book is also phenomenal because of the growth we see in the main character as we follow her life for approximately a decade. Riva learns how to control her fear with hope for a new future even though she still worries about even having a future. This caused her evolve from a timid teenager to a scared, but calm and capable adult.
What makes this book such a page-turner is the suspense that the whole novel is centered around. There are so many conflicts and challenges that the main character has to overcome while still being focused on protecting her family. One example of a challenge Riva had to go through was searching for her sisters and brother in Russia while raising her children and applying to get visas so her family could live in America. When she does find her family only one of her sisters survived the horrible conditions of the German death camps. Later on after living with her siblings she has to leave them for a better opportunity in America. This caused her to choose between her old life in Poland and a new life in America.
This book is also phenomenal because of the growth we see in the main character as we follow her life for approximately a decade. Riva learns how to control her fear with hope for a new future even though she still worries about even having a future. This caused her evolve from a timid teenager to a scared, but calm and capable adult.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 1, 2018
Good Sequel
Very good sequel to ‘The Cage’. This is the first book I have read about the Holocaust that tells of the lives of the survivors after the camps. This a a book of what happened to the Jews who lived through their horrors, only to find there is no ‘home’ to return to. Finally freed from the camps, these people now must make their way home, only to find there is no home anymore. For many, there is no family or friends to return to. No jobs, or any way to make a living. Many encounter the lingering hatred of the Jewish people when they arrive back to their cities and villages after they have lived through the horrors of the camps. Now often alone, these survivors must figure out how to continue, pick up the pieces, and have nowhere to go. Their family and home that they have longed for, no longer exists.
Very good sequel to ‘The Cage’. This is the first book I have read about the Holocaust that tells of the lives of the survivors after the camps. This a a book of what happened to the Jews who lived through their horrors, only to find there is no ‘home’ to return to. Finally freed from the camps, these people now must make their way home, only to find there is no home anymore. For many, there is no family or friends to return to. No jobs, or any way to make a living. Many encounter the lingering hatred of the Jewish people when they arrive back to their cities and villages after they have lived through the horrors of the camps. Now often alone, these survivors must figure out how to continue, pick up the pieces, and have nowhere to go. Their family and home that they have longed for, no longer exists.
January 22, 2020
An amazing story, and one that has rarely been told - the events immediately after the holocaust. I think people often get it in their heads that once the concentration camps were liberated and the Nazis defeated, everything was great. That without Hitler in power, everyone 'lived happily ever after'. I doubt anyone would ever put it quite that way, but mostly. They survived the worst, so they must have been fine after that.
Clearly that was not the case. Nearly every survivor, at best, was left half-starved with severe PTSD and no home or even the hope of a place that would allow them to make a new home. Many lost their entire families. Many gave up their children, hoping for the best and never heard anything about them ever again. And some, like the woman Riva mentions, was reunited with a child who hardly knew her and had been taught to hate the Jewish people, not realizing she was a Jewish child.
I never realized that there was such prevalent anti semitism throughout Poland (and probably a good portion of Europe) after the Nazis fell either. How many people were liberated from camps or had come out of hiding, just to be dragged from the train that was supposed to bring them to freedom, to be shot to death by people who were not Nazis?
How many spent the rest of their lives wishing they had not survived?
As for the book itself - the writing seems much better than the first book. I'm not sure if that's because there was such a big improvement, or if I'd gotten used to the style, or just because it was a series of events I hadn't read anything similar to before.
I definitely recommend. It's a very sad, very important story.
Clearly that was not the case. Nearly every survivor, at best, was left half-starved with severe PTSD and no home or even the hope of a place that would allow them to make a new home. Many lost their entire families. Many gave up their children, hoping for the best and never heard anything about them ever again. And some, like the woman Riva mentions, was reunited with a child who hardly knew her and had been taught to hate the Jewish people, not realizing she was a Jewish child.
I never realized that there was such prevalent anti semitism throughout Poland (and probably a good portion of Europe) after the Nazis fell either. How many people were liberated from camps or had come out of hiding, just to be dragged from the train that was supposed to bring them to freedom, to be shot to death by people who were not Nazis?
How many spent the rest of their lives wishing they had not survived?
As for the book itself - the writing seems much better than the first book. I'm not sure if that's because there was such a big improvement, or if I'd gotten used to the style, or just because it was a series of events I hadn't read anything similar to before.
I definitely recommend. It's a very sad, very important story.
September 23, 2010
This is such an important pice of history. The first book by Sender, The Cage, tells about the horrors of the Nazi labor and death camps she survived. This one tells of the displaced persons camps and how long it took for people to find relatives, find hope, and find new homes. This is a piece of history most do not know about. We see that the camps were liberated, and we assume and immediate happy ending. That is not so. Read this.
July 30, 2016
As a sequel to The Cage, I liked this book much better. The author provided more emotion and more detail than in The Cage. The first two chapters are the same as the last two chapters in The Cage but I didn't mind because it helped me to know where the story left off. It was an easy read. I enjoyed reading the life of Ruth after the war.
September 19, 2021
I haven't read a lot of holocaust books so maybe there are many like this that I am unaware of but I liked how she explained exactly what happened upon liberation. I like that she really made me grasp the surrealism. I have lost both my parents, but Moniek was so young to have absolutely no family. Ruth values family in a way that I can not relate, and not because I have a lot of it, but I think to have it and the connection it brings you so brutally ripped away from you makes an impact. It seems to me that most stories focus of the brutality, Ruth writes in a way that doesn't horrify your senses and yet makes you grasp how surreal this time frame was. "They survived to remember!" And people from different situations survived to convey those different situations. Ruth was a child who lost her mother but met a mother who lost her children, which obviously seems so much worse to most of us.....not that comparing has any value, other than the different situation allows for a different remembrance, and different conveyance of pain for us to learn from. We can learn about history without truly understanding what that looked like. When she was liberated, the war in Germany just stopped. All of a sudden the camps that had been used to exterminate were now used to house displaced people but still used. The Nazis simply took off their uniforms and blended in as German citizens. The American immigration agent had to ask Ruth and Moniek if they were Nazis, and while that seems offensive we must learn that evil doesn't look any different than the rest of us. In fact evil will do all it can to blend in to have access to fulfill its desires. And to find it we cannot make assumptions.
When I was in school I thought I hated history until I learned that what I needed was the personal side. Ruth gave me that. I have read Elie Wiesel's book Night and it is poetic. But Ruth's book deserves attention for being the every person's book. Thank you Ruth! In my struggle with depression I struggle to value my life. So many survivors are just grateful to have survived. I constantly hear you and your mother's words, "where there is life there is hope." I told a depressed person this once. He was so tired of never feeling better and I understood his pain, it wears on you, but it cannot change if you are gone.
When I was in school I thought I hated history until I learned that what I needed was the personal side. Ruth gave me that. I have read Elie Wiesel's book Night and it is poetic. But Ruth's book deserves attention for being the every person's book. Thank you Ruth! In my struggle with depression I struggle to value my life. So many survivors are just grateful to have survived. I constantly hear you and your mother's words, "where there is life there is hope." I told a depressed person this once. He was so tired of never feeling better and I understood his pain, it wears on you, but it cannot change if you are gone.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 11, 2020
To Life By Ruth Minsky Sender
(Scribd).
An inspirational story with the message that Rivas mother was fond of saying “as long as there is life, there is hope.” This continues Rivas story from The Cage. This follows her life after concentration camp back to Poland only to find her home occupied by a stranger and no trace of her younger brothers. She does know her older siblings escaped to Russia and hopes to find them.
She also married and moved from German displaced person camp to camp until they are finally given a journey to a place they can call home.
Most heartbreaking in this part of her story is the fact Jews are forced to flee Poland because Poles are actively looking to kill them. It also covers the heartbreaking PTSD they dealt with especially living around Germans and that most of the displaced persons were part of former concentration camps.
Still an enduring story.
(Scribd).
An inspirational story with the message that Rivas mother was fond of saying “as long as there is life, there is hope.” This continues Rivas story from The Cage. This follows her life after concentration camp back to Poland only to find her home occupied by a stranger and no trace of her younger brothers. She does know her older siblings escaped to Russia and hopes to find them.
She also married and moved from German displaced person camp to camp until they are finally given a journey to a place they can call home.
Most heartbreaking in this part of her story is the fact Jews are forced to flee Poland because Poles are actively looking to kill them. It also covers the heartbreaking PTSD they dealt with especially living around Germans and that most of the displaced persons were part of former concentration camps.
Still an enduring story.
August 4, 2020
This sequel to The Cage covers Ruth's life from liberation to arrival in the United States (1945-1950). Five years in displaced persons camps!
Many people are unaware that returning Jews were not only not welcomed, but actively killed, when they reached their home countries/cities after surviving camps. Anti-Semitism did not begin or end with Hitler.
I had just finished another account of life in Birkenau (for adults) before reading this one, and I understand more of what Ruth alludes to or writes simply about. The details she leaves out for younger readers. The emotion and the trauma is still there, but it was like I was reading between the lines.
I'm glad I read about what is was like to try to build a life after surviving. Living in abandoned apartments, sneaking back and forth across borders, lists and lists and lines and lines. And going back to camps that were different kinds of camps before. Because no one wants you.
Many people are unaware that returning Jews were not only not welcomed, but actively killed, when they reached their home countries/cities after surviving camps. Anti-Semitism did not begin or end with Hitler.
I had just finished another account of life in Birkenau (for adults) before reading this one, and I understand more of what Ruth alludes to or writes simply about. The details she leaves out for younger readers. The emotion and the trauma is still there, but it was like I was reading between the lines.
I'm glad I read about what is was like to try to build a life after surviving. Living in abandoned apartments, sneaking back and forth across borders, lists and lists and lines and lines. And going back to camps that were different kinds of camps before. Because no one wants you.
January 14, 2024
I did read the first book "The Cage" about Riva living in the ghetto but it was a while ago and I somehow didn't realize these 2 books were about the same person until the very end when it mentions her brother bringing her the tangerine. I recall the first one being a little more engaging and well-done but this one was alright. If I had remembered these books were connected sooner, I probably wouldn't have been so frustrated and lost at all these family members and people mentioned in letters that didn't feel explained (but now I know why).
Bottom line: maybe it just works better while keeping the first book in mind. It was engaging enough to read fairly quickly so 3 stars.
Content: Clean. No gore.
Bottom line: maybe it just works better while keeping the first book in mind. It was engaging enough to read fairly quickly so 3 stars.
Content: Clean. No gore.
November 5, 2019
I love this app
August 6, 2020
An inspiring sequel to The Cage.
October 15, 2022
This book made me so teary eyed. A beautiful story of hope after a horrifying experience, it’s amazing.
November 20, 2014
To Life was a story that was very sad but also very positive. I never wanted to put down my book and stop reading. The book left you hanging and at the edge of your seat. I did get bored at one little part, but other then that, To Life was a great book.
To Life was about a Jewish girl, Ruth Minsky Sender. She was trapped in the Nazi chambers during the early 1900's in Poland, Russia, and Germany. She lost her family and has always hoped to find them again. Ruth got married and created a family. After the wars were over, family was found and they were reunited once more. To Life is a very emotional book.
I would recommend this book to readers above the age of 12. There is some content in the book that should not be read by younger children. Otherwise, I'm sure that this book will make teens appreciate their free lives and it will give a little glimpse of how these Jews suffered in agony.
To Life was about a Jewish girl, Ruth Minsky Sender. She was trapped in the Nazi chambers during the early 1900's in Poland, Russia, and Germany. She lost her family and has always hoped to find them again. Ruth got married and created a family. After the wars were over, family was found and they were reunited once more. To Life is a very emotional book.
I would recommend this book to readers above the age of 12. There is some content in the book that should not be read by younger children. Otherwise, I'm sure that this book will make teens appreciate their free lives and it will give a little glimpse of how these Jews suffered in agony.
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March 27, 2014As long as there is life there is hope, at least that's what Riva was brought up to believe. So when she is freed from a German prison camp for Jews she carries that with her. Through trying to find the rest of her family without a home left to travel back to, not knowing who is alive or dead. Riva travels with friends and meets her soon-to-be husband and having her children. Through trying to move to America. Still searching, searching, searching, even after some members are found still looking for others. I would recommend this memoir to anyone who wants to learn more about Jewish life after being freed and WW2 coming to an end.
February 24, 2023
I was overwhelmed to learn the continued struggle survivors had after they were liberated from the concentration camps. It was impossible to read this without tears.
I'm so grateful for those willing to share their stories.
my ratings:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Loved it. Couldn't put it down. I will probably read it again and it has a place in my library.
⭐⭐⭐⭐: Enjoyed it. Good characters, great story.
⭐⭐⭐: Liked it. Glad I read it, but probably won't read again.
⭐⭐: okay, I won't read it again, it will not be kept for my library.
⭐: I didn't like it, don't recommend it.
I'm so grateful for those willing to share their stories.
my ratings:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Loved it. Couldn't put it down. I will probably read it again and it has a place in my library.
⭐⭐⭐⭐: Enjoyed it. Good characters, great story.
⭐⭐⭐: Liked it. Glad I read it, but probably won't read again.
⭐⭐: okay, I won't read it again, it will not be kept for my library.
⭐: I didn't like it, don't recommend it.
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October 28, 2016So far, To Life by Ruth M. Sender is making it’s way up my favorite books list. It tells an interesting story, informs people of what the holocaust was like, and it is portrays strong characters. The one thing it needs to do is slow down. This book could probably be three times as long if it just stretched the important moments a bit more. But besides this, the story is beautiful! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ⊂
July 20, 2010
I first read this book as a young teenager, and it has shaped by understanding of the Holocaust ever since. Her voice - so strong, so viscerally stark and yet so deeply full of loving grief as she relates her family's story - lingers long after you finish the last page. 15 years on, it's still with me.
September 8, 2013
Although Sender sometimes gets repetitive in her book, her true story is compelling enough to forgive the repetitions and simple writing. She is such a strong woman, and I love how she never gave up her mantra "As long as there is life, there is hope". I'm still on the hunt for the 3rd book in this trilogy, The Holocaust Lady.
June 22, 2013
This book continues Ruth's life after she is liberated from the concentration camp. Again, Sender does a wonderful describing what she goes through and you truly feel that you are experiencing it all with her and cheering her on.
March 19, 2015
I am not sure what happened but this book was very boring in comparison to the first book. This one seemed forced instead of being full of the emotions from the heart and soul. I wish I would have read the first one and left it at that. Not recommended.
Want to Read
October 30, 2010Sequel to The Cage
August 15, 2011
This is worth reading. It is the second book to "The Cage" and chronicles the writer's life during the 5 year period after the Holocaust.
March 8, 2012
Boring compared to the original. Read The Cage and then leave the series.
February 3, 2013
An interesting side of WWII that you don't ever hear about... What happened after?
September 6, 2011
A good glimpse of what life was like post concentration camps for Jews during WWII
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews