Mistress of Life and Death
The Dark Journey of Maria Mandl, Head Overseer of the Women's Camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau
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Mistress of Life and Death
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Narrated by:
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Elisabeth Lagelee
About this listen
The first-ever biography of SS Overseer Maria Mandl, the highest-ranked woman in the Nazi killing machine and one of the few female perpetrators of the Holocaust.
By the time of her execution at thirty-six, Maria Mandl had achieved the highest rank possible for a woman in the Third Reich. As Head Overseer of the women's camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, she was personally responsible for the murders of thousands.
In this riveting biography, Susan J. Eischeid explores how Maria Mandl, regarded locally as "a nice girl from a good family," came to embody the very worst of humanity. Born in 1912 in the scenic Austrian village of Münzkirchen, Maria enjoyed a happy childhood with loving parents—who later watched in anguish as their grown daughter rose through the Nazi system.
For two decades, Eischeid has excavated the details of Mandl's life story, drawing on archival testimonies, speaking to dozens of witnesses, and spending time with Mandl's community of friends and neighbors who shared their memories as well as those handed down in their families. The result is a chilling and complex exploration of how easily an ordinary citizen chose the path of evil in a climate of hate and fear.
©2024 Susan J. Eischeid (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Five Chimneys
- By Grannie Annie on 04-03-19
By: Olga Lengyel
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Rescued from the Ashes
- The Diary of Leokadia Schmidt, Survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto
- By: Leokadia Schmidt, Oscar E. Swan - translator
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
The diary of a young Jewish housewife who, together with her husband and five-month-old baby, fled the Warsaw ghetto at the last possible moment, and survived the Holocaust hidden on the "Aryan" side of town in the loft of a run-down tinsmith's shed. Rescued from the Ashes documents the incredible life story of Leokadia Schmidt and her small family and their daily struggle to survive the Warsaw Ghetto.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing details
- By Holly H on 12-11-24
By: Leokadia Schmidt, and others
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Cold Crematorium
- Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz
- By: József Debreczeni, Paul Olchváry - translator, Jonathan Freedland
- Narrated by: Laurence Dobiesz
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 147
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 136
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Story5 out of 5 stars 136
József Debreczeni, a prolific Hungarian-language journalist and poet, arrived in Auschwitz in 1944; had he been selected to go “left,” his life expectancy would have been approximately forty-five minutes. One of the “lucky” ones, he was sent to the “right,” which led to twelve horrifying months of incarceration and slave labor in a series of camps, ending in the “Cold Crematorium”—the so-called hospital of the forced labor camp Dörnhau, where prisoners too weak to work awaited execution.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Learned so much more about the Holocaust
- By Jerseygirl on 02-03-24
By: József Debreczeni, and others
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Inside the Gas Chambers
- Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz
- By: Shlomo Venezia
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 134
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 124
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Story5 out of 5 stars 123
Slomo Venezia was born into a poor Jewish-Italian community living in Thessaloniki, Greece. At first, the occupying Italians protected his family; but when the Germans invaded, the Venezias were deported to Auschwitz. His mother and sisters disappeared on arrival, and he learned, at first with disbelief, that they had almost certainly been gassed. Given the chance to earn a little extra bread, he agreed to become a 'Sonderkommando', without realizing what this entailed.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent book
- By Rodney on 03-14-23
By: Shlomo Venezia
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Sabina
- In the Eye of the Storm
- By: Bella Kuligowska Zucker
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
This is the memoir written by Bella Kuligowska Zucker, the only person in her family to survive the Holocaust. In September 1939, Bella was a carefree teenager living in Poland when the German army struck. She was rounded up with her friends and family and sent to a series of grim Jewish ghettos. After loved ones were separated and lost through the war years, Bella survived by changing her identity. After finding the birth certificate of a Catholic girl five years her senior, she became Sabina Mazurek. Then she went into the eye of the storm, Germany.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Alone without family
- By Nancy F. on 04-17-25
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The Survivor
- How I Made it Through Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter
- By: Josef Lewkowicz
- Narrated by: Price Waldman
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
When Nazi forces entered Kraków, Poland in 1939, unexpected and unresisted, Josef Lewkowicz's life became a nightmare overnight as he and his family were rounded up and sent to concentration camps across German-occupied territory. It wasn't long before Josef found himself face-to-face with SS kommandant Amon Goeth, whose brutality was made infamous by the film Schindler's List. As Josef struggled to survive the violence, horror, and degradations of one prison camp after another—he was kept alive only by his faith and his profound sense of justice.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I survived
- By Anonymous User on 05-26-25
By: Josef Lewkowicz
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Into the Forest
- A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love
- By: Rebecca Frankel
- Narrated by: Natalie Pela
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 301
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 263
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Story5 out of 5 stars 265
In the summer of 1942, the Rabinowitz family narrowly escaped the Nazi ghetto in their Polish town by fleeing to the forbidding Bialowieza Forest. They miraculously survived two years in the woods—through brutal winters, Typhus outbreaks, and merciless Nazi raids—until they were liberated by the Red Army in 1944. After the war, they trekked across the Alps into Italy, where they settled as refugees before eventually immigrating to the United States.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great story with an added benefit
- By Scottsville Stu on 12-30-21
By: Rebecca Frankel
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The Master of Auschwitz:
- Memoirs of Rudolf Hoess, Kommandant SS
- By: Rudolf Hoess
- Narrated by: Tim Dalgleish
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 323
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 294
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 293
The first-hand account of the life, career, and the practices of horror at Auschwitz, written by Auschwitz Kommandant SS Rudolf Hoss as he awaited execution for his crimes. Including his psychological interviews at Nuremberg.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Banality of Evil…a Memoir
- By Tim on 03-16-17
By: Rudolf Hoess
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Nazi Women
- The Attraction of Evil
- By: Paul Roland
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Glaister
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 76
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4 out of 5 stars 67
After the failure of the Weimar Republic, the Nazis believed their mission was to "masculinize" life in Germany. Hermann Goering told women, "Take a pot, a dustpan and a broom, and marry a man", but many still became active participants in murder and mayhem. From the Reich Bride Schools through the Bund Deutscher Mädel and the bizarre Lebensborn Aryan breeding programme to the brothels of the Sicherheitsdienst, this book covers the lives of women in the Third Reich, concentrating on those who sought personal power and influence amid the chaos.
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3 out of 5 stars
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People are human
- By Stephen H on 07-04-18
By: Paul Roland
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Mengele
- Unmasking the "Angel of Death"
- By: David G. Marwell
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 83
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4 out of 5 stars 77
Mengele describes the international search for the Nazi doctor in 1985 that ended in a cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the dogged forensic investigation that produced overwhelming evidence that Mengele had died - but failed to convince those who, arguably, most wanted him dead. This is the riveting story of science without limits, escape without freedom, and resolution without justice.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A Good Lesson in Historical Investigative Techniques
- By PCMusicGadgetMan on 06-30-20
By: David G. Marwell
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Last Stop Auschwitz
- My Story of Survival from Within the Camp
- By: Eddy de Wind
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 168
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 149
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 149
Written in the camp itself in the weeks following the Red Army's liberation of the camp, Last Stop Auschwitz is the raw, true account of Eddy's experiences at Auschwitz. In stunningly poetic prose, he provides unparalleled access to the horrors he faced in the concentration camp. This poignant memoir is at once a moving love story, a detailed portrayal of the atrocities of Auschwitz, and an intelligent consideration of the kind of behavior - both good and evil - people are capable of.
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5 out of 5 stars
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wow
- By Ann on 02-08-20
By: Eddy de Wind
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Nazi Wives
- The Women at the Top of Hitler's Germany
- By: James Wyllie
- Narrated by: Dalya Raphael
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 204
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 179
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 178
Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Heydrich, Hess, Bormann - names synonymous with power and influence in the Third Reich. Perhaps less familiar are Carin, Emmy, Magda, Margarete, Lina, Ilse, and Gerda. These are the women behind the infamous men - complex individuals with distinctive personalities who were captivated by Hitler and whose everyday lives were governed by Nazi ideology. Throughout the rise and fall of Nazism these women loved and lost, raised families, and quarreled with their husbands and each other, all the while jostling for position with the Fuhrer himself.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Scary
- By Three River on 05-15-21
By: James Wyllie
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The Daughter of Auschwitz
- My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope
- By: Tova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 507
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 468
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Story5 out of 5 stars 467
A powerful memoir by one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz, Tova Friedman, following her childhood growing up during the Holocaust and surviving a string of near-death experiences in a Jewish ghetto, a Nazi labor camp, and Auschwitz.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very interesting and well told
- By Tracy F. on 03-31-23
By: Tova Friedman, and others
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Nazis Knew My Name
- A Remarkable Story of Survival and Courage in Auschwitz
- By: Magda Hellinger, Maya Lee, David Brewster
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton, Zoe Carides
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 48
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Story5 out of 5 stars 48
In March 1942, 25-year-old kindergarten teacher Magda Hellinger and nearly a thousand other young women were deported as some of the first Jews to be sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The SS soon discovered that by putting prisoners in charge of the day-to-day accommodation blocks, they could deflect attention away from themselves. Magda was one such prisoner selected for leadership and put in charge of hundreds of women in the notorious Experimental Block 10. She found herself constantly walking a dangerously fine line: saving lives while avoiding suspicion by the SS.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Courage by a very SMart lady
- By fred sauberman on 07-09-25
By: Magda Hellinger, and others
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The Nuremberg Interviews
- An American Psychiatrist's Conversations with the Defendants and Witnesses
- By: Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine, Joshua Kane
- Length: 19 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
The Nuremberg Interviews reveals the chilling innermost thoughts of the former Nazi officials under indictment at the famous postwar trial. The architects of one of history’s greatest atrocities speak out about their lives, their careers in the Nazi Party, and their views on the Holocaust. Their reflections are recorded in a set of interviews conducted by a US Army psychiatrist. Dr. Leon Goldensohn was entrusted with monitoring the mental health of the two dozen German leaders charged with carrying out genocide, as well as that of many of the defense and prosecution witnesses.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting
- By John & Becky on 02-17-22
By: Leon Goldensohn, and others
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The Hangman and His Wife
- The Life and Death of Reinhard Heydrich
- By: Nancy Dougherty, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 26 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
He was called the Hangman of the Gestapo, the "butcher of Prague", with a reputation as a ruthlessly efficient killer. He was the head of the SS, and the Gestapo, second-in-command to Heinrich Himmler. His orders set in motion the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938 and, as the lead planner of Hitler's Final Solution, he chaired the Wannsee Conference, at which details of the murder of millions of Jews across Nazi-occupied Europe were toasted with cognac.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Evil explained....NOT!
- By C. P. O. Carroll on 06-23-22
By: Nancy Dougherty, and others
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Hitler's Children
- Sons and Daughters of Third Reich Leaders
- By: Gerald Posner
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 174
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 153
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 153
Göring. Hess. Mengele. Dönitz. Names that conjure up dark memories of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. They were the architects of the Third Reich. And they were fathers. Gerald Posner convinced 11 sons and daughters of Hitler's inner circle to break their silence. This second generation of perpetrators in Hitler's Children struggle with their Third Reich inheritance. In grappling with memories of good and loving fathers who were later charged with war crimes, these heirs to the Nazi legacy add a fresh and important perspective.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Couldn’t put it down!
- By Art Guzman on 02-11-18
By: Gerald Posner
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The Forbidden Daughter
- The True Story of a Holocaust Survivor
- By: Zipora Klein Jakob
- Narrated by: Robin Siegerman
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Story5 out of 5 stars 10
Elida Friedman was not supposed to have been born. In the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania, Nazi law forbade Jewish women from giving birth. Yet, despite the fear of death, Dr. Jonah Friedman and his wife Tzila choose to bring a daughter into the world, a little girl they name Elida—meaning non-birth in Hebrew.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Born in Fire, Died in Fire, Elida✡️ 💙🇮🇱🇺🇸💙✡️
- By michael petro on 11-10-24
The narrator however often sounded like AI. Very robotic at times like Siri.
Narration was rough…
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Riveting & sorrowful
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How we are all capable of evil
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Wow!
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