{"product_id":"999-isbn-9780806539362","title":"999","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Pen America Literary Award Finalist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn Amazon Best of the Year Selection\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe untold story of some of WW2’s most hidden figures and the heartbreaking tragedy that unites them all. Readers of \u003ci\u003eBorn Survivors\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Train Near Magdeburg\u003c\/i\u003e will devour the tragic tale of the first 999 women in Auschwitz concentration camp. This is the hauntingly resonant true story that everyone should know.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e On March 25, 1942, nearly a thousand young, unmarried Jewish women boarded a train in Poprad, Slovakia. Filled with a sense of adventure and national pride, they left their parents’ homes wearing their best clothes and confidently waving good-bye. Believing they were going to work in a factory for a few months, they were eager to report for government service. Instead, the young women—many of them teenagers—were sent to Auschwitz. Their government paid 500 Reich Marks (about $200) apiece for the Nazis to take them as slave labor. Of those 999 innocent deportees, only a few would survive.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The facts of the first official Jewish transport to Auschwitz are little known, yet profoundly relevant today. These were not resistance fighters or prisoners of war. There were no men among them. Sent to almost certain death, the young women were powerless and insignificant not only because they were Jewish—but also because they were female. Now acclaimed author Heather Dune Macadam reveals their poignant stories, drawing on extensive interviews with survivors, and consulting with historians, witnesses, and relatives of those first deportees to create an important addition to Holocaust literature and women’s history.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eIncludes a foreword by Caroline Moorehead, \u003ci\u003eNYT\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eA Train in Winter!\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “A fresh, remarkable story of Auschwitz on the 75th anniversary of its liberation.  An uplifting story of the herculean strength of young girls in a staggeringly harrowing situation.”\u003cbr\u003e —\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Intimate, harrowing… This careful, sympathetic history illuminates an incomprehensible human tragedy.”\u003cbr\u003e —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Experts Praise \u003ci\u003e999\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Almost one thousand young Jewish women, some no older than sixteen, were rounded up across Slovakia in the spring of 1942 and told that they were being sent to do government work service in newly occupied Poland, and that they would be away no more than a few months. Very few returned. Macadam has managed to recreate not only the backgrounds of the women on the first convoy but also their day to day lives—and deaths—during their years in Auschwitz. Books such as this one are essential: they remind modern readers of events that should never be forgotten.”\u003cbr\u003e—From the foreword by \u003cb\u003eCaroline Moorehead\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eA Train in Winter\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A staggering narrative about the forgotten women of the Holocaust.  In a profound work of scholarship, Heather Dune Macadam reveals how young women helped each other survive one of the most egregious events in human history. Her book also offers insight into the passage of these women into adulthood, and their children, as ‘secondhand survivors.’”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Gail Sheehy\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003ePassages\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDaring: My Passages\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “An important addition to the annals of the Holocaust, as well as women’s history. Not everyone could handle such material, but Heather Dune Macadam is deeply qualified, insightful and perceptive.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Susan Lacy\u003c\/b\u003e, creator of the American Masters series and filmmaker\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “However much one reads about the Holocaust there is always something more with the power to shock. The story of these teenage girls is truly extraordinary. Congratulations to Heather Dune Macadam for enabling the rest of us to sit down and just marvel at how on earth they did it.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Anne Sebba\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eLes Parisiennes \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThat Woman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “An important contribution to the literature on women's experiences . . .With passion and extensive research, Heather Dune Macadam gives the first official women’s transport to Auschwitz its rightful place in Holocaust history.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Dr. Rochelle G. Saidel\u003c\/b\u003e, founder and executive director, Remember the Women Institute\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003cb\u003eA fresh, remarkable story of Auschwitz, on the 75th anniversary of its liberation.\u003c\/b\u003e Dune Macadam (co-author: Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz, 1995) chronicles the tale of nearly 1,000 Jewish women from Slovakia, the first women to be shipped to the Polish death camp. While not the majority of inmates, a majority of the Slovakian Jews were sent there. \u003cb\u003eThe author makes great use of her \"interviews with witnesses, survivors, and families, and USC Shoah Archive testimonies.\" \u003c\/b\u003eMost readers have learned about the many shocking aspects of the camps, including slave labor and other countless deprivations, but the author shows us how every time a train pulled in, there would be a selection, for work or extermination; the same would occur at morning roll call. There was no rhyme nor reason to the selection process; it was often just a whim. Those women in this first shipment were tattooed beginning with the number 1,000, but within a year, they were numbering nearly 39,000. As Dune Macadam notes, there were some work assignments that were safer and slightly more comfortable: sewing, laundry, mail, clerical and, hospital. The most sought-after assignment was sorting the clothes of new arrivals. Often, the women would find a piece of bread or other contraband they could carefully smuggle out. One woman found a tube of diamonds. When she was caught, she claimed she was saving it for one of the Nazis in charge; she got off, and he took leave, bought a farm, and never returned. \u003cb\u003eThroughout the book, readers will be consistently astounded by the strength of these women. They fought desperately to survive and supported each other, often literally holding up friends and hiding sick inmates. \"My goal,\" writes Dune Macadam in an author's note, \"is to build as complete a picture as I can of the girls and young women of the first ‘official' Jewish transport to Auschwitz.\" It's not easy reading, but consider that goal achieved. An uplifting story of the herculean strength of young girls in a staggeringly harrowing situation\u003c\/b\u003e.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“In this intimate and      harrowing account, historian and novelist Macadam (coauthor, \u003ci\u003eRena’s      Promise\u003c\/i\u003e) reconstructs the lives of dozens of young Jewish women who      were on the first convoy to arrive at Auschwitz in March 1942…  This      careful, sympathetic history illuminates an incomprehensible human      tragedy.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Publishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eHeather Dune Macadam’s\u003c\/b\u003e first book, co-authored with Rena Kornreich Gelissen, was \u003ci\u003eRena’s Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eRena’s Promise\u003c\/i\u003e has been published throughout the world. Director of the Rena’s Promise Foundation, Macadam also sits on the advisory board of the Cities of Peace Auschwitz and is the producer\/director of the documentary film \u003ci\u003e999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz\u003c\/i\u003e. Her work has been recognized by Yad Vashem in the U.K., the USC Shoah Foundation, the National Museum of Jewish History in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the Memorial Museum of Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland. Her writing has been featured in \u003ci\u003eNational Geographic\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, The Guardian, \u003c\/i\u003eon NPR, and in other major media outlets. She divides her time between New York and Herefordshire, England. Visit 999thefirstwomeninauschwitz on Facebook, @heatherdune on Twitter, or www.999themovie.com.","brand":"Citadel","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302333337829,"sku":"NP9780806539362","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780806539362.jpg?v=1767720284","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/999-isbn-9780806539362","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}