When you think of the Holocaust, you think of death and destruction. You think of life and light cruelly snuffed out. Innocence lost in streams of blood and shower chambers that kill instead of cleanse. Strict Nazi’s with pencil-thin mustaches and blue eyes that pierce your soul. The Star of David fell from glory, yarmulkes and a menorah thrown to the ground to be trampled under steel-toed boots.
When visiting family in Italy, Elizabeth Bettina was given a book that would change her life. The little book held a list of the people who had been interned in the village. Elizabeth was shattered – how could this little sleepy town in the back country have played such a big part in saving the Jewish people? Why hadn’t she ever heard the story growing up?
It Happened in Italy (Thomas Nelson) follows Elizabeth’s strange journey as she collects the stories of the survivors and what happens when she takes them back to Italy. The story is beautiful. Brothers are reunited, family histories finally begin to make sense, and the Pope even makes a cameo. It took me a long time to wade through this book but it was well worth it.
