The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister Read online

  Table of Contents

  Front Matter

  Endorsements

  Special Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Preface

  Introduction

  Prologue

  Train to Agony

  1: Boarding the Train

  2: Baby Sarah

  Life Before the War

  3: Family Background

  4: Mama’s Family

  5: Educating Anna

  6: Move to Taganrog

  7: Move to Rostov-on-Don

  8: A Day in the Park

  9: The Depression in Russia

  10: Winter Vacation with Babushka at the Dacha

  11: Our Journey by Train

  12: Homecoming Welcome

  13: Our Fun Time Begins

  14: Christmas Church Service

  15: Christmas Day

  16: Reflections on Childhood

  17: Back to Reality

  18: Troubled Times

  19: Changing Times

  20: Wine-Tasting Time

  21: Times of Uncertainty

  22: Remembrances

  23: Germany Attacks Russia

  24: Preparations for the Invasion

  25: Our World Begins to Crumble

  26: Papa Is Found in Hiding

  27: My Last Minutes with Papa

  28: Papa’s Burial

  29: Life without Papa

  30: Surviving the German Occupation of Konstantinowka

  The Agony Continues

  31: August 1942

  32: The End of the Line

  33: Identification Patches

  34: Labor Camp, Our First Assignment

  35: The Break

  36: Loss of Mama

  37: Survival to the End

  38: Last Message from Mama

  39: Searching for Mama

  New Life

  40: The Final Arrangements

  Afterword: Did It Really Happen?

  Appendix A: Life with Nonna

  Appendix B: “Is This It? Is This All?”

  Appendix C: Documents

  Appendix D: Genealogy of Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister

  Chronology

  Glossary of Names and Places

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  About the Editors

  Front Matter

  Endorsements

  You have only to dip into this astounding memoir to see that the suffering that marked Nonna’s early years was the very thing that God used to shape this remarkable woman. Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin have managed to give Nonna Bannister the same feeling of literary and historical importance that John and Elizabeth Sherrill brough to Corrie ten Boom in The Hiding Place. Read it and weep or read it and rejoice, but above all, read it.

  Calvin Miller, Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School.

  What a marvelous service has been provided by Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin in bringing to light the untold story of Nonna Bannister! This inspiring volume provides a window into the personal and painful reflections of one of the darkest periods in humna history. Yet readers will be strengthened by reading this most moving and hopeful account of courage, faith, and forgiveness.

  David S. Dockery, President, Union University

  This book is absolutely captivating. It is an extraordinary glimpse inside the oppressive nature of Russian Communism and the viciously evil heart of Nazi Germany. But, the revelations of human depravity manifested in horrific acts of brutality and murder notwithstanding, rays of God’s Light appear in the form of a Russian Orthodox grandmother, a frail Jewish boy, and a group of Christlike German Catholic nuns and priests. These diaries are at once heartbreaking, hopeful, and unforgettable.

  Lyle W. Dorset, Billy Graham Professor of Evangelicalism, Beeson Divinity School

  * * *

  THE SECRET HOLOCAUST DIARIES

  by

  NONNA BANNISTER

  with Denise George

  and Carolyn Tomlin

  * * *

  Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

  Carol Stream, Illinois

  Visit Tyndale’s exciting Web site at www.tyndale.com

  TYNDALE and Tyndale’s quill logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

  The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister

  Copyright © 2009 by NLB Partners. All rights reserved.

  Cover and interior photos are used by permission from the Nonna Bannister family collection.

  Published in association with the literary agency of WordServe Literary Group, Inc., 10152 Knoll Circle, Highlands Ranch, CO 80130.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Bannister, Nonna, 1927-2004.

  The secret Holocaust diaries : the untold story of Nonna Bannister / by Nonna Bannister ; with Carolyn Tomlin and Denise George.

  p. cm.

  ISBN: 978-1-4143-2546-0 (hc)

  ISBN: 978-1-4143-3022-8 (MS Reader)

  ISBN: 978-1-4143-3023-5 (Mobipocket)

  ISBN: 978-1-4143-3024-2 (Palm)

  ISBN: 978-1-4143-3025-9 (Sony)

  1. Bannister, Nonna, 1927-2004. 2. World war, 1939-1945—Women—Ukraine—Kostiantynivka (Donetska oblast)—Biography. 3. World war, 1939-1945—Children—Ukraine—Kostiantynivka (Donetska oblast)—Biography. 4. World War, 1939-1945— Prisoners and prisons, German. 5. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Ukraine. 6. Kostiantynivka (Donetska oblast, Ukraine)—Biography. I. Tomlin, Carolyn Ross.

  II. George, Denise. III. Title.

  DK508.835.B36A3 2009

  940.53'18092—dc22

  [B] 2008050099

  Special Copyright Notice

  The text of this book is an eBook file intended for one reader only. It may be used by that reader on computers and devices that he or she owns and uses. It may not be transmitted in whole or part to others except as stated above.

  Up to 500 words of this work may be quoted without written permission of publisher, provided it is not part of a compilation of works nor more than 5 percent of the book or work in which it is being quoted. The full title, author's name, and copyright line shall be included. No more than 500 words of this work may be posted on a web site or sent electronically to other users. In all uses of quoted material from this book, the full copyright line shall appear in a readable type size where the text appears. The author's name shall not be used in the title of a web site or in the advertising of the site. The author's name may not be used on the cover of any other book in which a portion of this material is quoted without written permission of Tyndale House Publishers.

  Quotes in excess of 500 words, use of the text as part of a compilation, use of text that is greater than 5 percent of the book in which it will be quoted, or other permission requests shall be directed in writing to Tyndale House Publishers, Permissions Dept. 351 Executive Drive, Carol Stream, IL 60188.

  Dedication

  circa 1990

  I would like to dedicate this book to the memory of all those who perished during the Holocaust in World War II, who are no longer here to tell their stories, and also to those who survived the horrors of it all but lost their families and loved ones.

  I thank God for the little Jewish boy named Nathan, who died so that I could live.

  I want to express my gratitude to the Catholic priests and nuns who were brave enough to hide me from the Gestapo after they had taken my mother away.

  I want to express my deepest gratitude to my loving a
nd caring husband, Henry, who has given me his support and his understanding and caring for me—for sharing my feelings with me and helping me throughout our forty-six years of marriage to cope with the many sad memories of the past. I feel that God sent him to me because He knew what I needed to survive the many hard times. Henry took care of me while I struggled through very bad health, and without him and his love and support, it would have been extremely difficult to write this book and to cope with so many horrible memories.

  I thank God for giving me three beautiful children—two sons: W. H. (Hank) Jr. and John D., and a beautiful daughter, Elizabeth J. They also have given me a lot of support and love, which I will cherish until I die.

  Nonna L. Bannister

  TO THE PAST

  To the past, the way has been barred,

  And what do I need the past for now?

  What is there? Bloodied flagstone—

  Or a bricked-up door—or an echo

  That still cannot die away . . .

  However much I beg.

  Nonna L. Bannister

  Preface

  This is the true story of a Russian-American woman named Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister.

  The material within these pages comes from the private, handwritten transcripts that Nonna made of her diaries from childhood, World War II, and the years immediately following the war. She expanded and compiled them during the late 1980s, with further commentary based on her memory of events. Translating into English from her original documents, which were written in five languages, Nonna wrote her life story on yellow legal pads and kept them hidden from everyone, including her husband, Henry.

  In the 1990s, after decades of marriage, Nonna finally told Henry about her secret past. She also made him promise that he wouldn’t share any of her hidden material until after her death. Henry kept his promise to Nonna, only now making her writings public after her death in 2004.

  Nonna had kept a lifetime of secret diaries. She began writing as a young girl and received a diary of her own from her father when she was nine years old. In this childhood diary she described her life, her family, and her dreams, and she included some of her poetry. She also kept a formal diary during the latter years of World War II, when Catholic nuns at a German hospital hid her from the Nazis and nursed her back to health. She continued this diary in the years immediately following the war.

  During World War II, when Nonna left the Ukraine and traveled to Nazi Germany, she kept a pillow made of black and white ticking tied around her waist. In this small pillow, she kept her thin childhood diary, various bundles of paper scraps on which she kept notes of her wartime experiences, and several photographs and family documents. In addition to the written record that Nonna left of her memories—transcribed onto pads of paper and then typed by Henry Bannister—the Bannister family has in its possession one of Nonna’s diaries, dated 1947–48; postcards from Nonna’s mother, dated 1944–45; and many other personal documents and photographs from the Word War II era.

  Fluent in at least seven languages, Nonna did the translation work herself. She transcribed her diaries from the various languages in which she had written them into English, one of the last languages she learned—which may account for some of the awkwardness of English grammar and sentence construction in her memoir. Also, transcribing the diaries years after the events described in them and adding her own present-day commentary in places, she did not always adhere to a linear progression. Thus, though translation was not necessary, some minor editing was. Efforts were also made to bring Nonna’s family names to a consistent spelling, though it was not possible to maintain any one style of transliteration.

  The editors have in some cases combined into one place events that Nonna recorded in different places in her transcripts, as well as giving explanation to the historical chronology in the appendix. Throughout her text, editorial comments have been added where an explanation seemed helpful for better understanding of the transcripts, the historical settings, and Nonna’s family. Some of this commentary comes from Henry Bannister’s remembrances of Nonna’s stories.

  Though similar to other memoirs of the war and the Holocaust years, Nonna’s account provides a rare glimpse into the life of a girl who was born to a wealthy family in the Ukraine, experienced great suffering in Stalin’s Soviet Union, and eventually lost her family and her own freedom at the hands of Nazi Germany. It is a story with unusual significance as one of the few firsthand accounts of a girl from a once-privileged family, who fell into the ranks of the Ostarbeiter—the primarily Ukrainian “Eastern laborers” transported to Germany during the war as slave labor under Adolf Hitler’s regime. The fact that she not only survived such turmoil and tragedy but also moved on through faith in God to forgive those who took away so much makes her story all the more remarkable.

  Carolyn Tomlin

  Jackson, Tennessee

  Denise George

  Birmingham, Alabama

  Summer 2008

  Introduction

  I have now decided that the time has come when I must share my life story—not only with my loving family, but perhaps with all those who are interested to know what life was like for many of us on the other side of the world before and during World War II. I wish to speak the truth and nothing but the truth—but some things I shall keep to myself—nobody needs them but me. I doubt that anyone reveals the whole truth about oneself, even in confession. There are things in everyone’s life that are known only to oneself and our almighty Father God.

  The events described in the following pages were written from my diaries and notes that were transcribed from the four to six languages in which I had written them—starting when I was nine years old. I have translated the poems and thoughts and scripts into English. I have worked on keeping these all together since 1942, when Mama and I left our homeland and were sent to Germany, where we were to be slave labor. In these notes, I kept a record of all the terrors, atrocities, and the new life into which we were thrown. Throughout these ordeals, I never forgot my grandmother and the rest of my family, which had been torn apart and ultimately destroyed—when I would hear a train whistle in the distance, I would immediately think that my dear brother, Anatoly, would be on that train and on his way back to us. This work is an effort to tell the truth about what took place during World War II under the direction of Hitler and his Gestapo troops.

  There are not many of us remaining that lived through those very difficult and troubled times and are now free to tell the true stories of life. Many, including my own family, perished before having a chance to reach freedom. I am compelled to write this story because I was a witness to many events that took place then and because I am the only survivor of my entire family.

  I do regret that I did not write this story sooner. But when I came to America in June of 1950, I was overwhelmed by my new life. I wanted so much to forget the unhappiness of the past and to make a new and happy life for myself that I actually shut the door to the past and had no desire to dwell on it. And a happy life I have made for myself by falling in love with the most kind and wonderful man and marrying him on June 23, 1951.

  When my first son, “Hank,” was born on October 30, 1953, there was just no end to my happiness. I engrossed myself completely in motherhood, and I loved my husband and my son too much to ever even think of my sad past. So I became a wife and a mother full time. Then my daughter, Elizabeth, was born on July 11, 1957, and my happiness and duties as a full-time mother increased. My youngest son, John, was born on March 27, 1959, which happened to be on Good Friday of that year. My family became my only concern, and my entire interest was now directed exclusively to my husband and my children. I was filled with love and the responsibilities of taking care of them and loving them with all my heart and mind.

  There were times when I would think about my family that I had lost, and I would think about how close and loving we had been. However, I just could not bring myself to inflict my sad memories on my husband and my still-y
oung children. I did not want anything to interfere with the happiness that we had, and certainly when the children were growing up, my only concern was to protect them from anything that would leave them with depressing impressions. I wanted so very much to create a healthy and happy environment for all of them.

  Now that the children have grown up and are well-adjusted and intelligent human beings, I feel that they should know more about their ancestors from my side of the family—that my children must know how they lived and how they died. I also feel that by telling my true life story, I may be revealing some facts from the past that could make a contribution, however small it may be, to the history of mankind.

  It is very difficult for me to relive that part of my life even through the memories that are still with me—so precise and vivid. However, I have an uncontrollable desire to write about those years of my life, which were filled not only with sad events but also with happy times when I was growing up and still had all my family. It took great effort to put my story together, but I have had tremendous support from my loving husband. I feel very fortunate to have had him by my side and to have his encouragement. Without this encouragement, it would have been very difficult to go through with it.

  When I left Russia, I took with me a passionate love for my homeland the way it was before the Bolshevik Revolution—the Russia I knew from the stories that were told to me by my dear grandmother and my loving parents. My hope and desire is to live long enough to see my homeland, the country so dear to me, become free again as it was before I was born. The hope that I live with and my prayers to God are that I will see—or at least my children and grandchildren will see—Russia become the “Old Mother Rossija” as it used to be—to see Russia return to its beauty and magnificence.