This is a book of real survival: the survival of hell on earth as a child, and living a full, happy life thereafter. Alina Peretti was born in 1931 in (what was then) Poland, and was only 8 when the Germans declared war on Poland and entered on one side (while the USSR entered on the other and occupied land on that side). Alina Peretti is not Jewish but she was a direct witness (and victim) of the atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Poles. Now in her 90’s, with dementia taking over her brain, her story is being told by her son, who during the early days of Covid spent time listening to her relay memories and answer his questions. Jacques Peretti is an investigative journalist, and manages to capture his mother’s story so well, filling in the blanks with his own research, and providing some very important information on what happened in Poland during WW2. Alina did end up in Auschwitz nearer the end of the war, but that isn’t the most important part of this book: that part would be how she and her mother Olga survived the 5 years leading up to their deportation.

The Nazis did not treat Warsaw in the same way they treated Paris. The end game with Warsaw was always complete decimation, and once the city rose up against them, that is exactly what they did. On the other side the Soviets had no intention of liberating the Polish people either, unless that meant liberating them of their homes and possessions, and sending them to Siberia. I have family members who lost everything that way, packed off to Siberia and let free once Hitler stabbed Stalin in the back, but never allowed back to what was once their homes. This is exactly what happened to Alina and her family, and her story is amazing, especially when you find out that Olga and Alina managed to make it out to Sweden, only to go back to Warsaw in 1942 to find Alina’s three other siblings.

Little Bird of Auschwitz is written in a chronological way, with small areas here and there where Jacques details pieces of conversations he has with his mother in the present time. I appreciate that there is no attempt to hide the brutality and violence of the occupiers (Nazi or Soviet), mainly because it is the truth and we must never forget this truth, especially today when most of the survivors have left us. There are way to few books about the fate of the Polish people during WW2, and what happened to them before and after the war too, and I am glad that Jacques Peretti was able to publish his mother’s story. Maybe one day my brother will be able to do the same with his grandparents’ stories…

(Thanks to my mum for sending this book to me, she knows exactly what I like to read).