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A remarkably story told with fearless honesty...

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10 British Prisoners-of-War Saved My Life offers a powerful and important story. With fearless honesty - about herself, the events that engulfed her, and the people she encountered - Hannah Rigler tells the story of her descent from the delights and petulant jealousies of a middle-class childhood into the madness and horror of the Holocaust, and after surviving that, how she constructed a new life in the United States. Her remarkable acuity of observation and her honest unstudied writing combine to make her story vivid and poignant - we are right there with her, so much so that it is at times almost unbearable. Which is why we must read it; we need the wisdom and lessons of Mrs. Rigler's story. It brings a historical event fully to life. It helps us to imagine an otherwise unimaginable experience and to understand how this experience can still exert such a powerful influence in the world. It also attunes us to the full spectrum of human capacities - bravery and fear, generosity and treachery, clear-eyed vision and denial, compassion and brutality, and, ultimately, resilience.

Survivor's review

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The most severe critics of Holocaust memoirs are other Holocaust survivors themeselves. Most of all the stories of survivors, published and un-published run a certain pattern, what distinguishes them, amongst other factors, are the protagonist's characteristics.
In Hannah Rigler's "10 British Prisoners-of-War Saved My Life" the most humane aspects of the British PW's involved; their courage; their caring concern for her welfare and safety, stand out as examples of Man's nobility of spirit.
The fact that Hannah Rigler by her remarkable resolve to rebuild her life and to dedicate it to positive goals, crowns their efforts and offers validity to the Jewish dictum, that "if you save one life, it is as if you have saved the world".
Hannah Rigler's story is spellbinding by the hope that it inspires: That Men of good will, shall overcome evil.

A Book for All Seasons

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This is a book to cherish...a book to remind us how privileged we are here in America...Hannah Rigler's very personal account of her escape from the Germans and her survival as a young girl in Eastern Europe is bone chilling and heart warming at the same time. Hannah opens her heart and her memory to the reader and shares a time that will never be lost because of this memior. The perfect read for this time of year...I recommend it for all ages...its message is one of hope and rememberance...

A personal triumph

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This book uses a very direct and candid approach to the experience of surviving the Holocaust. It conveys clearly the simple realities of life that existed before the Russians and, later, the Germans turned life in Lithuania upside down. A world that had been filled with the sweet music of childhood...school days, a father's thriving business, streets lined with bakeries and shops...turned into a living hell. Hannah Rigler tells her story with a strong urgency and a steadfast mission...to remind all of us that our security may be tenuous. What happened to the Jews can happen again....to anyone.

Trauma and survival

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I have rarely read a book that went through such a range of emotions. The author describes in vivid detail the hell on earth known as the Holocaust of World War II. She decribes the idyllic life of families prior to the war and the upheaval of families as the war progressed. Ultimately the decription of movement into the ghettos, the atrocities, the death marches and the killing camps of the Holocaust leaves a memory never to be forgotten. Her survival and rescue by the British POW's is the beginning of a new life for this brave young lady. The future she makes for herself in America demonstrates the ability to overcome phenomenal trauma and to replace it with love, happiness and a drive to make a positive difference in the world.