Sarah Rosenbaum's Dachau Redemption (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780578764238)

Sarah Rosenbaum was a typical rambunctious, inquisitive seven year old Jewish girl living in Straubing, Germany. Although she had heard elders at the Synagogue talking about Jewish deportations, she was sure nothing like that would ever happen in their small community.

However her innocent beliefs were shattered when the dreaded S.S. soldiers arrived on her birthday in 1939, to remove all the Jews from Straubing.

Sarah and her family were stunned at the sheer violence of the soldiers, as friends were shot in the town square before everyone else were loaded onto filthy cattle cars.

The trip to the concentration camp was interrupted when a wheel burned off the axle of the car Sarah's family was riding in. After being unloaded, Sarah attempts to convince her family to run, but they would not. Fearing for her life, Sarah ran for the near by forest where a boy named Isaac took her under his protection. They join up with a group of partisan Jews led by a man named Ishmael, that lived in the massive forest. All went well for a while until the soldiers came into the forest searching for Jewish survivors. After a heroing escape, Sarah and Isaac make their way to safety. After a difficult journey, they once more join a small Jewish clan surviving in the deep forest. However once again the persistent S.S. soldiers track them down.

Although wounded, Sarah escapes to be found by a young German couple that nurse her back to health. Although the people are against the plan, Sarah convinces them to purchase her train fare so she can travel to Vichy, France, where Jews are still free. Arriving in Paris, Sarah finds out the last part of her trip is not possible. As she contemplates what to do, she meets up with Ishmael once again that is working with a French underground unit. Sarah lives with them for a while, until her curiosity brings the Gestapo into the picture. After a massive Gestapo raid, Sarah is captured and delivered to headquarters in Paris where she is relentlessly tortured, as the Gestapo and S.S seek out the names of the men leading the partisan group. As she does not cooperate, she is finally sent to Dachau.

The horrors of the camp overwhelm Sarah. Although her stuborn streak still persists, it causes her problems with the guards and prisoners. After meeting an old woman that begins to influence her, Sarah takes on the role of surrogate mother to several little children. She defends them and steals food to nourish them as best she can, but this causes bigger problems with the guards. Sarah is brutally tortured by a camp Sergeant but continues to survive although her will to live begins to slip away.

Luckily the camp is liberated while Sarah is still healthy enough to recover from her injuries and starvation. Being still a child, Sarah is taken to a resettlement camp where she is given options for her future. After making tough decisions, Sarah is sent to Paris where she will await transport to the United States. However fortune shines on Sarah as she once again meets Ishmael. Being a conman, he has assembled enough money to fund transport to Israel where a job awaits him. He brings Sarah with him, where she finds a Jewish family to lover her and take care of her.

After graduationg from high school, Sarah joins the Israeli Defense force. In a short time she finds out that Ishmael has been operating a specialized team in Mossad searching for former Nazi war criminals. Joining the team and risking her life, Sarah is involved in many high profile captures.

Sarah's dreams of having a family and living a normal life become a reality, although medcal problems creep into her life. After returning to Dachau one more time to confront the ghosts that haunt her, Sarah's soul finally finds the peace and redemption that has eluded her for so long.