While waiting for the event to begin, I read the program and was surprised to learn there were a number of survivors living in our own community. In fact, there were ten or twelve at that time, and the program contained short biographies of each of them. I was riveted by their stories, especially the stories of three different women named Esther.

To start the service, a congregant blew the shofar, a musical instrument of ancient origin made from a ram’s horn. Its powerful sound serves as a call to worship and as a reminder to the Lord of His promises to His people. The panel onstage was made up of Christian leaders, Jewish leaders, and educators who would speak and say prayers in remembrance.

I think it was as soon as I read the biographies of the three survivors sharing the name Esther that I fell in love with them. They seemed so brave to me, three young girls about my daughter’s age who suffered terribly and lost everything in life except their determination to survive.

As a mother, I could picture them as children clinging to their parents when they were ordered to leave their homes, not knowing if they would ever return. All three of them had become orphans by the end of the war, just like their namesake, Queen Esther in the Bible.

Then I saw these ladies. They stood with our other local Holocaust survivors at the back of the synagogue, ready to come forward to light candles in remembrance of the six million Jews who perished. An announcer read each one’s name as they came forward. As their names were called, I identified each Esther, and in my mind, I matched them with the short biographies I had just read.

Our keynote speaker, Edith Molnar of Dallas, Texas, told a powerful story as I sat riveted and almost unable to move. Cassie also sat very still as she drank in the story. The speaker had been a young girl whose family was taken from their home and sent to a concentration camp. She was the only survivor. She told of her family having all their belongings taken from them upon entering the camp. She told of how lonely it was to be orphaned with so little hope in sight. She told of how cold it was in the winter, with only one dress, no undergarments, and no coat. She told of having no heat in the crowded barracks and no blankets, of huddling together with other prisoners to share body warmth.

I could not imagine myself in her situation. How bereaved and hopeless she must have felt, a young girl all alone in these terrible circumstances. I thought of her mother and father not being able to protect their child. I was hearing firsthand a story of a girl whose happy, secure life was taken from her and replaced by a life of horror. Our speaker’s honest pain showed the audience the reality of being a Holocaust survivor. The Holocaust became real to me that night because I heard my first witness speak.

In my heart, I knew I needed to find a way to preserve these important stories for future generations. That’s how A BOOK by ME was born. Young people came alongside me, interviewed each lady, researched and told their story in a children’s book format. Each story was written and illustrated by kids for kids.

We told the stories of the three Esthers first and today there are over 100 stories in our series.