Rena's Promise
A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz
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Rena's Promise
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Narrated by:
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Heather Dune Macadam
About this listen
"I do not hate. To hate is to let Hitler win." - Rena Kornreich Gelissen.
On March 26, 1942, the first mass transport of Jews - 999 young women - arrived in Auschwitz. Among them was Rena Kornreich, the 716th woman numbered in camp. A few days later, her sister Danka arrives and so begins a trial of love and courage that will last three years and 41 days, from the beginning Auschwitz death camp to the end of the war.
Rena's Promise stands out from other memoirs not only for the mere length of time she spent in the camps (no other survivor from the first transport has ever written about her experience) but for her dedication to honoring the bonds between mothers, daughters, and sisters, prisoners, and even guards. From her escape from Dr. Mengele's experiment detail to her surreal meetings with SS woman Irma Grese, Rena tells a dynamic tale of courage and compassion that reminds us of the resiliency of the human spirit, and the power of people to help one another in unimaginable circumstances, be they Gentile or Jew, German or Pole, kapo or prisoner.
©1994 Heather Dune Macadan and Rena Kornreich Gelissen (P)2013 Heather Dune Macadam and Rena Kornreich GelissenListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Rena's Promise
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Miss Natasha
- 15-07-20
Read the hard copy!
This story is, like all the survivors’ stories, hugely important.
Unfortunately the author, who did such a good job capturing Rena’s story, decided to narrate this and as a result the audio suffers for want of a professional. At times it is so bad that it is hard to listen. Rena is often given a bizarre inflection like Marilyn Monroe which makes her sound foolish (which Rena certainly was not), while the Nazis are voiced as a child might when playing with toys. It is so strange and incongruous to hear these ridiculous caricatures that at points I’m afraid the important story is all but lost.
The production is also poor with background noise, repetition where she has misread, and jarring edits where she has spliced information in with sudden background noise or at a totally different volume.
This is well worth reading, but do yourself a favour and don’t listen to this.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jackie
- 09-12-21
The truth of the hell
....i force myself to listen to as many accounts as i am drawn into...and i lose a piece of my heart in each...but it is a reality we need to know....🙏
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Athina
- 23-09-20
This is beyond the imaginable
Rena and her sister went through hell . Their daily fight for survival is beyond imagination for us who can just walk to the cupboard if we are hungry or thirsty.
The cruelty is unbelievable. I can not get it into my mind how a human can do to another what they did to the prisoners and not just Auschwitz.
How could they sleep at nights? How could they carry on as if they did nothing wrong after the war? These people don't have any conscious if they think it was ok.
I am happy that Rena and Darla had a happy life after all they've been through.
The story was gripping but I have a little issue with the way it was presented. sometimes it was just read out as if a pupil in class was bored of reading it.
partly there were no emotions like I've experienced it in other books. That's the reason why I gave only 3 stars for the performance.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- "haddockboy"
- 13-09-21
Heart Breaking
This is not an uplifting book . This brings home the true horror of the holocaust with no Hollywood flannel . Hard to believe this was happening in Europe 70 years ago .
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Diege
- 27-01-20
Can’t fault the content
Incredible story, just found the narrator annoying at times and there were also technical glitches, but it is definitely worth listening to. Sad but hopeful, an amazing testament.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Helen Hoad
- 19-04-19
A remarkable woman
Such resilience and positivity as well as inherent honesty saw arena survive for so long.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- miss lj lawley
- 05-01-16
Awful annoying narrator and co-author but persevere Rena's promise is an amazing story of hope and courage
The recording of this audio book is awful the narrator has self edited and recorded over her recording, the audio jumps and repeats itself which is annoying. All through the book there is back ground noise and a bell and it turns out it is the narrators cat! Unbelievable. The story was the only thing that kept me going as I would have requested a refund because the audio quality was so bad. An amazing story of human strength and courage in the face of adversity. Thank you for sharing your story Rena.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Miss
- 18-07-15
Honest and emotional story ruined by narrator
The story is important and worthy of a listen but the performance is awful. Apart from the accent and the style of the reader, it is as if she has recorded it at home. You can hear whirring and noises in the background and this is abrasive. A real disappointment.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- S. Bowman
- 21-01-15
Wonderful story but awful reader
The story is very inspiring if you can endure the reader. I think the author recorded it at home on her personal computer without any guidance and it shows. Her vocal inflections are forced and annoying. I would love to hear this story performed by a professional with some experience!
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3 people found this helpful