How We Outwitted and Survived the Nazis: The True Story of the Holocaust Rescuers, Zofia Sterner and Her Family

Biomedical scientist Dziarski (emeritus, Indiana Univ.) is known for his research on innate immunity and human antibacterial proteins. In this book, he relates the story of his aunt, Zofia Sterner, and her family who lived in Poland during World War II. He relies on letters, diaries, war crime testimonies, and interviews to describe all that they experienced and endured. Sterner was Polish, and her husband was Jewish. Under the Nazi regime, she was treated as Jewish, was forced to wear the yellow star, and live in the Warsaw Ghetto with a high probability of facing extermination along with her husband. But with determination and a cadre of like-minded people, they helped rescue many Jewish people and save them from the clutches of the Nazis. The book reads like a fast-paced thriller with stories about their escapes, participation in the Warsaw Uprising and subsequent arrests, and situations related to raising a daughter.