Common Book – Spring 2021
Announcing MCHE’s Spring 2021 common book, the community is encouraged to read Smoke Over Birkenau by Liana Millu.
Liana Millu was a Jewish Italian Partisan who was arrested in 1944 and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Of the 672 people in her transport, 57 lived to return home. The six vignettes in this volume tell the stories of some of the women who were the most memorable to Liana. Her incredible story details the complexity of life within a death camp. She describes the generosity, greed, jealousy, swapping recipes, celebrating birthdays, secret births, and of course, constant death that make up her world in Birkenau. The details of life in the women’s barracks are frightening, humbling, and engrossing.
This book is available on amazon, Abebooks, and Bilblio, and other independent book sellers.
There will be a discussion and conversation led by Dr. Shelly Cline via Zoom