A Garland for Ashes

World War II, the Holocaust, and One Jewish Survivor's Long Journey to Forgiveness

By: Hanna Zack Miley

Narrated by: Susan Tackenberg

Torn from her homeland...her parents murdered.... How could she cope?

When little Hannelore (Hanna) Zack left Cologne, Germany, on a train bound for London as a seven-year-old mädchen (young girl) on July 24, 1939, she had no way of knowing that she was part of the Kindertransport, an epic rescue effort that would save 10,000 Jewish children from Hitler's Nazi regime by granting them safe passage to England. In the coming years, Hanna would learn the painful truth: After being stripped of their business, forced from their Zuhause (home), and deported to endure six months of inhumane conditions in the Lodz Ghetto, her parents were gassed in a brutally efficient killing operation in a remote, forested area near Chelmno, Poland, on May 3, 1942.

Written over a four-year period beginning when Hanna was about 75 years old, A Garland for Ashes is both a gripping detective story recounting the heartbreaking process of discovering her family's fate and a poignant account of her journey from vengeful hatred to forgiveness and release from bitterness.

©2013 Hanna Miley (P)2019 Hanna Miley

A lasting legacy

In A Garland for Ashes, Hanna Zack Miley's loving parents Amalie and Markus Zack live on. Her three aunts and childhood friend Kurt Meier live on, Hanna carefully searches out details of how they lived, suffered, and were murdered. In telling us of their lives and Hanna's journey of forgiveness, A Garland for Ashes also sublimely affirms God's faithfulness and promise, Thank you Hanna, and thank you Susan Tackenberg for your true-to-life narration. Hitler's madness is not the last word, thank God.

A moving story about Hanna’s life after escaping from Nazi Germany as a Jewish child.

Hanna’s storytelling is captivating and heartbreaking. Her life is full of unimaginable twists and turns, but she does the brave work of unraveling it all in adulthood. This story is a fantastic example of the growth one can experience at any point in their life and how looking at your demons head on and meeting them with forgiveness is utterly transformative. Hearing Hanna Zack Miley’s voice at the beginning and end of this audiobook is particularly moving and the narration throughout is lovely and easy to listen to. I highly recommend this audiobook!

Beautiful narration of a must-read/listen story

Stories from the Holocaust are so important, so as to not forget what happened, and what could happen again. But this story ... this story should be next on your list.

Why? It offers a beautiful example of how to respond when terrible events happen in our lives. Heaven forbid we have to deal with something on the level of the Holocaust again - but all of us have ways in which we have suffered loss, betrayal, and hidden darkness. A Garland For Ashes not only recounts the history in a precise and powerful manner, but lays out the process of forgiveness and reconciliation that Hanna went through as she wrestled with these memories and the powerful emotions that they evoked in her soul.

In terms of production, I haven't listened to too many audio books (I generally prefer to read visually), but this one is really good. The narrator outstanding (apparently her father also escaped the Holocaust). The violin music in the opening was like a musical interpretation of Hanna's story.

Highly recommended!

Powerful true story of redemption & forgiveness

Our book club read this incredible true story of Hanna, a Holocaust survivor who was put on the Kindertransport by her parents when she was a small girl. We all were deeply moved by the unfolding of the tragedy and the redemption and forgiveness that Hanna has experienced. She has done the difficult but healing work of learning more about her life in Germany as a young Jewish girl and the sacrificial love of her parents as they chose to save her life by placing her on the Kindertransport. She describes in detail her journey of forgiveness as she faced the realities of her parent’s execution in Chelmno Poland. This Audible version of the story is extremely well done & beautifully read. Highly recommend!