In November 1942, the ocean swallowed the SS Benlomond in less than 120 seconds Amid the waves, a Chinese man named Poon Lim, second steward on board, managed to free himself from the wreckage and floated for hours until he found a wooden raft. It wasn't salvation, but limbo: biscuits, chocolate, sugar, a jug of water, a few flares, two funnels, and a flashlight. No company, no route, just the void of the Atlantic. The attack was the work of the German submarine U-172. Of the 54 crew members, only six managed to leave the ship. Lim was the only survivor. For 133 days, the sea was his only home. He caught birds, drank their blood, fished with improvised lines, faced a shark, hauled it aboard, killed it with a jug, and ate it. Every day was a pact with hunger, every night a duel with loneliness. When the Brazilian coast finally appeared on the horizon, Poon was a man, nine kilos lighter, but still able to walk. Local fishermen found him and helped him, but they didn't save him:...
In March 1942 a train with 999 young girls of Jewish origin left Slovakia. They were mostly teenagers. Their parents were informed by the Nazis that the girls would be working in a boot factory only a few months. It was a terrible and horrifying lie. This was actually the first time the Jewish people were transported to the Auschwitz death camp in an official manner. Edith was the name of one of these girls. She went on the train with her sister Lea. As they opened the doors they did not see a factory. They observed an icy desert with barbed wire. The girls had to work very hard such as digging in the swamps with their bare hands or demolishing old brick walls. They never ate enough and never were warm. Life in the camp was a nightmare. Typhus was a contagious sickness. Poor Lea became really ill and was sent to the gas chambers in late 1942. Edith was heartbroken, but she didn't give up. She was not killed due to her camp sisters. They were friends who to...