Photos, letters reveal war-time story

Jenny Harrison has always had an affinity for words.

Her talent for writing was evident from an early age, but she didn’t decide to write a book until she was asked if she could tell the story of one of her friends, who she worked with at Lifeline

Her first book Debbie’s Story - A Journey to Healing, was published in 1997 and was a best seller in Jenny’s homeland, South Africa.

The book detailed Debbie’s struggle through abuse inflicted by her own father.

‘‘The book struck a chord with people in South Africa,’’ she said.

It was during the same year that she and her husband decided to make New Zealand their new home.

Following on from the success of her first book, Jenny went on to write nearly a dozen other books both fiction and non-fiction.

Her latest is Out of Poland - when the best revenge is to have survived. It is a story of love, loyalty and heroism.

The Siegel family of Auckland knew nothing about their family other than that they had lived and died in Poland during World War II.

The only clues were in an old leather suitcase hidden under the house by their father, Naftali Siegel. Once opened, they found it contained old photographs, letters and documents – all in Polish.

‘‘I arranged for the translation of the letters and it told the tragic story of a poor family who had scraped the money together to send their eldest son to Italy to study veterinary science,’’ she said.

Naftali Siegel did not return to Poland. Instead he journeyed to New Zealand and arrived in 1939, just as war was breaking out.

He worked for the Vets Club in Ngatea for a number of years, married and had three children, but he never forgot the family he had left behind in Poland.

He was forever haunted by their fate.

Jenny said while this story tells of the terrible events of the Holocaust it is also a story of love, loyalty and heroism; of those who died, the ones who tried to save them and the one man who could have made a difference.

The book follows the journey Jenny made to discover what had happened to the family in Poland.

‘‘A difficult journey but ultimately very rewarding,’’ she said.

Out of Poland is available at Paper Plus in Morrinsville and the Piako Stationers in Te Aroha.