The Polish Girl

In the eye of the war That tore the world apart A mother wants a son A daughter needs a mother Winter 1939: Her secret is their salvation, but what Danusha remembers most is the solitude, with only her baby brother and the girl in the mirror for company. All Anna ever wanted was a firstborn son. All Danusha ever wanted was a mother who would love her like a firstborn son. Instead she got one who could look a Nazi straight in the eye but not into the eyes of her own daughter. It is only years later, when their neighbours gather in the living room to hear Anna’s stories, that Danusha finally realises her mother was never a cold unknowable sea but a storm-wracked sky – sometimes bright, sometimes dark, and always watching over her. The Polish Girl The Brothers of Auschwitz