These wonderful subjects are all from the state of Iowa:
Marion Blumenthal Lazan was a young girl when her Jewish family was taken to a concentration camp. The game she played was trying to find four pebbles each day, one for each member of her family. If she found the four rocks, it meant her entire family would survive the horrors of the Holocaust. This game gave her hope each day which is why her young author titled his book Never Lose Hope.
Inge Auerbacher was a little girl with a doll under her arm when she arrived at the gate of a concentration camp. The guard ripped her doll's head off to check for valuables and gave her the doll back in two pieces. A kind person inside the camp, used valuable thread to sew the head back on. This doll inspired young Inge to not give up when she was deathly ill. When the war was over, young Inge walked through the same gate with her doll in her arms. A story of perseverance and hope.