In Fiet's Vase, Alison Leslie Gold links together harrowing yet ultimately inspiring personal accounts of World War II. Meditating on such themes as kindness, love, and art, these stories shed light on the various strengths that people drew on during a dark period of human history.

From a young Jewish woman who defied death to keep the promise she made to her dead mother to protect her baby sister; to a German boy, the son of a Nazi, who separated from his father to discover a lifelong passion for the theater, the experiences of the individuals recounted here offer a rare glimpse of the personal face of war. How was it possible to survive the terror of those years-what hidden reserves did people summon in order to carry on? The voices raised in this book offer powerful answers to these still deeply relevant questions.