And I Am Afraid of My Dreams

Book excerpt: In February 1941, Wanda Póltawska was arrested by the Gestapo. She was nineteen years old. Charged with aiding and abetting the resistance movement-a heinous crime in Nazi-occupied Poland-she was sent to the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp. And I Am Afraid of My Dreams is Póltawska's account of the four years spent in the camp, where the prospect of death, whether from starvation, exhaustion, or summary execution, was a daily reality. Wanda was used as one of the camp's "guineapigs" and became a victim of cruel medical experimentation by Nazi doctors. Many of her friends died or were left with horrific physical and psychological injuries as a result of these experiments. Wanda bravely faced each day and pledged to become a doctor if she ever got out alive. Originally written nearly fifty years ago, this powerful story is an enduring testament to the courage of the human spirit.