I found this story hard to believe. The introductory material says the author talked to an Auschwitz survivor and based this novel on her story, so I don't know how much is true and how much is not. Basically the little girl in the story was pulled out of the line to the gas chamber by an SS doctor who had recently lost a daughter her age. He took her into his home, and when the camp was abandoned, he took her with him when he fled. Eventually he ends up as a Catholic priest. She marries and moves to Israel.

The story was compelling at times but it is a self-published book and it shows. The writing is not of a professional caliber. Oral histories can be fascinating and this one shows the ending of the war through the eyes of one of the villain class. It shows an unlikely alliance between an SS physician who hates Jews, and a young Jewish girl.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley. Grade: B-

It is only two months since I was in Poland and passed through the entrance into the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. My visit was a very moving one and as I read this very moving story which was based on a true story, my mind wondered back to my visit.

I rarely write a blurb as to what the story is about for fear of spoiling for others. This book was certainly a page turner and I did start to feel a lump in my throat towards to the end. I cannot rate this book high enough. So pleased to have received an e-copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What starts out as "another one of those Holocaust death camp stories" quickly changes tack when an SS officer plucks Mira Kabliski, along with her doll, Alinka, from the Auschwitz selection line and, with no explanation, takes her home with him. "Herr Mueller" has some kind of job inside the camp -- he comes home every night and meticulously and painstakingly scrubs and scrubs his "delicate" hands with a stiff brush -- but Mira is unable to find out just what he does there. He tells her that Auschwitz is a "resettlement" camp and that Jews are being sent to land in Russia to begin new lives. He takes on the role of saviour, lifeline, protector. father figure, and the only family she has left, a seemingly gentle man, as they soon flee Auschwitz and the advancing Russian armies, and begin a harrowing journey across Europe to Germany. Both Herr Mueller [now Doktor Mueller] and Mira [now Anna Mueller] speak both Polish and German which help them immensely in their efforts to avoid starvation and freezing to death. The transformation takes this 12-year-old girl from Mira Kabliski through Mira Bednarczyk, Bernadette Schneider to Anna Mueller. There are "secrets" throughout -- background secrets, job secrets, family secrets. Mira dresses up as Anna; Herr Mueller puts on the robes of a priest. By the time the war is over, Mira has lived so many lies that she doesn't know how to tell the truth.
Helping us to see both Germans and Jews as individual people, this is one of the most heartfelt stories about this time in history that I have ever read. Mira struggles to find her own identity, as does the Doktor. It is a novel -- we're told this at the beginning -- but it reads like a memoir. Extremely well- written. It will grab your heart and won't let go.

I really liked this book. It was fiction but read as non-fiction. There were many heartbreaking stories. I have always been interested in this part of history, I think to try to understand how and why humans can and do things to others. I am sure I will never understand.
About a family and what happened to them in World War II in Poland. Written from the eyes of a child of 8 until near the end of her life. Very well-written and I am looking forward to seeing more by Philip Sherman Mygatt.
I would recommend this to all my friends and others that like a good book.
I would like to thank Netgalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read this book in an exchange for my honest review

What can one say about a book that show literally the worst of humanity. This book was detailed and all about the life of Mira a young polish jew who is taken to auschwitz. It is a harrowing tale and one that is hard to put down and also hard to read an lt the same time.

It is nice to see history books get pushed but it can be quite upsetting as well to know what happened to those people.

Innocence Lost - A Childhood Stolen is the true story of Mira as told to Philip Sherman Mygatt.

Mira is a Jewish child living on a farm in rural Poland when WW2 breaks out. She narrates the amazing tale of her survival to the writer. As is often the case in survivor stories, the survivor themselves has a huge amount of personal strength and forbearance, at times they are lucky, they meet people who help them on their journey, they often need to rely on what seems like coincidence and Mira's story is no different in that respect. How Mira survives the Holocaust is different to any other survivor story I have heard or read. The language and detail transports the reader to 1940s Poland and the reader finds themselves travelling with Mira through her journey all the way to her final destination. The story is compelling, harrowing, frustrating and uplifting, a real page-turner of a book.

I feel privileged to have been able to read Mira's story and am sure it will stay with me for many years.

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book though felt it was an unrealistic and perhaps a fantasy account of a young girls experience in World War Two.

I quite enjoyed this book. However I personally would have enjoyed it more if it had been historicaly correct. A person could be excused for thinking that it was a work of non fiction due to the book cover, a little misleading in my view.

Innocence Lost - A Childhood Stolen is a captivating read. This is a well written, amazing story of seeing how it was at Auschwitz through a child's eye. I highly recommend this book. Five stars