I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree by Laura Hillman (author) (UK edition)

“Tell me what you remember most about home,” Dick asked me one evening. “A lilac tree,” I said. “It bloomed every May, around the time of Mama’s birthday. The memory is so vivid in my mind, I can almost smell the lilacs now.”

In 1942, Hannelore Wolff’s life changed forever. Her father was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Six weeks later he was dead, and Hannelore and the rest of her family were deported to the camps and a life of unbearable suffering. Yet despite the horrors she faced in various concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Hannelore met and fell in love with a Polish POW, Dick Hillman. After a few months they were separated, but Dick promised Hannelore that he would find her again, wherever she was. He kept his promise, and when both their names appeared on Oskar Schindler’s list, Dick and Hannelore were reunited and married… This is their incredible story of courage, love and hope, set during one of the most horrific times in human history.