Parallel Journeys

This book..drew me in like a book had been incapable of doing for a while. I read it for a book report, because I enjoy reading about history. I have never had such an easier time recaling facts from a work before...I found myself becoming so thouroughly entwined with the story in my report on it, that I was near tears, and my voice was shaking. Just through telling the story, the whole room was silent. I would highly reccomend this book to anyone with a mind who is willing to use it.

-W's daughter

Although this was a book about great sorrow and despair, the strength of the human spirit shines through in the heart and mind of Helen Waterford. What was also astounding was the thoughts and emotions of Alfons Heck. What a horrific time--more than the mind can comprehend...and what a truly amazing journey of the souls that brought these two people together.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. I just finished reading it and passed it along to my daughter.

The world must never forget the holocaust. Today some people espouse a theory that the nearly 12,000,000 deaths (6,000,000 of them Jews) at the hands of the Nazi party never happened. This sad, but honest, tale traces the lives of two persons who lived through that era. Helen Waterford was a Jew who experienced the atrocities first hand. Alfons Heck was a high ranking member of Hitler's youth. Both lived to tell their tales. Both met each other after the war. Both told their tales together. This book alternates chapters between the two principle characters so the reader can witness this period through eyes on both sides of the ideological conflict. This is really two books in one. Either story will challenge the mind and heart. Either one of the stories is an important read, but both placed together in this manner makes for a 5-star book. Our local middle school uses this classic in some of the literature classes. You will be richer for having read this book.

WOW, what a book i would say. It's a very moving book about the memoirs of Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck during WWII.This book should be in high school history not to say only for high schoolers but 12 year olds and up.

This book is not your usual book. It details the lives of Ayran Alfons Heck and Jewish Helen Waterford.

Alfons was a member of the Hitler Youth and fought-and even met Adolf Hitler. After the war he was depressed about the things that he and his countrymen did to the Jews and moved first to Canada and then to the U.S.

Helen is a Jew who spend part of the war hiding with her husband. They were eventually caught. Helen's husband did not survive, but Helen did, eventually moving from Holland to the U.S. with her daughter Doris.

While in the U.S Helen read some of the things Alfons wrote about and contacted him leading to a friendship and career as they travel telling their stories to students all over the place.

A very moving book!