Survival of a Spirit

A first-person story of Eva Salier (née Hellendag), a young Dutch Jewish artist, who evades death when she is chosen by the Philips Kommando to build small radio tubes for German bomber planes. She is transported from concentration camp to concentration camp, working in Philips radio factory barracks and dangerous underground tunnels.  Amidst the Nazi cruelty and de-humanization, she forges emotional bonds within her Philips’ group of Dutch female prisoners who keep each other’s spirits up.  Her occasional glimpses of humorous situations in the concentration camps make her laugh and feel human again, if for just a moment; these small moments prove to be the thread that keep her going long enough to survive.