My Sister's Eyes: A Family Chronicle of Rescue and Loss During World War II

“My Sister’s Eyes is a charming work written with precision and passion. From their prosperous life in Poland through the Nazi onslaught and their perilous flight to freedom..." Dr. Michael Berenbaum, Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute and co-founder of the United States Holocaust   Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.:

“My Sister’s Eyes is a vigilant call to others not to forget…It is also a salute to Aristides de Sousa Mendes…"  Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, the leading world authority on the Righteous Diplomats, former Director of the Righteous Among the Nations Department at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel.

This exquisitely crafted book brings to life the story of one young Jewish couple's upended life. The author, Joan Arnay Halperin, skillfully depicts her parents' prosperous pre-war life in Poland and Belgium, including their fortuitous blind date, whirlwind romance, orthodox marriage, and the birth of their first child.

The reader then experiences the Krakowiak family’s perilous escape from the Nazi invasion of western Europe beginning with the blitzkrieg of Belgium on May 10, 1940 to their months in limbo in Portugal, where they anxiously await visas for presumed safety in the New World.

Over the course of their circuitous route which lasts one thousand two hundred and forty-one days, they confront unspeakable tragedy and still continue on with an indomitable spirit that imbues the reader with admiration and hope for humankind despite the evil of some.

In addition to this personalized vantage point that so gracefully humanizes the horrific effects of World War II, the book also informs the reader of the moral courage and heroism of  Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese Consul General in Bordeaux, France in 1940, who issued thousands of visas to desperate refugees for safety in Portugal.