The Little Girl Who Could Not Cry

The Number One International Bestseller.

The heartbreaking, inspiring true story of a girl sent to Auschwitz who survived the evil Dr Josef Mengele's pseudo-medical experiments. With a foreword by His Holiness Pope Francis.

Lidia Maksymowicz was just three years old when she arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau with her mother, grandparents and foster brother. They were from Belarus, their 'crime' that they supported the partisan resistance to Nazi occupation. Once there, Lidia was picked by Mengele for his experiments and sent to the children's block. It was here that she survived eighteen months of hell. Injected with infectious diseases, desperately malnourished, she came close to death. Her mother - who risked her life to secretly visit Lidia - was her only tie to humanity.

By the time Birkenau was liberated her family had disappeared. Even her mother was presumed dead. Lidia was adopted by a woman from the nearby town of Oswiecim. Too traumatised to feel emotion, she was not an easy child to care for but she came to love her adoptive mother and her new home. Then, in 1962, she discovered that her birth parents were still alive. They lived in the USSR - and they wanted her back. Lidia was faced with an agonising choice . . .

The Little Girl Who Could Not Cry is powerful, moving and ultimately hopeful, as Lidia comes to terms with the past and finds the strength to share her story - even making headlines when she meets Pope Francis, who kisses her tattoo. Above all she refuses to hate those who hurt her so badly, saying, 'Hate only brings more hate. Love, on the other hand, has the power to redeem.'


About the Author

Lidia Maksymowicz has shared her story in the Auschwitz museum, which she visits every year. It was also the focus of a documentary by the Italian Association, 'La Memoria Viva'.

Paolo Rodari was the first journalist to interview Lidia Maksymowicz in Rome. He is a Vatican correspondent for the Italian newspaper La Republica and the author of several bestselling books.