People who suffer through a traumatic event may lock the tale inside their hearts for many years, as the experiences may be too painful to deal with. Such was the case with Nonna Bannister, a devoted wife and mother of three children living the American dream in an ordinary, seemingly uncomplicated way.
Sometimes, however, Bannister would go to the attic of her house and stay there for a while. Her husband Henry knew that she had a secret. Henry didn't press his wife, but waited patiently for her to tell him. In the 1990s – five decades after the traumatic events that so deeply affected her took place - she finally did just that.
"The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister," written by Nonna Bannister, edited by Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin, and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. in 2009, is the story Nonna shared with Henry.
When Bannister shared the diaries that she had carried with her in a black and white ticking pillowcase throughout World War II, she made her husband promise to keep them private until after her death. Her original diaries had been written in five different languages. During the 1980s, when she had spent so much time in the attic, Bannister had been translating the diaries into English, augmenting the translations with helpful notes.
Secret Background
"My great-grandfather's name was Alexander Alexyevich Ljaschov. He was a count and a Cossack," Bannister's diary begins, introducing the reader to a story within the story. Bannister's story begins not with The Holocaust, but during the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. Not only was Bannister the sole member of her family to survive the Holocaust, she was also the only descendant to survive the tumultuous era when the Communist party was taking over Russia.
Because of the threat of being sent to Siberia, Bannister learned as a child to keep her family history a secret. Her grandfather had followed in her great-grandfather's footsteps by becoming a Cossack and had served under Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia. He had been killed while trying to transport some of the tsar's sympathizers to safety. His wife Feodosija and her six children, including Anna, who would be Bannister's mother, fled to Konstantinowka, in the Ukraine, where the family owned a large house and where they were able to live in relative safety.
War with Germany
In 1939, when Germany invaded Poland and war seemed imminent with Russia, changes began to take place in Bannister's family. Nonna's father arranged to have her older brother Anatoly sent to St. Petersburg so that he would not have to join the Communist party.
In 1942, "the Germans set up some organized offices and took over full charge of policing. They opened some theaters and were showing some movies and even opened some grocery stores ... they were hiring our people ... the Germans acted like they had already won the war - until they reached Stalingrad ... and all the?'hell' of war broke loose."
As the Russian troops advanced, Germany began to retreat. At this time, the German government offered transport to Germany for volunteer laborers who would help build their war machine. Anna, who was afraid of the Russians because her family were considered traitors for staying behind during the evacuation, took advantage of this offer. When Anna and Nonna left, Feodosija stayed behind. They never saw her again.
In Germany
The train trip to Germany was difficult. At one point, while the train was stopped, a Jewish woman carrying an infant ran up to their car and as the train was leaving threw her baby to the workers inside, begging them to save the child. Anna cared for the baby until the train stopped again, when a woman told the SS about the child. The group watched in horror as the soldier killed the baby with his bare hands.
Caring for the baby would later come back to haunt Anna and Nonna, but for a little while they were able to stay together as they worked in different factories. Eventually, the Germans learned of Nonna's talent in languages and she and Anna were transported to a German Catholic hospital. There, Nonna translated for the staff and became a clerk. The nuns treated Anna and Nonna very well and protected them from the Germans as much as possible.
Unfortunately, however, Anna was called to Gestapo headquarters and never returned. Nonna learned that because she had cared for the Jewish infant, Anna had been sent to several concentration camps. She eventually died because of the treatment she received at the hands of the SS in those camps.
It was during these years that Anna was sent from the Ukraine to St. Petersburg for her education in music. There, she met her husband-to-be, the man who would be Bannister's father, Yevgeny Ivanovich Lisowsky. Lisowsky was a Polish student, possibly with a Jewish heritage. Yevgeny taught his daughter Nonna to speak several languages, which would prove invaluable later in life.
Over the next few years as tension increased in Russia, Bannister wrote of happy times with her Babushka Feodosija at the house in Konstantinowka, and how her mother's entire family eventually moved into the house during 1936, when there were rumors of war. Yevgeny wanted to move his family out of Russia permanently and thought that living closer to Poland would be advantageous.Little did the family know that other than a short visit in the summer of 1939, they would never again see Anatoly. A year later, Bannister's mother lost a newborn baby who died after becoming ill. At that time, Russian citizens were also being evacuated out of the region. Bannister’s family chose to stay behind.
These were the beginnings of heartache as Hitler's troops invaded Russia in 1941 and the family began to scatter. Bannister's father sent Anna and Nonna away thinking that they would be safer in an adjoining village than in Konstantinowka. Bannister records that during this time neighbors were quite helpful so she and her mother were able to eat. Anna also made clothing that they traded for food and other items.
Life was very difficult for everyone. Not only had German soldiers begun to take over houses and eat all of the available food, Bannister records that it was the coldest winter on record. As temperatures reached 40 to 50 below zero, people scrounged desperately for food and firewood. On top of this, Bannister's father, Yevgeny, had been beaten by German soldiers and eventually died from his injuries. After his death Anna decided that they would move back to Konstantinowka with Feodosija. It was a good move, but more heartache was still to come.
A Dream Fulfilled
After the war, Bannister studied nursing and was offered a scholarship to a pre-med program. She chose instead to apply for a visa to America. She later sailed to Louisiana in fulfillment of her father's dream to live in America. There she met and married Henry Bannister.
Bannister credits her grandmother for instilling within her a strong faith in God. Without this faith, Bannister felt she would not have been able to live through the harrowing years of early Communism in Russia, captivity in Germany and the loneliness for her family. She leaves a meaningful legacy to her descendants and to those who read her words, reminding them that "it is the life after death that fills us with great hope, and we should never be afraid of dying. However, if we learn how to survive even when we are faced with death, we become stronger and can live until God is ready to take us into eternity."
