Everything is as it should be.Īnd then a noise shoots through the silence. The empty hall outside our room stretches to the other empty rooms of the empty apartment. I go to the door, pressing an ear to the wood before I turn the lock. With two Nazis below, thirteen hidden Jews above, and a little sister by her side, Stefania has one more excruciating choice to make. When the knock finally comes, it is two Nazi officers, requisitioning Stefania’s house for the German army. Then they must wait, every day, for the next knock at the door, the one that will mean death. Stefania and Helena make the extraordinary decision to hide Max, and eventually twelve more Jews. Izio’s brother Max has jumped from the train headed to a death camp. The Diamants are forced into the ghetto, and Stefania is alone in an occupied city, the only one left to care for Helena, her six-year-old sister. She has even made a promise to one of their sons, Izio - a betrothal they must keep secret since she is Catholic and the Diamants are Jewish.īut everything changes when the German army invades Przemsyl. It is 1943, and for four years, sixteen-year-old Stefania has been working for the Diamant family in their grocery store in Przemsyl, Poland, singing her way into their lives and hearts.

One knock at the door, and Stefania has a choice to make… The extraordinary story of Stefania Podgorska, a Polish teenager who chose bravery and humanity by hiding thirteen Jews in her attic during WWII - from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sharon Cameron.

All the light in hidden places