Ruth Altbeker Cyprys was an extraordinarily intelligent woman, a lawyer, who worked out that what was in store for the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto was not survivable. She managed to escape from the train to Treblinka with her small daughter. Using her reason rather than emotion she worked out that their best hope of survival would come from separating: hiding her daughter out with an assumed Christian identity in the country and finding menial work herself. While so many other families did all they could to avoid separation, Ruth was able to force herself to make hard, hard choices. The toll on her emotional health must have been very great (and her daughter's note at the end of the book indicates this was the case). ( )