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This is the story of Irene Zisblatt, Auschwitz and after. Her autobiography moves from Irene's childhood in Hungary through her terrifying coming-of-age as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps and her life in America. It is a story of compassion and hope between two young girls whose bizarre fate brought them together, whose love for each other inspired their survival, and whose friendship tragically ended with liberation in the forests of Germany. The lack of bitterness with which Irene tells her experience, along with her straight-forward style, adds power to what is essentially a testament to the triumph of the human spirit. Faced with the dehumanizing ordeal of life in Auschwitz-Birkenau, she found that by believing strongly that her horrors were temporary, she could cling to the hope that she could survive and be human again. It has take Mrs. Zisblatt fifty years to recount the terror of her experience. We should be grateful for her courage to relive these events in order to write this book. Irene is grateful to this country for giving her the opportunity to begin life anew. She is not embittered or filled with hatred and it is her goal to educate children in order to rid the world of prejudice, intolerance, and indifference.

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* Publishers Weekly Best Books of Summer 2025 * Bookbub Best Non-Fiction Release of the Season * MSNBC/Afar Magazine 10 Best Books for the Summer Traveler * Newsday's Top Must-Read Book for Summer * Christian Science Monitor Best Book of May 2025 * Longlisted for the 2025 American Library in Paris Book AwardA riveting and stylish saga set in Paris during World War II, The Art Spy uncovers how an unlikely heroine infiltrated the Nazi leadership to save the world's most treasured masterpieces.On August 25, 1944, Rose Valland, a woman of quiet daring, found herself in a desperate position. From the windows of her beloved Jeu de Paume museum, where she had worked and ultimately spied, she could see the battle to liberate Paris thundering around her. The Jeu de Paume, co-opted by Nazi leadership, was now the Germans' final line of defense. Would the museum curator be killed before she could tell the truth--a story that would mean nothing less than saving humanity's cultural inheritance?Based on troves of previously undiscovered documents, The Art Spy chronicles the brave actions of the key Resistance spy in the heart of the Nazi's art looting headquarters in the French capital. A veritable female Monuments Man, Valland has, until now, been written out of the annals, despite bearing witness to history's largest art theft. While Hitler was amassing stolen art for his future Führermuseum, Valland, his undercover adversary, secretly worked to stop him.At every stage of World War II, Valland was front and center. She came face to face with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, passed crucial information to the Resistance network, put herself deliberately in harm's way to protect the museum and her staff, and faced death during the last hours of Liberation Day.At the same time, a young Free French soldier, Alexandre Rosenberg, was fighting his way to Paris with the Allied forces battling to liberate France. Alexandre's father was the exclusive art dealer for Picasso, Matisse, George Braque, and Fernand Léger. The Nazis had taken everything from their family--their art collection, their nationality, their gallery, and their home in Paris. Vivid and atmospheric, The Art Spy moves from the glittering days of pre-War Paris, home to geniuses of modern culture, including Picasso, Josephine Baker, Coco Chanel, Le Corbusier, and Frida Kahlo, through the tension-riddled cities and resorts of Europe on the eve of war, to the harrowing years of the Nazi occupation of France when brave people such as Valland and Rosenberg risked everything to fight monstrous evil.In the spirit of Hidden Figures, with the sweeping narrative of The Rape of Europa and the depth of The Resistance Quartet, The Art Spy is an extraordinary tale of a female hero whose courage and tenacity in a time of violence and terror is an inspiration for us all.

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