One of the oldest living Holocaust survivors recounts her family’s imprisonment at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen in this moving memoir of love, loss, courage, and hope.

When German soldiers invaded Poland in September 1939, it began a six year journey for then-ten-year-old Renee Salt and her mother Sala. Until their liberation in 1945, Renee and Sala were imprisoned in ghettos and concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen. The only light in the darkness and brutality for Renee was the unwavering grasp of her mother’s hand in hers–enduring, against all odds.

It was this unbreakable bond, along with a few miracles, that kept Renee alive. Sala’s staggering courage to defy the will of SS guards saved both her and her daughter from the gas chambers, and the pair survived the deadliest days in Auschwitz’s history.

After suffering the nightmarish conditions at Bergen-Belsen, Renee and her mother were liberated in April 1945–but Sala died soon after they were saved. To this day, Renee attributes her survival to the love and bravery of her beloved mother.

Do Not Cry When I Die is an incredibly moving and deeply crucial book that tells the shocking story of one of the oldest Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen survivors–and the mother’s love that saved her life.

The beautiful, emotional and true story of a mother and daughter's love and their strength to survive the horrors of the Holocaust.

From invasion to liberation, September 1939 to April 1945, as Renee was marched from ghetto to camp, there was one constant. One hand that clutched hers - her mother's. Every day for nearly six years, mother and daughter were bound together in hell. From Auschwitz-Birkenau to Bergen-Belsen, they were a powerful source of solace and hope for one another.

The strength of Sala's love gave them both something fragile yet beautiful to cling to in an ugly, depraved world. It was her mother who hid Renee, lied to the SS, went right when she was directed left - whose small actions had life-saving consequences. Now, for Renee, the need to share has finally overcome the desire to forget.

A Mother's Promise is a love letter to a mother eighty years in the making.