Stefan and Marion Hess's happy childhood was shattered in 1943. Torn from their home in Amsterdam, the six-year-old twins and their parents were deported to a place their mother called "this dying hell"—the infamous concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen.

Faris Cassell, a journalist and writer, lives with her husband in Eugene, Oregon. She earned a B.A. in history from Mount Holyoke College and an M.S. in journalism from the University of Oregon. Her first book, The Unanswered Letter, was the winner of the National Jewish Book Award in 2021.

Sponsored by the Barshop JCC and Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio