Amy Blocher

I was born as Amy Querido in Miami, Florida, in 1950, the youngest of four of a father from New York and a mother from Georgia. After graduating from Miami Edison High School in 1968 and the University of South Florida four years later, I spent a 37-year career teaching middle and high school students, mainly English and reading, and earning a Master’s in Education from the University of Louisville in 1993. Teaching those children was a passion of mine. Teaching about the Holocaust was another passion. I combined those two passions in my classroom, teaching the Holocaust as part of my curriculum. I used novels written by authors who based their books on fact, teaching about the Holocaust to students who had never been able to understand this period in history before. Those passions did not end with my teaching career. And this book is their product. Writing their stories and spending time with these 10 survivors has been a dream come true for me. Putting their life stories into historical context and telling how they came through such a horrific period in history and went on to lead productive lives has shown me how I must continue to teach others about the Holocaust and what I consider the important life lessons these 10 survivors can teach us.