"Two Holocaust survivors' memoirs about the devastation of World War II in one book: Born two hundred kilometres away from each other and two years apart, Zsuzsanna Fischer's and Eva Steinberger's lives are both thrown into chaos when Germany occupies Hungary and destroys their peaceful childhoods. In the spring of 1944, as Zsuzsanna and Eva are sent into ghettos and then to Auschwitz, they each take refuge in the one constant in their lives--their older sisters. A glimpse into the fierceness of a sister's love, The Last Time and In Fragile Moments mirror the remarkable differences of similar paths of survival. Zsuzsanna Fischer Spiro was born in Tornyospálca, Hungary, on November 18, 1925, and she grew up in Kisvárda, Hungary. She was sent to the Kisvárda ghetto in April 1944 and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau at the end of May 1944. In October 1944, she and her sister were deported to Leipzig, to the Markkleeberg forced labour camp. They were evacuated from that camp at the end of April 1945 and sent on a death march. Zsuzsanna was liberated in May 1945. For Zsuzsanna, the fragile pages of her 1945 diary reveal the last days before liberation, like a song written in longing for home. Eleven years later, in 1956, she returns to these yellowed pages to pour out her emotions on a new series of fearful events--the Hungarian Uprising against the Soviet regime. A day by day account of the chaos and destruction that reigned for two weeks, which ultimately led to her family's decision to "to leave all we'd achieved in 12 years of struggle and the warmth of home, and set off with our two small children into the cold and uncertain foreign winter." Zsuzsanna and her family immigrated to Toronto in 1957. Eva Steinberger was born in Nagyvárad, Hungary (Oradea, Romania), on September 16, 1927. She was sent to the Nagyvárad ghetto in the spring of 1944 and was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on May 28, 1944. In October 1944, she and her sister were deported for forced labour to Mittelsteine in Lower Silesia, and they were evacuated to the Weisswasser forced labour camp in April 1945. They were liberated in May 1945. Eva spent three years in displaced persons' camps before immigrating to Montreal in 1948."-- Provided by publisher.

Includes index.