February 2021 weather stories from the state of Texas and other areas in the United States - freezing temperatures, lack of water, lack of food- might bring new understanding of how severe conditions were for the nine young women who dared to resist the Nazi regime. Knowing that these nine people are real and having their photographs included in the book - THE NINE- really takes the reader back in time. You will feel their starvation and understand that the flower petals they jam into their mouths are ambrosia at that moment. There are heartbreaking details about daughters who helped their weaker mothers onto carts in order to ride to the destination instead of walking; unfortunately, they did not know that they had just identified their family members as the first ones to be cremated. When the young women arrive at a death camp, they are confronted with this scene: "On June 14, 1944, when Hélène arrived, the camp was covered in mud and reeked of rotting flesh, human excrement, and dense, ashy smoke from the crematorium." This book seems to be an important addition to World War II history.