What Doesn'T Break You, Makes You : The True Story Of Yvonne Aronson

Yvonne Knopf was born on April 5th, 1939 in Brussels, Belgium. When Yvonne was a young child, she had blue eyes, freckles and curly, bright red hair. She was loved by her large extended family: her mother, Ilse Breier Knopf; her father, Ladislas Knopf; her great-grandmother, Malvine Kohn; her grandmother, Theresa Liewer; her uncle, Emil Rosenthal; her grandfather, Arthur Breier; her great aunt and uncle, John and Helen Marcus; their children, Lisa and Fred Marcus; and her mother's sister, Lilly. In order to escape the Nazis during World War II, Yvonne went into hiding with her mother, her great-aunt, and her great-grandmother. Together, they hid in a convent for six months. After that, Yvonne and her mother moved back to their apartment, where her mother eventually came down with influenza. Because she was sick, the local druggist hid them in his cellar for three months. In 1942, when Yvonne was only two and a half years old, she was sent to the suburb of Auderghem where she stayed with Jeanne Stevens, a widow, and her son, Charles, who was a mailman. While Yvonne was in Auderghem, her mother stayed in the city to work and her great-aunt and great-grandmother continued to hide in the convent. For almost three years, she remained with the widow and her son. To protect her identity, Yvonne was passed off as the widow's granddaughter. Although she was not allowed to play with any of the other children in the neighborhood for fear of her identity being discovered, she did help tend Jeanne's husband's grave and the vegetable garden. Yvonne describes the white and gray-haired widow as having been extremely sweet and kind-hearted to her, as well as protective. During this time, Yvonne's father and uncle were sent to a labor camp in Carcassonne, France. Her father was later transferred to Auschwitz, where he perished. Her aunt died in Auschwitz as well, just days after being sent there. Sadly, her father's death happened just five days before the Soviet army liberated the camp. Her uncle left the labor camp and went to work with the French underground. Yvonne finally came out of hiding in 1945. She and her mother, Ilse, immigrated to the United States. They traveled by train from Brussels to Copenhagen, and then went by ferry to Sweden where a ship awaited them. Yvonne was extremely seasick the whole way to America. She only visited the dining room once. They arrived in New York on March 24, 1947 and spent two days sightseeing. They then headed to Chicago, where Yvonne's grandmother lived. Yvonne married Howard Aronson in November of 1959. They had three children: Larry, Richard and Lori. She now has five grandchildren: Melissa, Matthew, Molly, Samantha and Colin. Her great-granddaughter, Sophia, was born June 9, 2013. She and Howard are now divorced. Her children became very successful. Larry has his own advertising agency, while Richard is an attorney working in real estate, and Lori is a pediatric anesthesiologist at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Yvonne still lives in Glenview, a suburb of Chicago.

• | Author: A. Book A Book by Me, Andrew Ball & Mackenzie Rice
• | Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• | Publication Date: Oct 23, 2017
• | Number of Pages: 24 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 197763785X
• | ISBN-13: 9781977637857