Inseparable: The Hess Twins' Holocaust Journey through Bergen-Belsen to America

Summary

Stefan and Marion Hess’s happy childhood was shattered in 1944. Torn from their home in Amsterdam, the six-year-old twins and their parents were deported to a place their mother called “a dying hell”—the infamous concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen.

Inseparable is the vivid account of one family’s struggle to survive the Holocaust. When caught in childish mischief, Stefan and Marion ran from SS soldiers, making a game of seeing who could get closest to the guard towers before being warned he would be shot. They witnessed their father beaten beyond recognition, dodged strafing warplanes, and somehow survived in a place where “the children looked for bread between the corpses.” Above all, this is the unforgettable story of a young mother and father who were willing to sacrifice everything for their children.

From the Hesses’ prosperous pre-war life in Germany to their desperate ride in a bullet-strafed boxcar through the rubble of the collapsing Third Reich, Faris Cassell weaves Stefan and Marion’s personal memories and historical details into a gripping narration of this heroic family’s ordeal.