The 6th grade students at All Saints’ Episcopal Day School, wrote their impressions after listening to Hanna read from A Garland for Ashes:

After reading this story, I have a much better understanding of what the Holocaust was like. I never realized how cruel the Nazis had been during that time. The camps should never have been created and the Nazis and Hitler should have seen that there is no one who is superior above all others, but that everyone is equal and has equal rights. I am very glad that there were still families willing to take the children in though. This shows that there were a lot of caring people at that time as well. I am so glad I was able to hear Mrs. Miley’s speech. It inspired me to make sure that everyone is treated equally and correctly.

I think Hanna Zach Miley’s story is extremely engrossing and fascinating. Mrs. Miley described her journey with so many details and gave an amazing speech of how she traveled from Germany to the United Kingdom. I could never imagine leaving home and my family at such a young age to go live in a completely different place with people I do not know. Hanna Zach Miley was an exceedingly brave person to have traveled all alone during such terrible times. I was very interested when Mrs. Miley talked about her life as a child once she arrived in a new home and went to a new school as she met different people. I liked seeing all of the pictures Mrs. Miley showed while she was giving her speech because I could actually see what the setting really looked like at the time. It made me sad when Hanna Zach Miley talked about the other children, only five years old, being rude and cruel to her and the other Jewish kids. Hearing Hanna Zach Miley say, “ I saw the hatred in their eyes,” made me feel dejected and I felt bad for the innocent Jewish children. We are currently learning about World War II and the important events, like the Kindertransport during the war. I hope many more people will be able to hear and read Hanna Zach Miley’s incredible story. It was an honor to meet Hanna Zach Miley and hear her amazing story about her journey across the world during World War II.

Ms. Miley’s presentation was very fascinating to listen to.  It must have been hard to lose her parents and to go to a different family. I think that we study the Holocaust to learn from the past and the mistakes that the world has make. Furthermore, I think that we could prevent something like that from happening in the future. It does not matter what religion people believe in; their life should not be taken because of their beliefs. The Holocaust was a terrible thing that the Nazi Party did. I would keep something that the Holocaust from happening by not judging people by their beliefs. I hope that something like the Holocaust will never happen again.

I thought that Hanna Zack Miley’s talk was both inspirational and educational. I enjoyed her sweet voice telling us about her experiences. It is hard to imagine leaving a country behind and starting a new life without loving parents for support.  Her talk is important because it proves evidence of the hardships of being an innocent Jewish citizen at the time of the Holocaust. Even though she never went to a camp or encountered severe danger,  she had to be very strong because she lost everything and started again. It is important to understand how we are so fortunate when kids our age across the globe 80 years ago suffered from traumatizing experiences. I would have purchased her book if my family did not already had a copy. I found it interesting that her book is sold in German. I believe this is so Germans and Jewish Germans can and need to understand what it was like to be on the Kindertransport. I hope that people will understand what happened to her. I also hope people will be kind to each other and accept differences. I will share with others kindness and the importance of understanding difficulties faced by Hanna. We can use this message and many others to have faith and hope, and to forgive, even when it seems impossible to.

Hanna Zack Miley was a great speaker, and I really enjoyed her story. It was very interesting that Hitler marched in her own city and she got to see him in person. I also liked the part when she talked about the train ride and ending up in London. Her stories about going to school and her early life really caught my attention. I liked seeing all of the pictures of her as a kid, especially the one with all of her friends at school. It was sad when she told us about when and how she found out that her parents had died. From what I read and from what she read to us, her book sounded really cool. I thought that it was great that her book is sold in German, too. At the end, I enjoyed shaking her hand because it felt really amazing to shake the hand of a survivor of the Holocaust.

I was enthralled by Mrs. Miley’s story because even though we are learning about World War II and the Holocausts in class, for once I was able to truly connect what we are learning to reality. To be able to see and hear Mrs. Miley stand there and deliver her story was completely incredible and simply an exquisite opportunity. Though I was absolutely confounded as to how her parents mustered the strength to release their only daughter into unknown, I thought that she has been extremely strong to be able to not only go forward in life, but to come back and learn about her past and then tell it to hundreds of people in many countries. I also loved that she gave a discount on her book and hope that people everywhere will buy it so they can hear her story of perseverance and courage. Overall, I cherished her visit.

I learned many things by listening to Ms.Miley. One thing I learned from her is to just keep moving forward. When she knew she was leaving her parents she cried, but she went on. Later in her life, she realized that they were doing the right thing for her and protecting her. Another thing I learned from Ms.Miley, is to always have forgiveness. Even after what the Nazis did to her family and friends, she still forgave them. I think she is a great role model, and I really enjoyed her coming into speak to us.

I believe that Mrs. Miley is a very brave and courageous woman. First, she rode the Kindertransport by herself from Köln to London. At the age of seven, riding a train and leaving her parents is a very challenging thing to do. Although Mrs. Miley knew that she may never see her parents again, she kept a strong faith and still believed in God. Second, she never lost hope or faith and was strong mentally. Though in her life things were not going the way she wanted them to go, she would not let that bring her down. Third, Mrs. Miley spoke to our class about her experiences last week. For some people, it is not easy to revisit a hard event like that, but Mrs. Miley was brave enough to explain her story. This ties into our class because we are learning about World War II and the Holocaust, and hearing about it from a living person helps us to get a better understanding.  In conclusion, Mrs. Miley, a brave and courageous woman, had an amazing journey on the Kindertransport, and shared her outstanding story to our class.

After I met Mrs. Miley, I learned that she is not afraid of speaking up to people and educating them about the horrible things the Nazis did in the Holocaust. She was not afraid of saying anything and she took every question and explained the answers in great detail. She taught us many things, and I think that everyone enjoyed her presentation. I look forward to reading her book, which she kindly autographed for me. I hope people understand presentations like this, and I hope that nobody says that the Holocaust did not happen. It did happen, and it was horrible. I fear that once the survivors die off, that everyone will think that the whole thing was over exaggerated. I am very happy to meet someone who escaped Hitler during the Holocaust and it was very interesting to hear Mrs. Hanna Zack Miley speak.

It was a lovely experience getting to meet Mrs. Hanna Zack Miley. It was wonderful to know her story and how she was saved by her parents. I am very thankful that she was able to come to our school to talk to us about her past, so we can use it in the future. It is important to hear from people’s experiences, so we all can learn and try to avoid that mistake or action. I hope this was helpful to everyone and myself to learn and use this as a source of strength in the future. After hearing Mrs. Miley, I will try not to think of just myself, but of everyone’s action and feelings.