I was happy to see that a group of Polish motorcyclists have befriended the Polish survivors. It was one of my favorite moments all weekend.В Who wouldnвЂ™t want to saluteВ a woman who withstood the most heinous medical experiments, evaded Nazi execution at Ravensbruck and returned to Poland after the war to deal with StalinвЂ™s occupation? Post war Poland was difficult for the women, since many were still very sick from the wounds to their legs, but the German government refused to recognize Poland as a country and would notВ pay the women compensation, something Caroline Ferriday helped them fight. The girl hugged Stasia and neither let go for several seconds. вЂњTak, tak,вЂќ Stasia said, waving her over. We only had shoes in winter.вЂќДЄ true celebrity, crowds followed her wheelchair wherever she went in the camp.ДЄ group of teens hovered nearby and a brave girl approached Stasia. Today,В Stasia radiates positive energy as sheвЂ™s pushed across the gravel in her wheelchair, but isnвЂ™t afraid to share anecdotes through our translator. вЂњWe could hear the dogs searching for us. вЂњFinally we dug holes under the blocks and squeezed ourselves under there,вЂќ Stasia said. They hid the girls, often by exchanging numbers with them or sneaking them into the typhus block where they slept among the dying inmates.В This was a safe place since the camp staff did not enter the typhus block, afraid theyвЂ™d contract the disease. The rabbitвЂ™s fellow prisoners of all nationalities rallied around them. She told how the camp guards went block to block searching for the survivors of the medical experiments in order to eliminate the evidence of their crimes. I was at the camp with my friend Stacy Fitzgerald who is shooting a documentary on the Ravensbruck Rabbits and got to hear StasiaвЂ™s stories of being hunted by the camp authorities once the Nazis realized they were losing the war. There are only five survivors of the experiments alive today. Known as Stasia to her friends (and everyone who meets her instantly becomes her friend) sheвЂ™s a woman IвЂ™d only read about while researching my novel Lilac Girls.В StasiaВ and seventy other young Polish women were used as experimental subjects by Nazi doctors and became known as the вЂњrabbitsвЂќ or вЂњguinea pigs.вЂќ Just 14 years old when she was chosen to undergo the experiments, sheВ was one of the youngest to be operated on at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, her leg surgically opened and infected with tetanus and gangrene, broken glass and dirt in order to test the efficacy of sulfa drugs.

IвЂ™m still pinching myself since I was lucky enough to spend time with with one of my heroes, Stanislawa Sledziejewska-Osiczko, at the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp.

The journey back ww2 documentary