Left to Tell
by Immaculee Ilbagiza

“When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves”; Mans Search for Meaning…Victor Frankel the author and a Nazi concentration camp/ holocaust survivor found deep within himself; the power to survive, the power over his captors and torturers, the power to heal himself and others.

In Left to Tell, by Immaculee Ilbagiza, this quote of Victor Frankel’s reverberates through the book. She had only one source to go to for strength wisdom courage hope and action; herself and deeper to her faith.

Set in Rwanda this is an autobiography of survival of another holocaust. Both Victor Frankel and Immaculee Ilbagiza are both holocaust survivors and thus people who have overcome the most horrific circumstances with incredible positive attitudes. Their attitudes led them out of the autocracies to personal growth and their own accountability to the healing process of the environment around them.

Immaculee grew up the only girl in a family with three brother (one younger) their parents both teachers lead the family in a modest hard working reverent life in the country she calls the jewel of Africa; “paradise” before the genocide. Immaculee lead a very sheltered somewhat protected life much loved by her family until she was whisked away at age 19 from college to a neighbors’ 3 x 4 foot bathroom with 7 other women for 6 months.

These women subsisted in fear and hunger, their tormentors screaming “kill Immaculee”, frequently in the very next room. Even the escape to a French encampment was dangerous and miraculous. Along with Immaculee only her oldest brother survived the genocide from her immediate family.

Left to Tell is a testament to hundreds of thousands of innocent lives taken savagely and a few courageous people. It is about a significant world event from a personal perspective. The narrative is from one who was there and survived and survived not with blame and hatred; but with openness to healing and growth. It is about one person who without years of experience or broad exposure and learning or any strong mentor support in situ, comes through with a sense of healing leadership and desire for life in the fullest.

All the things that brought her through are all within our grasp and are really the magic and the reality of any real success.

One can transpose ideas from the toughest of circumstances; a pure faith in ultimate goodness, a never give up attitude, a keen sense of the goal parleyed to survival and success.

This book is an inspiration for individual lives and a seed of hope for world peace.

Roxanne Fairweather