Author Description

In 1939 it only took Germany six weeks to force a Polish surrender. Ghettoes and concentration camps were quickly built to house those who the Nazis deemed unbearable. Jews, gypsies, gays, the disabled, and political dissidents alike found themselves at the short end of a beating stick. In Warsaw, the Savchenko family was trying to make the best of a bad situation when their family friends from the United States became trapped in their home by the war. Under a constant threat from the Stasi on the city streets, many good citizens of Warsaw were forced into the underground, where the resistance movement was rampant. A college student, Bianka Savchenko, colorfully nicknamed the Sunflower of the East, was one of the louder resistance leaders. She was constantly dragging her family into the fray as the war bled on, insistent upon making a difference. But as months of fighting gave way to years, the line between friend and foe began to blur. The resistance was fighting an uphill battle against Nazi oppression, but could they win?