MALE NARRATOR This small, heart-shaped book is a facsimile of an artifact known as the Heart of Auschwitz, and it tells a story about deep love and great courage. Simply put, it’s a birthday card. But in reality, it’s an amazing example of bravery and good triumphing over evil. It was made in Auschwitz by a 20-year-old woman named Zlatka Pitluk. On December 12, 1944, she gave it to friend Fania Fainer, for Fania’s 20th birthday. On the inside pages, nineteen young women wrote messages of hope and, at great risk to their lives, signed their names in it. To make the book, Zlatka secretly cut fabric from her only shirt and made a glue out of her small rations of bread. More than just a birthday card, she made a testament to human dignity and resilience. The Nazis tried to reduce human beings to animals. Zlatka and her friends refused to let them. While you look at this important artifact, take a moment and think about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document created just four years after Zlatka created the Heart of Auschwitz. She, Fania, and their friends, didn’t have freedom of speech or belief. They certainly weren’t free from fear and want. Fania and Zlatka lived; millions more died. They didn’t even have the freedom to live. This little book is much, much more than a memory from the past. It’s a lesson for our future.