The Footstool (A Book by Me)

Jozef Kodyra, was an American citizen born July 7, 1913 in New York. His birth in America made him a U.S. citizen. His family moved to Poland to work his family farm. He worked alongside his father on their farm and also, he worked for the Polish Embassy. He married and had children. In 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland and took the entire family to Dachau concentration camp as slave labor. They were taken, not because they were Jews, but because they were Polish. Years later, Jozef sat his granddaughter on a footstool and told her these stories. Her memories were shared in Washington D.C. and proven accurate by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This book describes the work Jozef and his family were forced to do in the concentration camp and how their daughter Josephine was reported dead by the Nazis. Since she was blond hair and blue eyed, they suspected that was a lie. After the war, they were sponsored by farmers in Iowa and started a new life.

Alanna Rumler is the daughter of Lynn and Michele Eich and Rod Rumler. She is a graduate of Geneseo High School and wants to continue her education at the University of Iowa with a business major so she can help people. Alanna became very interested in studying the Holocaust throughout her education and was deeply moved and saddened when she visited the Holocaust Museum several years ago. Since that time, Alanna has had a desire to tell the stories of survivors in hopes that a similar tragedy will never happen again.