In June 1944, Freda Wineman and her family were dropped off at Birkenau-one of the Nazis' largest and deadliest concentration camps. With the nod of an SS official's head, her life was spared. With another nod, her mother was sent to the gas chambers. Freda's survival was a miracle, and her mother's death one of millions caused by an amalgam of violent crimes rooted in fanaticism, bigotry, complacency, and greed.