Zdenka Fantlová's childhood in Czechoslovakia was one of great happiness and love and her life was like that of any other teenager. However, her peaceful existence was soon to be shattered. Seventy years ago this year, in Terezín concentration camp, she was given a home-made tin ring by her first love Arno with 'Arno 13.6.1942' engraved on it. When he gave her the ring he said, 'That's for our engagement. And to keep you safe. If we are both alive when the war ends I will find you'. Arno was sent East on a penal transport later that same day; she never saw him again. After surviving 6 concentration camps, risking her life for the tin ring and death marches Zdenka found herself, in the last chaotic days of the war, at the hell that was Bergen Belsen. Just skin and bone, crippled by typhoid and unable to walk she crawled to a Red Cross post. There she was saved by an unknown British soldier to whom the book is dedicated.
