Elena - the Girl with the Piano

For the desperate father of a small family in Leningrad, escape to Germany could not be any worse than the certainty of starvation in they did nothing. Even if caught and imprisoned, he believes they will at least have food and not freeze to death.

The only comfort for his daughter, fourteen year old Elena is that she can take her "piano" with her, a cloth facsimile of a keyboard sewn for her by her grandmother so she could practice after her own piano was destroyed in the bombing. Elena dreams of playing in Carnegie Hall.

Elena's determination to realize her dream must give her the strength to endure capture and internment in a Nazi concentration camp - if she can stay alive.