Two women, with markedly different stories, spoke on May 3 in Menlo Park, CA about their experiences in World War II. Both published books in August 2013. Eva Maiden, who is Jewish, was 3 in March 1938 in Vienna, when Hitler’s troops invaded Austria. Soon after the invasion, her parents (both physicians), brother, and she began suffering a variety of lost privileges and mistreatment. They were relatively fortunate, as a relative in Switzerland helped them get visas to leave Austria, and they eventually arrived in New York City by ship from Italy. (Her book is “Decisions in the Dark: A refugee girl’s journey”.) Sophie Stallman was 13 in September 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland. A fearless child, she already had flown in an open-cockpit fighter plane, learned to parachute, and to shoot guns. She became a member of the resistance at 15, carrying out a number of dangerous missions, and survived the war. After the war she was a refugee for years, married and had two children, and in 1956 finally was able to get a visa to the U.S.(Her book is “My War, My Life”.) Both agreed that young men in those countries all had to serve in the military, and many lost their lives.