Holocaust survivor Fania Fainer’s memento became a symbol of resilience and friendship

When Sandy Fainer was growing up in Toronto in the 1950s, she loved reading Nancy Drew mystery books and channelled her admiration for the girl detective by conducting her own investigations in the family’s suburban bungalow.

“I was snooping through my mother’s underwear and found it,” she recalled. It was what her mother, Fania Fainer, called in Yiddish “the little book,” a tiny heart-shaped autograph book covered in purple fabric, with a letter F stitched onto the cover.