5 comments about The Author of Himself: The Life of Marcel Reich-Ranicki..

1. Considering how little is translated and published here in the U.S. from the German, it is heartening that Marcel Reich-Ranicki's autobiography is among the chosen. It is a moving testimony of a life dislocated and reconstructed several times over, of a youth in Berlin, survival in the Warsaw Ghetto,life in post-War Poland, and a return to West Germany, where he rose to be the the most esteemed and, I suppose, also feared literary critic. His portrayal of the German literary scene from the sixties through the nineties by means of vignettes of its chief representatives is poignant and revealing. His assessment including that of his own role within it is likely to have provoked controversy.

   Throughout the book emerges the self-portrait of a courageous,persevering, and also pained and sensitive man, who as a much-published author, radio and television personality seems to have been simultaneously at the center and at the margins of German cultural life for four decades.

   I happened to be in the midst of reading the German version of the book when the events of September 11 threw our world out of kilter. Day after day I went back to Reich-Ranicki's "Mein Leben" with bated breath to escape from the present, not into an idyllic past, but to gain perspective on human suffering from a wise old man who describes his own lifelong anguish without sentimentality or moralizing. There may be other takes on his life story, but no one can deny his undying passion for the literature of the German language and his pursuit of it against all odds. To have an English translation to share with my friends is indeed something to write home about.

   It is ironic, to say the least, that Reich-Ranicki, who was born in Poland, raised in Berlin, deported to Poland because of being a Jew, should be called "the Pope of German Letters." But then was he, whom the popes represent on Earth, not also a Jew? (with apologies to G.E.Lessing).




2. The concept of this work is both unique and intriguing while the execution was boring and trite. I'm certain that persons more familiar with German literature and authors will take great offense at my brief analysis but I learned more about everyone else in Germany than I did about Marcel Reich-Raniki. The first half of the book did keep me interested but always wanting for more, more about him & his wife and a lot less about Max Frisch et al. I was also put-off by his constant references to himself and how important he was. He was lucky to survive the holocost, lucky to have such a position in Germany after the war, but should have left the writing to those whom he reviewed.



3. The most moving part of this book is its description of life in the Warsaw ghetto -- of how the Jews created a symphony orchestra and the Nazis' response to it, of the way that the Nazis chose which Jews were to be "resettled" and which would temporarily be allowed to live, and of Reich-Ranicki's and his wife's means of survival. I wish that Reich-Ranicki had been more introspective in the book, but one can't have everything -- it's a great book nonetheless.



4. It is interesting how often we see a person through his profession and work. You see an older man on television discussing books, you know that he is a literary critic writing reviews and books. Sure, they say that he is the one, that he is 'the Pope' of German letters, but if you are not interested in literature why would you care about a bookish man. What could be interesting about his life? If you are that person, reconsider. True, parts of the book are about literature and won't appeal to some (though try not to skip them either), but there is so much more. If not for the fact that author's early life happened in so tragic years of Nazi Germany, World War II, and the Holocaust, one could call the book a thriller, an adventure of an extraordinary height. The tragedy of these years makes the story real and sobering, but exciting nevertheless. Born in Poland of Polish Jewish parents, moved to Germany, deported by the Nazis back to Poland, survived Warsaw Ghetto and the war, served as Polish diplomat in England, wrote for Polish papers, returned to West Germany, became the leading literary critic in Germany. Read, read, and read one more time.



5. Marcel Reich-Ranicki is like the Roger Ebert of German literature. He is also a Jew who barely managed to survive the Warsaw ghetto. An interesting combination, which makes for a fascinating autobiography.
   
   I think that the first half of the book is the strongest. It describes how he went to school in Germany in the 1930's under deteriorating conditions, followed by deportation to the Warsaw ghetto. The book's depiction of life in the Warsaw ghetto is amazing, and the story of his escape and survival is like a thriller.
   
   The second half of the book describes how he rose to become a leading German literary critic, and paints portraits of various eccentric literary personalities that he interacted with. This part of the book might be less exciting to those who do not have a particular interest in German literature, but the crazy characters are amusing regardless of whether one knows anything about their works.

5 comments about To See You Again: A True Story of Love in A Time of War: A True Story of Love in a Time of War.

1. I am a high-school student in Arizona. We had to read this book for school, and the Schimmels came to our class to talk about their experiences as Holocaust survivors.
   I didn't really care that much about the Richie love story once I met them in person. Mr. & Mrs. Schimmel are people devoted to each other and, no matter how it happened, found an incredible love story of their own. I hope someday to have a relationship like theirs is now.
   Their survival really made a difference to the world, since they are here to tell their story. There are a lot of people my age that think the Holocaust never happened. I know it did because I met people who lived through it and spend all their time telling students about the war. It was really touching, and a lot of us were crying hearing about all the terrible things that happened to them and we were all thinking about how we might have been in the same situation.
   I guess the best part of the book is what people will do to survive, but the really cool thing is that Betty took the time to write it and tell everyone about her story.



2. I have read most of this book and it is amazing! Before i read or even heard about this story i met otto and Betty. Their stories are truly amazing and i believe it is wonderful that they are sharing with the future.



3. What an amazing true story. Incredible, I could not believe how Betty's life has unfolded. I truly great story to read and I highly recommend it.



4. I have never ever read a book that touched my life like this one, I read this over 12 months ago now and it still has a place in my heart, I wanted the end to be different but I could understand why she did what she did, loved it that much, I am going to visit the area, to anyone thinking about reading this, don't think no more, it is the best book you'll ever read.
   
   Love Amanda



5. An avid reader of historical fiction and non-fiction, especially pertaining to the Holocaust, I found Betty Schimmel's story to be a strong, engaging read. The story of her survival in a concentration camp as a teenager is nothing short of miraculous, as well as the way she rebuilt her life in the years following the war's end.
   
   However, the one thing I *didn't* care for was Schimmel's romance with Richie Kovacs -- the key plot description on the back cover and the situation referenced by the title. Essentially, Richie is young Betty's first love. The two meet when she is only twelve, and their relationship intensifies by the time she is 14. When wartime relocation of Jews caused the couple to become separated, Richie is the only thing that keeps the traumatized Betty going. If only they could find one another, she believes, they'll have their storybook wedding and live happily ever after.
   
   Soon after the war's end, Betty meets Otto Schimmel, another young Holocaust survivor who begs her to marry him. She agrees -- largely because her family adores him, and she believes Richie is dead.
   
   As the years pass, Schimmel remains emotionally withdrawn from the marriage. Her husband slaves away, working endless hours trying to earn enough money to give her and the children a good life, but Schimmel seems to act like she's doing him some kind of favor by sticking around. Otto Schimmel is not Richie Kovacs and never could be, so obviously he's not worth any love or affection.
   
   Eventually, Schimmel does realize that her relationship with Richie is in the past, and that she has a good man in Otto. But overall, her "reminiscing" about Richie tends to take on the feel of sappy teenager, not really looking at reality. Perhaps Richie Kovacs was indeed Betty's "one true love"; or, more realistically, she simply idealized him, because he symbolized the happy life that was so horribly snatched away from her.
   
   Regardless, Schimmel's memoir *is* written in a strong, clear voice, and is truly a story readers are bound to remember for years to come. It would just be much better without focusing upon the Richie angle so much.

3 comments about Ghetto Diary.

1. Janusz Korczak was a radical educator and early advocate of the rights of children. He was a Polish Jew (Korczak was a gentile pseudonym for Henryk Goldschmidt) and pediatrician whose work was well-known in Europe before WWII. Though little translated in English, his exceptionally original and poetic style and ideas puts him in the same league as Pestalozzi, Dewey and Montessori. In prewar Warsaw he organized two outstanding institutions: orphanages which were run as self-governing children's republics. But Korczak is legendary not for his life of intense work and ideas, but for his death. When The Warsaw Ghetto was liquidated, he prepared his 200 children to defy death in a unique way. Eye-witness accounts testify to the shattering spectacle of 200 cheerful, orderly children marching in foursomes through the hell of the Ghetto singing. They entered the trains singing, and they died at Treblinka. Every teacher and Korczak himself died with them. Korczak was twice of! fered by the Nazis to survive, once at the trains, once in Treblinka itself -- to be sent to Germany and educate German youth. But he refused. The Ghetto Diary is the only English translation of Korczak's own account of the last year in the Ghetto. It is invaluable. Those of us interested in children, in education and in Remembrance, should put this book into Samizdat, copying it and sharing it. It is the duty of the publisher to keep such a document available. This edition has a superb introduction by a former student of Korczak's. It is written as a novella, but perhaps comes as close to capturing the state of Korczak's mind in those days as anything could. It is quite surrealistic -- as is Korczak's own work. It combines in tribute to Korczak, Korczak's own unique synthesis of imagination, dream and the harshest, most unsparingly observed reality.



2. I am a great admirer of Janusz Korczak not because of his wonderful books, but because he was firm to his beliefs until the end. He had principles and he was not ready to give up, and he paid with his life for it.
   
   Korczak was the director of a big orphanage in Warsaw and he was very well know throughout the world for his writings in education. As the Holocaust started and life got very hard on the ghetto, Korczak worked even harder to keep on with cultural activities and day-to-day life. He was offered to escape to US, as most famous Jewish, but he believed that his children were his life and that he would rather die with them than live in a world that exterminates children cold-bloodedly. BUT, as William Blake puts it: "He who respects the Infant's faith triumph's over Hell & Death."
   
   This book is very interesting; it provides many of the memories that Korczak wrote in the difficult days of the Second World War. It shows how desperating reality was, and how Korczak gave his soul into his fight to keep his children safe and healthy; a sad historical document with pictures of this noble man and the orphanage that made him so proud.
   
   I have his whole collection; unfortunately for English speakers, I have found around 15 books in Hebrew while in English I found just 5. I warmly recommend this book, together with two other books that are found at Amazon: 'King Matt the First' and 'When I am little again' (see my reviews about them).



3. Owing to the fact that Korczak cared for children, it is not surprising that much of his diary is devoted to this subject. He mentions such challenges as child-care tips, discipline, and attempting to heal sick children. He also noted the pains of ageing that he experienced.
   
   Korczak makes many interesting comments on various subjects. He often discusses what kind of God he believes in. He also writes: "The world knows nothing of many great Poles." (p. 86). Also: "Nietzsche was also of Polish origin--Nitzki, you know." (p. 28). Korczak mentions Jewish virtues such as talent and hard work (p. 179), but also comments: "The Jews are conceited and that is why they are despised. I believe this will change, perhaps soon." (p. 182).
   
   Unlike other diarists, Korczak devotes little direct attention to German Nazi actions in the Warsaw Ghetto. The consequences, however, are obvious: "The body of a dead boy lies in the sidewalk. Nearby, three boys are playing horses and drivers. At one point, they notice the body, move a few steps to the side, and go on playing." (p. 121). Korczak, an obvious intellectual, invites others to discussions in his flat about such topics as Napoleon, Leonardo da Vinci, freedom, destiny and free will, etc. (p. 155). These Jewish behaviors shed light on comparable Polish ones. Holocaust materials have commonly featured the Poles engaged in normal activities (riding a carousel, attending Easter Mass, etc.) while the ghetto was burning--all insinuating the cold indifference of Poles to Jewish suffering. They were no such thing. We see that both Poles and Jews simply attempted to live lives as close to normal as possible in the face of all the horrors surrounding them.
   
   Korczak was offered to be saved by his Polish friends (p. 39), who had already made forged identification papers for him. He refused, and went to the gas chambers of Treblinka with the children in his care.

1 comments about The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocust.

1. The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived The Holocaust is an unabridged audiobook detailing the true story of an intelligent Jewish law student who was forced into a slave labor camp during the genocidal horrors of World War II. To survive, Edith hahn Beer had to adopt the identity of a Christian friend and hide. A Nazi Party member fell in love with Edith and helped her remain concealed throughout the war. Edith's story is now documented in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. A profound and unforgettable true story, The Nazi Officer's Wife is deftly narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. 6 cassettes, approximately 9 hours.

3 comments about Shanghai Legacy.

1. "Your mother," she repeats, dipping her nurse's cap toward Hannah's room again, "she is like a melon that will never ripen, Miss Silver," is what the nurse tells the dying woman's daughter, Maya.
   
   That unripened melon, Maya soon discovers is her mother's diary dating back to 1938, when approximately twenty thousand European Jews escaped Nazi Germany to Shanghai and created a unique ghetto. Why Shanghai? It was the only city in the world that accepted foreigners without any entry requirements.
   
   Marion Cuba's debut novel, Shanghai Legacy, draws her central character, Maya, into the private thoughts and secrets of her mother Hanna, whom she never fully knew, and whose childhood had been lost amidst the life-changing hardships she had endured while a refugee in Shanghai.
   
   Maya is hungry to explore an era that was never spoken about in their household and of which she was ignorant. Moreover, Maya realizes, objects such as diaries, hold meaning, as they reveal an individual's aspirations and dreams, as well as their eventual relationships with family members.
   
   All of this becomes vividly possible by the discovery of Hannah's German diary recounting her teen-age experiences in Shanghai. The diary is translated to Maya by an antique dealer Sam Ascher, whom she hires to appraise her later mother's furniture. Sam is a former attorney, who has taken over his father's business, and as Maya subsequently learns, is a child of Holocaust survivors.
   
   Interwoven into the narrative is Maya's discovery of herself and her cold and difficult relationship with her husband, Harold, who is a prominent ophthalmologist, and very much wrapped up in himself and his profession. Maya challenges Harold's repressive hold over her when she decides to keep her mother's home that she has inherited. This leads to her frequent stays in the house, while it is being renovated. However, it also causes some guilt feelings, as she questions herself playing house alone and not even thinking of Harold, as well as her life in Chappaqua.
   
   There is a good story here; unfortunately, it is jumbled up in the roots of a much longer tale that needs to be told. How much richer would it have been if there was more detailed exploration of just how much Hanna's life affected that of her daughter's. Nonetheless, the author shows a great deal of promise and the novel certainly deserves a read.
   
   
   Norm Goldman, Editor Bookpleasures
   
   
   
   
   
   



2. Cuba does a sensitive job depicting the complicated life of Hannah, a German Jewish teenager in World War II era Shanghai. This gripping page turner is as exciting in its flash-forward story of her adult daughter years later in Manhattan as it is of the highly perilous years of Hannah's youth in China. I only regret that I cannot read it again for the first time.



3. Author Cuba takes a little-known chapter in Jewish history and writes a very worthy novel. The device is a diary; Maya finds the diary of her mysterious mother Hannah after Hannah dies. Now some of the mystery of Hannah's life unfolds for Maya, and she learns of her mother's struggles, bravery and difficulties while she examines her own life through new eyes. Hannah escaped Germany and went to Shanghai and ultimately ended up in America. The story of her flight and her struggles is the backdrop for the novel, and as the mystery of Hannah unfolds, Maya learns a lot about her own life and her own attitudes.
   
   The diary is the most fascinating part of the book--the refugees in China mourn the loss of their comfortable life in German and they live in squalor in Japanese-occupied China. Shanghai is dirty and cold. Diseases are rampant, yet the Jewish refugees hear stories of Treblinka and realize that though life is hard, it is far more horrible in Germany. And the survivor guilt sets in, for the victims of the Holocaust, for those left behind when Hannah goes to America.
   
   This is a very good novel; the interleaving of Maya's life is typical of novels today that twine two lives together and show their relationship and contrasts. But for me, the diary was so poignant and real, it almost overshadowed Maya's story. However, alone it is almost too much to read and together with Maya's tale, you can almost walk her part and with her, begin to untangle the lives that affected you from the past, lives with struggles that we can hardly know.
   
   A terrific book. Recommended.

No comments about Diary Anne Frank.

No comments about Escape Through the Pyrenees (Jewish Lives).

4 comments about In the Shadow of the Swastika.

1. If Wygoda's story wasn't documented, you wouldn't believe it.
   "Audacity", he said, "is a prerequisite for survival", and Wygoda had plenty. Escaping occupied Poland, actually travelling into Germany to work under the noses of the Nazis (even those who could "smell a Jew"), and eventually commanding a division of Italian partisans, the author exhibited a rare courage and determination that earned awards from three Allied nations.
   His story, written in later life for his children, is recommended for WWII readers, Holocaust students, and anyone else who enjoys true-life action adventures.(The "score" rating is an unfortunately ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)



2. I would like to share what my father, Harry L. Meyer, a B-17 radio operator during WW II, recently wrote me about this book (with his permission): " In the Shadow of the Swastika" is fascinating reading about the exploits of a remarkable individual. Hermann Wygoda was a man of indomitable will who was blessed with courage, ingenuity, resilience and, by his own admission, occasional good fortune which allowed him to escape some desparate circumstances. The horrendous conditions wrought by the ruthless Nazi regime in Poland and wherever it came into power is the stuff of an appalling nightmare. For a man of his ethnic persuasion to escape the suffocating death trap the Nazis created borders on the miraculous. To do so and ultimately become a respected leader of a heroic partisan resistance movement is the material of legends. His normal disposition was not to be a warrior, for I believe by nature and cultural influence he was philosophic, altruistic and tolerant. This is manifested in his just dealings with others even in the trying and dehumanizing conditions of war. I respect him for not passively submitting to his tormentors, but opposing them with determination and fortitude, thereby helping in no small way to defeat them. When the fabric of a decent society is threatened by the forces of an unconscionable tyrrany, it is to be hoped that individuals like Hermann Wygoda will always be there to oppose them. I have always been proud of my combat service in WW II, but by reading works such as this which so graphically portray the consummate evil of a regime that operated outside the scope of human decency, I am more proud than ever to have contributed in some measure to destroy it.



3. "One of the best stories I have ever read." This is an eye witness account of an able bodied Jewish man who decided not to give up without a fight. Despite terrible personal loss he fought back, and helped many people along the way. It is extremely hard to write a review of such an unbelievable story. There don't seem to be any words to do it justice. The story tells a side of the war many people never hear about. It explains through Wygoda's experiences what the war was like for Jews from the very beginning. Why so many Jews didn't fight back, and how the Nazi's got them into those horrible death camps. I have personally thanked Hermann Wygoda's family for letting the world know him, and his unbelieveable story.
   I would highly recommend this book to anyone who does not believe that one man can make a difference in the world.
   
   Kelly Mallett Lowe



4. I met Mark Wygoda at a Yom Hashoah event last night in New Orleans. After watching his presentation on his father, Hermann Wygoda, I bought the book and read it cover-to-cover last night.
   
   Absolutely stunning and fantastical - lost in the detritus of human tragedy is often the point that adversity creates heroes of ordinary people.
   
   Hermann Wygoda was just that - a hero.
   
   This is an important story to be shared throughout the generations.

No comments about To Hope or Die - From Warsaw Uprising to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and after: Memoirs of a Survivor.

1 comments about The King of Children: The Life and Death of Janusz Korczak.

1. The book was almost too well researched, giving every minor detail of Korczak's life as well as those of his companions. It was, however, worth learning about a national hero from Poland.