1 comments about Narrow Escapes: A Boy's Holocaust Memories and Their Legacy.

1. if I was to describe "Narrow Escapes". In fact, I believe that the pain and sorrow that Holocaust survivor Dr. Samuel P. Oliner faced as he tried to escape from the horrible claws of Adolph Hitler during the Second World War, could never be described. The horrors that he faced are too great for words. The most piercing fact in this book is that the war stories in it are not the stories of a man but the ones of a SMALL CHILD who was forced to become a man much faster than lighting and in the most afflictive situations.

   This book is a must read because we all must know the truth about the history of the human race. I strongly believe that every one of us is responsible for what happens today and must keep in mind the future of next generations. Dr. Oliner says, "knowledge of the past may somehow avert similar future...those who remember the past will do all they can to prevent its recurrence."

   This book broke my heart way before the Germans came to Zyndranova, the little village near Czecholovakia, when Little Oliner's mother got sick and he was only six-years old. It was at this time that he began to make sense of his world. After his mother's death he exclaims, "My mother is dead. But that is only for a short time, isn't it?" And like if his mother's death was nothing, his father takes him away from his love ones, into another village, in the house of male strangers. It was there, all alone, that he held a job at the age of seven while he went to school. Could you imagine your own child in this situation? Although Oliner doesn't mention in his book, I believe that these agonizing situations were only preparing him for what was to come when the Nazis arrived. These situations were his training ground to face the monster that would take over the land and his people. But the hardships of times and the warmth of his family brought the best out of him. And his fight has not ended yet.

   The rest of the story is for you to read in suspense but mostly in deep grief. As I read the book, I often felt glad that the child who was facing all the hardships of the Holocaust was not my sixteen year old son. In fact, I thought about my son the entire book. But the sad part is that although he was not my son, he was the son of another woman. In a war, my child or the child of another woman or man is the same. It brings pain. Being forty years old I have learn that it is a thousand times better to die in the face of injustice that to live in silence before it.

1 comments about When Memory Comes (George L. Mosse Series in Modern European Cultural and Intellectual History).

1. April 2008 - I read this book when it was first published. A very beautifully written and translated memoire of a Jewish boy raised as a Catholic in order to save him from the Nazi death camps.

3 comments about The Parnas: A Scene from the Holocaust.

1. This is an incredible story.

   Silvano Arieti was an extremely gifted, and very well known, psychiatrist. He was born in Pisa, Italy and, as a child, looked to The Parnas--or synagogue leader, Giuseppe Pardo Roques--as a mentor. The Parnas was mentally ill. His illness inspired Arieti's career--which, as it developed, convinced Arieti all the more that "mental illness may...espress the nobility of man."

   Arieti dreamed he would one day cure The Parnas, but The Parnas was murdered by the Nazis in WWII. Decades later, Arieti recreates the last days of The Parnas, providing us with a moving potrait of an incredible man in terrible times.

   While Arieti's conclusions are profound, this book is definately accessible to the high school reader.




2. Pisa, Italy. July, 1944. As the Nazis and Allies collide, Giuseppe Pardo Roques, lay leader of Pisa's Jewish community, is a refugee in his own home. Struggling to display strength in spite of a bizarre and debilitating neurosis, the cultured, learned and generous Pardo plays host to several others, Jews and Christians both, seeking shelter from the battle. The Parnas reconstructs Pardo's final days and his ultimate confrontation with the Nazis. At once memoir (the author knew the characters), psychological profile, and meditation on good and evil, the book's defining quality is compassion. I'll read it again.



3. Insightful,analytical and comprehensive portrait of a loving character.Is a masterpiece. Full of drama,but it was a real life drama.The "parnas" was a sensitive man struggling with his own imaginative fears but valiantly facing the real fear.

3 comments about Salvaged Pages: Young Writers` Diaries of the Holocaust (Yale Nota Bene).

1. i highly recommend this book. it is not only for those with historical interests. the diaries are so moving that this book will appeal to all. the writing is very vivid and the diarist's voice will stay with you for some time. zapruder has done an impecable job of introducing each entry. she sets the scene with such biographical and cultural detail that you feel at one with diarist before delving in. i was really moved by this book and encourage all to read it.



2. Even after countless movies and documentaries, nothing has personally ever made me direct as much attention to the tragedy of the holocaust than these young writers' words written in ghettos and in hiding places. Their optimism is heartbreaking when you learn of their fates, you see their struggles with hunger, fear of an uncertain future, their grief over losing loved ones and identity. But you also recognize their strength in troubled times and end up appreciating their courage to write, because you know it is essential that they should be known.



3. This collection provides 14 generous excerpts from journals of young people during the Shoah; the earliest diaries are from adolescents who got out before or just as things were getting bad, but as we go further on, the diaries get more intense in scope, moving from adolescents who weren't quite sure what was to come, to people who had some inkling but weren't quite sure the rumors were true, to finally young people in ghettos, young people who therefore knew how bad things were, although they didn't yet know what their final grisly fate was to be. Before each excerpt we also get a generous introduction to the author, his or her surroundings, what generally happened to the Jews of that particular city or town, and the diarist's final fate. Some of these young people survived, others perished, and still others' fates are unknown, though they are presumed to have perished. There's also an appendix detailing a number of other young diarists from the Shoah, some information on them, their fates, whether the diary is in a private collection, a museum, if it's been translated into English, or was published for the general public whatever language it's in. A lot of these young diarists were very literate and intelligent astute young people; it's incredibly sad how some of them died so young and therefore didn't get a chance to possibly become great writers. My only small complaint is that Poland is a little overrepresented; while it's true that at least half of the murdered came from Poland and that Poland was the nation that lost the greatest percentage of its prewar Jewish population by far, it would have been nice to have some variety in the locations, like maybe include more diaries from Germany, France, and Belgium, or ones from Holland, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, and Greece, for example.

1 comments about Theresienstadt.

1. This is a beautiful, deeply moving book. Told in a simple, unaffected style, it describes in vivid detail the author's life in pre-war Prague, the three years she spent as a teenager at Theresienstadt (aka Terezin), the many terrible things that she saw, and the resourcefulness with which she repeatedly avoided death.
   
   I have read many books about the Holocaust, but the author's loyalty to her family and determination to survive profoundly affected me. Because she spent so much time in Terezin she is also an important witness to what happened there. The camp was unique -- a showplace for the Nazis, without a gas chamber, that was used to deceive the Red Cross. Art, music, drama, even an opera were created and performed there. And yet it was also a terrible place where tens of thousands suffered and most eventually perished. That contradiction pervades the book and makes it unique.
   
   The text badly needed a copy editor and some of the English usage is awkward. But such minor imperfections are part of its honesty and immediacy. There are also some photographs, but they are frustratingly dark and difficult to see.
   
   Nevertheless, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Terezin and the heroic and affecting story of this unusual survivor.

No comments about In a World Gone Mad: A Heroic Story of Love, Faith, and Survival.

5 comments about Seed of Sarah: MEMOIRS OF A SURVIVOR (Illini Books Edition).

1. Judith Magyar Isaacson tells her story of the Holocaust that speaks of those who cannot. This first person account amazes me that she has to decipher her role in life, but also has to fight for her life. Why should someone have to fend for him or herself while going through the hardest part of her life? When I started reading this book I thought it was going to be like any other Holocaust book I read, but it had a twist to it that made it unlike any other book I have read. This book I think is one of the best first person accounts of the Holocaust, its right up their with Anne Frank's Diary. She has so much courage to speak out about this horrific time period, to have the courage to tell us what you went through to be where you are right now.
   Judith Magyar was born to two Jewish parents she and her family was like any other middle class family in Hungary except that they were Jewish. She was stuck in this everyday life closed off from the world until Hitler comes to power and establishes the first and second Jewish laws. During the establishing of these laws is in which she is first discriminated against because she is Jewish. Even though it happened, she doesn't allow it to get to her; she acts like it's every other day. This all changes when they are ghettoized into the center of town. Her 19th birthday is celebrated in a horse stable, when it's supposed to be celebrated at home with family and friends. That's when it hits her that her world has changed. Then they are transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where they lose their reason for living. As it comes close to liberation, the Americans are within a town away. The Kommandant all of a sudden decides that they are going to keep moving. This cliché keeps happening throughout the rest of the book. When they first come in contact with there first taste that the Americans were close, they felt as though they are destined to live, and that someone really cares for them. She is transported from camp to camp, inching closer and closer to death. She is liberated from this hell that they have been living in for the past couple years and she realizes that she is really suppose to live. She meets an OSS officer. They get to know each other from spending a lo0t of time together. Judith realizes that she loves him when he is sent to the western front, and she actually becomes really sick because she misses him so much. When he gets back he proposes to her. Guess what she says? After years of being away from her hometown, she come back and is amazed by everything and how different it is. She realizes that she is one out of 250 that survived the Holocaust out of 5000 people from this region 5% AMAZING! What ends this heart wrenching yet beautiful book?
   This book was really astonishing it was unlike any other Holocaust book I have ever read. This book would be good for anybody who is interested in the Holocaust or also if you like historical fiction. There are a couple of mistakes with the writing the first is that there are a few misspelled words. In addition, it skips around really quickly. I got lost a couple times, but I found out what was happening. Even with those mistakes it is still a really good book. I highly recommend it to anyone. This is one of the books I have ever read.
   Steven Kidder "Book Fiend" (Concord, NH USA)



2. I'm amazed that someone who has endured a tragic event in their life has found the stength to speak, and write about it. These survivor's had their businesses, properties and personal belonging taken from them, because they were Jewish!! The treatment in the camps was horrendous. I'm not even sure how they managed to survive. You can spend your life reading and studing the Holocaust, however unless you were there you will never really know. This book bring you as close as you can get.



3. Among the many published accounts of the Holocaust, Seed of Sarah stands out for its amazing clarity, its portrayal of courage in the face of unprecedented crimes against humanity, and for its optimism despite those crimes. Not many first-hand accounts of the death camps center on the perspective of women. This one does, but it is also universal in its appeal and the genius of the author is that she allows the reader to be with her during the worst of the experience and to survive, as she has done, with love. If you are teaching or taking a course on the Holocaust or on World War II, this book is essential.



4. I could not put this book down once I picked it up. I have read many great books involvong the Shoah and this one stands out. Judith is such a truly a remarkable woman, that it serves as a reminder of how many remarkable lives were lost.



5. This is a memoir that is easier to read than many about experiencing Nazi Germany. Nonetheless it expresses the experience quite fully. I think it is appropriate for adolescents on up. I bought it for my elderly aunt who was interested in exploring the Holocaust in a prayerful way.

5 comments about The Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews, Expanded Edition.

1. There is so much evil when Governments attack their own people as has happened throughout history. The Nazi Government in Germany was especially evil as it attacked many millions of its own people and neighboring peoples. The Nazi Government which was, as is always the case in evil governments, run by a relatively few number of people with awesome power, was on a murderous rampage in Europe. A very few courageous people stood up in opposition. One of these people is Major Plagge. It is thrilling to read of his courage, bravery and success. Everyone should read this book. Hopefully, then more persons could stand up against evil governments before its too late. Why is it that of all the species on the Earth that Man is the most evil? It is because of the accumulation of power in the hands of a few people. That is always a recipe for disaster.



2. a superb and engrossing investigation of a nazi who tried to protect jewish people from certain death by setting up a factory not unlike oscar schindler. the son of a survivor who always told the story of the mysterious major plagge who saved many tried to find this man and his motives. spellbinding and heartening unlike so many other holocaust stories.



3. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, located in Jerusalem is the largest holocause museum in the world. As you would expect it describes the terrible inhumanity the Germans imposed upon the jews and leaves you with a feeling of hoplessness. But in the museum there is one shining glory, the wall whereupon is inscribed the names of those considered to be 'Righteous among the Nations.' This term is used to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust in order to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. There are people of all nationalities listed on the wall. Among the names are some 380 germans. Among these is the name Karl Plagge.
   
   A low level officer in the Wehrmacht he commanded a military vehicle repair unit in Vilna, now Vilnius, Lithuania and he saved the lives of at least 250 jews, including the author's mother.
   
   This is the story of Major Plagge, who as usual for heros would admit to no special courage.



4. This is a remarkable book both for its deeply moving story and for its underlying message of how a day-to-day battle of moral choices can be waged with the strength of conviction. It begins with an existential question most people never have to ask and ends with the satisfying feeling of a debt repaid as completely as life can allow. I recommend this book to anyone.



5. One third of this book is standard heroic stuff. A non-Jew in a position of some authority takes steps to create a haven for Jews and -- in the midst of annihilation -- saves a lot of them. You have to find your way to this by navigating the first third of the book, which tells a different story: how to find someone using multiple information sources and documentation, both scattered and (some of it) sequestered. The last third of the book is given over to appendices and afterwords, original documents that only become compelling provided the heroism of the man has taken hold with the reader.
   
   Karl Plagge was a courageous individual in a time and place when individual courage was in short supply. His example, of a person who saw terrible things happening and took the initiative to stop them from happening within his purview to the extent he could, gives a glimmer of hope in the midst of the overwhelming despair of the Holocaust. That he had been a National Socialist very early on in its history is his initial credential as an unlikely hero, but the unfurling of his identity reveals this to be ultimately of little consequence in defining him. Yet Plagge was circumspect to a fault. Were it not for the documentation of his de-Nazification trial, there would be very little to show him revealing himself. One hopes it was not an overwhelming sense of guilt over what he could not do that made the man seem to place so little importance on what he did do (which did and does matter).
   
   Plagge's story does not have the razor's edge of Wallenberg's. Michael Good is not primarily a writer. But all in all this is a compelling new chapter in the story of the Holocaust. Vilna was of as much consequence as Warsaw for the Jews, and its story is not as well known today. And written from the viewpoint of one who only lives thanks to Karl Plagge, this is a book worth reading.

2 comments about What Time And Sadness Spared: Mother And Son Confront the Holocaust.

1. This is the greatest and most touching memoir on the Holocaust I have ever read. It provides psychological insights into the way the victims felt. Read this!!!!!



2. The main character in this moving book is a teenaged girl, Roma, who is separated from her affluent family and sent to a concentration camp at the age of 16, where she never knows if she will be in the next group of inmates selected to die in the crematorium. Her only solace from the daily horrors is the imagined conversations she has at night, before going to sleep, with her mother. The story of how she manages to survive with her humanity intact and start a new life in Israel makes for gripping reading; I read this book in one sitting. Especially interesting is the epilogue, where she talks about what it felt like to return to Poland nearly 60 years after she left. Adding to the authenticity of the historical details is the fact that Roma's co-author, her son, is a history professor. He writes about the difficulties faced by himself and his mother in writing about her past. Rather than just telling a story, this book addresses the problem of reconciling memory with historical fact, and what it means to write about your past so many years later.

5 comments about My Future is in America: Autobiographies of Eastern European Jewish Immigrants.

1. 
   As a first generation American, I always wanted to know how and why my parents came to America... they passed away before imparting this information.... this book fills in all the gaps, in a humorous and interesting way. I could not put this book down, and reread it... Totally enjoyable!!!! 5 stars



2. I just finished reading this book. This is not only for Jewish people but other religions as well. It's a part of our history and I found it very enjoyable and informative. A must read.



3. "My Future Is In America" contains excellent primary source material for the student of Jewish immigration to this country and immigration history in general. The individual essays are captivating and very readable, providing a wealth of information about the immigrant experience, not only after arrival in America, but also about life in Europe pre-immigration. This book should be considered as reading in American Studies curricula.



4. The older brother of Minnie Goldstein, who wrote the first of the autobiographies that appear in the book, is my great-grandfather and what seems to have been passed down through the generations is a somewhat sanitised version of the truth ... I really had no idea about their dreadful poverty, or the fact that a contributing factor to Hershl Malinberg's emigration from Warsaw to the U.S. was being cheated in business by his own mother-in-law. Of course, the story has particular resonance for her own kith and kin, but it contains so much vivid detail, and is told so well, that I would recommend it to anyone.



5. I was assigned this book for a Jewish History class at my university, and so far I'm really enjoying it. We read one of the autobiographies each week, and I feel that Cohen has done an excellent job of bringing together stories from different backgrounds and different experiences, and even has a married couple each tell their stories in their own autobiographies.
   
   I'll be honest; I was expecting it to be boring - but am very pleasantly surprised to find that it's not!