5 comments about An Uncommon Friendship: From Opposite Sides of the Holocaust.

1. Each memoir is important in adding to the historical record of this terrible period, and this book adds a considerable dimension with the authors shared as well as separate memories and their astute and insightful analyses of every aspect of their experiences. By the time I finished reading this book, I felt I knew both authors well and also many of the people who surrounded them over the years. I hope the book is widely read and given a place of honor in Holocaust literature. It deserves deep attention by scholars and general readers and seems eerily prescient, too, in light of September 11th, and its concern for the horrors our species can inflict on its victims. If I were still writing book reviews, this book would be a prime choice for me. It deserves all the notice in print it can get.



2. The two authors of the book just visited my school today, and told me and the other students their stories. Bernat Rosner went to my school, Thomas Jefferson School, and he even mentions and has pictures of it in the book. I've yet to read it, but I'm eagerly anticipating it. Their stories are so touching, and I feel so honored to have met these two men. Also to have had a man as interesting as Bernie Rosner go to my school in 1950, it's just so amazing. They are very interesting people, and there's just so much more I could say, but this review would unfortunately become boring. I strongly suggest that everyone should read this book, the authors have two great stories to tell.



3. I was very impressed with this book; for such a difficult subject it was beautifully written. I have been to the Holocaust Museum in Israel, and though the documentation there is quite graphic and disturbing, the voice of the child in Bernie, and the voice of the child on the other side in Fritz, completes a picture that is enlightening, but reveals a picture that no one wants to believe. It seems to me that is often the way people have dealt with this very terrible time, and the authors are very brave to tell this story. I think this book should be required reading for all college students.



4. In a world with a lot of open wounds in need of healing, "An Uncommon Friendship" helps bridge former sins and ongoing roots of bitterness to establish a world pregnant with new beginnings--every day. This book shows that other options are possible beyond the labels of cultural bigotry. When properly understood and appropriated, understanding and forgiveness are seldom far apart in life-giving relationships.

   Recently we came in contact with a person who has such a high disregard for Germans. If only they knew and understood the rich heritage German culture has also given as a gift to the New World of new beginnings.




5. Friendship comes in many forms, and that relationship between Bernie and Fritz, from different sides, Jewish and Christian, of the deep divide of WW2, is a marvelous testimony to "friendship". The only bitter-sweet moment was when I realized that Bernie had given up his religious beliefs in his "americanization". His children were not raised as Jews; another generation lost to the Holocaust, as much as the six million were.
   
   I first saw this book when a seat mate on a flight was reading it. He praised it, so I ordered it. The book was well worth the praise.

2 comments about In the Lion's Den: The Life of Oswald Rufeisen.

1. It is seldom that one can view the depth of a human soul written by such a talented author. The book reads like a novel but has the pull of truth. I found it difficult to put down and wanted to share the incredible experience with others. It is worth the time to find a copy of the book. But, I warn you, you will want to own the book after reading it.



2. "In the Lion's Den: The Life of Oswald Rufeisen" may be the most amazing, gripping book I've read. On many pages I was gasping or crying; my heart was pounding, my gut, churning. Oswald Rufeisen is one of the most unforgettable human beings I've ever encountered in the pages of a book. That this book is not more widely read, known, and available is unfortunate, to say the least.
   
   Had this book been fiction, not only would I have never been able to accord it willing suspension of disbelief, I would have protested its publication. The story is that outlandish.
   
   Oswald Rufeisen was born to an undistinguished couple. His mother was an old maid; an apparent arranged marriage wed her to a younger, distant cousin. The family was poor and often in debt. They lived in a provincial backwater. Their first child died in infancy. The second child, Oswald, was short, unobtrusive, and not especially handsome.
   
   Oswald's family's life changed forever, along with millions of others, on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. The Rufeisen family hit the road, along with other evacuees. His parents, too exhausted to go on, stopped. Oswald would discover, after the war, that his parents probably were murdered in Auschwitz.
   
   Oswald and his brother had begun their escape from Nazis in southwest Poland; they kept moving east and north, to Lwow, now in Ukraine, and then to Wilno, now in Lithuania.
   
   This region, the "kresy," was a site of deadly crossfire. As Germans advanced from the West, Soviets advanced from the East. Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and Belorussians felt sometimes deadly hostility toward Poles. Nazis and Soviets did all they could to divide and conquer. Jews, of course, were targeted for complete extermination.
   
   Eventually, through a series of incredible coincidences, Oswald Rufeisen, a Jewish teenager escaping the Nazis, adrift in this terrifying ocean of conflict, became a Jewish slave laborer for Nazis, an SS interpreter, the organizer of a Ghetto revolt and escape, a forest-dwelling partisan, a Catholic monk, and then priest, and, finally, he would make aliyah to Israel, and thereby challenge the Law of Return and concepts of both Jewish identity and the nature of Christianity.
   
   The book does not depict Rufeisen as someone seeking adventure or heroism; in fact, author Tec reports he resisted publicity. Rather, fate seems to be a palpable force in his life. When he was a slave laborer, cobbling shoes for Nazis who threatened him with death were he ever to get sick and stop being productive, a Polish peasant passing in a wagon made eye contact with him. That peasant invited him onto his wagon, warned him that the Nazis were murdering all Jews, and invited him to hide out on the peasant's farm.
   
   Through that unsolicited rescue, Rufeisen eventually began to pass as a German. One event followed another, and finally he became the right-hand-man of the Nazi in charge of eliminating Jews from the district. Photos of Rufeisen reveal a boy with marked Semitic features, and, in fact, people were constantly calling him out as Jewish, and yet his German was so fluent, and his manners so reflective of German culture, that even those who met him face to face would, in later years, remark, "Oh, Oswald could pass as a German because he was tall, blond, and Nordic looking." Even a visit to a public bath, where a certain giveaway feature of Jewish manhood was on full display, did not ruin his disguise.
   
   That fate seemed to play a major role in his life is not to belittle Rufeisen's heroism. Again, though very much not the stereotypical dashing or vainglorious action hero, Rufeisen's basic, common decency caused him to do heroic things, from carefully laying aside one piece of bread from his meager food ration so that he could share it with a friend, to organizing a ghetto revolt under the nose of his Nazi superior.
   
   The moral jigsaw puzzle of the SS scenes boggles the mind. At one point, Rufeisen orchestrated the killing of a retarded boy in order to save many others from death. Rufeisen speaks of the genuine respect and affection between him and his Nazi superior.
   
   After the war, Rufeisen became, not just a Christian, but a monk. This caused his Jewish friends much distress. While admitting his wartime heroism, and the excellent mind of a man who survived by his wits and was fluent in eight languages, they attributed his Christianity, alternately, to stupidity, mental illness, childishness, and other factors that reveal an unfortunate amount of prejudice.
   
   Publication of this book lead to England's first war crimes trial. 84 year old Szymon Serafinowicz who immigrated to England after the war, was exposed by the book. He was judged to be suffering from Alzheimer's and was not tried.
   
   A student of the Holocaust cannot help but notice this book's demonstration of a frequently mentioned principle: while it took only one non-Jew to denounce a Jew, it took many to support that Jew's survival. Again and again, Rufeisen was fed, sheltered, and protected by Poles, Belorussians, and others, though they know him to be Jewish, and though those who defied Nazi law faced death. In one instance, a fellow hitchhiker Rufeisen had just met stepped forward and vouched for his not being Jewish. Even a known collaborator declined to denounce Rufeisen. The man who eventually did hand Rufeisen over to Nazis was himself Jewish. Perhaps he thought this would protect him; it didn't; that man was almost immediately killed.
   
   This anecdotal evidence jibes with Gunnar S. Paulsson's 2003 book, "Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw." Paulsson, child of a Holocaust survivor and a fellow at the US Holocaust Museum, argues that approximately seventy to ninety thousand non-Jewish Warsaw residents, in one way or another, made existence possible for 28,000 Jews who lived hidden lives in non-Jewish Warsaw during Nazi occupation.

No comments about Dr. Elkhanan Elkes of the Kovno Ghetto: A Son's Holocaust Memoir.

5 comments about Himmler.

1. Peter Padfield's bio of Himmler is one of the most thoroughly researched books I've ever read. Padfield turns all his literary siege engines on the enimatic personality of the fourth and most important Reichsfuhrer-SS, attempting to crack the Himmler facade and present the world's most notorious secret policeman in all his human complexity. As much is as possible with such a cypher, he succeeds.
   
   Padfield's book is wide-ranging, covering not merely Himmler but his development of the SS Order from a 290 man bodyguard detail into a quasi-religious empire numbering in the millions. Special emphasis is placed on his relationships with top Nazi leaders, as well as his chief subordinates: Schellenberg, Wolff, Eicke, Kaltenbrunner, and most importantly Reinhard Heydrich. Padfield's aim is not merely to account for Himmler, but for the deeds of his organization. Considering the enormity of his task, he does a pretty impressive job: he's especially skilled at following cause to effect, i.e., of showing how Himmler's bureacratic decisions affected the lives of millions of people, often by ending them. He's unflinching in his depictions of concentration camps, extermination centers, slave camps, and the mass executions of the Einsatgruppen, but more importantly he does an excellent job of putting them in context. They are part, but not all, of the SS mission, and Padfield shows how the many responsibilities of the organization blended together to serve Hitler's wishes as they were percieved by the "Reichsheine."
   
   A good bit of the book is conjecture on Padfield's part -- conjecture as to what was said during certain conversations, conjecture as to what Himmler was thinking or the reasons behind his actions. Padfield deserves strong praise for pain-stakingly pointing out where he is speculating and where he is recounting the facts: a lot of authors can't seem to tell the difference between fact and opinion. On the other hand, Padfield isn't shy about trashing other historians who disagree with his opinions on the evolution of the Holocaust. He usually prefaces their opinions with the words, "Some historiuans, apparently in all seriousness, maintain..."
   
   The book does have weaknesses. Padfield often dismisses out of hand the accounts of certain Nazis when they disagree with his version of events, then unhestitatingly accepts them later on when they jibe. His prose bogs down on more than one occasion: he seems to have a love-affair with run-on sentences that leave the reader (this reader anyway) exhausted and confused. His choice of phrasing is sometimes poor, obscuring the meaning of his passages, and there are a number of small editing mistakes such as incorrect dates or missing letters(probably the publisher's fault and not the author's). More annoying is the strange sloppiness of detail on his description of military events. It's as if his huge effort to research every aspect of Himmler/the SS left him too weary to proof his passages on the war for easily avoidable errors. He writes, for example, that the SS Panzer Corps penetrated the Soviet lines to a depth of 100 miles at Kursk. Uh, no, Peter, it didn't. If it had, the Germans would have won the battle and maybe the war, since the Kursk Salient was only 80-odd miles wide. If this seems like nit-picking, I mention it only because it is far from the only example. In another passage he says the German Ardennes offensive was supported by the fire of 10,000 assault guns. Again, sloppiness: an assault gun is a turretless tank, not an artillery piece, and the Germans certainly did not have anything close to 10,000 guns. A quick check of any coffee-table book on that battle would give the accurate figures, but Padfield didn't bother.
   
   What Padfield left out of Himmler's military career is also interesting. He makes virtually no mention of the "North Wind" offensive launched on Strasbourg in January, 1945, which occurred under Himmler's command. Though he spends much of the latter part of the book discussing the Nazi hope of engineering a split between the various Allies, he makes no mention of how Himmler's attack nearly accomplished this, by creating a violent disagreement between the Americans and the French over whether Strasbourg should be abandoned. Similarly, he leaves out the role of Panzerbrigade 150, the SS unit equipped with American uniforms and equipment, during the Battle of the Bulge. Some of this may simply have been editing decisions, but the ommissions are notable.
   
   Another problem is opinionated psychological theorizing. Padfield does not simply aim to recount Himmler's life and doings and let the reader infer what he may from them; he constantly, and sometimes annoyingly, tries to probe Himmler's psyche, and the psyche of all the top Nazis. This is tempting and to be expected on some level -- obviously we want to understand Himmler's motivations -- but any psychological profile is speculation and inference (the so called SWAG or scientific wild-ass guess), and Pafield plays amateur psychological detective to a tiresome degree.
   
   A final complaint: the abrupt ending of the book. "Himmler" has no afterword; it stops literally at the moment of his death, and I never did find out what happened to Himmler's wife, his mistress, or his children by both.
   
   Having made these criticisms, I have to say that "Himmler" is still a very significant book. I was fascinated by the bold and often contraversial take Padfield had on major events, by his willingness to attack commonly accpeted versions of events (such as the supposedly poor relationship between Bormann and Himmler)
   by his exhaustive research on every aspect of the SS and by his insightful thoughts on Himmler's relationship to Hitler. I did not find "Himmler" an easy read, but it is an important one.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   



2. Upfront, I have to admit that I did enjoy this thoroughly researched book. This biography has a lot of information not only on its subject (Himmler) but on Germans, Nazism in power, "the final solution", and the other leading characters of the Nazi regime, as well. Some sentences, indeed, full passages, are rather abstruse. There is a widespread use of speculation by the author regarding Himmler's motivations and actions. Mr. Padfield also engages into detailed psychoanalysis, mainly regarding Himmler, without being clear how qualified he might be on this field. Overall, this book is worth reading if you are truly interested in this historical period.



3. The definitive biography on Himmler. The author describes one of the most terrifying character in history in a text that is at the same time informative and objective. From his youth as a worker in a chicken farm to his death by suicide shortly after his arrest by the British, we see the development of a cold-blooded murderer...well, not so cold-blooded, since he appears to have nearly fainted when he saw for the first and only time the actions of his henchmen from the Einsatzgruppen first hand.
   Himmler's numerous speeches, whether secret or public, form the most chilling reading.
   A brilliant piece of historic literature, this book is indispensable for a clear understanding of how evil can take the improbable look of a bland, bespectacled schoolmaster. Himmler definitely embodies what has been called "the banality of evil".



4. I attempted to read this book several years ago and found it to be utter rubbish!! This book is worthy of the "National Enquirer" as opposed to a serious biography of Heinrich Himmler. Himmler is a subject worthy of a biography for his infamous career but Padfield's work is so full of inaccuracies on so many levels I tossed the book in the trash after the first few chapters it was so bad.
   A better but not nearly as lengthy biography can be found in Heinz Hoehne's "The Order of the Deaths Head." This book however is nonsense.



5. As one who reads WWII history as a hobby, I was a bit disappointed in this book. A biography it is not. This book is more of a history of the SS starring Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. After reading this biography, I still do not know what made the man tick.
   
   The introduction itself almost made me stop reading the book as it was a long-winded passage about the inquisition and how it related to the Nazis and Heinrich. Therefore, I skipped the intro and started reading the book.
   
   The first half of the book covered lots of his childhood and early history with the Nazis. The first half elaborated way too much on items I did not think were important...such as a home for women who could become impregnated by the master race, and so on. It just didn't do anything for me.
   
   The only saving grace for this book was the second half. It related entirely to the war and Himmler's involvement with the prison camps, round up and extermination of the Jews. This was riveting reading. And it is only this half of the book that saves it from being a bore.
   
   The book abruptly ends with Himmler's death. However, nothing more is ever said about the post-war lives of his wife, his mistress, and his kids by both. I think this would have added more depth to the book.
   
   Nevertheless, the book is worth one read, but I would not read it again. I didn't find anything more here than I do in other books about the SS.

5 comments about The Dentist of Auschwitz: A Memoir.

1. I started reading this book and could not hardly put it down. I think I read it in 3 days. Benjamin Jacobs was sent to a concentration camp along with the rest of his family. Benjamin and his father ended up at Auschwitz. Had it not been for Benjamin's dental training and given a little bit of preference over the other inmates, the pure hell he was put through would have surely ended in death. The love story between him and Zosia is touching. Unbelievable how anyone could survive just a nightmare. This is truly the part of history most of us would like to rewrite. Great book.



2. I found out about this book after reading another book that the author co-wrote. It is called The 100-Year Secret and it deals with a portion of the material that is contained in The Dentist of Auschwitz. The author spent almost five years in various camps, riding in closed railroad cars in summer, open railroad cars in winter, on death marches in the dead of winter, and on "hell ships," that were mistakingly attacked by the RAF and he, along with his brother still outlived the Nazi monsters that created this world for them. How Jacobs managed to survive his voyage through "man's inhumanity to man" is at the heart of this amazing story of survival. I promise you will not be able to put this book down.



3. I couldn't put this book down. Benjamin's story needs to be made into a movie: are you listening S. Spielberg? This is a remarkable book of unbelievable odds of survival. Ben escaped death so many times, but, the ending of this book is the most tragic episode of his story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs a perspective and gratitude adjustment; when you read about the suffering of Jews and the fortitude of the survivors, you come to realize how petty and spoiled people can be in their own minds. Each time I read about a survivor, I feel a renewed sense of the gratitude I have for my life. My mother is also a survivor of Auschwitz, but each survivor's story is unique. Read and realize gratitude.



4. "The Dentist of Auschwitz" is a spellbinding novel about a man that lived through the holocaust of World War II. The trials and tribulations of Benjamin Jacobs as he survives through labor and concentration camps will move you. Had it not been for the author's dental instruments that he brought with him, he would most likely not be alive today. Be thankful that he is alive and can tell accounts of his intriguing survival because this book is a very interesting and trivial tale. It is a very well written novel that I could not put down. I would recommend this novel to anyone and everyone.



5. I purchased this book for a history class. Great price and a good read. Good source of first-hand experiences at concentration camps. Differs a bit from the usual horrid details in other books, but explains some of the lighter sides, if I may, concerning the relationships between captives and captors.

5 comments about Inge: A Girl's Journey Through Nazi Europe.

1. Much has been written about the millions who were murdered during the Nazis' Holocaust bestiality yet we know less about the effect on thousands of child survivors who suffered separation from family, deprivation and often multiple escapes during World War II. In "Inge" author Gumpert vividly portrays the anxieties and trauma of an innocent young girl under the duress of separation, escape and living on the margin. Inge discovers herself and turns from introvert to courageous escape artist, outwitting adult persecutioners. We also learn about selfless and heroic rescuers. It is fascinating to discover her interactions with peers and even the advent of teenage love during her turbulent youth.

   The book vividly presents the gripping dangers and escapades of Inge's teenage years. Even more important, the author reveals Inge's lifelong and unsuccessful struggle to cope with the memories. One feels the author has perhaps finally provided the peace and redemption which escaped Inge during her lifetime.

   As a fellow teenage refugee with Inge in 1940-41 (her first love was my best friend Walter), I knew the facts, but I am deeply moved by the compelling story told by this book.




2. Most books on the Holocaust reflect the horrible trials of those murdered or sent to Concentration Camps. This is a story of a young girl sent by her family to Belgium from Germany before the war. She is tossed into the whirlwind of war and her separation from her family is greatly traumatic for her. She faces her difficult teen years as a refugee in Southern France. The North of France is occupied by the Nazis, who ultimately control the French Government, both north and south. Each year she grows closer to her 18th birthday, she is painfully aware of the French laws will allow her to be turned over to the Nazis and deported. She is not alone in her travail. This story tells of the genuine goodness of those who helped shelter her and get her and many of her friends to Switzerland. There is love, loss and decency. A really different prospective. Should be read by all.



3. This book takes you into the life of Inge Joseph who lived threw the Holocaust, but ultimitly could not get past it.
   
   Inge Joseph was born in Darmstadt, Germany in 1925. She had an older sister and loving parents. When she was young Hitler took power and her life changed. In 1936 her father got arrested and shortly afterwards her sister then 16 went to live in America eventually living in Chicago.
   
   Inge and her mother remained in Darmstadt with the help of her father's wealthy cousin. During this time however Inge left Darmstadt and went to live with her cousin in Belgium. After only living with him a short time he and his wife sent her to live in a hostil run by Mr. and Mrs. Frank (no relation to Anne.) After living there a while, the Nazis invaded Belgium and the Franks sent the girls to France with a group of boys from another hostil in the town they lived in.
   
   The 100 kids went to France and stayed in a barn for a while, until the Swiss Red Cross got involved helping them with food, and finding them a castle to live in.
   
   Life was not easy in the barn or castle, but Inge and some of her friends found love. During the time in the castle the oldest of the children were arrested and sent to a concentration camp, but managed to go back to Chateau le Haille (the castle). Several months later the person in charge decided that the oldest ones needed to escape.
   
   After a failed escape leading to the deaths of Inge's friend and boyfriend Inge made it to Switzerland and finally to the United States to reunite with her father and sister.
   
   Inge tried to get over her experiences, married a Austrian Jew and adopted a daughter named Julie, and also became a nurse. Unfortunitly she was not able to and became addicted to medication that caused her to die in 1983.
   
   A very interesting story, one can't forget



4. I won't go into a synopsis since the readers before me have very detailed ones.
   I checked this one out from the local library. I could not put it down. I was able to finish in 2 days. I found myself following her on her journey. The book is very well written and really involves the reader in what life may have been like for her. I am purchasing this one to keep on my shelf. Definitely worth reading and rereading.



5. Unlike many books about the Holocaust this one is truly different in its ending. Suffuring a fate like the Jewish in WWII is not imaginable and this books takes you to a girl and the trials she faced trying to survive and stay connected with her family. This books is an inspiring story of a young girl who tries to survive the terrible fate of her people while trying to stay with her family and the repercussions of this horrible time will never be healed. Although Inge does not get to finish the book herself, her nephew does a great job finishing where she left off. If you like emotional stories that suck you in and you don't want to put the book down, you will love this book!

4 comments about Tales from a Child of the Enemy.

1. TALES FROM A CHILD OF THE ENEMY by Ursula Duba compels us to realize that the past is a state of mind. She carries us back into her childhood in post-war Germany, and then quietly returns us to the present. There, through our own time, Duba again carries us back, this time further and deeper and into the psyches of those who were witness to the inhumanity of the Third Reich. We realize that the events of another time and another place envelop and profoundly affect the way our present is seen and tolerated by certain individuals, people whom we might very easily know. We come to realize that their struggle, their understanding, and their insights can have profound influence on the world around us. That this is true, especially for those of us who presumed that our realtionship to the events of WWII and the Holocaust were non-existent or at least, very distant, is stunning. We are inescapably drawn into Duba's mind and heart by the deceptively conversational tone of her poems, by her easy description of events and issues which so quickly become as familiar to us as the events in our own lives. The lives of others and the "then" which has impacted so strongly upon them today, becomes a part of our own lives, our own now



2. In reading Duba's book, my first inclination was to be suspect of this German gentile who had the audacity to portray the Jewish experience of the Holocaust, but as I read the sequence of story poems that, like blocks, built a picture of the complex, multi-layered experience of all the participants, I began to soften and ultimately came over to join her in viewing the experience from her vantage point. Duba is brutally honest with herself, requiring me too, to examine my prejudices and stererotypes. Her courage to face herself and to face up to others gave me the encouragement to examine my experience, to face down some of my haunting demons and the manadate to speak out. - Second generation Holocaust survivo



3. This beautifully written gem should be required reading for anyone who feels they understand the Holocaust. Ursula Duba is brutally honest in her portrayal of "civilized" behavior in difficult circumstances. This book will take your conscience on a difficult trip by showing us that we are all responsible for protesting injustices in the world around us.



4. This book belongs on the same shelf as Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Maus: A Survivor's Tale" and "Schindler's List." Duba really gets inside her characters -- victims, perpetrators and those in-between. Her poems will leave lasting impressions and have readers returning to the pages many times.

5 comments about Triumph of Hope : From Theresienstadt and Auschwitz to Israel.

1. I finished reading Triumph of Hope this morning, after starting it two days ago. I simply couldn't put it down. The author, Ruth Elias, is nothing less than extraordinary. The way that she expresses her memories, through her style of writing and description, helps us to get one step closer to understanding an experience, which we can never really comprehend, because we were not there. Mrs Elias's life is remarkable, and through reading her book I thoroughly believe that she is a genuinely lovely, kind and warm person. It is such a tragedy that the Jewish people of her generation went through turmoil and absolute hell. But through this book, Ruth's aims - to spread the message that the discrimination and racism they experienced should never be repeated - are being achieved when a single person reads her book. Her message is being spread over the world, and I am glad that i was able to read Triumph of Hope. I intend to share this book with my family and friends, so that they can read of such an incredible woman, and a generation of people who refused to give in. I sincerely recomend this book to anyone who is thinking of buying this, for themselves or for others.



2. This book never lags and never loses your interest. It is very well written. It is an inspiring and insightful account of a woman's courage and determination to survive the Holocaust. I only wish the book continued because I wanted more. Very highly recommended.



3. I have read dozens of Holocaust memoirs, and although they are always touching and intense, none have caused me to feel such grief for the author as this one. I literally had to stop reading and bawl my eyes out for a good 10 minutes. This woman endured so much, and with such grace, that you cannot help but be invested in her story. Highly recommended.



4. This memoir goes to show that, despite what some people might say, it really is true that no two Shoah memoirs and experiences are exactly alike. Rutinko Huppner (now Ruth Elias) grew up in a rather wealthy family in the former Czechoslovakia, and after her young mother divorced her father when she was 6 years old, Rutinko and her older sister Edith were raised by a single father, with help from their uncle Hugo (their father's brother) and his wife Irma, along with a whole slew of grandparents and other aunts and uncles. Later on their father remarried, though Ruth and her sister, teenagers by then, really resented their stepmother and tried everything they could to make her life miserable. Being wealthy, Rutinko and Edith had access to things that their friends, neighbors, and classmates could only dream about, such as sausage for school lunch, a car, being driven to and from school, vacations in the mountains, musical instruments and music lessons, and a lot of other great stuff. They even had the money and connections to get permission and papers to leave Czechoslovakia for England after the Nazi takeover in 1939, though she and her sister decided not to go through with it due to their father's ill health and wanting the family to stay together through this difficult time.
   
   The family were able to go into hiding in a few different cities, where they enjoyed a relatively secure and happy life. Ruth and Edith even found the time to have romances and to be active in a secret Jewish youth group. However, there was eventually a raid on the area, and Ruth, Edith, their father and stepmother, and their aunt Irma were taken away to Theresienstadt (Terezin). Their uncle Hugo wasn't taken because he was very sick in the hospital and dying of cancer. Once in the large ghetto, they found themselves separated from their father, since men and women were quartered separately. However, shortly before they arrived, Ruth's boyfriend Koni and his own family had been deported, and this relationship ended up saving her life, since if Koni hadn't married her while she was sick in the hospital, she would have been deported along with the rest of her family when they were. From this point on out Ruth was along but for the friends she made, and she and Koni weren't even able to properly live together as husband and wife for some time. However, even in the ghetto love blossomed, and eventually Ruth discovered she was pregnant. After doing absolutely everything to try to find a doctor who would give her an abortion, she ended up being deported when she was two months pregnant, and was one of the few women who survived in that condition instead of being murdered on arrival. A lot of circumstances came together to save her life and to keep her alive even in spite of her condition, many of them decisions she had only a split second to make if she wanted to live. Eventually she had to make the most difficult and heartrending decision of all when her baby was born, so that the infamous "Dr." Mengele wouldn't kill them both.
   
   Once she was no longer pregnant, Ruth was viewed as a healthy fit young worker, and was transferred, along with her friend Berta, who had also been pregnant, to Taucha, a subcamp of Buchenwald. In this camp, they were put into a special privileged work detail, which accounted for their eventual survival. After being liberated, their group of Czechs made their way home and found that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, their loved ones just were not coming home and that they'd had to start over again from scratch. I was surprised to learn that many young people like Ruth and her boyfriend Kurt just lived together after the war instead of getting married, since they had to wait two years before their missing spouses could legally be considered dead, even though everyone knew what had most likely befallen them. Ruth also had to make the difficult decision to divorce her husband, who had survived as well, because they'd just grown apart and she felt he hadn't acted very appropriately towards her when they were in the Family Camp at Auschwitz. A few relatives came back, but no one from her immediate family. It was with this new family of two that she left Czechoslovakia for Israel shortly after independence was declared, and just in the nick of time, before the Czech borders became closed.
   
   Mrs. Elias went through some of the worst things imaginable (a number of times she even writes about how hard it was to just almost matter-of-factly type such heavy words like "None survived" or "They were probably all gassed"), and yet she came through everything alive and determined to start again, to make a new life for herself in her own homeland, to make sure that no one ever looked down on her or abused her ever again. It just goes to show that the human spirit is an amazing thing.



5. I read Holocaust memoirs because of my need to learn more of what my people went through during this time of hell on earth. How hard it must be to write down and re-live this part of one's life. After reading many such memoirs, Ruth Elias's story was extremely powerful to me, in that she is a woman (like me), married (like me) and a mother (like me). She survived through the most horrific and unspeakable horror that can befall a human being. How many of us could survive under these conditions, and yet continue to live, really live, and experience more of the good in other people and in life? She was capable of literally starting over and telling others about her experience. What a wonderful, strong and intelligent woman she is! Don't miss this one. I'm going to make it a permanent part of my book collection.

1 comments about Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto.

1. The refuge Heppner evokes in vivid color is of war-time Shanghai: the one place Jews could escape Hitler without a visa. From harassment and worse in Germany, he and his family find squalor, hardship, and hunger...but also hope, inspiration and, ultimately, safety. A little-known chapter of the Nazi era.
   Marion Cuba
   Author, Shanghai Legacy

4 comments about Voices From the Forest: The Story of Abram and Julia Bobrow.

1. This is a fantastic novel, I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this book to anyone.



2. A truly moving and inspirational story, combined with a plot that does not let you stop reading makes this novel a must have for everyone. As a story about such a tragic event in human history, this book explores an often ignored aspect of the Holocaust by putting a human face to history.



3. I couldn't put the book down. Extremely well written and simply a chilling story. I hope it is adapted for the bigscreen.



4. As a mother of two young children, I rarely get too involved in a book. But this one I couldn't put down. The story alone is compelling enough, but unlike other biographies, this one reads as well as any novel. This is a story of survival that is a must read.