No comments about My Wounded Heart: The Life of Lilli Jahn, 1900-1944.

2 comments about Lucky to Be Here.

1. "My school-days! The silent gliding on my existence - the unseen, unfelt progress of my life - from childhood up to youth! Let me think, as I look back upon that flowing water, now a dry channel overgrown with leaves, whether there are any marks along its course, by which I can remember how it ran." (David Copperfield, Charles Dickens)
   
   Lucky To Be Here is an engaging autobiographical sketch of the author's experiences as a child growing up in Toledo, Ohio. Appropriately lighter in tone and content than some of his other works, Lucky will surely please Dr. Kaufman's many admirers. The winner of numerous awards, including the prestigious BBC Best Play from Europe Award in 1995 -- one might be tempted to describe Mr. Kaufman as a modern day Goethe. His accomplishments in the humanities stretch from positions as a professor of German language and literature at Queens College, professor of American Studies at Kiel University in Germany, professor of music history at Antwerp University, to violinist with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the Flemish Opera in Antwerp.
   
   Dr. Kaufman has the ability to transport the reader into the atmosphere of the subject at hand. This is virtually a hallmark of the author's creativity. Consider the following passage from Lucky describing a music recital of children in Toledo, Ohio: "In almost every other seat she could see the dangling feet of some younger brother or sister, bare legs and skinned knees, with long socks at half mast.... Here and there, the odd scarf or mitten had fallen to the floor. There was the hushed sound of a parent whispering in response to the loud outcry of a young uninhibited child. `Mommy, my foot itches.... Who's that little man on the piano?' The porcelain statuette of Beethoven stared unperturbed, ever scowling, as if in preparation for another inevitable rendition of his `Minuet in G.'"
   
   Lucky is much more profound, however, than a mere collection of the author's memories of American life as a new immigrant during the Second World War. It also serves as a social commentary on the prevailing attitudes of various classes of Americans. (The subject of the author's experience in actually escaping Nazi Germany is dealt with in his moving and profound play Last Supper.) Besides Lucky's obvious literary value, it serves as a valuable historical study of the lives of immigrants to the United States during WWII. It would in fact be a useful addition for classroom study as well, although a couple of passages, particularly the opening paragraphs, would probably be inappropriate for many students.
   
   Lucky To Be Here, destined to be recognized for its timeless quality, worthy to be ranked along such great autobiographical works as Down and Out in Paris and London, by George Orwell and perhaps even the semi-autobiographical masterpiece David Copperfield, is yet another literary triumph for its author, Dr. Herbert L. Kaufman.



2. This, to me, is the author's most accessible and continuous novel, and like his other books, highlights the point at which the personal and universal meet. It is also an often-humorous "coming of age" story, but manages to avoid the sentimentality and overt nostalgia that sometimes mars works of this kind. If you are unfamiliar with Kaufman's work, this is a good place to start.

No comments about Junia Gentle Soul of the Holocaust.

5 comments about On Burning Ground: A Son's Memoir.

1. What can I add to the above? Not much. I rarely read Holocaust memoirs, but this one was amazing. Michael's father, Joseph, a Talmudic scholar with blue eyes and blond hair, who tried to save his mother in Navaredok/Novogrudek Poland, failed, and fled to the forests and to Vilna. As a circumcised male in Vilna, Joseph took on the identity of a Muslim Tatar, studied Islam, and became a foreign laborer in Berlin. A hidden Jew pretending to be a Muslim living in the Nazi capital during the War. And then he enlisted in the SS!



2. Skakun's experiences are comparable to those of Yehuda Nir in "The Lost Childhood" and Moshe Perlman in "Europa, Europa". The crowning irony is Skakun's (almost) joining the Waffen SS in order to hide his Jewish identity, and to survive. However, there are just a few errors of background historical fact which mar "On Burning Ground". E.g., on page 203 Julius Streicher is named as the founder of the Nazi paper "Volkische Beobachter". This is wrong. Streicher founded "Der Sturmer". Volkische Beobachter was an outgrowth of "Munchener Beobachter", a paper purchased and re-founded by Dietrich Eckart. This is the sort of mistake that better editing might have caught. But "On Burning Ground" still stands as a riveting account of survival through quick thinking and a lot of luck.



3. I have always had a deep interest in the Holocaust, I think it is because of the fact that it occured so recent in our history, it is so incredible that in our modern society, a country such as Germany was so willing to carry out such a morbid and shockingly sinister plan of brutality and murder. That ordinary citizens could be so callous and treacherous,...I am amazed!

   Joseph Skakun, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, takes us on a journey into his mind numbing past. Divine intervention, solid logic and humblness, play a major role in his reason for survival.

   Personally I think this story is very unique and wouldn't be surprised to see it become a movie.




4. No one can doubt how much Michael Skakun loves his father and how proud he is of his fathers amazing story of survival. However. I would have toned down the flowery writing, after all, in a biography there really no way of knowing all the expressions of the faces in the room, the smells, the sounds, etc. I also would have included a postscript on whether the subject of the book is still alive, where he lives, or where he spent his last days. Too many loose ends for me, but a book that is very good and worth reading.



5. This was a nice story, but it was clouded by some very philosphical rantings by the son both early in the book and at the end. Also troubling was the son's writing of his father's story. He talkes about his father, then his grandfather and grandmother, and it is difficult to follow, especially early in the story. I wish he would have written it as his father's narrative as told to him.
   
   This is a very harrowing account on how one person survived the Holocaust. Skakun was blessed with blue eyes and blond hair, and it was fairly easy to pass himself off as an Aryan, with the exception of his circumcision. Both passing into Germany and his physical for the Waffen SS necesitated him taking a physical in the nude. I think his heightened awareness of how vulnerable he was resulted in a certain nervousness, which could have resulted in his uncovered secret identity.
   
   This is a nice easy read about a very lucky Polish Jew. His unconventional route and his luck led to him surviving the war. Skakun credits the good deeds of his mother in his survival of the war.

2 comments about Sala, More Than a Survivor.

1. Sometimes it is nice to read the story of someone who has been there. Not fictionalized, not historical, just a person who after reading thier story you know you can relate to. This story is short and simple during an age of incomprehensible legnth and complexity.
   This book is a great buy, especially to share with young adults.



2. "Sala" is different from most available survivor stories for two reasons. First, its subject was only ten years old when she was taken away. Most accounts we have deal with older survivors, whereas Sala basically grows up in a concentration camp and is one of the few children that age to survive, adding a new perspective. Secondly, this book doesn't end with her liberation from the Nazis, but chronicles Sala living a full life despite a past that would make many give up. True stories like this are invaluable to our history, and Marsha Cook writes it eloquently.

1 comments about My Life of Turmoil.

1. My Life of Turmoil: A Jewish Immigrant's Story and Warning is the autobiography of Holocaust survivor Larry Wenig, whose trials did not end with the close of World War II - he endured hardships at the hands of the Soviet Communists in a Siberian gulag, and survived living in a Uzbekistan mud hut followed by an Austrian Displaced Persons camp, arriving in the United states at age 22, weak, nearly penniless, and knowing no English. His determination to rise above the odds, and his willingness to put in long hours of work while studying at night school led him to achieve his dream of becoming a lawyer. My Life of Turmoil blends resolute determination with the wonder of falling in love and marrying an exceptional woman - yet beyond the biographical narrative is a deeper purpose. Wenig writes to warn readers about the global threat of anti-Semitism and Islamofascism, from the perspective of one who has witnessed hatred, intolerance, and genocide carried to their most horrifying extremes. Highly recommended reading.

No comments about Survival.

1 comments about In the Hands of My Enemy: A Woman's Personal Story of World War II.

1. "In The Hands Of My Enemy" by Sigrid Heide. Sub-titled: "One Woman's Story Of Word War II. Southfarm Press, Middletown, Connecticut.1996.
   This book was originally published in Norwegian in 1946, directly after the events of the Second World War. This is a recent translation and publication in English. The author had suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Norway, when she was captured as part of the underground resistance. The first 183 pages of this book recounts the author's capture, her imprisonment, her beatings and sufferings ... for years, all in a prison in Norway. Then, the book ends at the time when she was transferred into Germany and later to camps in Austria. There are some ten pages, at the back of the book, which recount the rest of her captivity, and her final release into freedom. I just wish that she had presented the entire story in one volume. Splitting the story into two volumes made the work in the first volume "incomplete".

3 comments about Past Is Myself.

1. This is one of the best books I have ever read. I am surprised that nobody has reviewed it and I am also dissapointed to find out that it is not available to buy at the moment. I read it a few years ago and when I get the time, I will definitely read it again. Once you start you can not stop and it is a book you will remember for the rest of your life. Read it!



2. I am so sorry this book is not available. It is a fasinating story of a woman's ability to survive and keep her family in tact in WW II Germany. I met Mrs. Bielenberg a few years ago and she is still as interesting as she was in her book.



3. I read this book a few years ago, when living in the United Kingdom, and wanted to recommend this book to my Book Club in the USA for our next discussion. What a disappointment to find it is out of print, as this is one of the most readable and insightful autobiographies I have read! Dear Amazon team, please campaign for it to be reissued!

No comments about Memories of a Holocaust Survivor - Irving Farber.