3 comments about Survival: The Story of a Sixteen-Year-Old Jewish Boy (Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust).

1. Survival: The Story of a Sixteen-Year-Old Jewish Boy begins with Israel J. Rosengarten's deportation in 1942 to the Belgian concentration camp of Breendonk at the age of sixteen and follows his movements through a series of camps until 1945. Survival is a compelling, personal account that concludes with the Auschwitz death march, liberation by the Americans, and Israel's return to Belgium -- only to discover that he was the lone survivor of a family of seven. This intimate story of what it was like to be a teenage boy in the concentration camps of the holocaust, of surviving almost 1,000 days of internment through a series of incredible coincidences, miracles, and a fierce struggle to stay alive against impossible odds. Survival is a welcome addition to the growing body of holocaust literature.



2. A truly haunting book in its simplicity. This is not high emotion, but an incredibly comprehensive recollection of life in various concentration camps. Israel Rosengarten conveys the true horror of the concentration camps via his narrative of the details and minutiae of day to day life. It is the very ordinariness of many of the details which jolts us and the capriciousness with which one either lived or died. Mr. Rosengarten's detailed memories of the routine of the camps 50 years after the events is what sets this book apart. It is this which conveys the true horror of the Holocaust and makes it a must read. It is a pity that the Publisher allowed such obviously poor translation and editing to be done of such an important work.



3. This testimony to man's inhumanity to man is a welcome addition to Holocaust literature. Mr. Rosengarten's personal story is a tribute to the human spirit and the will to survive. Although the book was originally planned for his children, I appreciate the fact that he shared his experiences, his courage and love of family with the general public. Because this authentic and moving book made such a lasting impression on me, I wish to donate a copy to our library.

No comments about Rebel With a Cause.

1 comments about One Family: Before and During the Holocaust.

1. Now in its second edition, One Family Before And During The Holocaust is an account of the personal lives of members of a Jewish family. Written by the son of a Holocaust survivor, One Family Before And During The Holocaust draws upon personal testimony, archival sources, photographs, and official documents to draw a vivid picture of how encroaching restrictions curtailed the family further and further until they were forced to attempt to run or hide, in effort to forstall deportation and execution. A profound and moving testimony, and a welcome contribution to Holocaust literature, the message of One Family Before And During The Holocaust is superbly summarized in its final words: "At least for those who survived, it can be said, their lives were not cut short by murderous hate. For those relatives whose lives were cut short I can only wonder what they could have accomplished if they had lived a full life."

5 comments about Holocaust Survivor.

1. "I was never a teenager...I lived on less than 800 calories a day...I was tortured; I was beaten; I've got scars on my face, but I always stood up. I always bounced back." Holocaust Survivor chronicles the five and a half years Mike Jacobs, founder of The Dallas Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies, spent as a youth in the ghettos and concentration camps of Poland including Auschwitz/Birkenau and Mauthausen/Gusen II. From the age of fifteen to nineteen, Mike witnessed and was subjected to horrors that no one should ever have to endure, including the infamous Death March in the dead of winter out of Auschwitz-Birkenau. He spares no detail in the retelling of the events he lived through, from the "beautiful dolls" and sadistic SS Sergeant of the Ostrowiec Ghetto, to the risky business of sabotaging the Messerschmidts he worked on as part of the camp resistance. Mike credits his survival to three things: his faith, his unfailing belief that he would one day be free, and his ability to dream. It is this underlying note of positive thinking that I think makes Mike's story different and eminently readable for all ages. Mike easily makes us believe that, despite the darkness and despair surrounding him, he did, indeed, rely on his dreams and soaring imagination to keep hope alive. His concentration camp friends thought "Mendel is getting off his rocker," but Mike felt the secret of survival was to close his eyes and soar high above the camp like a bird. "Guys, you wouldn't believe it! It was beautiful--I traveled all over the world, I was free!" This incredible story of spirit, endurance, and triumph over impossible odds is punctuated with Mike's message: "Hate breeds hate. But we cannot be silent or complacent. If we are, this can happen again." Thank you, Mike, for all the times you've spoken to my students, touched their hearts, moved them to tears, and ultimately, made them a formidable force for change.



2. Some people write books for money or recognition - not Mike Jacobs.

   His whole message - both in person and in his book - urges each one of us to "always remember, never forget," and to "never become silent or complacent." This message at first seemed somewhat obvious from what one might expect from a survivor.

   But Mike has a different spin on his message: He doesn't hate, and he doesn't feel self pity. Rather, he's exhuberant in his mission to live life to its fullest, and along the way, to explain what he lived through so no one human being ever has to face it again.

   His book is incredible - not just one to add to any collection; rather, your interest in a survivor's tale and triumph over such horrifying persecution should start right here with Mike. Let him tell you what really happened as he lived it first hand...and walk away with the message he lives every day to pass on to us, our children and their children.




3. Mike came to our school in October and shared a VERY SAD story with us and shode us some very strange things like the soup made of human Fat and a little bottle of poison.And much more but I cant remember them all well I REALLY want to buy his book to see alot more stuff about it!!



4. I am leading a group of five High School Seniors in an independent study about the Holocaust. This work, Holocaust Survivor, is a great resource. It is a raw, transcribed oral history of one man's journey. My students have found it very moving and informative.



5. I am utterly amazed at what this man went through. I have read alot about the holocaust but every survivor has a different story and there is always something that will shock you with every story. The horrors of what happened will never cease to shock me, never. This man has written a memoire that is packed with people and events than do not allow you to put this book down. It is very interesting to read and through all the horror you are glad to know that he made it through and had done so many wonderfull things with his life. I finished this book very quickly due to the fact it was hard to put down. I would recomend this book highly not only because it is so interesting but because it will allow to to understand how blessed we all are, you might just will change the way you live and think.

1 comments about El Papa de Hitler.

1. Este libro es muy interesante ya que expone el entorno de la época que vivió el Papa Pío XII, el cuál ha sido muy criticado por considerar que no hizo nada por apoyar a los judíos durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
   Me gustó porque el conocer lo que se vivía en ese momento hace que entiendas la actitud del Papa Pío XII.

No comments about A Transported Life: Memories of Kindertransport.

No comments about Adventure and Destiny.

2 comments about A Thousand Kisses : A Grandmother's Holocaust Letters (Judaic Studies).

1. "A Thousand Kisses", is a tribute to both a woman and millions like her who were the victims of the Nazis of World War II. I have read dozens of books about the inhuman events of this period in history, and they have primarily been by historians or reporters who have recorded what took place. There have also been books that have been the stories as told by a survivor, and now there is this work. Ms. Renata Polt has translated and collected the letters of her Grandmother, (Mamina), into a collection that becomes not only a diary of personal events, but also for the actions that continually stripped away virtually everything that makes a day worth rising for. Even the act of persevering day after day while everything and everyone you care for is taken from you, is eventually taken from these victims. These letters tell such a story, and they do so eloquently and with dignity.

   The letters cover the years and partial years of 1939 to 1942. The correspondence begins when family are separated, and comes to a close when one side cannot correspond with itself. In addition to the letters are very helpful footnotes that not only explain the hidden meaning of some words, but the events that were taking place as they were written. This period when humanity sought its furthest depths is never easy to read about. This particular format is much more personal and involving.

   The dignity that Mamina maintains from beginning, through countless disappoints, frauds, and changes they would drive many insane, is little short of remarkable. There is no question that as the persecution she suffers as the years pass, and the fate she knows awaits her closes in, her fear can be read within her words. This was clearly an educated, articulate woman, who in spite of the horror she faced, and the pain of the separation from her children and grandchildren never sought to burden them. She never wrote in a manner to frighten those who read her letters, and when she decided to emigrate, she never quit despite a system that was designed not to allow her to travel, but to methodically steal everything from her.

   Her things may have been taken, and her home may have been lost. It is also true that she was separated from her family and learned of the great progress of her children and grandchildren first in Cuba then America. As their lives became progressively improved and safer, her existence was diminished. Nevertheless you are left with the feeling that when events became their darkest, this woman never succumbed, she never gave in, and she never gave the monsters the satisfaction. A remarkable woman.




2. The book, translated letters from a grandmother in Prague to her son in the USA, reveals the changing lives of Jews in Prague, under Hitler. From living a prosperous, upper middle-class, secure life Mamina slowly looses everything precious to her as more and more laws are enacted against Jews. I owned this book for two years before I had the courage to open it, but I feel well rewarded in reading it. I was inspired by Mamina's and her daughter's courage in dealing with every day indignities, and moved by the cheerful portrayal of their lives to Mamina's son in the USA. He figured out in 1939 that he needed to leave Czechoslovakia with his family, while Mamina was unable to make the decision to leave everything she knew and loved. Reading this book, I get a better sense of why more Jews didn't escape Hitler.

No comments about The Longest Road to America: Volume 3: Between Two Worlds.

No comments about Out of Nazi Germany and Trying to Find My Way.