No comments about Roses from the Earth: Biography of Anne Frank (Charnwood Library Series).

2 comments about Children Who Survived the Final Solution.

1. Excellent Book. The stories of these Holocaust Children survivors were very touching. Cuban children, like me, that were sent alone to the United States by their parents in order to escape Communism and to be able to live in freedom, in the early 1960's can relate to these Holocaust children in their separation from their families. I personally met two survivors that their stories are told in this book: Jack Beigelman & Rose Kaplovitz; their stories have forever changed my life and anyone who has had the privileged to meet any of the Holocaust survivors will also experience the same. I encourage all to read this book.



2. I typically never read Holocaust survivor books but while I was at the Carmel Forest Spa in Haifa, I went to the library and found this fabulous book. Loved it!
   
   Elaine

No comments about Surviving the Fire: Mother Courage and World War II.

1 comments about I Never Saw My Face.

1. This is a beautifully written memoir by Dr. Goetz. He leads the reader through events of his life with dignity and clear recollection. Although facts of painful events are revealed, Dr. Goetz is always considerate of the reader. His words are carefully chosen, not to horrify, but to promote reflection and thought. I was especially touched by his ability to always be aware of goodness and natural beauty in the most adverse conditions. I found this book to be enlightening and thought provoking. From one who has always been shy of this topic, I find myself wanting to read this book again.

No comments about A Life Of Triumph: A Story Of Survival.

No comments about Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyons.

5 comments about The Sky in One Piece.

1. I had the honor of reading this book, and, through it, I was invited into Ms. Podob's life. She brought me through her formative years living in Nazi-occupied Poland. She brings a very human, loving, family feel to this horrible time, allowing us to see first hand how a family was affected by this global tragedy. This book is a must read for anyone...not only those interested in Jewish history and/or the holocaust...



2. "The Sky In One Piece" by Hannah Podob is a wonderfully written, pignant story about Hannah and her parents who managed to escape from the Nazis during WWII through sheer determination, braveryh, and the will to survive, with the assistance of a Polish farmer who risked his life and the lives of his family enabling Hannah and her family to survive the horrors of the Nazi regime.



3. "The Sky in One Piece" is a small tale of one family's heroic escape from the Nazis, that will leave an enormous impression on your heart. Told in a child's voice, the reader follows the journey of the author and her parents, depicting the everyday occurrences before and during their flight from persecution by the Nazis because they were Jewish. Unlike other depictions of the horror of the Holocaust, Hannah Podob has you share in her innocent version of the hardships her family endured, as only someone could because she was loved and protected by close and loving parents. With humor along with the scattering of harsh news reports of the day, readers will follow one family who with love and spirit did triumph and endure to find freedom and life in America.



4. Hannah Podob has told in admirably clear and unaffected prose her childhood and family history as a survivor of the Holocaust and its impact upon her, her family and the people she knew. Without sentimentality, she recalls her parents and the difficulties they overcame to be together. The rise of the Nazis provides a sinister shadow to her childhood and, like most Jewish people, Hannah and her family try to escape from their home in Warsaw before they are imprisoned or worse.

   At the centre of the story are the years she and her parents spent crouched in a tiny, improvised lean-to provided by a kindly Polish farmer. It is not a spectacular story but it is a very human one and it deserves to be added to the body of literature remebering those events. It is also inspirational as to what people can achieve with persistence, love and luck.

   I originally reviewed this book for bookpleasures.com and I am happy to provide a further testament here.




5. I had the honor of working with Hannah and she exudes sunshine and happiness in her everyday life. It is a testament to her strength that she has overcome the harrowing past she so brilliantly recaptures in this memoir. The spirit of this family cannot be crushed, no matter what they endure. I am proud to have met this amazing woman.

1 comments about Invisible Walls and To Remember is to Heal: A German Family under the Nuremberg Laws (Jewish Lives).

1. Ingeborg Hecht. Invisible Walls and To Remember is to Heal. Translated from the German by John Brownjohn and by John A. Broadwin. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1999.

   Most people have heard about Hitler's Nuremberg Laws. But few are aware of their actual significance. Ingeborg Hecht's book Invisible Walls and To Remember is to Heal shows in detail the impact of the laws on the everyday life of her family, her Jewish father who got divorced before the laws were promulgated, her Aryan mother, and her brother and herself, the half-Jews. History comes alive in her book: The exact wording of a legal passage (given with its date) is followed by the descriptions of the results of these orders. But there are also glimpses of human compassion, the revolt against dehumanization. And at the end, she does not shy away from looking critically at the reparation efforts by the new German Federal Republic. The importance of Ingeborg Hecht's book is also shown in its second half which gathers responses to the first half which was published by itself a few years before this new edition.

1 comments about Bad Times, Good Friends: A Memoir--Berlin 1945.

1. Ilse Margaret Vogel's book about her tense final months in bombed out Berlin near the end of World War II is well worth reading. Unlike most WW II books detailing life experiences, Vogel captures the youth and excitement of she and her friends that even war could not diminish.

   Vogel's skill as a storyteller is evident as she recalls how she and her friends worked in small ways to protect or shelter those pursued by the Nazi SS. Their efforts, seemingly small, saved lives. The personalities come to life in glimpses of the risks they take and the small victories they share. Some survived, some did not. But the difference they made is significant.

No comments about Why The Sea Is Boiling Hot.