5 comments about The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood.

1. I could not put the book down. It's amazing what a 5-6 y. old can remember after hiding it away and not talking to anyone about his past for 50 years. Written very well, thought provoking, and makes you wonder how one should define a "Holocaust Survivor."



2. Our author, Mr. Kurzem, Australian-born, of Latvian Jewish descent, finds out in his late adolescent that his father has been hiding his true childhood story for over 50 years. The son had been raised to consider himself a Latvian, as were others who emigrated to Australia via the German DP camps at the end of WWII. His father had been a reluctant Latvian, who married an Irish Catholic woman, but still, our author did consider himself to be Latvian until he got a call from his father. He was doing research at Oxford, so he was no slouch academically.
   
   AS this very absorbing book progresses, we learn through the son that the father is himself unsure of who he really was, as he stumbled through the Latvian forest until adopted as a "mascot" (age 6) with a Latvian troop. He quickly learned Latvian, and later GErman, as these troops were working with the Nazis in expunging Soviet Communists, i.e. Partisans, from their country, after Germany came to liberate them from the Soviets. The remarkable story unfolds slowly, but with a wonderfully satisfying ending, as the son and his father go back to Latvia in post-Soviet 1990's, to see if the few clues can lead to his village.
   
   Sure enough, through hard pushing and some sheer amazing lucky coincidences, they finally determine that the father is a shtetl Jew, who was spared death in a mass shooting by escaping in the night into a forest behind the village. The photographs in the book are very interesting, showing the details of clothing, houses, people's faces in those terrible times.
   
   The final chapter condemns the Latvians for cooperating with the Germans, which is a slap in the face to anyone who knows the Latvians' miserable history. When they lost their independence to the Soviets, had their farms collectivized, their property stolen, their families shipped to Siberia and so on, most Latvians knew who controlled the Kremlin: the Jews, a fact none can deny. They appointed their own brethren in Riga to bring Communism with an iron fist, forming councils to destroy everyday Latvians' lives. When German soldiers arrived to destroy Communist control, there was no Latvian hesitation in wreaking revenge on the perpetrators, including the women and children. Jews became Partisans, running through the forest to escape arrest, often fleeing to Communist Russia. Many were innocent of any political involvement, as is true in any country.
   
   However, our author, an educated man, omits this critical part of Latvian history, wipes them all with one "brown" brush, yet the Latvians did exactly that: call all Jews "reds", regardless of their true allegiances. Many were true Latvian nationalists and complete capitalists, who would never tamper with the rights to property against anyone. Too bad for these, it seemed; the devastation was too great.
   
   I highly recommend this book for serving up a very exciting page-turner, as one wishes to see exactly how this young boy survived such a strange experience. You can understand how he waited until very late in life to reveal his story to anyone, including his children, because he could be persecuted by both Latvians and Jews, and above all, those millions who suffered at the hands of Communists. Their descendants are still angry!
   
   Poor man! What a terrible time and place he was born into! But he was lucky to get down to Dresden, survived its bombing, get into a DP camp, and achieve an emigration visa to Australia. Imagine if he, like so many of the troop he'd joined, had been stuck back in the Communist land! His son would never have been born, for he would have been shot by Commies.
   
   The son shows bitterness, but the father knows himself to be VERY LUCKY!!!



3. Every story of survival from the Holocaust is incredibly unique and Mark Kurzem's The Mascot is no exception. I must say that once the author's father, Alex Kurzem, begins to unlock the memories--after over 60 years of silence--of escape from near certain death, his nurturing by would-be executioners, and ultimate search for his true identity, the book is nearly impossible to put down. The basic reservation I had about the book--which is presented in narrative form--is that whenever the story drifts away from its riveting father/son dialogue, the telling become a bit wordy and almost extraneously repetitive. I found myself doing a lot of skimming so as to get back to the meat of the story--the father's cathartic-like revelations. But, that said, the book is very worthwhile reading.



4. In the United States most of the time when one reads World War II history it tends to focus on the Normandy Landings and lightning dash to Berlin the Pacific theater is generally ignored and so is the Italian campaign. The Soviets also had to do a large amount of the fighting they were both defenders of their homeland and agents of a tyrannical regime.
   
   Then there were those people who were caught in the middle of it all like one Jewish Latvian survivor who was only 5 years old. Plucked from a firing line by a sympathetic sergeant and warned never to be seen naked this little boy resolves to survive in any way he can. He survived the war and had a family but he was racked by guilt at the manner in which he was saved for many years.
   
   While there are some funny accounts over the course of the novel it is by no means meant to be humorous the two stories that stick with me the most is the account of the time Alex Kurzem (the mascot) went to the train station and was assigned to pass out chocolates to an unruly crowd to claim them; later he reasoned that all or most of those people were killed in an extermination camp. Then there was the time that the soliders he was traveling with used him as bait to attract village women with unpleasant results for the little mascot and the women.
   
   One also admire the author Mark Kurzem who tracked down all of these loose ends partially out of a sense of curiosity and to give his family a sense of closure about the whole issue. It is a truly remarkable effort especially when you consider the unlikelihood that there would be enough people alive to put the sometimes spotty recollections of the father into any context.
   
   Overall-A truly remarkable account and evidence of tremendous courage on the part of the father both as a child to survive all of that and to level with his family years later about what he had gone through.



5. 
   There are many stories to come out of World War II, both told and untold, this is surely one of the most remarkable. It is a tale of survival but not without cost.
   
   As a five-year-old boy Alex Kurzem saw his mother and father as well as neighbors shot by the Nazis. For some inexplicable reason his life was spared and he ran to hide in a dense Russian forest. Amazingly he did not freeze to death during the unrelenting cold but existed by searching for food and taking the clothes of dead soldiers.
   
   When he is found by a group of Latvian SS soldiers they never imagine he is Jewish but believe he is Russian and more or less adopt him, making him a little corporal in the SS with his own uniform. Young Alex fears for his life, of course, and does as he is told, even to repeatedly watching repetitions of the same fate that befell his parents and starring in a Nazi propaganda film.
   
   What price survival? What he has done will haunt Alex for the rest of his days. He is so troubled by his past that he does not even tell his wife and only later reveals his entire story to his son, the author of this memoir, Mark Kurzem.
   
   The Mascot is not only a reminder of one of history's darkest times but testimony to the dramatic effects it may have on those who are not killed but sorely injured in their hearts and souls.
   
   - Gail Cooke

5 comments about The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank.

1. This is one of the best books I have ever read. A must read for all ages. These ladies are some of the most courageous people in the world. They perserved knowing that their demise could be any day. But living was too important to them so they dug deep within themselves to keep their spirit alive and they succeeded. Hooray for them!!! Miep Gies is also a very courageous person. She is right up there with these ladies. "Anne Frank Remembered" by Miep Gies and Alison Leslie Gold is also a wonderful book. If you are looking for excellent reading and a time frame for the life of Anne Frank, then by all means read this book. I don't know if I could handle the pressures that these ladies went through to live, and I hope that I never have to endure their suffering, but if I do, I will take these 7 women with me and draw on their strengths and spirit to keep me alive.



2. "The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank" by Willy Lindwer was originally a documentary. The author and filmmaker's encounter with the women who knew Anne Frank, after her family was captured, left him with more material than could ever be told in a documentary. It is collected here in this powerful and necessary testament to the legacy of Anne Frank.
   
   The book begins with a slight overview of Anne Frank's life. It then gives way to the stories of six women who knew her - some before her deportation to the camps, and all of them during her final days at Bergen-Belsen. The collection begins with the reminiscences of Hannah Elisabeth Pick-Goslar, Anne's childhood friend (who she wrote about in her diary), who later threw her Red Cross packages across the barbed-wire fence of the camp when they miraculously encountered one another again. The stories the women have to tell are similar - their treatment in the camp, the way they met Anne and Margot - and all of them were inexplicably touched by her life. Some felt an overwhelming sense of failure at not being able to do more to help these poor sisters, but there was little they could do, especially when both were fighting typhus and had little will, or strength, to survive. At least one even made comment that had Anne known her father was still alive, she might have fought a little harder to see her beloved Pip once more. Anne was the 'apple of her father's eye' and his life after the liberation of Auschwitz was to let her words bear testimony for her.
   
   These women all have powerful and miraculous stories to tell. The fact that they survived the death camp is a miracle in itself. One of the women's husband survived Auschwitz with Otto Frank and many of them had the privilege of meeting him after the war; and one had the sad 'honor' of confirming Anne and Margot's deaths. Perhaps the story of Rachel van Amerongen-Frankfoorder is the most compelling for her witness to not only the girls' final days, but to their deaths as well. Both the Frank girls died of
   typhus a few short weeks before the liberation of the camps. "The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank" is a crucial examination of an amazing life cut short by unimaginable cruelty, and to the miracle of those who survived to tell it in their own words.



3. Anne Frank's name is one of the most known names in the world. She stuned the world with her diary. But there were still so many unanswered questions about what happend after they were betrayed? Everyone knew that she died at a consintration camp, but what did she die of and so many other questions ligered in the minds of the millions of people who have read her diary. Finally Willy Lindwer took up the challenge of finding out what happend in the last 7 monthes of her life. I recomend this book to anyone and everyone, but I recomend reading her diary first. This book picks up where her diary left off and continues to the day that she died.This book is told by the women who knew Anne Frank and her family at the concentration camp and not only tell what they know happend to her, but their story as well. It is truly and amazing book and a must read!



4. "The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank" is only periphally a book about Anne - but it is pointedly a book about Anne's experience in those last months of her life. With the exception of her close friend Hannah Goslar, who talks about her at length, Anne is mentioned only in passing by the other interviewees, all of whom were acquainted with her. But their individual stories of what they endured in Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen is also her story, and illuminates her time in the camps as she herself would have - but never got the chance to. A good addition to a library of Anne Frank material, or an excellent compendium of personal experiences during the Holocaust, whichever way is more valuable to the reader.



5. "How can I find tranquility?
   Years later, the tumult of the men resounds,
   The swishing of their whips,
   Above the people being pushed along,
   And stamping of boots,
   Cries of anguish.
   I have seen so many go to a desperate death,
   Across a dirt path, on which their weakened feet
   Dragged them to the gate
   Smoke cannot speak,
   From the chimneys they slip out, formless above my head,
   And are taken by the wind,
   Robbed of their bones.
   Since then, despite my clothes, I am naked.
   And remain exposed to synonyms.
   Therefore it is not tranquil within,
   The whips are still lashing,
   And at the most unexpected times,
   The packing paper pictures come forth,
   Chilly, yellowed, gray from smoke,
   And stiff with death at night when I want to sleep."
   Ronnie Goldstein- van Cleef,
   
   This novel was an eye opener for me of the Holocaust and all that the Jewish people were made to bear. Death looked them all in the eye, and from day to day, no one knew if they would see another day. They were humiliated and dragged down, stripped of their self-esteem and their strength as never before in their lives. Husbands were separated from wives, and some children from their parents. Many got sick and died before reaching the gas chambers. Many looked already dead in skeletal form breathing their last breaths.
   I applaud the six women who gave interviews from this book. These women saw Anne Frank and her family and sought to help them any way they could. These were brave women, who endured the suffering of the death camps and came out alive. Hannah Elisabeth Pick-Gosslar, Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper, Rachel van Amerongen-Frankfoorder, Bloeme Evers-Emden, Lenie de Jong-van-Naarden, Ronnie Goldstein-van Cleef, we thank you for sharing this horrible time of your life. It must have been very hard to relive, so thank you. Thank you so much for your courageousness.
   Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 07/03/07)

5 comments about Sala's Gift: My Mother's Holocaust Story.

1. I picked this book, figuring it would be an interesting read. It is, hands down, one of the best books I have read regarding the Holocaust. What a wonderful book! Where other books have let me down, this book did not. It is a must read.



2. I was so moved by this book I will include share my heartfelt comments to the author.
   Just want to THANK YOU for such an amazing book! Your decision to share your mothers personal life with readers who benefit so from your investment of labor and emotion is generous and to be admired! When you were complete it must have looked like E=Mc squared did to Einstein! Simple on the surface with the complexity of the universes author within. My highest regards to you and Sala Kirschner.
   Glenn from Tampa Fl and sometimes Lake Tahoe Nv



3. This is a very moving tribute written by a daughter about her mother. It is also well-researched and well-written, shedding new light on the movement of mail through work camps and even concentration camps. Sala's story of survival and redemption is remarkable, and the reader can well imagine the emotional roller-coaster the author must have experienced uncovering her mother's story.



4. Ann Kirschner meticulously weaves the story of her mother's survival with the overwhelming accounts of the Holocaust...a fine balance between biography and history lesson.



5. The story of Polish Jews who were lucky enough not to be sent directly to the death camps, yet unlucky enough not to make it onto Schindler's list or find some other long-term refuge. Writing mostly about her mother's family as they lived for six years on the precipice, Kirschner produces something amazing: an important piece of scholarship that never feels like a historical tome. Rather, it stands on its own as a deeply moving, character-based story that will leave you wanting to revisit passages about remarkably brave and beautiful people -- some survivors, some not -- who were nearly forgotten by history. Despite Kirschner's proximity to the story, she never forces herself into the narrative; rather, she weaves personal elements into the story only when they can add a new and critical dimension. The result is a book that deserves to be dog-eared and passed around repeatedly.

5 comments about Recollections: An Autobiography.

1. "Recollections" is episodic, much like sharing a cup of coffee with a casual acquaintance and trying to divine their life story from those conversations. Dr. Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" is a landmark book for many seekers--including me--and I jumped at the chance to read this so-called autobiography of a giant in the field of diagnosing modern society's malaise. The book is a pleasant read, with Dr. Frankl's humor guiding the narrative. There's not much in the way of how Dr. Frankl coped with returning from concentration camps to find every member of his family--including his young wife--dead. The late Dr. Frankl's narrative is light and episodic, like afternoon conversations instead of Freudian analysis.



2. Viktor Frankl has presented us with snap shots of the key events in his life. These recollections were never intended for publication but through the encouragement of his publisher this slim volume was made available for readers. Thus begins our journey in looking at the life of the founder of Logotherapy and the author of "Man's Search for Meaning."

   Frankl's life is filled with interesting portraits. We learn of his mother's patrician background and the fact that she was descended from a family of prominent rabbis. His father was a struggling student and was director of the government's Ministry of Social Services.

   We get to see this inquisitive young man as he is impacted by Freud, Hirschmann, Schilder and Adler as he begins to step int the field of psychoanalysis. Through his philosophical questionings and debates with these giants in the field we find Frankl developing his own methodology. March of 1938 became a turing point for the young man as his country is invaded by the Nazis and he is placed in a concentration camp. From that experience wee see a new personality arising who meets the psychological, emotional and spiritual tensions in his life with utmost grace.We see a man who has the opportunity to leave Austria and avoid the concentration camps but he elects to stay and care for his parents.

   Unfortunately this memoir is not a full autobiography of Frankl. You receive sketches of his life and end up wanting more. Read in conjunction with Man's Search for Meaning, the reader can gain further insight on this great personality. I believe this book serves as a supplemental text for the author's Man Search for Meaning." Hopefully a full scale biographical work will come out on Frankl. Until then, this slender volume will whet your appetite to learn more about this great man.




3. It was so interesting to read Frankl's youthful experiences, and learn about his pre-concentration camp life in Austria under the Nazi's. I had not been aware of his wife's forced termination of pregnancy.



4. It is just wonderful to know about this special men in our world who has suffered to the core of his being and brought a great point of view in sicology to the worls



5. If you have read Man's Search for Meaning, this autobioraphical reflection from Frankl is very good. It is good to read about his life from his recollections. Doesn't take long to go through and I would suggest reading after Man's Search for Meaning. Frankl writes in such a way to make 'things' easy to relate to.

5 comments about Playing for Time.

1. I read this book a number of years ago. It left an indelible mark. It is the story of women survivors in a concentration camp. They literally "played for time," with musical instruments. The movie "Life is Beautiful" brought this book to mind this week. That is why I looked it up. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about courage in the face of adversity. The remarkable will to survive demonstrated by the women portrayed in this book is inspiring and unforgettable.



2. Playing for Time, a grade-A book by Fania Fenelon, is a document not only about the Holocaust, but one that goes deeper: it shows how music brought redemption of spirit in the Hell of Hells. When Fania and her friend are brought to the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, she is recognized by a girl in the camp's orchestra as a Parisian caberet singer. She is accepted in to the orchestra, where she is forced to sing the opera Madame Butterfly for the SS. Fania does not let the hardships of the camp take over her spirit, though. She uses music as a weapon, and, as an orchestrator as well as singer for the group, she orchestrates marches by Jews and anti-Nazis right under the noses of her captors, who never catch on. Fania's love of music allows her to survive Auschwitz, and when she is sent with the rest of the "Orchestra Girls" to Bergen-Belsen near the end of the war, her passion for life pulls her through a severe case of typhus. One day she learns that the Nazis are going to shoot the prisoners of Bergen-Belsen at 3:00 that afternoon. The English arrive at the camp at 11:00 that same morning. Fania just barely survived the war, and afterwards she returned to Paris and started again as a caberet singer. She died of cancer in her hometown in 1983. Playing for Time teaches us many things. It teaches us that the human spirit cannot be killed. It teaches us that good always wins over evil. And it teaches us that if you have a love, stick to it. One day it might just save your life.



3. This is an absolutely incredible book. An already powerful story it is taken to a new level by the constant reminder that this is first hand experience.

   It is perfect for nearly anyone, the musician will relate to the music, the historian to the accuracy and the avid reader will simply latch on and be unable to let go.

   It brought tears to my eyes.




4. The story has been known for many years, but this book puts in focus, by a survivor, the insanity of a lesser known action then the case at Auschwitz. A well told personal experience by someone willing to put down for history something that needed to be said. No matter how many years I've studied, and the many survivors I've known who have shared fragments, this clear telling in print for generations to come is a treasure.



5. This is the story of a French singer who spent 2± years in a Nazi concentration camp. Saved because of her musical abilities, FF spent her internment as a member of an all-women's orchestra which played for the camp's leaders. It is a strange tale, not especially well or clearly written--essentailly stuff for a holocaust junkey. Compared to Martin Goldsmith's The Unestinquishable Symphony, this book is definitely second tier.

5 comments about Tramp for the Lord.

1. Tramp for the Lord is ONE of the most rewarding books I have ever read in my life. Everyone should read this book. She too was a human who sinned and came short of the glory of God. Corrie shares so much of her heart and life - not only because of her experiences in prison, but in every day life as she traveled the United States and to other countries to share God's work. As she experienced real life situations with ordinary people, that grew her daily in her walk with God, because as Paul learned, God's work was not easy. It was those situations that she shared in "Tramp for the Lord" that she was also growing with each situation she faced as Paul did as he continued in his day discipling for God. Corrie's book, "Tramp for the Lord," is a must read after "the Hiding Place" and will be hard to put down.



2. This book is a sequel to "The Hiding Place" a biography about Corrie Ten Boom's experience during World War II, arrested and sent to a German concentration camp for hiding Jews.
   
   Corrie surrenders to God's Will for her life to take the Gospel and her story to the entire world. Because of her humbleness, she is able to connect to people from all walks of life, from royalty to prisoners. She was especially able to connect with prisoners who were hopeless because of her own experience of being locked up.
   
   It was easy for her to minister to the victims of WWII, but Corrie resisted going back to Germany, the land that she dreaded. But she obeys and goes to Germany where she meets one of her former prison guards, one of the cruelest, walking up to her after a meeting. A chill grips her heart and bitterness wells up when he asks for her forgiveness. Leaning on the power of the Holy Spirit, she was able to forgive her enemy and found God's love overflowing.
   
   Each chapter is a story and devotional about a situation Corrie encounters. My favorite one is, "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go, Dear Lord... but Not Up Ten Flights of Stairs."



3. If you read this book you will NEVER forget it. Such wonderful testimony to the miracles that the Lord is still doing in the world. I highly recommend it. It's a real page turner.



4. Tramp for the lord is an eye opener for you to look at where you are, where you have been and where you are going. A good read for those moving through life and a must read for those that want to celebrate life to it's fullest.



5. I bought this book because I grew up hearing stories of Corrie ten Boom from my mother and her friends, and I wondered what all the fuss was about.
   
   Well now I know. I couldn't possibly describe the experience of reading this book, and what it did for me, except to say that it was so much more than just a good read. I would say that it changed my life.
   
   This book showed me that walking side-by-side with the Lord wasn't just for people in Bible times--it is meant for us today.
   
   Corrie wasn't perfect. This book isn't about being perfect. And it isn't even about giving all you can give to God. On the contrary, it's about taking all you can take.
   
   Her language is so simple, yet her message incredibly profound: there is an endless resource available to each and every one of us, and that resource is Jesus Christ.
   
   Whether you're going through the most difficult time of you life, or you simply want to be inspired--Tramp for the Lord is the book for you.
   
   I've read many of Corrie's books since this one, but "Tramp" is still my favorite. I own three copies, so I always have two to lend.
   
   Now I'm the one telling people "Corrie stories" the way my mother used to. They are stories the next generation needs to hear.

2 comments about Courage Was My Only Option: The Autobiography of Roman Kent.

1. Roman Kent has written his autobiography in a conversational way. You feel as if he is sitting in your home having a one to one sharing of the road he traveled from his early childhood to the Lodz Ghetto to Auschwitz to America. I have read many autobiographies written by surivors....this is by far the best. Not only is it of historical significance and a lesson in courage, but also reflects his extraordinary value system which serves as an example to all of us. This book should be required reading for our population young and old.



2. The voices of the past are expressions of wisdom articulated from another time, with a reminder that humanity should not forget its mistakes. "Courage Was My Only Option" is an autobiography of Holocaust survivor and spokesman for its victims Roman Kent. He tells of his tale of trying to evade the cruelty of the Nazi's fervent desire to exterminate the Jewish people. He flees to the United States and must work his way into a life he can be proud living. "Courage Was My Only Option" is a must for readers looking for an inspiring tale of survival and becoming something in spite of the odds.

No comments about Diary Anne Frank.

4 comments about Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan.

1. Kaplan's comtemporaneous recording of the destruction of the Jewish community in Warsaw, starting with the Nazi invasion of Poland is most gripping and compelling. It is most interesting because it was written without the "benefit" of other purported historical accounts or the need to explain why the Nazis acted as they did. Although Kapaln has a perspective and knows he is writing for history, his maniscript is mostly reportorial. When he is providing his opinion, rather than telling what actually happened that day, Kaplan let's the reader know.

   How refreshing to be able to read an historical work, without the "spin" that now accompanies most works about the Nazi occupation of conquered lands and the extermination of the Jews of Europe. This book is must reading for both serious scholars and those who are interested in the subject matter.




2. This is the 4th Warsaw ghetto diary I've read and the 3rd I've reviewed. If I had to do it over again, I'd pick this one first. The author was a teacher and more than just a recorder of events. He was a gifted writer and master storyteller who was never deluded for a moment about what was going to happen and who never lost sight of the universal perspective. He writes in a wry, almost sarcastic style that makes his point effectively as he blasts the Nazis, Polish and Jewish collaborators, corruption in the ghetto, etc. He had me asking myself deep questions as I was reading. He constantly refers to the Nazis he encounters as stupid people. It shows how dangerous stupid people can be when given power. At one point, he says cruelty is a sickness that can affect whole communities and even entire nations. You see from his writings how contagious a sickness it is, and the more that violent, sadistic, atrocious behavior is permitted, the more it occurs. He vividly shows what can happen when people lose their sense of outrage. He knew what was going on at Sobibor and Treblinka and that the people being "resettled" were not coming back. He never trusted the Nazis, saying only evil can come from evil people. Who can argue with that when you are talking about people who lied up to the minute they closed the door of the gas chamber behind you? The last line in the book is "If I am taken, what will become of my diary?" He was not afraid of dying, but afraid that all his effort would be wasted. Well, it wasn't wasted. If only one more person reads this book on the basis of this review, I'll feel I have done my belated bit for a man who had real guts and unfortunately didn't live to see the ultimate survival of his people.



3. Chaim Kaplan begins by blaming Poland's 1939 defeat on the "incompetence" of the prewar Polish government (never mind the fact that Nazi Germany was powerful enough to roll over most of Europe, and that it finally took several powerful, industrialized nations--combined--many years to subdue Nazi Germany). He also misrepresents the Poles as ones who were basically sympathetic with Hitler and who were only forced to change their minds when Hitler conquered Poland. In actuality, many prewar Polish politicians (e. g. Pilsudski) warned of the evils and dangers of Nazism. Then again, positive opinions of Hitler were common all over the prewar world. And just as some prewar Poles didn't mind Hitler so long as he was anti-Semitic but not overtly anti-Polish, so also some prewar Jews (especially German Jews) were ready to support the Nazi movement and its Polonophobia if it would only outgrow its anti-Semitism and behave more like the old-style German aggressive nationalism.
   
   Kaplan implicitly refutes those who say that there was no Polish Quisling only because the Germans never wanted one: "You will not find one single public-spirited citizen among them [the Poles] who is willing to be the conquerors' representative, to talk to his people and make them realize that they cannot change reality and must accept the yoke of German rule--like Hacha in Czechoslovakia and Quisling in Norway. We could also add Petain in France, that stupid old man who willingly said Kaddish for his country." (p. 206).
   
   In early 1940, Kaplan rejected the notion that the Nazis would be able to stir up the Poles to large-scale violence against Jews (p. 101, 114), but he realized that isolated attacks may occur because: "No nation lacks hooligan elements, and the conquerors have paved the way for them." (p. 114) and because: "Terrorists and troublemakers are not lacking among any people, and at all times and places they can be found in sufficient numbers." (p. 101). He characterizes the Easter 1940 events as follows: "The conquerors have begun a new political operation. Gangs of young toughs, Polish youth (you won't find one adult among them), armed with clubs, sticks, and all kinds of harmful weapons, make pogroms against the Jews." (p. 134).
   
   Kaplan comments: "The conqueror tramples upon both `inferior' races, but the Jews are on the lowest rung and the Poles on the next to lowest." (p. 81). At other times, he comes close to juxtaposing the victimhood of both peoples: "Nazi pride is unlimited. The Poles and the Jews are classed together as if they were both `natives' of African jungles. Both were supposedly created only to serve the conqueror." (p. 73). Kaplan includes the following amazing statements: "At heart, the conqueror hates the Poles more deeply than the Jews. Once the head of the Warsaw district, Dr. Fischer, said, `The Poles we hate instinctively; the Jews we hate in accordance with orders.'" (p. 204).
   
   Kaplan presents evidence that, in many ways, Poles were initially victimized by the Germans more than Jews. Consider the summer of 1940: "Today, Aryans were seized for work!...When pedestrians disappeared from the streets after the hunt began, they stopped the trolleys and took the male passengers off, whether they were Poles or Jews. After personal interrogation the Jews went home and the Poles were imprisoned. How good it is to be a Jew!" (p. 179). At other times, Poles wore the Jewish Schandeband to avoid forced labor (p. 150). Poles also sent their children to Jewish homes overnight to prevent the children from being seized by Germans for forced donations of blood for German soldiers (p. 152). In spring 1941, Poles hid in the Jewish ghetto during German mass executions of Poles (p. 254).
   
   About 140,000 Poles lost their properties, along with a comparable number of Jews, during the German creation of the Warsaw ghetto (p. 212; see also p. 266). (The occasional postwar Polish killings of Jews over properties, much exaggerated by Jan Thomas Gross in his recently-published FEAR, must be understood in the light of the atmosphere of complete disregard for property rights that had recently befallen both Jews and Poles.)
   
   Katsh, the editor, credits a Pole, Wladyslaw Wojcik, for preserving Kaplan's diary for posterity and for later discovering the second Ringelblum Archive (p. 14). Kaplan himself credits the Poles for smuggling food into the Warsaw Ghetto (p. 304, 316), and, in general, for not falling for Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda: "We thought that the `Jewish badge' would provide the local population with a source of mockery and ridicule--but we were wrong. There is no attitude of disrespect nor of making much of another's dishonor. Just the opposite. They show that they commiserate with us in our humiliation. They sit silent in the street cars, and in private conversation they even express words of condolence and encouragement. `Better times will come.'" (p. 82). Also: "Common suffering has drawn all hearts closer, and the barbaric persecutions of the Jews have even aroused feelings of sympathy towards them. " (p. 114). Later, Kaplan repeatedly credited Polish messengers for scouring the entire General Government to ascertain the fact that, up to that point, 40,000 "resettled" Lublin Jews were definitely no longer alive (p. 286, 291, 309).
   
   In his entry for July 22, 1942, Kaplan is candid about the fact that, even at that late date, Warsaw's Jewish officials continued to insist that Warsaw's Jews would never be deported (p. 319). And, in common with many Jewish chroniclers, Kaplan criticizes world Jewry for its indifference to the fate of Polish Jews (pp. 76-77). During the deportations of Jews to the death camps, Kaplan lambastes the Jewish ghetto police "...whose cruelty is no less than that of the Nazis..." (p. 324), and says that: "It is the Jewish police who are cruelest toward the condemned." (p. 326).
   
   Kaplan writes: "Nazism is not original. They took everything from Bolshevism, only that they expanded its rottenness." (p. 329).



4. Having read many accounts of existence during the Holocaust, I recommend "Scroll of Agony" because it pulls the reader in on so many levels.
   The reader can learn about the system the Nazis used to try and fragment Jewish morale, culture, health and lives by attempting to suppress every aspect of Jewish life. What a powerful and understated diary!

5 comments about The Sergeant in the Snow.

1. I am shocked to find the great many people who are unaware of Mussollinni's ill-fated pursuit of glory in the east. His broken dreams left many Italian families orphaned and widowed. This well written account of the brutality of combat on the Eastern front is a fine addition to any WW2 eastern front library. It is well written and fascinating.



2. The words in the title are those of one of the author's close comrades-in-arms in the Tridentina Division, which had been attached to the Italian 8th Army on the western bank of the Don in 1942. In December of that year, the Romanians on the left flank of the Tridentines buckled under a strong Soviet offensive, and the Italians found themselves suddenly enveloped. Ordered to withdraw on 19 December, the Italians, along with Romanian and Hungarian remnants and remnants of the German 298th Infantry Division, marched west through icy wind, snowstorms and heavy drifts in an attempt to break out of the pocket. Sergeant in the Snow is a vivid first-person account of the story of this macabre odyssey up to the climactic Battle of Nikolajewka on 26 January 1943 and its aftermath.
   
   Rigoni's memoir is at once urgent, tragic, heroic and poetic. He relays the essence of the Italian spirit, so different from that of the stern and disciplined Germans, and recounts in flowing narrative and earthy dialogue exactly what it was like to march, hungry and exhausted, over 300 miles in the Russian winter. Rigoni divides his memoir into two parts: (1) the Strongpoint, wherein he tells the story of his division's struggle to repulse Soviet thrusts on the Don, and (2) the Bag, wherein he tells the story of the breakout from the pocket (the bag). As mentioned above, the climax of the action, and there is plenty of that here, takes place on the memorable 26th of January when the Italians and Germans defeat, at terrible cost, three Soviet divisions at Nikolajewka and finally break out of the encirclement: "My men hesitate, hold back, one or two of them are already wounded, and I shout: 'Come on.' I too hesitate a bit, but we're in it now, whatever happens."
   
   In the midst of battle chaos and the fog of war at Nikolajewka, one of those inexplicable and mysterious episodes occurs when the famished Rigoni enters an isba only to find a group of Russian soldiers there: "They're armed. With the red stars on their caps. My rifle's in my hand. I look at them, turned to stone. They're eating round a table, taking the food with a wooden spoon from a common bowl. And they look at me with their spoons held in mid-air....There are also some women. One takes a plate, fills it with milk and meal and offers it to me with a spoon from the common bowl....No one breathes a word. The only sound is of the spoon in my plate; and of each of my mouthfuls....The Russian soldiers watch me go out, without moving."
   
   Kudos to Northwestern University Press for bringing this remarkable book to light again. Unfortunately, the book is small and the print small, too. The translator's grammar and mechanics are somewhat archaic, and there is the glaring, almost unforgivable, absence of any maps. Dialogue should be rendered in alternating paragraphs as each character speaks, thus reducing the possibility of the reader's being confused. Although there are some footnotes along the way, this excellent memoir would certainly benefit from a thorough re-edit to include many more. In spite of these publishing flaws, The Sergeant in the Snow is a far better memoir than Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier and as good as Bidermann's In Deadly Combat. Highly recommended.



3. very spontaneous and genuine story, of young people catapulted across Europe for no reason, and still performing their duties and trying to be human. you can rely feel the soldiers pain and the bitter russian winter with the words used by the author.



4. Mario Rigoni Stern's slim memoir of his World War Two experiences sheds light on the effective destruction of the Corpo di Spedizione Italiano (CSIR) in Russia, which is perhaps one of the lesser-known events of the Eastern Front and of the entire war itself. As a personal narrative, Stern's view is from the ground and he offers little or no strategic view of how these events came to pass. This however, adds to the book because as a grunt--even in a position roughly equivalent to an American platoon sergeant of today--he wouldn't have had much access to or inclination to see the war in such a manner.
   
   Plenty of combat abounds through the short tale. Particularly once Stern and his fellows realize the entire front is collapsing and that they're caught in a "bag," slang for encirclement by the Soviets, the fighting becomes fierce. It is interesting to read the accounts of Italians, Germans, Hungarians and other taking part together in desperate attacks to break out of the Axis Powers' first epic disaster on the Eastern Front.
   
   Throughout the book courses one vein of thought that is ever-present in Stern and his soldiers: survival. "Shall we ever get home?" one soldier asks of Stern every time he sees him. "Which direction is Italy in?" others asks from the middle of the frozen steppes. And as the situation deteriorates during the long retreat westwards, Stern constantly commands and reminds the men to "always stick together." Alas, as these memoirs always illustrate, many do not make it home.
   
   A short but good work covering the Italian experience in World War Two, Stern tells his tale of the Italian Army's fortunes as seen and lived through by one of its peasant and elite Alpini soldiers.



5. A slightly different perspective makes this novella unique. The thread of a soldier on the eastern front in the cold Russian winter is a common one but this time it is based on the memoirs of an Italian. A good and quick read.