No comments about Farewell Babylon: Coming of Age in Jewish Baghdad.

3 comments about Great Jews In Sports.

1. Outside the names of Sandy Koufax and Mark Spitz, it's hard to rattle off a list of great Jewish athletes. For me, this encyclopedia of Jewish athletes (complete with photos) offered encouragement in the field of athletics, and I think this can be a very empowering book for aspiring Jewish athletes in any sport. It's fun to flip each page and learn about another exciting career!



2. I gave this as a Bat Mitzvah gift to a young woman who is into sports. Her mother reported that she really enjoyed it!



3. THIS IS A GREAT COLLECTION OF STORIES COVERING JEWISH ATHLETES. FROM MARK SPITZ TO SANDY KOUFAX, EACH PERSON IS COVERED IN NICE DETAIL TELLING A BIT OF THEIR LIFE AND WHAT THEY CONTRIBUTED TO THEIR SPORT. I REALLY FOUND THIS ENTERTAINING AND INTERESTING. A RECOMMENDED READ.

3 comments about Salvaged Pages: Young Writers` Diaries of the Holocaust (Yale Nota Bene).

1. i highly recommend this book. it is not only for those with historical interests. the diaries are so moving that this book will appeal to all. the writing is very vivid and the diarist's voice will stay with you for some time. zapruder has done an impecable job of introducing each entry. she sets the scene with such biographical and cultural detail that you feel at one with diarist before delving in. i was really moved by this book and encourage all to read it.



2. Even after countless movies and documentaries, nothing has personally ever made me direct as much attention to the tragedy of the holocaust than these young writers' words written in ghettos and in hiding places. Their optimism is heartbreaking when you learn of their fates, you see their struggles with hunger, fear of an uncertain future, their grief over losing loved ones and identity. But you also recognize their strength in troubled times and end up appreciating their courage to write, because you know it is essential that they should be known.



3. This collection provides 14 generous excerpts from journals of young people during the Shoah; the earliest diaries are from adolescents who got out before or just as things were getting bad, but as we go further on, the diaries get more intense in scope, moving from adolescents who weren't quite sure what was to come, to people who had some inkling but weren't quite sure the rumors were true, to finally young people in ghettos, young people who therefore knew how bad things were, although they didn't yet know what their final grisly fate was to be. Before each excerpt we also get a generous introduction to the author, his or her surroundings, what generally happened to the Jews of that particular city or town, and the diarist's final fate. Some of these young people survived, others perished, and still others' fates are unknown, though they are presumed to have perished. There's also an appendix detailing a number of other young diarists from the Shoah, some information on them, their fates, whether the diary is in a private collection, a museum, if it's been translated into English, or was published for the general public whatever language it's in. A lot of these young diarists were very literate and intelligent astute young people; it's incredibly sad how some of them died so young and therefore didn't get a chance to possibly become great writers. My only small complaint is that Poland is a little overrepresented; while it's true that at least half of the murdered came from Poland and that Poland was the nation that lost the greatest percentage of its prewar Jewish population by far, it would have been nice to have some variety in the locations, like maybe include more diaries from Germany, France, and Belgium, or ones from Holland, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, and Greece, for example.

5 comments about Anne Frank Remembered.

1. My son had to do a report on a historical character for his 8th grade English class so we picked up this book and several others at the library. I had read the Diary of Anne Frank several times in the past - mainly for school when I was younger. I started to look through this book and couldn't put it down. It is a very simply written and a straightforward account of the story of the Frank family, how she got to know them and their years in hiding. The last section when Otto Frank returns home (he was the only survivor of the original eight) is heartbreaking. Miep was there through it all and her strength and courage are incredible.
   
   We visited the Holocaust Museum in D.C. last summer and all those haunting pictures and displays came back to me. If you visit D.C. you should go there. We must never forget what happened to these people.



2. Millions of people around the world have been inspired and touched by the story of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl, who spent two long years in hiding, with family and a few friends, in Amsterdam, from their Nazi persecutors, during the second World War, before they were discovered and shipped off tho their deaths in Auschwitz.
   
   Twenty years ago Miep Gies (98 years old at the time of writing of this review) revealed her own courageous and generous role in hiding the Frank family and others, and providing them with food, companionship, and most of all hope.
   
   She gives revealing insight into Anne's life and of her own.
   
   Miep had been a hungry child refugee from Austria, just after the First World War, and passed her own experiences of generosity and compassion on.
   
   We read of the Nazi ocupation of the Netherlands, the decrees and attacks against the Jews, and of the deportations and hidings.
   
   Ultimately every man and women must ask what they would do, when a world goes mad.



3. Miep Gies does not consider herself to be a hero, although anyone familiar with her story would probably consider her one. In "Anne Frank Remembered" Gies (along with Alison Leslie Gold) tells of the role she played in hiding the Frank family in Amsterdam during WWII. She sets the stage with her own personal background and how she came to work for Mr. Frank, and the special connection that she almost instantaneously shared with Anne.
   
   Thousands are familiar with the events that happened while the Franks were in hiding, thanks to the legacy of Anne's diary that Gies rescued when the families were finally captured and taken to concentration camps. Gies recalls what life was like in those days, when her husband played a role in the Dutch Resistance movement and they took a Jew in to hide in their own home while hiding the eight people at 263 Prinsengracht. Her story is one of almost unbelievable courage and audacity - to so boldly defy the German captors who invaded their land and to stand up against the evils that were being perpetrated against the Jews. Miep Gies believes that others would have done, and did do, the exact same thing that she did.
   
   The story Gies has to tell expands upon the events put forth in Anne's diary. Although those in hiding knew the danger that awaited not only them but also their helpers, reading events from Miep's perspective adds another layer to the saga of the Frank family. One might wish that she expounded more upon the period after the war ended, but her focus is on Anne Frank first and foremost. So much hope was held out that Margot and Anne might make it. When news came that they didn't, it seems as if a part of Miep died, and it took her several years before she could bring herself to read Anne's diary. Even if these events are hard to speak about and hard to read, her story is a necessary addition to Anne Frank's legacy.



4. This is a well written and thoroughly moving memoir. Read in conjunction with the diary of Anne Frank you get such a feel for people from two different backgrounds on the same side of an abominable war. I loved her humbleness and it gives great insight into the pressure on those who were protecting others.



5. This was a great book and filled in a few of the questions I had always had about Anne Frank. For it to be written by Miep added so much on a personal level that I loved. This book along with the Diary of Anne Frank should be required reading for the human race.

5 comments about Joshua and Isadora: A True Tale of Loss and Love in the Holocaust.

1. A sad story beautifully written by a loving grandson. All very true and actuate. Very touching.



2. A chronicle of the author's grandparents who were married in a refugee train en-route from the Nazis, without speaking a language in common. True life fairy tale? Uplifting tale of people recovering from incredible oppression? Really it's so much more than this. This book is part history lesson, as the roots of European Jewry are explained, part travelogue, as the author travels to the places his grandparents were, and part historical narrative, the personal thread that ran through Europe convulsing during the war.
   
   Joshua, Isadora, and several generations are given life as real people. Foibles when the young grandmother gets into a horse-drawn carriage accident while sneaking out for sweets. Heroic moments when a Jewish school is set up against a backdrop of pogroms and discrimination. Questionable decisions when disassembled weapons are hidden beneath the baby father of the author's bedding as British soldiers come searching. Heartwarming moments when children forge friendships in fetid refugee camps. A nuanced view of a now gone Europe is presented without easy moralizing. The same peasants that ransack corpses as they fall out of forced marches provide a starving young girl with life saving food. Life in concentration camps is presented starkly. Skill with sewing uniforms brings double rations and points out the absurdity of who lived and who died.
   
   The book is mindful to be honest about the limitations of being based on old memories forged during difficult times. Ways that reality could have differed from recollection are noted. This breathes humanity into the people who made these memories. It makes them less idealized icons who shined at their moment in history, and more humans doing their best in a difficult time.
   
   It is a pleasure to be welcomed into the life of the author and introduced to the people in his history. This is really a magnificent work.



3. This was an incredibly heartfelt book. It was extremely informative and added some new thoughts about how tenacious and courageous these people were. It was flawlessly written.
   
   Michael Benanav is a gifted young writer. His compassionate writing of this story made it a wonderful reading experience about a time in history that should NEVER be forgotten.
   
   KL



4. Benanav is a talented writer, turning a family history and personal journey into a page-turning adventure. He helps the reader understand the horror of the era, yet does so without sounding either maudlin or unsympathetic: a delicate balancing act made all the more difficult given the family connections. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book.



5. This is a true story of the author's grandparents' determination to survive in the face of horrible conditions during World War II and their desperate efforts to hold on to their families, their dignity, their hope for a future. It is a loving retelling of their stories by their grandson against the backdrop of his travels to the same places they had journeyed through, struggling towards freedom and security. This is a beautifully written, absorbing tale of their two journeys, separated by 60 years and extraordinary hardships. Definitely worth reading.

5 comments about Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics.

1. Very good history lesson. The book flows well and gives a good account of what America and the world was like during Mr. Owen's life. Would encourage the reading of Triumph



2. Take a trip back to the days of World War II in this historical account of Jesse Owens and his trip to the Berlin Olympics.



3. Here we have a mostly victorious investigation into Jesse Owens' historic performance at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Germany. The story is hugely inspiring and all readers will become fans of Owens for both his athletic prowess and his personal qualities. Jeremy Schaap untangles the pervasive racial politics surrounding this historical episode, as both the Americans and Germans badly over-interpreted and exploited (in many different ways) the presence of Owens and his black teammates at the Olympic games that Hitler tried to turn into a showcase for his regime's hateful ideas of Aryan superiority. Schaap also untangles the legends of Hitler's apparent refusal to personally meet with Owens, which may have been a more complex situation than the simplistic racial snub that historians have assumed in the decades since.
   
   But despite the inspiration offered by Owens and the exciting coverage of his many victories, this book suffers from some serious underlying problems. Most important is Schaap's use of invented dialogue and fanciful constructions of inner thoughts. The Notes section proves Schaap's diligent and frequent use of authentic sources for real historical events and occasional direct quotes, but citations are suspiciously rare for conversations between the persons covered and their supposed inner decision making. One especially worrisome example is the episode in which Owens decided not to show his coach a telegram he had received from the NAACP, in which Schaap gives no sources for Jesse's internal thoughts as presented in the book. Meanwhile, Schaap apparently couldn't decide if the book should be a biography of Owens or a historical account of the 1936 Olympics, leading to an inconsistent timeline, tiresome tangents into related events (like the petty parliamentary struggles surrounding an American movement to boycott the Games), and gaps in the thematic explorations of Owens' true influence on the issues of his day and on the future of sports. Regardless, Jesse Owens shines through for the reader, but Schaap's inability to avoid some of the weaknesses of standard sports reporting leaves the reader wanting more of the man who made history. [~doomsdayer520~]



4. We ordered this work for our grandson who was doing a school project on Owens. The text captured his interest and proved a helpful source for his sixth grade research project.



5. This is really a fine histury of the 1936 Olympics in addition to a review of Jesse Owens career leading to the Olympics. This should be required reading for all of the current sports writers and editors. it should be read especially by those that thought that Clay was even close to being the outstanding athlete of the century. It would be a five star book if the author hadn't inserted some of his personal biasis.

5 comments about Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story.

1. Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania in 1940. As the Germans invaded Poland, thousands of refugees flooded into Lithuania begging for visas that would allow them to travel to safety. Despite repeated orders from his government, Sugihara signed travel visas around the clock and saved thousands of Jewish lives. He followed his conscience knowing full well the social and professional consequences that would follow. The drama of the events and the courage of Sugihara and his family make this true story unforgettable. Dom Lee's sepia tone illustrations complement the story and convey the desperation and fear of the refugees and the bravery of the Sugihara family.



2. I used this book as an introduction to the Holocaust for my 7-year-old. Rather than starting him off on the atrocities, I used this well-written and beautiful book to start him off with learning that we Jews were once in grave danger, and there were some people who took care of us when they could, even though it was a difficult choice.
   
   3/4 of the way through reading the book out loud to my son, I started to cry a little. The story is poignant, of course, but more than that, the writing captures the meaning in such a simple and straight-forward way.
   
   I would recommend this book to anybody, Jewish or not Jewish. It is an excellent introduction to the concept that life can be dangerous, along with the idea that good people exist, AND that any one of us can choose to be a person who makes a difference.
   
   The writing makes it clear that Sugihara was risking his and his family's lives to do the right thing. And, the writing makes it clear that being the child of someone who is willing to do the right thing can be difficult, but well worth it.
   
   A beautiful book.



3. When reading this booki was amazed that so few would do so much for so many,Ive never heard of a story like it. What suprised me even more was that the man who saved all those Jews was a Japanese, if i remember correctly where an axis power during WW2 and allied with the Germans. This man must have really followed his heart if he was to defy his own country, and for that i really admire him



4. When reading this booki was amazed that so few would do so much for so many,Ive never heard of a story like it. What suprised me even more was that the man who saved all those Jews was a Japanese, if i remember correctly where an axis power during WW2 and allied with the Germans. This man must have really followed his heart if he was to defy his own country, and for that i really admire him



5. I have heard of the story and what he did in the past, but not in this detail written for children. I am very proud to be Japanese, and hope my sons, for whom I purchsed it, will feel the same way because they are half Japanese and half American. This book could be an asset to anybody with Japanese blood.

5 comments about After Long Silence.

1. This is one of my favorite books of all time. It is a real eye opener even after years of hearing, learning, and reading about the Holocaust. I plan to read it again.



2. I was very surprised to learn that Helen Fremont was able to become a lawyer and knew nothing about the Holocaust. What kind of education did she obtain? How was it possible that she wasn't interested in her parent's history? Even if they were Roman Catholics.
   Book is full of historical errors (Warsaw was captured within hours, it was safer to be a Pole in the streets a Lvov during the German invasion)
   It bothered me that the street names were Misspelled (Owacowa instead of Owocowa, Mariacki Platz insead of Plac Mariacki)
   The story itself was very interesting. I wish however it was written by her parents.



3. From today's perspective, it is difficult to comprehend just why a couple who survived the Holocaust would hide their Jewish identify from their daughters for years, insisting that they are Polish Catholic refugees in the USA. This memoir, however, explains how their fear of a repeat pogrom drives them to deny their heritage, keep secret their loss of religious identify, and assuage their horrific memories and guilt at surviving.Fremont and her sister's quest to discover the truth causes their parents much pain, but the author is clear that the family's pain had dominated their lives since birth.



4. I have given this book as a gift to at least five friends. I couldn't put it down!



5. Imagine as a young adult, passionately involved in your career, you start pulling away the pieces of the facade your parents had created to protect you and your sister fom the truth about your own family. Like pulling a thread and unravelling your entire wardrobe to show your nakedness, Helen Fremont knew whe was dealing with sensitive, even explosive issues, but he could not stop pulling that thread.
   What she has done with this remarkable memoir is show her family's roots and branches in ways she never knew existed before she and her sister began discussing the "What if's?" It is a moving story packed with complicated relationships and the true history of her parents' lives and the terrors they went through during the Holocaust era in Europe. You finish the book wondering how such a powerful story could be supressed, and cheering for Helen Fremont for unearthing it. As with so many memoirs, you are also left wondering, "where are they now?" and hoping for a sequel.

5 comments about The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany.

1. I listened to Martin Goldsmith on "Performance Today" (and still listen to his successor, Fred Child) for many years. This man who for years described classical music on the radio -- composers and their life story, pieces and their histories, in accessible, engaging, and lightly humorous ways, and even sometimes tied it in to his love of baseball -- he also has an extraordinary family story. It's moving and well-written, and makes me think about the extraordinary stories that must dwell in the depths of my own geneological past.



2. This story was impossible to put down and when you finish, it stays with you for a very long time. Its hard to believe that Gunther and Rosemary didn't make every effort to help their parents emigrate to U. S. What really bothers me most is, not being Jewish, what would I have done in Germany in the late thirties and early forties when I saw these atrocities happening?



3. What do we really know about our parents' life before we were born? That depends largely, I guess, on how much of an interest we show - and on how much they are willing to reveal. Because in the life of every person there are instances and times they rather wish to forget, and not revive time and again by discussion, even if only among their nearest and dearest.

   Such, in the lives of author Martin Goldsmith's parents, were the years from 1933 through 1941; so much so, in fact, that Goldsmith likens that time to the massive ash tree in the house of Germanic warlord Hunding, the setting of the first scene of Richard Wagner's opera "Die Walkuere:" Something looming large, yet never openly acknowledged. Because before George Gunther Goldsmith, furniture and home decorating salesman of Cleveland, Ohio, and his wife Rosemary, a violinist with the St. Louis Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra, became American citizens in 1947, they had lived a whole other life - the hunted life of Jews in Adolf Hitler's Germany. And only years after his mother's death, on a trip to his father's home town of Oldenburg, did Goldsmith catch the first glimpses of what was hidden behind that massive ash tree, and George Goldsmith began to talk about the events which his, the Goldschmidt family had witnessed there; as well as the early life of Rosemarie nee Gumpert in Duesseldorf, the couple's first meeting in Frankfurt, and their later life in Berlin until their lucky escape to the United States. Beginning with this visit, Martin Goldsmith retraced his family's path to the early years of the 20th century, when his paternal grandfather Alex Goldschmidt took residence in Oldenburg, and his maternal grandfather Julian Gumpert settled in Duesseldorf.

   How intensely personal this voyage into the past must have been becomes clear in the account of Goldsmith's visit to Oldenburg prison, as a participant in a march retracing the path taken by the Jews - among them the author's grandfather - driven through the streets of Oldenburg in 1938 by Nazi thugs, to later be shipped off (at least temporarily) to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. But although he writes about his very own family, and now in full knowledge of their fate, Goldsmith's narrative is in no way sentimental. With a journalist's detachment he talks about Guenther and Rosemarie, Alex, Julian and their wives and other children; turning a nonfiction account whose outcome is clear from the very start into a heartstopping tale few would be able to believe if presented with it under colors other than that of the plain historic truth.

   Prominently featured in Goldsmith's account is the Jewish Culture Association, or Juedischer Kulturbund; as of 1933 the German Jews' only permitted artistic organization, in whose orchestra Guenther and Rosemarie had met and which had formed the center of their life until they finally left the country. One of the most controversial institutions of Nazi Germany, it reunited what was left of the country's Jewish musicians, artists, writers and composers - providing a modicum of shelter in an increasingly hostile environment, but also a convenient tool in the Nazi propaganda machine. Were the members of the Kulturbund instrumentalized to deceive public opinion, at home and abroad, about the true intentions of Hitler's government? By giving their Jewish audience a sense of comfort and "belonging," did they also prevent some of them from rescuing themselves when there still would have been time? The surviving members of the "Kubu" and their families, interviewed by Goldsmith, come down on both sides of the issue; and the fate of the survivors is probably as symptomatic as that of the many who ultimately did perish in Nazi concentration camps - chiefly among those the Kulturbund's charismatic founder Dr. Singer, who not only let himself deceive into returning to Germany after already having reached the safe shores of the U.S. but saw a mark of distinction even in his deportation to the "model" concentration camp of Theresienstadt.

   Yet, for Guenther and Rosemarie the years with the Kulturbund were dominated, above all, by the musical companionship they experienced. What does seem to have haunted them most for the rest of their lives, however, was their very escape to America, while their remaining family members were stuck in Europe and, one way or another, died in Hitler's concentration camps - and the feeling that with a little effort they just *might* have saved at least some of them. The letters of Alex Goldschmidt and his younger son Helmut, written to Guenther from captivity in France after their own unsuccessful attempt to flee to Cuba, are among the most chilling testimonials contained in this book; and the decision to translate and include them conceivably cannot have been an easy one for Goldsmith. Indeed, it apparently was the knowledge of his family's fate that, all talent and love of music aside, eventually compelled George Goldsmith to forever retire the flute which, in his life as Guenther Goldschmidt, had been the only item of true importance besides his beloved wife Rosemarie; thus punishing himself in a way no outsider could have done. Yet, the couple's gift for music lives on in their son, who in his own way has brought many hours of joy to radio listeners all over the U.S.

   Martin Goldsmith's "Inextinguishable Symphony" - named for Danish composer Carl Nielsen's Fourth Symphony, which sets music, as a parable for life itself, against war, terror and destruction - is as much a personal journey of discovery as a journalist's account of historic facts; seeking to understand rather than to judge. It deals with a time in which morality was thoroughly upset by a profoundly immoral regime, which cannot possibly have remained without effect on anybody who witnessed those events. In applying our own values to those facts, I think we would all do well in being careful to, likewise, make a thorough effort to understand before we judge. Goldsmith's insightful account is a great place to begin such a process.




4. MG's story of his family during the early Nazi era is an unusual glimpse into the lives of German Jews during the period from 1933-1941. He writes about the Kulturbund, an organization created by the Nazis to (1) rid Germany of Jewish influence in the arts and (2) provide propaganda coverage of the maltreatment of Jews by the Third Reich.
   
   In my opinion the book is generally well written and seems to be the result of careful research. My one complaint is that MG frequently quotes conversations which I doubt have been recorded in any way. I don't like that in historical writing, but in this case I was willing to overlook it, because of my interest in the story.



5. My bookclub is entering into its Holocaust Month. Someone recommended this book to me last year and I thought, it sounded interesting enough to read. Interesting just barely describes this book. Haunting is more the word that I think of when I finished this book. Incredibly lucky are two more words.
   
   There are so many books out there about the Holocaust that it can be confusing sometimes to read what. This book definitely should be read simply because it's beautifully moving, tragically sad and not only that, it provides a different viewpoint of what happened during the early years of Nazihood in Germany and before the "Final Solution" was proposed to exterminate the Jews. This happened and I don't recall hearing much about any of this till I read this book. Before Hitler and Goring proposed the death camps and just while trying to get rid of Germany of the non-Aryan blood, they came up with a solution that provides entertainment and music/art/theater productions just for the Jews. This is a place for the Jews to retreat to. They were only allowed to play Jewish pieces written by Jewish artists/musicans. And they were left alone in the 30s and early 40s. Well, not quite completely left alone as they still had to follow the Nazi rules. But it was a place of refuge for the Jews, especially in Berlin.
   
   This book, while devoting a huge portion to the Kulturbund and its orgins, the author writes of his personal family history. His mother and father were musicans in the Kulturbund. And they suffered horrible tragedies as the war progressed over the years. However, they were young, in love and naive like a lot of people were. They did manage to escape Germany but they also managed to leave behind family members which have haunted them and their children even to this day. It is very intense reading at times and with hindsight on the reader's part, it is very hard to fathom their optimism that things will work out ok in the end. Not only that, this book brings up the question of whether or not the Kulturbund was good for the Jews or kept them compliant enough to keep them in Germany instead of escaping to other countries, so the Nazis could gas them too. This book is haunting and disturbing. The questions that the author may have unknowingly stirred are now raised in my mind ... and the answers are not easy to figure out.
   
   This is not your typical Holocaust book nor is it like the other books about the camps ~~ this book simply tells a tale of two musicans who were unfortunate to be caught up in the times that stirred Germany (and the world) ~~ but yet, their love of music has sustained them through the years before they left Germany. Are they heros? Not in the sense that we associate it with. They are more like survivors and like all survivors, they carry a burden of guilt that resounded through the years. But it is a book that honors the memory of those who were left behind in a time of turmoil that even today, still vibrates through the years.
   
   9-28-07

5 comments about Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943.

1. I am responding to previous reviews - I do not think this book is about romance, and I did not feel lack of personal "data".
   This is an incredible documentry book that document a time (1943) and place (Berlin). Yes, it is about love story. More so, it is about the human tendency to except the current situation and ignore warning bells, the systematic Nazi optression etc.



2. I liked this book. Some of the pictures, I really wish I could blow up and have as prints in my room. The story gives a lot of insight into that era. The Amazon criticism is that the author really doesn't focus much on the lesbian aspect, instead focusing more on the era, the World War II Jewish persecution, etc. Given the setting and the individuals involved, this seems understandable. I really, really enjoyed this story. The problems and personality flaws of the women aren't glossed over either which is nice.



3. It is a great book about a love affair during the war. I love how it tells about how the continued writing to eachother even when apart. This story will make you cry but is very beautiful in many ways.



4. I enjoyed the film version of "Aimee & Jaguar", but I think the book tells a much deeper story. We get to know the characters on a more profound level: I was especially charmed by the poems both women wrote, especially Jaguar's rhymed comments on her everyday life experiences. The book provides astonishing details about life for Jews who went "underground" in Berlin; somehow, the picture of the slow tightening of the Nazi noose was clearer to me from this book than from the many other works I've read on the period. And Aimee's fate after the war was unexpected--messy, frustrating, and human. A more timid author might have left some of this information out.
   
   I do have a few complaints about Fischer's approach to writing history: I agree with some other reviewers that the story tended to get muddled in the constant mention of unimportant names and dates, and it's difficult to keep track of the minor characters. An index would have helped with this. The author included loads of love letters, which get a little repetitive. I also would have liked to see more photos of Aimee & Jaguar's friends, rather than so many pictures of just the two of them.
   
   I don't have the knowledge to assess how successful Fischer was at capturing lesbian feelings: the love between the characters seemed believable to me, and there was one fairly explicit scene that many historians would not have dared to write, but which I think added to the emotion of the story. I did think it was odd--bordering on irresponsible, for a historian--that Fischer stated in an epilogue that she thought Jaguar would have left Aimee if they had been together longer. This is pure speculation. Though I appreciated Fischer's honest confession of her feelings about Aimee, it might have been fairer to the reader if the author had put this at the beginning of the book. After reading the epilogue, I remembered a number of incidents in the story that portrayed Aimee in a negative light, and I couldn't help but think that Fischer's personal attitude may have colored her telling of those events. For example, when Jaguar is sent to a concentration camp, Aimee tries unsuccessfully to demand her release from the camp authorities. This action is described as "irrational", and one onlooker comments that it may have even harmed Jaguar. But no evidence for this is given--letters from Jaguar after Aimee's visit say nothing about it. Aimee's attempt might just as easily have been described as a sign of her great love for Jaguar, or of her bravery in confronting the Nazis, but instead, a picture is painted of a woman behaving irrationally, a standard sexist stereotype.
   
   I can understand why Fischer was offended that Aimee appropriated Jaguar's Jewish background after the war. I think some of Aimee's attitude might have come from the role of German women in the time that she lived: she would have expected to take on some of the attributes and beliefs of her "husband." Plus, she was disgusted at the system that had robbed her of her lover. And her action can also be looked at in a positive way: one of Aimee's sons became very interested in the Hebrew language, and ended up emigrating to Israel. Is that a bad thing? I thought it was strange that Fischer gave so little credit to Aimee for the risks she took to try and help Jaguar and a number of other Jews. It is true that Aimee was not always on "the good side", and Fischer did some hard work investigating her background. But shouldn't people who learn and change be given some respect?
   
   Fischer closes the book with a description of her own husband's work, which will probably make every reader feel immensely guilty. Again, not something most historians would do, but it is another sign of Fischer's brave, though not always successful, attempts to get to the heart of humanity's struggle with its own dark side.



5. This book is the very first book to ever make me cry, and I'm one of those people who've read all types of genres. It was captivating and compelling. Like many, I saw the movie first, but when I saw it was a true story, I simply had to have the book as well. I am glad I did. The book provided the background and meaning that the movie left out. Because of the book, I will probably have to rewatch the movie again.
   
   The courage, bravery, and love shown in this novel is beyond compare. It's a read worth reading slowly.