5 comments about I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree: A Memoir of a Schindler's List Survivor.

1. One day I had nothing to read and I decided to get this book because I heard was great. It kept me on the edge of my seat through the whole book! I finished in less than two days and have read it five more times since.



2. This book is great! I have always been interested in this subject and i don't normaly read books! I'm a junior in high school and i enjoyed this book ALOT!!! Great character plot and great ending!! I don't want to return it to the library!! Also i share the same last name!



3. This is the first-person account of Hannelore Wolff, a survivor of Nazi death camps and a Jew on Schindler's List. The story chronicles Hannelore's time when she leaves safety to accompany her mother and brothers to first a Jewish ghetto and then to a concentration camp in an effort to keep the family together. Hannelore then spends the next three years living day to day as she survives the disease, death, and horrors of the Holocaust. Her story is by turns one of luck, faith, and perseverance as she ultimately finds herself on Oskar Schindler's famous list and thus brought to the relative safety of his factory. Along the way Hannelore meets and falls in love with her future husband, Dick. Mrs. Hillman gives us a chilling account of a desperate time and helps us all to remember those who should not be forgotten. A tremendous story that will touch you deeply. Highly recommended.



4. This is one of the best books I've ever read on any subject. It was compelling reading--I, too, couldn't put it down.
   I love its honesty. Nothing was left out of this book. And yet it is not sensational or graphic. It's an honest, humane, and brave book about a terrifying time.
   I'm so grateful to the author for writing it.



5. The book I will Plant You A Lilac Tree by Laura Hillman is an excellent book. I would most likely recommend it to girls though. I would recommend it to girls because the book talks about Hannelore getting sexually assaulted and other things like her falling in love with Bernard (Dick) Hillman. I would also recommend this book because it talks about true fact that happened during the Holocaust. This book has been the best book I've ever read. One reason it is would be because she expresses her feelings about the people she loved and lost, but also how she hated what was happening to the Jewish religion. All in all if you're looking for a good read I think you should read the book I will Plant You A Lilac Tree.

5 comments about Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered (The Helen Rose Scheuer Jewish Women's Series).

1. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was written in a way that went through Ruth's life during the Holocaust years. It starts at the very beginning and just talks about her whole experience. I like how Ruth mixed in experiences and comments from the future. This showed how the Holocaust still impacts her life and what she thinks about her surroundings. No one will ever be able to understand what Ruth had to suffer while in the concentration camps. But I feel that by reading her life story it makes it seem more of a reality and brings to life aspects of how the Jews were treated during this time period in American history. All the hardship and discrimination that Ruth had to endure shows the power and willingness she had to live. I liked how she never said it was strength that le ther live rather it was mostly luck. I thought that reading this book made me feel greatful for everything that I have. I would recommend reading this book if you want to realize what life during the Holocaust was like.



2. The author doesn't simply recount fact and opinion, she has truly analyzed her childhood growing up in Vienna and then through the Holocaust and concentration camp. What a treasure we have in this book to document one girl's life, living through a horrific time in history. It is a bonus that the author is such an outstanding writer. Kluger allows the reader to relate to her life through their own life experiences. She is certainly someone I'd like to know better. Highly recommend.



3. Ruth Kluger gives a remarkably lucid and thoughtful account of her experiences as WWII Austria, and eventually the concentration and forced labor camps of Germany. Even though English is not her first language, Kluger writes remarkably succinct and cogent English prose, and she confronts the moral and emotional complexity of the holocaust in her memory. "Still Alive" is loosely structured, as Kluger prefers to record the events as she recalls them as opposed to adhering to strict chronology, but the result is very interesting, she superimposes her thoughts and secrets as the horrible events unfold. She paints a vivid and, at times unusual portrait of the Nazi holocaust, often ruminating on the pain and humiliation (she wonders if her father trampled children when sentenced to the gas chamber), but also the sheer enormity of the camps as an historical event, she recalls that when she received her tattoo she felt glee because she realized that she was a part of something that was much larger than herself, something "worth witnessing." A third of the memoir is post-holocaust, Kluger recounts her experiences in New York after the war as she and her mother struggle to regain control of their lives, and look for possible meaning and redemption in their past-suffering.



4. There are many excellent memoirs describing the Nazi death camps, but this one touched me in a way that no other book has.
   
   My fiancé died in the World Trade Center, and this is really the only book that resonates with the deep, bitter grief I felt in that disaster's aftermath. I don't mean to compare 9/11 to the Shoah at all, but Kluger articulates many of the contradictory feelings and beliefs I myself have struggled with, including my frustration at being shaped by something that everyone knows about, but almost no one understands. I felt a shock of recognition when she complained about people visiting Auschwitz as a sentimental gesture, because I feel that same (totally irrational) discomfort about people visiting "Ground Zero". Though I have lived my life as an intellectual, Kluger spoke to the savage in me that still rails and howls at my loss.
   
   This is oftentimes an angry, bitter book, but she mentions in passing that she has grandchildren, so I believe she found some measure of joy in her life after her internment. After my tragedy, I was forced to ask myself how someone who doesn't believe in life after death can go on in the face of the gruesome injustice of existence. I never really found an answer, but I kept on living, and I don't intend to stop anytime soon. I heard a lot of my journey in Kluger's voice as well, and I am exceedingly grateful that she wrote this book.



5. I found this book extremely tedious, poorly edited, full of boring speculations and philosophical self centerdness. Am shocked at myself being able to say this about any survivor, but there you have it. I kept thinking, "OK, now when are you going to get on with the actual story", before realizing that it just droned on in this way. A much better book that I just read is 'A Jump for Life', a far more moving account and likeable woman.

1 comments about Dream Homes: From Cairo to Katrina, an Exile's Journey (Jewish Women Writers).

1. This is a beautiful book. Some sentences are so evocative that I returned to them again and again to inhale them, to plumb them for more meaning, to enjoy the beauty of the words, wording, and thought. At the same time, the words impelled me on and on--I could not put the book down until I was finished with it, and was then sorry I was--into Zonana's story of loss, her feeling of geographical and personal exile and search for home. As I read, her story, it became my story, even though the outlines of my life have been completely different. Zonana taps into a universal loneliness, estrangement, need for answers, and desire to find a place that makes us feel complete, like we belong and are at home.

5 comments about Rescue: The Story of How Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust.

1. Rescue: The Gentiles Who Saved Jews in the Holocaust, is a wonderful book. It tells in almost firsthand experince how the Gentiles saved some of the Jews and why.



2. This book proves a worthwhile read for anyone searching for a real-life hero. This book tells of people willing to risk their lives to save those of others. Rescue gives great insight into the lives of the heroes, and gives proof that people don't need to have super powers to change someone's life. Through this book, it's readers will come to realize (if they have not already) the importance of acceptance of diversity.

   Although every person featured in this book is a hero, one group of people stands out the most, the people of a small village with a large university. The head of the (Christian) school had many of his Jewish villagers looking for protection from the Nazis. He protected every person that came to him. He set up schools for the Jewish children and taught them of their heritage. When word got around to other gentiles of what the schoolmaster was doing, they sent many refugees there. In the end, this village which secret had been kept throughout the war, ended up saving over a thousand lives.

   Some people mentioned in this book did very small things, but even the smallest deed can change someone's life. The Nazis of Hitler could not help but feel for the suffering Jews. Many times during Rescue, they could be bribed or for no cost they would turn their heads. They would pretend they say nothing. The Nazis let hundreds of people travel from Denmark to free Sweden where they could live without torment.

   
   Rescue is a collection of many stories about Christians helping Jews in Europe during World War II. In that time, helping Jews was cause enough for punishment. These Gentiles were risking a lot for others. One woman of great respect held hundreds of Jewish children in her home. She risked a punishment of being sent to a concentration camp. This brave soul fell in love with a Jew, secretly married him, and bore him a child. Although the son died, the couple still had a wonderful marriage. Without her willing to accept people of different beliefs, many more children could have lost their lives.

   Some say that heroes have to be strong, manly, and dashing. Some say that heroes have to fly, see through walls, and be as fast as a speeding bullet. In this book, The Rescue, to be someone's hero, all you need is some compassion, bravery, and a willingness to help others in need. In other words, some humanity. This book helps to see that times have greatly changed from long ago, when the Greeks developed their own ideas of heroism. Now all you need to be a hero is to help or change someone's life for the better.




3. The biography, Rescue: The Story of How Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust by Milton Meltzer, reflects on the people and events that are not usually thought of with the topic of the Holocaust. In the book, the Gentiles prove to be convincing heroes because they go out of their way and risk their lives to help others, which they are taught to hate. This book is a worthwhile read because the heroic deeds of the Gentiles are well explained, and the author sparks the interest of the reader to learn more about each Gentile's story.
   The Gentiles are heroes because they go above and beyond what is expected in everyday life. They protected the Jews because they believe it is the right thing to do, regardless of what they are taught by the anti-Semitists. For example, a student, Marion Pritchard, witnesses the brutality by the Germans to Jewish children, while she is riding her bike down the road. This disturbing incident shocks her into wanting to do as much as she could to help them and stop this cruelty. "Crying with rage, she just sat there on her bicycle and at that moment decided she would do anything she could to stop such atrocities." (p.140). By choosing to do this, she puts herself in danger and alters the course of her life.
   The author says that the Gentiles even help strangers; this is not an unusual characteristic of heroes since they tend to be selfless, and do not distinguish between the people they help. In Poland, a woman, Elizabeth Przewlocka, grabs a Jewish boy before he is about to be deported. She hid him until she could find an orphanage for him. "Elizabeth Przewlocka, snatched a Jewish child she didn't know while the Nazi guard wasn't looking." (p.32). The author gives several examples of this throughout the book. Milton Meltzer successfully paints a vivid picture of the activities taking place. This makes the reader feel like they are physically seeing the story unfold.
   The author, Milton Meltzer, writes the story of the Gentiles in an intriguing way. He gives the reader informative stories about many different Gentiles who assisted the Jews during the Holocaust. He also makes connections between different places and periods of time when the Holocaust was taking place. For example, Adolf Eichman, a German Nazi bureaucrat, is described in a few places throughout the book. First, his background is explained, and then later in the book, some of the horrible things he planned for the Jews. These include in Budapest with his goals of destroying every Jew possible, and the deportation of families in Holland, like Anne Frank's. "Adolf Eichmann prepared a plan to round up the Jews in Budapest, the capital." (p.106), "Anne was sent to Auschwitz in the last deportation of Dutch Jews organized by Eichmann." (p. 134). Also, the book and its events are connected, even from chapter to chapter, so that all the stories flow smoothly. For example, chapter six is about Le Chambon and Andre Trocme, "That `dangerous, difficult Trocme,' as he had been called by his national church, had made goodness happen in Le Chambon." (p.87), and leads into the next chapter, which is about Denmark and Sweden, "In the village of Le Chambon all the people came together to save the lives of thousands of Jews. In the country of Denmark another spectacular act of human solidarity took place." (p.89). This makes the book easy to follow and understand. To get an even fuller understanding of where each of the rescues is taken place, there are maps at the beginning of each chapter. There is also an index in the back of the book to find specific events or people, which are mentioned throughout the biography. Milton Meltzer leaves readers with questions to think about, "Would I, could I, we wonder, stand up for the persecuted and the helpless? Would I risk so much? Would I care that much?". (p.156).
   This book is a must read because it gives a different view of the Holocaust, from the heroic people who help rather than the ruthless ones who kill. The book is particularly suitable for people with little knowledge of the Holocaust. It is written for people with interest in the Holocaust, but without emphasize on the gruesome details. This biography shows that there are many ways in which people show their heroism.



4. When  you think of the word "Holocaust", a horrific image of Hitlers Nazis persecuting Jews for their faith comes to mind.  This, of course, was the case in Nazi-controlled Europe during the forties, however, Milton Meltzers Rescue: The Story of How Gentiles Saved the Jews in the Holocaust offers a new light to such a dark topic.  The Nazi attempt to "eliminate", or murder, all of Europes "impure" citizens killed six million Jews.  While, yes, many groups worked to eliminate those of the Jewish faith, others found this destruction morally wrong and put their efforts towards saving the persecuted.  These wonderful humans, many of them unknown, sacrificed their comfort, safety, and even their own lives to rescue those stricken by the Nazi hand.  The book takes you on a journey through Europe, showing the rescue efforts of  Poland, Germany, Italy, Holland, France, Denmark, Russia, and other nations gentiles.  Excellently written yet understandable this book is, for the most part, interesting.   This touching book is a wonderful reading experience for everyone.  
   From risky and daring rescues to merely sharing a piece of bread, the heroes of the Holocaust  got the Jews through the tragic time.  Meltzers down-to-earth and comprehensive story-telling technique makes the many tales featured in this book engrossing and very realistic.  The stories give a rescue perspective for nations throughout Europe.  In Poland, aiding the Jews was an extremely difficult and dangerous endeavor.  As the book points out, "in scarcely three weeks.the Nazis had Poland in an iron grip".  In addition, the Jews really stuck out from the Christians, were different from them in many aspects.  These harsh circumstances didnt keep some Polish Christians from sheltering and hiding Jews, taking them in as their own.  The "sin" of hiding a Jew was punishable by torture and death, and not just for the offender, but for the heros entire community.  Even in Germany itself, all was not lost for the Jews.  One of the German saviors, Oskar Schindler, saved many Jews by concealing them in a factory he pretended to run.  He even saved Jews already located in Auschwitz, one of the worst death camps.  Danish gentiles managed to rescue Jews from execution by guiding them on a dangerous sea voyage to neutral Sweden.  If  you Want to hear of more heroic acts from these and other nations, read the book!   
   The stories in Meltzers book  not only penetrate the brain with factual information, they also reach the reader on a deep emotional level.  The tales include one of two lovers of different religions sacrificing a safe and comfortable life to conceal themselves and their baby, a young girl brought up to despise Jews who risked her life to safe a Jewish woman tangled in wires and then moved her family around the country to conceal the woman, and catholic priests and nuns who hid dozens of Jews in their churches.  Most of the gentile heroes who saved the Jews went without fame and fortune, they were true heroes who did their deeds purely out of the goodness of their hearts.  They were able to put aside the differences they had with the Jews and recognize only the fact that the Jewish were human being who were suffering and needed a rescue.  
   To tell the true Holocaust story, Meltzer spares none of the tragic details of this horrific time, so if you are looking for a fun, light read, this is not the book for you.  However, this book is an excellent learning tool for people of any age to truly understand both the pain and the heroics of the Holocaust.  When the book is closed, the reader is left with a strong sense of pride for the heroes of our world and a hopeful message that there is always light in the darkness, and human goodness will always survive.     



5. A gentile is defined as one who helped many innocent Jewish people during the time period when Nazi power took over during the Holocaust.  Rescue the novel written by Milton Meltzer is a touching story of how many brave gentiles tried to save the lives of those who were looked down apon, such as the Jews during the Holocaust. Many of the gentiles took the Jews into their homes, at risk they may too be caught. These gentiles spent much money and time on hiding these Jews. These gentiles exceeded the meaning of a hero. Through the book I got a personal understanding of how heroic these people were, and at how much they put themselves at risk. The book was extraordinary and helped the reader understand much of what was going on in the lives of the people who weren't Jewish, and how much they really did try to do to help their Jewish friends and neighbors.  I feel this book was worth while reading, and I really enjoyed this piece of literature. The theme of  a hero is seen throughout the novel in various ways.
   The story takes its position at the beginning of the book explaining to the reader the start of the Holocaust and how it came to be. As the reader reads further on the author starts to discuss the significance of the many people who helped save lives during this harrowing time. The first hero that is introduced to us in the book is Maria von Maltzen. Maria took in Hans Hirschel. Hirschel was a forty year old Jew who went into hiding in 1942. Hans called Maria, Marushka. Marushka was a countess whom loved Germany but despised the Nazis. Soon to prove she greatly opposed what the Nazi's were doing she met up with Hans and took him into her flat. Marushka and Hans suffered many times through out the book, but Marushka kept her head high during all the tragic events. This act of courage demonstrated that these gentiles were indeed heroes and that they put themselves at risk.
   Another section in the story that an act of courage is demonstrated is in the story of Carola Sapetowa, a Christian villager.  Carola worked for a Jewish family by the name of the Hochheiser's. When the Nazi's invaded Poland Mr. Hochheiser was shot, his wife and children were placed in a ghetto. When the day came and that ghetto was being emptied and its prisoners were being taken to the concentration camps, Carola waited outside of the ghetto gate and took the two Jewish children, whom she had earlier on worked for home with her. There she fed them and gave them a place to stay. This act of courage once again portrays the kindness of these gentiles and the heart they had to move on in life and help those around them.
   One of the most successful families of all was the Dane family. The Danes all in all transferred 8,000 Jews across to Sweden to safety. The Dane's successfully accomplished this by out smarting the Nazi's at their expense. If a gentile were ever caught he would be killed in the public or just shot right when the Gestapo men had found Jews in hiding. The Dane family put much at risk to save these Jew's but never once lost hope. They were determined they could over come the evil and help save innocent people. This act will forever be remembered. The tragedy that this novel showed to us must never happen again and these many gentiles were here to prove that they didn't accept what was going on, and that they would do anything to stop it.
   I feel that this novel was very persuasive. It used many literary techniques to help the reader comprehend what was going on. The novel gave back round information and used first hand documents to describe one of the worlds most unforgettable time periods. This book adequately prepared the reader in the beginning about what this book was going to be about and didn't allow the reader to enter the book blindly.  This book was excellent I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a touching story. The book is open to all audiences and the language is used in an appropriate manner to express its point. The book was marvelous and really got one to understand the true meaning of the gentiles.

5 comments about Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood (Gb772).

1. Dry Tears is an unforgettable Holocaust memoir and coming-of age story. Tec is a gifted writer and her comments about her experiences are deeply insightful.

   Tec was hidden during the war---disguised as a Polish Christian, she lived with a variety of families before settling with a working-class family who also took in her parents (neither of whom spoke Polish well enough to "pass") and her sister.

   What is most interesting (and depressing) about Tec's story is her slow realization that the family who took her in was anti-semetic. As a child, she experiences deep confusion about this and wonders how she should feel when the family compliments her by telling her that she is not "like a Jew." Her conflicted feelings about this family (she grows to love and respect them while at the same time being appalled by their prejudice) illustrate one of the greatest paradoxes regarding prejudices (***). The sad truth is that when one looks behind the stereotype one always discovers individuals who defy the stereotype (Tec herself experiences this---she assumes that one of the woman who takes them in---Stella--is a typically stupid and lazy member of the working class but when Stella is tortured by the Nazis and refuses to eveal any information, Tec is forced to look beyond the stereotype todiscover a very real and very complicated individual).

   Tec's story also explores an aspect often not found in books dealing with adults under the Holocaust. As a hidden child who could "pass" as a Polish Christian, Tec spent her days as Krysia, a Polish Gentile. Not surprisingly, this caused her to become deeply confused about who she was---like all pre-teens and adolescents, Tec was struggling to discover her own identity but unlike her peers, Tec was forced to hide this identity.

   I have read a great number of Holocaust memoirs---and this is not the "typical" memoir (as far as one can say there is a "typical" memoir). Several factors make this book unique---Tec's age at the time of the Holocaust, her insights into her own experiences (not surprising as Tec later became a scholar specializing in this period) and her openness about her struggle to assume an identity at a time when she was forbidden to assume her true identity.




2. "Dry Tears" is an autobiographical recollection of life in wartime Poland, during the Holocaust. Not only did the author and her sister have to "pass" as non-Jews and live in constant terror of being caught, they also had to worry about their parents, who couldn't "pass" and who lived in hiding.

   I've read perhaps a dozen books by Holocaust survivors. This may be the first time that I thought about each individual murder as that: an individual murder, and not as genocide. What happened to the girls' governess in the early pages of the book left me more sleepless than anything since "Anne Frank."

   Sometimes, however, there are the occasional winners in a war. The author's family survived as an intact unit. That, dear readers, is a victory.

   This book belongs in every historian's library, be it public or personal. Deeply moving, it's not too much for a mature teen to read, and I will be suggesting it to a friend's young adults.

   "Dry Tears" will haunt me for a long time.




3. As I ponder how or what I could write about this story, I ask myself: Who am I to write any kind of critique about this story? For that matter, who are any of us to critique a story as compelling and personal as this one? Neither I nor just about anyone else in this world is in a position to speak critically concerning this autobiography of one family's unlikely survival, a true story of cheating death daily while friends, relatives and peers were slaughtered by hatred. This intensely personal narrative deserves only the reader's respect and appreciation that the author had the courage to put her story on paper and share it with the world.
   
   Hers is a story of remarkable, miraculous survival, told from her very personal experiences, thoughts and observations when she was a young Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied Poland. Her story is simply written, gripping, harrowing, and emotionally exhausting. It is a story I shall remember for a long, long time. I treasured the moments I spent absorbed in her experiences and recollections, the introspection her words conjured in me, and the gratitude I felt for never having been forced to experience the dread, fear and violence that this family endured every minute of their existence for a period of years.
   
   I was distinctly impressed with the strength of character and leadership her father displayed. His paternal wisdom, guidance and competence bound this family together and sealed their survival against all odds. Absent his clarity of thought, calm demeanor and strength of will, I think this family would not have survived. He inspired the resolve in his family to keep going; he summoned from deep in their souls the spirit of survival. I could only hope to be half the father he was were I to have been in such a circumstance.
   
   This is a story that today's youthful and historically uninformed generation should read and understand. Only through knowledge of such history can we perhaps stave off for a few generations longer the tendency of history to repeat itself (as we now see happening in Africa).



4. As is so often the case, it's the little, seemingly innocuous, niggling details that hit home the hardest, even more than the outright horrific. It's not that the accounts of the brutal murders and unthinkable cruelties are minimized-- it's that the human brain refuses to dwell on, refuses to really wrap one's brain around them, as sort of a self-preservation. But the little details hit you upside the head like a 2x12 and you get it, and your brain wraps around it firmly, and you can understand as well as anybody who has not experienced the Holocaust can understand. Two examples: when the family was going into hiding, they left their city of Lublin to travel by train to Warsaw, before going to their final destination. The parents did not speak Polish well, and because the mother definately looked Jewish, she decided to dress as a woman in mourning, wearing a hat with a veil to obscure her face. Both kids looked Polish, and spoke the language fluently. (The older sister went ahead of the others.) The father repeatedly coached his daughter beforehand, saying, "Don't look sad!" That was how the Nazis and Poles could ferret out Jews trying to pass as Poles. "The Jews have sad eyes." Voila! And why wouldn't a Jew look sad? How could they not be sad? And yet, if they wanted to live, and wanted to pass, they had to act like everything was fine whenever they were out in public. With all the horror, with all their relatives who had been murdered or deported, with all the brutality they saw in the streets, and heard about through the grapevine, with all the hardship of finding a place to stay, and working, and feeding oneself, and worrying about one's family, who was scattered, on top of that, you had to look happy, because if you didn't, a Nazi or Pole would see your sad eyes and know you were Jewish! How excruciating!!
   
   Another thing was the author mused about how one's life could change in a fleeting moment. You could just happen to miss an "Aktion"...or just happen to arrive home when one started. Life was so capricious. A Nazi
   could spot someone entering a home, or selling on the blackmarket, or you could just miss being seen. These fleeting moments were fraught with life or death consequences, and yet you had no control over them.
   
   Were you seen or not seen, and by whom? As much as the brutality of genocide, it would seem to me that the constant stress of being on your toes every minute would be like traversing an unmarked minefield every day for years. Think of the psychological toll it took on the survivors!
   
   I can't think of another Holocaust survivor's story which articulates those aspects as well as this author does.
   You know the thing they tell writers, "Describe, don't tell." This author does. You feel you are there with her.
   
   It is very telling, that when she first wrote the book, she ended it when the war was over, and they went back to her father's chemical factory. She describes how she's afraid to look, and closes her eyes... and there it ends. In this edition, however, she write a rather extended epilogue, explaining that to go back to that time, even after a distance of 30 plus years, was too difficult. The memories of having to sort out all her feelings, her identity and place in the world, continued anti-Semitism, an assassination attempt on her father, plus her post traumatic stress disorder (which she doesn't call by name), was far too depressing and too daunting to even try to go there in her own mind, let alone to write about it.
   
   I just finished reading this, but I imagine it'll stay with me for a long, long time, right up there with Elie Wiesel's "Night".
   
   This is one of the most moving, succinct first-person accounts of the Holocaust I've read.



5. After the terrifying ordeals Tec had to go through to survive, what else could she do but close her eyes? Tec is unsparing in her description of atrocity, fear and suffering, yet I found this autobiography surprisingly unsentimental and fair. She recognises that many people suffered, not just Jews, injects homour whenever possible, even if only wry at times.
   What touched me was: the incredible resilience and strenght displayed by people throughout the book; the way the instinct to survive and goodness comes to the fore in some people, inspite of the world falling apart around them.
   Tec does not dwell on the tragic, and the book is therefore infused with hope and will to live. The people in it seemed to always hold on to their vision of survival and adapt with ingenuity to any altered situation. Added to this is the power of knowing throughout that this is not a story, but a memory, a true account of events, which makes it a very different reading experience.
   In my belief, it is vital, particularly in the spoilt Western lives that many of us live, that we read narratives such as these. It prevents us from forgetting how privileged we are, it helps us to retain a level of humility. Indeed it grounds us in a way and makes us evaluate what is really important and what attitude we should have towards the things we are blessed with, both in terms of freedoms and safety as well as materially.

5 comments about Man Is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag.

1. Janusz Bardach, who became a plastic surgeon in Iowa City, Iowa in 1972, recounts his experiences in the Gulag in this bleak tale of survival reminiscent of Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. A secular Jewish man and supporter of Stalin and communism living in Poland In 1939, he and his family fear their future as Germany's military forces are set up along the border. He is eventually drafted into the Red Army, but when he inadvertently gets his new tank stuck in a river, he's arrested and given a sentence of 10 years of hard labor. He, like the other prisoners, spends most of his time working to meet ridiculously high work quotas, while in a constant state of starvation. He travels from camp to camp during his six years in captivity working in various work situations including a mine, the forest felling trees, and as a medical assistant working with tuberculosis patients (which he eventually contracts). Once he recovers, he's sent to work in a psych ward, where the main focus is exposing the "fakers," those trying to get out of work. His job is to inject them with a seizure-inducing drug, which he does reluctantly. With a little help from his one surviving family member, Polish army officer brother, he is eventually released and finds out the fate of his grandparents, parents, sister and girlfriend. They were all executed.



2. I can't really say anything that hasn't been mentioned already, and I think that it would be inappropriate to give away any of the plot.
   
   This is simply the most fascinating story of survival of any that I have ever seen. It is incredible as well as inspiring. It teaches you to value your life, and the relationships that you have with the people you care about most. There were so many instances when he could have resigned to his fate and accepted death, but instead he kept going. Millions of people died in prison camps during the war, and unfortunately all of their stories cannot be told. But to understand what they had to go through in their fight for survival, nothing beats this book. Besides telling his story, it examines the history and psychology behind what happened to him. And overall I believe that it is a valuable read for anyone interested in Russian Gulags or prison camps in general during WW2.



3. I read this after reading The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin. This book may be bleak and shocking, but remember, the author survived! It is an amazing, gripping, shocking story about humanity. I loved it.



4. This is one of the most unbelievable stories I've ever read. It's written with superb simplicity, making it a rapid and engrossing page turner. What a great gift Bardach has given us in writing this book about his horrific and heroic experiences. This is the best account of any world war 2 camp survivor, period. He clearly illustrates that the Soviet Union was about as horrible a place to be as Europe at the time. The book is as well written as the story is interesting. Fantastic. Thank you, Janusz!



5. The most important thing that I gained by reading Janusz Bardach's book is that the will to survive is as important as food when it come to survival. More times that he imagined, he survived because he felt that he would, like he had a special angel or just more "good luck" than other people. It doesn't matter if it's true, it only matters that you believe it.
   
   Luck is also helped by brashness and the will to succeed. His story about becoming a medical assistant, though he had absolutely no formal training, reminds me of Solsenitsyn's tale of how he survived the Gulag by lying about having training as a nuclear engineer. It's the ability to adapt that keeps you alive. Goebbels said that if you told a big enough lie enough times, people would begin to believe it. The only way to survive in the Gulag was to lie to yourself and everyone else.
   
   Since so many of the NKVD were corrupt and brutal, the only way to survive in there world was to also appear to be corrupt. Stalin sent so many of the NKVD and those who worked for them to prison, that they were well cared for by their ex-comrades, because they knew they had a good chance of joining them. Who could survive better in a criminal state within a state then a criminal?
   
   This is a story of hope without all the 'hearts and flowers'. It just the true story of what went on, warts and all (lots of warts).

5 comments about Thanks to My Mother.

1. My daughter needed this in a matter of days for a project. As always Amazon came thru.



2. Susie Weksler was only eight years old when the Nazis invaded her city of Vilnius, Lithuania.
   The family would be forced to endure starvation and fear, and she describes the experience of hiding with other Jewish families and children in the Malina (the underground tunnels and sewers of Vilnius), where she describes the death of a baby who was smothered when his father tried to keep him quiet.
   
   Worse was to come.
   With the help of her mother who saved her by disguising her as being 16 years old when she was only ten, and filled her with a strong spirit of survival, Susie survived three concentration camps, and a "death march".
   
   The book describes heart wrenching and disturbing scenes of the horrors imposed upon the victims of the Nazi inferno, scenes you will never forget.
   The death camp where Susie and her mother were interned was liberated in January 1945, only three of her family had survived.
   The book included the English translations of the poems Susie wrote in the ghetto and the camps.
   They are powerful and inspiring and show a gem of a spirit:
   
   The Time is Not Far
   
   There will come a time
   and the time is not far
   when from east and west,
   from every side
   light will arrive
   and a warm wind
   and the clouds will
   all disappear quickly
   Oh, believe me my friend,
   the time is not far.
   
   This is one of the richest, most descriptive and engaging accounts by survivors of the Holocaust and I would strongly recommend it as a high school set work book.
   
   Susie immigrated to Israel in 1950, where she did her military service and married and still lives today.
   Her mother died in 1974.
   Most Holocaust survivors and most descendants of Holocaust survivors live in Israel today.



3. This was a truly amazing book. Since the author (not even going to attempt to spell the name) was alive and went through the holocaust she knew first hand what it was like. I remember at the beginning I was waiting for like talking and dialouge but then I realized it wasn't happing and at the beginning it just kind of seemed like the author was introducing something but as you get farther and farther in the book you don't have that feeling anymore you keep wanting to know what else could possibly be worse than what this people are going through and waiting for what is going to happen to these people next! Great to learn about Holocaust and easy EASY non-fiction read!



4. The story by Shoshana Rabinovici-Weksler about her family in Pre-WWII Vilnius(Vilna), and how the whole family found different ways to survive daily nazi actions in Ghetto Vilna, through the liquidation of the Ghetto when basically almost all Jewish population of Vilnius was killed in a matter of four days.
   Then her and her mother's struggle to continue thru a concentration camp, the Death March and the liberation.
   But the most powerful image in the story is her Mother, who did for her daughter more than anybody can possibly imagine or even trying to imagine.
   Very very painful and tragic story, highly highly recommend to anybody whether he/she knows about Holocaust or knows very little.
   Thank You Shoshana for sharing with us!



5. The two best books I have read on what it was like to live through the Holocaust have been "Childrens" books. This is one of the two books. It is not a childs book. It is a stirring story of survival through experiences that would severely try anyones will. It is a book for everyone.
   
   I am a researcher and writer of this time period. Sometimes, I pick up a book like this, and I feel I have read it already before I have even begun. After awhile, and enough research, you think you are becoming somewhat numb to the evil. Then I read something like this book and my heart is pierced once again.
   
   Should the author read this review, I wish to say to you:
   
   May God bless you for the rest of the years that remain.

1 comments about In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry.

1. This is the newest and in my opinion best introduction to Varian Fry, still a relatively unknown and unsung hero of World War II. This book is targeted at a young audience, nevertheless I recommend it to anyone seeking an introduction to a remarkable man through whom we can all draw inspiration. The author has done an excellent job conveying the danger, intrigue, frustration and ultimate success of the Emergency Rescue Committee's most charismatic character. The photographs are excellent as well as the appendix and source notes.
   
   Great job Carla Killough McClafferty

2 comments about The Lesser Evil: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1945-59.

1. I was excited to read the rest of his life and journal : I do like a lot how he writes. I do not like at all, all the editorial cuts and even less when they felt they have to remplace it with a cold short story "what was cut" altering a lot the flow of reading.
   
   Or it was not important, and they could have put (...) like elsewere, or they should have left it there. His journals are so important, I am so sorry that I cannot read German, where they are twice as long. Already, the second wife cut some from his words, now the editors and the translators. Really pity !



2. Victor Klemperer's The Lesser Evil completes his three volume diary as a Jewish college professor in Germany from 1933 to 1959. In this volume, he covers the years from the end of the Second World War until his final illness and to my mind provides the most rewarding literary experience. To be sure, his account of the tightening Nazi noose following Hitler's ascension to power and the horrors and restrictions of the war years as a Jew married to an "Aryan" woman have few equals in Holocaust literature. Only the fire bombing of Dresden on the eve of a scheduled deportation of his city's remaining handful of Jews and their spouses allowed him to survive. But the post-war years provide the fascinating portrait of a genteel intellectual dedicated to the rule of reason (a major scholarly pursuit as a Professor of Romance Languages and Literature involves his work on the French Enlightenment) trying to balance between the resurgent militarism and consumerism of the triumphant western powers and the repression of a socialist German Democratic Republic, the title's "lesser evil" where he chooses to live. Klemperer is keenly aware of his own inconsistencies as a secular humanist with a deep appreciation of traditional spiritual values, often describing his situation as one of falling between the two chairs of the East-West confrontation that became the Cold War. In 1951, the grieving widower remarries within a year, feeling both guilt and gratitude and humbled by two women more talented and generous than himself. Hardly heroic, he manages to seem admirable as he struggles to keep afloat despite terrible times and petty academic politics.

2 comments about The Grandees: America's Sephardic Elite.

1. This book does what good histories should do, open up doors to inaccessible places. Well written and incisive, it tracks a part of our history not well known. Especially fascinating were the accounts of how the first 44 came to America, and the story of the Civil War admiral. I'll read more of his books.



2. In 1971 when Birmingham (who is not Jewish himself) released this book, the Foundation For The Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture in New York City put out four formal reviews on Stephen Birmingham's book. The reviews were by people from the academic community WITHIN the very community he wrote about.

   The Foundation For The Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture wrote: "...Mr. Birmingham addressed a gathering on October 10th, 1968 at Shearith Israel [the very congregation he writes about in his book], Mr. Louis N. Levy, the president of the Foundation, asked Mr. Birmingham whether he proposed to write on the Balkan Sephardim. For some reason the audience burst into laughter and the answer was not heard."

   One of the reviews was the Rabbi of the very congregation the book is based on "Marc Angel". He wrote: "Birmingham is so eager to show that the "Grandees" are aloof and snobby, that he ignores reality. He interprets things as he wants them to be, not as they are." Rabbi Angel also wrote: "His book is plagued with factual inaccuracies and poor historical perspectives. Unfortunately, many Jews and non-Jews are reading the book and are having their opinions molded by it because they know little or nothing about Sephardim."

   The well-respected Sephardic scholar David N. Barocas wrote of the Grandees: "To rely on hearsay information, or to select at random passages from books and then try to weave them into the fabric of one's text or report constitutes in the final analysis a combination of misstatements, incomplete truths and factual omissions tending to present a perverted opinion of an innocent people."

   There are many good books out there which are acurate, unfortunatly this is not one of them. It was written by an outsider of the community. It is biased, and does give a good example of the Sephardic community.