1 comments about From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences.

1. Once upon a weekend retreat at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, I became absorbed by Elie Wiesel's fascinatingly describing his Memory of Jewish holidays, the Talmudic literature, the Jewish Laws and stories of Abraham, Moses, Isaac and Jacob. At that point in my life after retiring as Prison Chaplain, I began to look at the lives of Jewish writers. I wished to grasp some of their pain, suffering and depths of Faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Elie Wiesel had written much of those feelings in his "Night"; "Dawn" and "Souls on Fire."

   While caught-up in writing about my Memories of serving as a Prison Chaplain, I wanted to choose a good Model. My first underlining began with Elie's wonderful quote from "Society and Solitude" by Emerson to begin his chapter, "The Stranger in the Bible." Then I looked back at the first chapter, "To Believe or not to Believe." There I read the habits of a Jewish mother as she teaches her children, a Talmudic Ledgend of Moses and Rabbi Akiba, other stories of other Rabbi's...I was really hooked!

   After Elie's return to his birthplace of the little Jewish city of Sighet, revisiting sights of his boyhood, he arrives to that key chapter, "Making the Ghosts Speak!" He writes of his own "despair of humanity and God!" From his studies of history, philosophy, psychology, he realized his anger at the Germans. "How could they have counted Goethe and Bach as their own and at the same time massacred countless Jewish children?" Then he admits that he "was angry at God too, at the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! How could He have abandoned his people just at the moment when they needed Him?" His struggling led to his conclusion: "I am free to choose my suffering but not that of my fellow humans."

   This small gem of Essays has that fearful power to prod around one's insides, revealing your own gut-wrenching memories! It surely has done that and much more for me in every reading! Don't miss it!
   Retired Chap Fred W Hood

4 comments about The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps.

1. Few historians have the stomach to tackle an in-depth historical survey of the Nazi Holocaust. Even fewer have the depth and intelligence to look deep into its many figures and faces to create a work of literature which deals with the ontological essence of humankind. Such an effort would seem like an unreachable and naive goal if it weren't so beautifully examined in Des Pres' book, in which he uses a wealth of haunting voices from the Holocaust to introduce his readers to a new chapter of the human spirit: the Survivor.



2. A close and penetrating look at how the survivors of the Nazi and Stalinist death camps came through such horror in human ways. Des Pres explodes the myths about the Jews going to their deaths "like sheep;" of survivors saving their own lives by becoming amoral; of those who lived suffering from "survivor's guilt." Rather, says Des Pres, survivors felt an obligation to the dead to bear witness; survivors lived by maintaining their moral sensibilities and by cooperating with one another and sharing in each other's tribulations and successes; to survive in the conditions of extremity found in the death camps was, in itself, an act of resistance. Humans are social by nature of their very biology, says Des Pres, and this is perhaps our main hope in this century. His depiction of survivor as "hero" is a welcome contrast to the numerous dead heroes of Western literature -- and a necessary one in this century of atrocities. Des Pres also wrote _Praises and Dispraises: Poetry and Politics, the 20th Century_ and _Writing Into the World: Essays 1973-1987_ -- both important books about the social and political role of the poet (and other writers). It's unfortunate that these two volumes are currently out of print.



3. I have never read a more important or more accurate account of life in a concentration camp. Des Pres gives a new and important meaning to the word 'courage.' Des Pres' analysis of courage provides the lie to the depiction of Jews succumbing like sheep to the Nazi horror. He clearly demonstrates the courage it took to stay alive, to bear witness, to resist. Furthermore, he provides a base for understanding the meaning of the courage it took for Jews to survive 1,000 years of Christian efforts to debase Jews in their European diaspora- the courage to survive and live as Jews. I am only sorry that I did not discover this book earlier in my life.



4. Nothing really new or groundbreaking. The author mostly seems to be quoting other holocaust sources and making comments about them. He doesn't seem to present any material he himself has gathered. It would seem more beneficial to just hunt down the books the author is quoting (Weinstock, Kessel, etc.) and read them instead.

5 comments about Barney Ross (Jewish Encounters).

1. I highly recommend this book. I read for entertainment and was
   thoroughly entertained. You do not have to be an admirer of the
   great pugilists of the past to enjoy this book. God bless Barney
   and what he left us.



2. ...and it's a right pity so few Jewish youngsters have never even heard of the former champ Barney Ross -- the "Pride of the Ghetto."
   
   I'd first heard about Century's book over at the always insightful website, www.nextbook.org, where he was interviewed over a seven minute stretch about the life and times of the second- (of two) most famous Jewish pugilist of all-time, other than Benny Leonard.
   
   Century demonstrates a deft skill with the pen and a remarkable savvy for the entire era and the relevant subject material. It clearly shines through in his compact historial narrative of the period.
   
   I'd wanted to read over the reviews of this book before devlving into my own -- figuring that if you're really keen on knowing what the book's about, you don't need me to tell you that....the editorial reviews do more than an adequate job.
   
   Within Barney Ross' pages, expect a raft of feelgood as you stream through fellow-Canadian Century's well-crafted prose. He collates what -- to this scribe at least -- seems to be a wealth of source material in order to carve out a delectable read. In what might otherwise be a biography of the late fighter, Century eschews the traditional format of "he was born in 1909..." and opts for a more 'filmic' approach -- I swear a camera could've been trained on any one of these scenes.
   
   You'll breeze through the initial pages figetedly, reading of the shooting murder of Ross' Talmudic-scholar father in his tiny Maxwell Street fruit shop by a pair of Chicago street thugs, then you'll root for Barney -- ne Beryl Rasofsky -- as he vows to regain his family's fallen honour -- having lost his mother to a wellness sanitorium in Connecticut and his siblings to a local Chi-Town orphanage.
   
   You'll pump your fists silently, as you sip your preferred beverage, reading about Ross' earliest victories on the canvas and in the ring, then rallying to the fighter's side as he continues to rise through the amateur -- then professional -- ranks, on his way to boxing lightweight and welterweight stardom.
   
   When Armstrong clobbers Ross in their to the wire slugfest, ending Ross' illustrious career, it'll tug at your heartstrings, while it continues to thump on that same spot uncomfortably as you read about Ross' subsequent enlistment in the US Marine Corps then of his injuries sustained at Guadalcanal.
   
   When you learn of his resultant addiction to morpheine, and then Ross' subsequent long battle to trump it, you're bound to be affected.
   
   Thanks to Barney Ross, I'm super keen on having a look at Century's other stuff. I'm sure it's moving all the same.



3. I KNEW BARNEY ROSS WHEN I WAS A YOUNG LAD GROWING UP IN THE SUBURS OF NEWARK NEW JERSEY. BARNEY SUGERMAN Z'L, MY FATHER AND BARNEY ROSS WERE CLOSE CLOSE FRIENDS. SUGIE AS MY FATHER WAS ALSO KNOWN WAS IN THE JUKE BOX AND GAME BUSINESS. HE CAME OUT OF THAT VERY SPECIAL WORLD OF PROHIBITION, ROARING 20'S, PROUD JEWS INCLUDING MOBSTERS AND PRIZE FIGHTERS. POP HAD HIS OFFICES AND BUSINESS ON JUKE BOX ROW, TENTH AVENUE AND 43RD STREET IN MANHATTAN. BARNEY ROSS WAS AT THE OFFICE TWO OR THREE TIMES A WEEK AND AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK, THE TWO BARNEYS WOULD MAKE THE ROUNDS IN THE CITY. DOUGLAS CENTURY DID AN OUTSTANDING JOB OF CONVEYING THE TRUE PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER OF BARNEY ROSS. THE BOOK IS OUTSTANDING. IT CAPTURES THE TRUE SPIRIT OF BARNEY ROSS. I WILL TELL YOU THAT WHEN BARNEY ROSS WOULD SAY HELLO TO YOU, IT MADE YOU FEEL YOU WERE SPECIAL. HE HUGGED YOU, KISSED YOU, AND HE BLESSED YOU IN PERFECT HEBREW AND IN PERFECT YIDDISHE. HE WAS A REAL PROUD JEW AND HE KNEW THAT HE CARRIED ON HIS SHOULDERS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF JEWISH PRIDE TO A NATION THAT HAD NOT YET FULLY ACCEPTED THE JEWISH PEOPLE. IN FACT GROWING UP, ANTI SEMITISM WAS NOT A RARE OCCURENCE. BARNEY CARRIED THE CROWN OF JEWISH PRIDE WHEREVER HE WENT. I WILL TELL ONE STORY. IN THE MID 50'S I WAS A STUDENT AT BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY WHICH WAS A SCHOOL ASSOCIATED WITH THE BAPTISTS. IN THOSE DAYS, THERE WAS A LIMIT ON JEWS GOING TO BUCKNELL, WE HAD A 5% QUOTA. SO WE HAD ONE JEWISH FRATERNITY HOUSE. IN MY JUNION YEAR, 1958, WE HAD AT THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR THE ANNUAL SPORTS EVENING. ALL THE ATHLETES OF THE SCHOOL WENT TO THE ANNUAL DINNER. SOMEBODY KNEW THAT MY FATHER AND BARNEY ROSS WERE CLOSE FRIENDS, AND THE SCHOOL BOXING COMMITTEE ASKED ME IF IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE TO INVITE BARNEY ROSS TO COME UP TO THE SCHOOL TO GIVE A SPEECH. I CALLED POP. HE SPOKE TO BARNEY ROSS. BARNEY RIGHT AWAY SAID OF COURSE HE WOULD BE HAPPY TO DO IT. THAT WAS BARNEY ROSS. THE WORD "NO" DIDN'T EXIST IN HIS VOCABULARY. I TOLD POP TO MAKE SURE HE WAS UP BY 4 OR 4.30 BECAUSE THE DINNER WAS SCHEDULED FOR 6 PM. POP PICKED BARNEY UP EARLY IN THE MORNING. IT WAS NO MORE THAN A 4 HOUR DRIVE UP THROUGH ROUTE 22 TO MAKE IT TO LEWISBURG PENNSYLVANIA. BUT NO SIGN OF THE TWO BARNEYS AND BY 5 PM. I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO LOOK LIKE THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE SCHOOL. FINALLY AT SIX PM ON THE DOT THE BIG BLUE FOUR DOOR CADILLAC PULLED UP AND OUT CAME BARNEY ROSS WITH BARNEY SUGERMAN. BARNEY ROSS SMELLED LIKE HE FELL INTO A BATH TUB OF WHISKEY. I ASKED POP WHAT THE HELL TOOK HIM SO LONG. POP EXPLAINED THAT BETWEEN NEW YORK CITY AND LEWISBURG PENNSYLVANIA BARNEY ROSS INSISTED ON STOPPING IN EACH TOWN AND HAVE A DRINK. AS SOON AS HE WALKED INTO A BAR IN THOSE LITTLE BLUE COLLAR TOWNS IN NORTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA, GUYS IMMEIDATELY RECOGNIZED HIM AND BEFORE LONG, "BARNEY HAVE ANOTHER DRINK ON THE HOUSE, AND TELL US ABOUT THE FIGHT WITH TONY CANZONERI, WITH JIMMY MC LARNIN, ETC."
   
   WE BROUGHT BARNEY INTO OUR SAMMY HOUSE FRATERNITY. HE WAS SURROUNDED BY ALL THE GUYS IN THE FRATERNITY WHO WANTED TO SAY HELLO TO BARNEY ROSS AND SHAKE HIS HAND, ETC. BARNEY ROSS HOWEVER WAS THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND. I WAS WONDERING HOW THE HELL HE WAS GOING TO GIVE A SPEECH AT THE SPORTS NIGHT EVENT.
   
   WE WENT TO THE DINNER. THE PLACE WAS MOBBED WITH ALL THE JOCKS AT BUCKNELL. NATURALLY, THE VAST MAJORITY WERE NOT JEWISH. BARNEY GOT UP TO SPEAK. HE HUGGED THE MICROPHONE AND HE STARTED TO SPEAK. HE SPOKE SO QUIETLY, BUT SO ELOQUENTLY AND SO PASSIONATELY ABOUT HIS LIFE GROWING UP AS A JEWISH BOY IN CHICAGO, HIS FATHER'S TRAGIC MURDER, HIS ENTRY INTO BOXING, HIS CAREER, HIS FIGHTS, HIS WAR TIME EXPERIENCE, HIS DRUG ADDICTION AS A RESULT OF THE WOUNDS HE SUFFERED DURING THE BATTLE AT GUADACANAL AND HIS STUGGLE TO BEAT THE HABIT. THAT EVENT TOOK PLACE NEARLY FIFTY YEARS AGO. I REMEMBER IT LIKE IT HAPPENED TONIGHT. BARNEY ROSS WAS A CHAMPION AS A FIGHTER, BOTH IN THE RING AND IN THE BATTLEFIELD BUT THAT NIGHT HE WAS A CHAMPION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE. KOLHAKAVOD TO DOUGLAS CENTURY. HIS BOOK IS A TRIBUTE TO THE TRUE CHARACTER OF BARNEY ROSS



4. Every few years I stumble across a short, breezy biography that far better treats its subject than it would have at ten times the length. "Barney Ross" is one of these delights.
   
   Douglas Century's story of Jewish boxer Barney Ross renders an evocative portrait of the forgotten, dangerous world inhabited by the ancestors of today's American Jews a century ago.
   
   Ross's father was a Talmudic scholar, chased from the old country by pogroms, and murdered in the new one during an armed robbery. The family was scattered. Ross boxed for money to get the youngest brothers out of an orphanage, which he did.
   
   The book illuminates two colorful groups of yore: Jewish boxers and gangsters. Both groups - the one aboveboard, the other not - speak to a Jewish yearning for strength, as well as an ambivalence about it, after centuries of weakness. Judaism disparaged athletics, let alone criminal violence, from the time of the Greeks and Maccabees.
   
   Tough guys - shtarkers, in Yiddish - weren't what their mothers wanted them to be, but had credibility on the Lower East Side and Chicago's Maxwell Street, where Ross grew up. Both gangsters and boxers stood up for their people when no one else would, defending their neighborhoods against interlopers.
   
   Ross, who simultaneously held three titles in the 1930s, was definitely one tough boychik. In 81 pro fights, he was never knocked out. That includes the last one in which, over the hill, he was savagely beaten by Henry Armstrong. Virtually helpless, he took an estimated 1200 punches, but refused to go down and kept answering the bell. He never said "no mas" in any language.
   
   He was just as tough at Guadalcanal, enlisting in the Marines at the advanced age of 33. He fought alone through a harrowing night to defend several wounded and cutoff men, firing hundreds of rounds and throwing dozens of grenades. They were finally relieved the next day. Around Ross's foxhole lay two dozen dead Japanese soldiers.
   
   Hospitalized for three months, Ross began a morphine addiction which nearly killed him. He fought it just as courageously, turning himself in for arrest so that he could be sent to a prison specializing in drug addiction treatment. His drug addiction tainted his celebrity; a planned biopic was quashed and turned instead into a fictional story loosely based on his life. This is why most people today have never heard of him.
   
   Ross worked to raise money and Holocaust awareness even as the Warsaw ghetto uprising raged. He smuggled guns to the Irgun for battles leading to Israel's independence. And he may have been one of the Jewish tough guys who terrorized Nazi sympathizers in Chicago in the 1930s. Another was Jack Ruby, a friend of Ross's; Ross last entered the public eye when he was questioned by the Warren Commission about Ruby's early entanglements with Chicago gangsters.
   
   As Century notes, Ross was special. He retained religious ties throughout his life. He didn't have much of a mean streak, apologizing to his sparring partners for hurting them and showing little taste for putting away a weakened opponent. To Jews, boxing was a means to an end, a way out of poverty. When times changed, twenty years later, there were no more Jewish boxers. This little book is a reminder of what life was like for American Jews before they succeeded.



5. There are a lot of similarities here between Barney's story and Jake La Motta's story and they both could have been RAGING BULL the movie. This book is concise and written very smoothly--an even-flow to read thru.
   A good boxing and Jewish lifestyle book at the same time.

1 comments about The Triumphant Spirit: Portraits & Stories of Holocaust Survivors Their Messages of Hope & Compassion.

1. The photos of the survivors are piercing. The stories are unbelievable. Each survivor's story begins with their "normal" life in prewar Europe. We learn how they survived the war and death and slave camps in which most of their families perished. After liberation these people were able to create meaningful lives, create families, and make the world a better place. Though I have studied the Holocaust in depth I was shocked to learn the names of dozens more concentration camps. This book gives hope and strength to anyone who is oppressed on any level.

5 comments about Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter.

1. Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter, written by one of the surviving members of the ZOB was a well-written account of not only life as a resistance fighter but also what life was like for the few that fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This is an easy read and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about this period and what the Jews and all victims of the Nazis had to endure.



2. Kazik was a 19-year-old Jewish lad who survived the Nazi terror and systematic mass killings of Jews, the Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943 and the Warsaw uprising of 1944.
   He was also led many fighters out of the ghetto through the sewer, and he was responsible for the care of many Jews who were hiding in Polish homes. Kazik also managed to find shelters for his parents and his two sisters, and after the war he was one of the very few Jews whose parents were still alive. After the war, Kazik, his sister Raya and parents all immigrated to Israel. Kazik's other sister, Dina, was killed during the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Kazik didn't at that time know that his sister was in the ghetto.
   
   I found the book interesting and heart gripping at the same time. It is amazing to read how Kazik manages to stay alive, and always seems to stay one step ahead of the Nazis and their helpers.
   
   Kazik writes how he found one thing difficult when he arrived in Israel: When he told people that he was one of the very few survivors, it seemed like some almost blamed him for having survived. Kazik tells how people kept on asking him about people who had died, but never about those who had survived. This made him reluctant to talk about his past.
   He writes about how one man told him that he (= Kazik) screamed every night in his sleep.
   If Kazik had made a volume II about his life after the war, I surely would have read the book. His history is fascinating, and I hope his life was mainly a happy one after he immigrated to Israel.
   I liked this book, and I found Kazik's story very interesting. Kazik tells us that he is not much of a talker, and that it was therefore difficult to dictate this book to the writer. Kazik may not be a talker or a skilled writer, but his story is one it is hard to forget.



3. The author is sincere and spontaneous in telling his personal experience. The description of events, places and facts is also very well. But from the very beggining it is clear that the author is not a writer (or, at least, not a good one.)
   I am convinced that it is not only a plain true story what captivates the reader but, more than anything else, the way it is told. This book is a good example of that difference.
   Nevertheless, an applause for Simha Rotem, an extraordinary human being that not only fought hard to survive himself, but also to save the life of others.



4. A good book written by one of the few survivors of the uprising. The author tells a harrowing story about what seemed to be a hopeless situation for the Jewish fighters as the Nazis decimated the ghetto around them with bombing and fire. The Jewish resistance fighters held off the Germans longer than the Polish army did. The author freely admits that he is not a writer and the story gets a little rough in spots but overall a good book from an insider who was there and lived to tell his heroic story.



5. I am disappointed in this book. The premise is good, and the author lived through it. However, this is a very uneven book. Even the author admitted he skipped around alot. There are so many Polish and Jewish names thrown in, I was wondering who the heck was who. The film made much better sense. I could have even rated this book a two star, but since this is the story of a brave man, I gave it an average rating.
   
   Kazik is a Polish Jew from Warsaw who saw his family imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto. As a way of getting even with the Germans, he joined both the Jewish and Polish resistance. He was essentially a courier, who went from place to place organizing things. His story is the overview of NBC's Uprising. I liked the movie. His book was not as good, even though the movie is based on his book. Essentially he throws a lot of memories together, and states this was the story of the resistance. I think this author is a brave man, but his writings leave a little bit to be desired.

No comments about Second Generation Voices: Reflections by Children of Holocaust Survivors and Perpetrators (Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust).

5 comments about Anne Frank: The Biography.

1. From the years of 1939 to 1945 mankind endured the darkest period of evil and brutality that has gone unparalleled in the modern (and ancient) era. One wicked man's irrational, murderous hatred and insatiable lust for power, combined with the cruel, sociopathic personalities of cowardly henchmen such as Hoess, Himmmler, Goering, and Eichmann, to name a mere few, swept the continent of Europe into total devastation and near destruction, destroying dreams and cancelling the futures of the soldiers who fought for both sides, those who were simple bystanders in bombing raids, and others who simply had the misfortune to be considered "undesirable" and who perished in inhumane, intolerable conditions in horrendous concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, Treblinka, Sobibor, and Neuengamme. The dreadfulness of their pain and the senseless of their deaths cannot be imagined, described, forgiven, or forgotten.

   One of the millions who was murdered during the Holocaust was Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who lived in hiding with her older sister Margot, their parents Otto and Edith, Hermann and Auguste Van Pels, their son Peter, and Dr Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist, in Amsterdam, Holland, in the secret annexe of the office building which still stands at 263 Prinsengracht. As a literary work and historical document, Anne's diary is perhaps one of the most important volumes to emerge from the twentieth century. However, when reading it, one must remember that it was written by an ordinary teenage girl who was forced to exist under extraordinary and wearisome conditions that would have strained the patience of the Lord himself. Neither Anne nor her co-habitants saw anyone but each other and their benefactors day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out. Hence I feel that the above situation must be considered when reflecting on her often harsh views of her fellow annexe dwellers.

   Melissa Muller's book is a great companion to the diary but should not be read instead of it - to do this would be severely shortchanging to oneself. It provides a rounder, fuller narrative of the times, places, and people in Anne's life and of those that decided her fate. From the rise of the Nazi's and their use of bullying tactics as their tyranny and terrorism begins, to Anne's formative years, and a broader, wider, more objective description of the Frank's life in hiding. Particularly heartrending are the chapters in which Melissa Muller describes 4 August 1944, the day the annexe dwellers were arrested, betrayed, like Judas betrayed Jesus, for a symbolic twelve pieces of silver, and previously little known details of Anne's life in the death camps Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen as she bravely fought, and bravely lost, the battle for survival. The tears will fall as the words are read, as they will fall as we share the moment that Otto Frank learns of the terrible fate of his daughters. To lose a beloved spouse is bad enough, but to lose your child, to lose both your children, is an unfathomable and unimaginable grief that never fades even with the passage of many years. And Otto Frank was only one of many parents during the war whose children would never come home..............

   Yes, this is a great biography of Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager who became world famous because of her diary, who became world famous because she expired in a concentration camp. But Anne is not merely ashes or dust - her soul lives on. And what of her diary? Her diary, the contents of which she guarded so fiercely, has become a gift to millions.




2. I recently went to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam which prompted me to reread the diary. When I was in my local bookstore I came across this book and bought it. I am glad i did.
   
   This book, while not telling me anything I hadn't really heard before somewhere in all the history books, manages to portray the living conditions of Jews before WII broke out in a simplistic manner. This biog gives a superb timeline as such, of the events preceding the Franks going into hiding.
   
   I also went to Dachau while in Germany, which affected me more than I thought it would, while reading about Anne's time in the camp. I knew before going to Europe and before reading Melissa Mullers book about the conditions the Nazi victims were kept in, but again this book pulled it all together. It may have been that I've been to a camp since reading anything on the subject or it may just have been the incredibly well detailed portrayal of it in this book (I suspect it may be both) but it was all brought home to me hard. As well as being detailed this became personal. In the epilogue Miep Gies writes she doesn't like to hear Anne Frank being labelled the face of the 6 million, but that is inevitable and I don't feel that it lessens the importance of any other victims.
   
   This is a superb biography and I recommend it be read in conjunction with Anne franks Diary. I also recommend visiting the Anne Frank House should you ever have the opportunity to be in Amsterdam



3. Anne Frank is the most interesting book I ever read. She has interesting life with her family and friends. And it talk about her diaries and letters, including the five missing pages were found in 1998. Melissa Muller is a good writer. This is a great book to read! Beware!! in this book, it talk about who betray the eight jews in the secret annex in 1944, were never been prove who were the actual person who betray them. Read the book "The Hidden of Otto Frank" and it has a theory that someone who betray them.
   The Emmy Award winning mini-series "Anne Frank" is the best mini-series I ever seen.



4. I think this is a great book because it gives you history about Germany and the Nazi's. Yes, yes most of us have heard all about it. But this book had vivid images of unhumane things that were done to these human beings. I think this is a book that helps you realize that even now a days we have problems with our society. I think it's a book that shows you the tolerance people had in that time. Lastly I must confess that I have never cried by reading a book. However, when I finished readying this book I was sobing. It's a book that really touched me. I would definitly recomment it!



5. Many of my own impressions correspond to those in the Amazon capsule review, and I shall not repeat these. Older readers may not find the manner of writing to be especially appealing, because the presentation is very much in the 'young adult book' manner of expression. As well, those of us who have previously studied Anne Frank may find little that is truly original here. It nonetheless is a superb biography for young adult use, and should be very enlightening to those of any age who know Anne only from her diary.
   
   The author is frank and detailed about Anne's recollections and those of the people who knew her and her family, and there are many contributions from those in the latter group. She also is sensitive and insightful regarding factors in the diary which may be troubling, such as in outlining the circumstances which would have coloured Anne's highly negative comments about her mother and Mr Pfeffer. It is a well balanced presentation. The treatment of, for example, how the enforced, constant isolation, at the very age when one normally expands one's life beyond one's family, could have sparked Anne's strong irritation is accurate and delicate, and could be helpful to those who wish to use the book in a classroom.

5 comments about Guarded By Angels: How My Father And Uncle Survived Hitler And Cheated Stalin.

1. I was drawn into this book right from its powerful opening lines. This is a gripping and very moving real-life story with wonderful lead characters who reveal the incredible resourcefulness and resilience of the human spirit. Very highly recommended!



2. In writing the story of his father, uncle and their cousin during the Second World War, Elsner brings a graphic yet immensely personal dimension to this tragic period of world and Jewish history. The narrative is lean which only serves to enhance the amazing story he tells. I would imagine that most readers like me, will devour this book in one sitting. The story it tells, of three young men being tossed by the diabolic caprices of two of the most evil regimes known to man, was the story of millions during this period. Most of them did not have the "troop of guardian angels" looking after them and perished like just so much excess baggage of humanity.
   
   This book should become a basic educational text along with "Darkness at Noon", "1984" and "Animal Farm". Those immortal works of fiction depict the environment of totalitarian evil. Elsner's book is a true story of those who, by chance, time and time again, were saved and saved themselves. Its value is both in its form, as a well written book by a professional, and in content as a testament of those who went through the valley of the shadow of death and survived to tell the tale. Future generations must learn what was done in the name of ideologies which belittled the basic human need to be different.
   
   Finally, the book demonstrates again the truth of the saying that while the Jews were not the only victims of Hitler, the Nazis and all their myriad helpers, all the Jews were targets and easy ones too. For Jews, my enemy's enemy was not necessarily my friend, but quite often my enemy too.



3. Behind the mere mechanics of the story is the realization that this happened just 60 years ago.
   
   The line between life today in Europe and N.America and the Europe of 1939 is all too thin. Technology has changed our lives but people still live these life experiences of the Elsner family in Africa, Asia, and S.America today.
   
   Everyone needs to read this book and take inspiration from it, especially the younger generations who cannot quite believe that this could be "real". Life is not just merely about what you own, it is about what you do and how you respect others. It is about how society allows those with power to treat people also. It is the unheard voices that still cry out uncounted today.
   
   Alan has laboured hard over this book, the Elsner family is sharing a true gift in this recounting of all the details of this darkest time for their family and it deserves to have the widest possible audience. The story may not be market or Hollywood "fashionable" but the message is timeless and essential.
   
   This book is deeply moving and inspirational - I hope that your purchase this book and tell other people about it.
   
   DW



4. The book tells the story of three Polish Jews struggling for survival during World War II in such a way that one cannot believe it is not a work of fiction. The courage and cunning necessary to overcome the obstacles that these boys faced constantly taxes the reader's imagination. The book is a journey of the spirit that rivals any that can be found in non-fictional literature.



5. I wanted this book because I was so impressed with "The Nazi Hunter" and it did not disapoint. I have read lots of Holocaust literature and biographies and this tells the story from a different angle; I had not read of the experiences in the gulags during the war and especially tied to the killing camps of the Nazis; well written, flows beautifully, what a combination of good fortune and the will to live under almost insurmountable odds, the family ties and love between the brothers and the cousin beat within most of us; family is how God organized us and it speaks to ties that will never be broken.
   
   I look forward to this authors next book and will keep this one in my permanent library..
   
   Judy Good

2 comments about William & Rosalie: A Holocaust Testimony (Mayborn Literary Nonfiction).

1. "William & Rosalie: A Holocaust Testimony" is the personal story of William and Rosalie Schiff who were a young couple struggling to stay alive during the Nazi holocaust in which German antisemitism motivated the torture and murder of their families, friends, and neighbors. Now both in their eighties and living in Dallas, Texas, their story is effectively and accurately narrated by Craig Hanley is a seminal biography detailing their experiences, the loss of their families, their years of torture at the hands of their Nazi captors, and their struggle to find each other after the war ended. This is a riveting, harrowing, dramatic, true story, the stuff of which block buster movies and television mini-series are made from. "William & Rosalie" is a welcome and informative addition to the growing body of Holocaust literature, made even more valuable as the survivors of that generation are now dying off and the attempts by neo-fascist, neo-Nazi, and Islamic anti-Semites at denying the Holocaust are continuing unabated. Enhanced with family photographs, a 'Key to Inter-Chapter Photos', and a selected bibliography of suggested further readings, "Williams & Rosalie" is particularly distinguished by an underlying message warning of the dangers of prejudice and ethnic hatred. Now academic or community library should fail to include a copy of "William & Rosalie" in the Judaic Studies or Holocaust Studies reference collections.



2. This is a well-written and riveting story of love, endurance, suffering and God's provision. The explanations of the atrocities committed by the Nazis to William, Rosalie, their families and friends is horrible and hard to absorb, but reading it is only a fraction of the pain that these two brave people endured.
   
   Having met, listened to and visited with both William and Rosalie, I can attest to the scars that they carry as well as the passion they have for sharing their stories with others. They continually re-open old wounds by telling people what happened to them in hopes that the true story of the Holocaust will never be ignored or forgotten.
   
   I strongly encourage you to get this book, read it, and learn from it. We must NEVER FORGET.

5 comments about Displaced Persons: Growing Up American After the Holocaust.

1. This book will be enjoyed by all who read it for it is a story of survival from the ashes of the Holocaust. This book is also an excellent book club selection that will spark much thought and conversation.



2. My father's story parallels Joseph Berger's in eerie ways...they were both at the Schlactensee DP Camp and the Landsberg-Am-Lech DP camp...Berger's mother's story of her youth could be my grandmother's, from an unpleasant step-mother to the flight East to Russia. My father was born during my grandparents' refuge in the USSR, and crossed illegally with his family into Poland after the war ended. I have always been close to my grandparents, but this book brought clarity and insight into topics they don't generally discuss...the duality that immigrant survivors (the displaced persons) felt between their new lives in America and the tragedy and loss left in Europe. When I look at my grandparents' happy faces at family occasions---graduations, weddings, bar mitzvahs, birthday parties---I wonder if the events make them remember times similar back in Lithuania. Berger's story, beautifully written and researched, is a must-read.



3. Joseph Berger has written a story that needed to be told, but he has included too much extraneous material about his own life. Much of what he tells reveals what it was like growing up as the child of a refugee, but who cares whether or not he dated in high school?

   The best parts of this book were those about his mother's life and about how she managed in the United States as a refugee. Berger's writing is more journalism than story telling. He's got all the facts, but none of his descriptions flare above the mundane. His mother's reminisences are far more artistic, and reveal more than the words on the page.




4. New York Times journalist Joseph Berger has created a masterful, evocative and moving account of the ever-present duality of his life: his identity as an acculturated American child of Holocaust survivors. This duality gives his account of his mother's life and his own evolution from a bewildered refugee child into an accomplished American a poignancy and power. "Displaced Persons" will stand as an important contribution, not only to our understanding of the long-term implications of being a survivor of the Holocaust, but of the unique burdens, pressures and responsibilities children of survivors inherit from their parents.

   Berger is acutely aware of "the unmentioned sorrow that was the subtext to everything [his] parents said or did." Haunted by memories, devastated by enormous loss, handicapped by their arrival in America in their twenties and driven to provide security for their families, Holocaust survivors often perceive their children as replacements of beloved family members who perished and as repositories of hopes and dreams denied them. Worried about their children's safety, happiness and future, Berger muses about his parents' perspective, "What could I say about the dread and suspicion with which they encountered a world that had proven maliciously fickle?"

   As the author emerges from childhood, he begins to chafe from his mother's protective, controlling instincts and desires to assert himself as his own man. Berger's wrenching analysis of his status becomes the overarching theme of his memoir. "I saw myself now an an American...I would no more be the timid refugee boy with one leg planted in the fearful shtetls of Poland, with a mother ever vigilant that no more perils come to the remnants of her kin." It is this unspoken loving tension between Joseph and his mother, Rachel, that gives "Persons" its dynamism.

   Alternating between two narratives, one his own and the other the gripping account of his mother's survival, Berger deftly intermingles past and present. Aware of his distinct heritage, the young Berger recognizes others in his impoverished Manhattan neighborhood who share his background. "We knew one another, knew in our young bellies that our parents were the same dazed and damaged lot, had the same refugee awkwardness, the same whiff about them of marrow bones and carp." Now attempting to wrest coherence in America, Holocaust survivors tend to frustrate Berger with their problem solving techniques. Berger prefers the American way of standing up directly; survivors "were always scraping by on a willingness to do what was necessary to survive, even if that meant surrendering pride or principle."

   Raw emotion floods "Displaced Persons." Rachel's symbolic mourning of a dead child in Warsaw at the onset of World War II serves to remind us that she has no "mental picture" of the actual murder of her family. Unspoken grief undulates throughout the memoir. Berger's stoic father Marcus scarcely articulates his unfathomable sense of loss; nearly half a century passes before he can utter the names of his sisters. Guilt ebbs and flows in Rachel's description of her survival. Anguished over refusing to bring non-kosher food to her hungry brother during World War II, she has never forgiven heself, calling it "the worst thing I ever did in my life."

   Yet life surges and humor emerges in Berger's descriptions of growing up in New York City in the 1950s and 60s. With both parents working at dreary, tiring jobs, the author experiences a freedom of movement he admits he would never conceive of allowing his own daughter today. His descriptions of his initial exploration of Manhattan reveal the sheer joy of discovery, the incredible exuberance of youthful hopes and the awesome sense of possibilities Berger recognizes in his new home. Berger's frantic disposal of an illicit girlie magazine carries universal appeal; he becomes an American everyboy. His struggles with self-confidence, academic competition and sexual frustrations are those of not only his generation, but of those before and after.

   Written with conviction and compassion, "Displaced Persons" is that kind of memoir that not only describes, but instructs. Through the author's descriptions of his resolute, stubborn and proud mother, survivors attain an identity beyond that of suffering and loss. His own life's story shapes our understanding of the purpose of our national experience and the sacredness of an American identity. Treating both the Holocuast in its past brutality and its implications for the second-generation children of survivors, the memoir blends sorrow and joy, heartache and hope, pain and redemption.




5. i loved this book. i felt as though i was right there with him and his family through every phase of their lives. this book had everything going for it, sadness, chaos, happiness, tragedy. it was so personal and you just felt as though the author let you in to share with him.