5 comments about Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz.

1. After Dachau was liberated, Army intelligence interviewed a woman at the camp who claimed to have been Rudolf Hoess' mistress while at Auschwitz. What details they could check were confirmed, and her interview became part of a Seventh Army report issued a few weeks later, a report that has been republished as Dachau Liberated: The Official Report (ISBN: 1587420031). For those who want to understand the infamous Hoess, that interview of "E.H." provides a much-needed check on his obviously self-serving autobiography. Here's a short passage from her interview:
   
   "According to my recollection, on December 16, 1942, about 11 p.m. I was already asleep, suddenly the C.O. appeared before me. I hadn't heard the opening of my cell and was such frightened. It was dark in the cell. I believed at first it was an SS man or a prisoner and said, "What is this tomfoolery, I forbid you." Then I heard "Pst," and a pocket lamp was lighted and lit the face of the C.O. I broke out "Herr Kommandant."
   
   Hoess didn't mention this clandestine affair in his autobiography, but details she gave fit with his account and with conditions at Auschwitz.



2. My opinion is based on the comparison with the orginal publication in German, which I purchased in 1960 to provide essential information for the subsequent psychiatric evaluations of several thousand Holocaust survivors.



3. I give this book five stars because of its historical value. This work not only gives insight into the mind of the leader of perhaps the greatest death factory ever built, but also allows a clearing-up of some errors that have accreted in the decades since that horrible time.
   
   Hoess rejected God and the Church (p. 52-53, 57, 59, 72, 192), having rebelled against his father's wish that he become a priest. Like Himmler, he became an Artaman (pp. 202-203; a communal movement resembling the 1960's US communes, albeit Teutonic-centered) before switching to Nazism for his substitute religion.
   
   Hoess wrote: "Until the beginning of 1942 the main body of prisoners was Polish." (p. 128). Many Poles were murdered secretly (the cause of death listed as natural), "...because of political and security reasons..." (p. 224).
   
   During the Auschwitz Carmelite convent controversy, attempts were made to belittle the victimhood of Auschwitz Poles through the premise that they, unlike most Jews, were not generally killed upon arrival at Auschwitz. Hoess, in contrast, rejected any such dichotomy (if anything, praising the slow-death genocidal methods--as perfected by the Communists): "The Gestapo delivered the prisoners to the camps to be exterminated. It made no difference to them whether it happened by firing squad, gas, or by the horrible conditions in the camps. It was part of their plan not to improve conditions in the camps...Thus, the concentration camps were changed deliberately, and sometimes unintentionally, into large-scale extermination centers. The Kommandants received extensive composite reports from the Gestapo about the Soviet concentration camps. Escaped prisoners had made reports about the conditions and organization of these camps down to the smallest detail. They emphasized that by using forced labor methods the Soviets were annihilating entire nationalities." (pp. 168-169).
   
   Holocaust-uniqueness advocates sometimes claim that the genocide of the Polish intelligentsia, unlike that of Jews, served a rational purpose--the elimination of resistance. Actually, the latter was, at most, a hoped-for byproduct of this nation-destroying act: "I want to add this, that the general opinion at SS headquarters was that the total annihilation of the Polish intelligentsia would also destroy the resistance movement. [SS Major] Thomsen was an ardent defender of this theory." (p. 322).
   
   Initial plans to kill all Jews gave way to the sparing of some of them for forced labor (p. 34).
   
   Hoess discussed the Jewish Sonderkommando in considerable detail. Those Jews temporarily got to save their lives by dutifully assisting in the deception, gassing, despoiling, and cremation of their fellow Jews. He also observed Jew-against-Jew behavior by some Jews who had no hope of postponing their own deaths. As they entered the gas chambers, they told Germans the addresses of fugitive Jews back home. Hoess commented: "I cannot explain what motivated them to reveal this information. Was it personal revenge, or were they jealous because they did not want the others to live on?" (p. 160).
   
   In common with many Germans, Hoess attempts to rationalize his exterminatory conduct by equating it with the Allied bombings of German women and children. He estimates German civilian casualties in the several millions (p. 171), which is at least a 20-fold exaggeration.
   
   As for lebensraum, Hoess belatedly concluded that Germany could have achieved it peacefully (p. 182).
   
   Hoess suggested that crude propaganda such as Der Sturmer had hindered the development of scientific anti-Semitism (p. 140). He also came to believe that the extermination of Jews only brought hatred against Germany and increased Jewish power by discrediting anti-Semitism (p. 183).
   
   This volume isn't limited to Hoess' memoirs. The entire Wannsee Protocol is printed in translation. It is obvious that the choice of Poland as the site of the German death camps was based solely on practical considerations (minimalized transportation) and had nothing to do with real or stereotyped Polish attitudes towards Jews: "State Secretary Dr. Buehler declared that the government of Occupied Poland would welcome it if the final solution to this question would be started in Occupied Poland. His reason: transport plays no important role here and the deployment of workers during the operation would not cause any problems." (p. 380).



4. This is the story about how badly the Germans hate the Jewish people. They hate them so much, that its OK to persecute them, beat them, drive them out of their homes, force them into boxcars and transport them to an extermination camp where they can be gassed and burned. Its so sick that a race of people like the Germans expended so much energy in an effort to exterminate the Jewish people. The memoirs of Hoss show how these Germans were cold and cruel to the Jews, how they treated these souls and turned them into disease bearing animals. Hoss claims he was just following orders from Himmler and the others and that he did nothing wrong because if he disobeyed the orders to exterminate the Jews, he would have been done away with as well. Hoss details the extermination process and gives numbers in the hundreds of thousands of people that were exterminated at Auschwitz, the number one killing center of the German government. Hoss explains how the transports of tens of thousands of Jews from all over Europe were tricked into believing they were getting a shower and how people were ignorant of their fate until the very end. Hoss profiles other high ranking SS officers and takes no blame for the horrible atrocities that took place while he was camp commandant. This book profiles the sickness of the German government and of the German people themselves, how could the German people claim ignorance of the stench of burning flesh. After 9/11 I was in Whitestone Queens miles away from the inferno and I could smell the burning flesh of 3,000 souls, imagine 300,000 souls, this book shows you the sickness of these people and of their mindset



5. I bought this book to see the "other side" point of view
   The view from the hantchman eyes.
   Well, I think this book is worth reading, not only to see see how cruel and perverse one can get but olso how hatred can lead to unimaganable crime.
   Hoss writes this book from prison...
   His writing is honest although he trys to "whitewash" his
   actions and blames his subordinates for lots of attrocities which happened in Auschwitz.
   I think this book is a very good source to see how quickly one can become a real monster, when following insane idiology.

3 comments about Clara Lowenburg Moses : Memoir of a Southern Jewish Woman.

1. This was a wonderful book. I hardly knew there were Jews living in the South, especially in 1865! Clara Moses's story was very poignant. Her life had so many fascinating twists and turns. The author does a great job discussing her husband and all his problems. With all she went through in her life, it is a wonder she came out of it so well.

   This is history made fun. I recommend the book to anyone interested in the South.




2. I found this book to be very amateurish and was obviously written by a woman that needs to get her facts straight. I wouldnt doubt if this "Author" was dating the president of the publishing company.



3. Some of the book was interesting but it made me happy when I was finally finished and upset that I had payed $15.00 for it.

2 comments about Haym Salomon Liberty's Son.

1. Haym Salomon, a Jewish refugee from Poland, arrived in New York in the spring of 1775, just weeks after shots were first exchanged between British soldiers and Americans at Lexington and Concord.
   
   He found a job as a distiller and in his free time studied the grievances of the thirteen colonies issued by Congress. Then he joined the Sons of Liberty and became a provisions supplier for American troops at Lake George.
   
   Twice, Salomon was arrested by the British and thrown into Provost Prison by Warden William Cunningham, and twice he escaped. Once, he offered to serve as a German interpreter for the Hessian mercenaries-who he convinced to join liberty's cause. Next, he convinced his Hessian guard to unlock his door, in exchange for a free passage to desert to Washington's side.
   
   His second escape brought Salomon to the Dobbes Ferry landing, where none of the troops owned a complete uniform, new musket or unbent bayonet. The men were thin, dressed in buckskin shirts and coonskin caps, and their shoes were tied with rope. Salomon, at 40, realized he was too old to serve himself, but he proposed to General Alexander McDougall that he could assist the cause by raising money from the Jewish community in Philadelphia, 100 miles away. Though ill, he set off on foot to do his patriotic best.
   
   In Philadelphia, he began trading and his success brought the notice and respect of detractors who had once baited him as the "haggler Jew" or "Jew broker." Before long, he had earned enough to give money to the Continental Congress and its army. His first gestures were to General Casimir Pulaski, who had been authorized by Congress to raise the Pulaski legion.
   
   Robert Morris, the head of Willing and Morris, had reluctantly accepted control of all finances to pay for the Revolution. He was soon at his wits' end in efforts to give the necessary help. He even approached the Quakers, though he reportedly demeaned them. But he could not bring himself to ask for money from Jews.
   
   Finally, the situation grew so bad that General Washington himself appealed to Morris to see Haym Salomon. On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Morris at last sought Salomon's help. In fifteen minutes, Salomon raised $20,000 from the congregation of Jewish worshipers, who were anxious to save American soldiers from starvation and cold. As news of Salomon's devotion spread, he was approached by all the famous officers and politicians of the day--including John Paul Jones, General Daniel Morgan, Thomas Jefferson, Thaddeus Kosciusko and General Benjamin Lincoln.
   
   Salomon bankrupted his family with his generosity. But when his wife asked whether there would be any inheritance for their children, he said, "Yes, a country where they'll be free to differ in the way they worship God and still enjoy the friendship of other people." They would have opportunities for happiness equal to that of others, and a feeling of being as important to the new nation as anyone else.
   
   Soon, Salomon was buying French army bills to support the young nation's ally. French minister Chevalier de la Luzerne called on Salomon and said, "[You] in your little office on Front Street are doing for the nation's credit what Washington is doing on the battlefield for the people's independence."
   
   In September 1783 the treaty of peace was formally signed in Paris. Haym Salomon was responsible for the financial success of the Revolutionary War.
   
   This is an important book for children to understand the contribution of minorities to America's founding.
   
   --Alyssa A. Lappen



2. Haym Salomon Son of Liberty by Howard Fast is a much better book on this subject. The cover says it is written for "young people" but it is so well written that adults would enjoy it also.

1 comments about Kaddish for Kovno: Life and Death in a Lithuanian Ghetto, 1941-1945.

1. This memoir is a great and important work. Mishell was one of the few survivors of the Kovno ghetto, and if one wishes to learn about the destruction of Jews on Soviet territory, this is the book to read.

5 comments about The Will To Live On: This is Our Heritage.

1. I would agree with the superlatives described in a previous review. I was particularly moved by the sweep of history described up through the 3rd Destruction. I was particularly moved by the section about the fall of the 2nd Temple and about Yahveh. The descriptions of Jewish literature and thought through the ages was very good.

   Unfortunately, I was hoping for a more creative, less tradition bound ending, more in the style of Dershowitz in The Vanishing American Jew or Mordecai Kaplan in Judaism as a Civilization - see next paragraph). I have lately become a Reconstructionist Jew (a branch of Judaism founded by Mordecai Kaplan). Many of us find it particularly relevant to our needs as American Jews (our prior affiliations have been Reform). Not only was I puzzled to find the very word lacking as an option for the Jewish future anywhere in the book but lacking in all but one sentence in the middle of the book. Is he not familiar with it?

   Elsewhere, I was confused by his use of the word Neology which I took as a critical bias toward one liberal theology?

   After showing the book to a friend, I was suprised to learn about Wouk's misleading information with respect to Hannah Arendt's supposed relationship with a Nazi (via scholarly footnotes) which Wouk uses to discredit her views on the Eichmann trial in ..Banality of Evil. Her credentials are far better than Wouk implies. The distortion works in part by merging time periods of events separated by years.

   Although Wouk admires an large number of intelligent people / leaders, to my recollection they are nearly if not all men.

   After finishing the book, these considerations led me to be less confident about its overall accuracy .




2. At 84 years of age, Herman Wouk, one of the giants of contemporary American Jewish literature, presents his view of the survival of the Jewish people. His narrative moves back and forth between a thumbnail sketch of Jewish history and a colorful personal history . He indicates that the two motivating forces that have kept Judaism cohesive and growing during the twentieth century--the Holocaust and the birth of the state of Israel--are no longer of recent enough memory in the younger generation to ensure Jewish survival. Are there other factors, as the twenty-first century begins, that can influence young Jews to preserve their ancient heritage? This is the tough question the author attempts to address.

   Wouk's whirlwind tour of Jewish history is unsatisfactory because it flies through time and presumes an in-depth knowledge by the reader. Far more satisying are the author's personal reflections as to how his life experiences and knowledge of the past allow him to appreciate his Jewish heritage. What seem to be lacking at the beginning of the book book are fill-in-the-blank kind of things. It is almost as if the author's intention is to get his readers to find the missing information by going to Judaic sources and reading what they need to know to preserve the Jewish faith. Nice ploy!

   THE WILL TO LIVE ON concludes with Wouk's thoughts about the survival of the Jewish people into the distant future. His impressions differ regarding the Jews of Israel and those of the diaspora. He has one especially important thought to share about how diaspora Jewry can ensure their survival. It's not worth peeking at the last few pages of the book ahead of time, however, because the strength of Wouk's case slowly builds throughout the narrative. The reader can then sit back and truly savor the elderly author's insightful conclusion.




3. One of many topics reviewed in this excellent book, possibly, but hopefully not the last of Herman Wouk's great literary career. From the author of numerous fictional works, including the epics Winds of War and War and Remembrance, this is the second of his major nonfiction books, published some 40 years after his first, "This is My God."

   This 300-page book spans a greater time span, and is certainly more up to date than Heinrich Graetz's encyclopedic, multi-volume "History of the Jews." Aside from providing a succinct history of a people spanning over three millennia, Wouk addresses an even more important question of what will become of the Jews, having survived centuries of invasion, overthrow, exile, persecution and the Holocaust, only to be threatened with extinction through intermarriage and assimilation in the United States, and secular Judaism in Israel.

   At times a difficult read because of its complex vocabulary, cultivated from Yiddish, Hebrew, Biblical and Talmudic colloquialisms, this is more than compensated for by its succinctness, its eyewitness perspective, and its inclusion in respective appendices, a glossary of terms, and biographical names.

   Wouk certainly knows of what he speaks. Having been born into and Orthodox American Jewish family, Herman Wouk, is the grandson of a Russian Orthodox rabbi who moved to the United States in the 1920's, who later made aliyah in the 1950's, a member of what Tom Brokaw calls "The Greatest Generation," a World War II naval officer, a lifelong student of history, Old Testament, Talmud, Judaism, and Israel, Wouk has personally met such prominent figures as Prime Ministers Ben-Gurion and Ehud Barak of Israel, the Nobel winning physicist Richard Feynman. A must read for anyone interested in Jewish history, prognosis, Israel (ancient or modern)




4. In a career of fifty years or so, Herman Wouk has published less than a dozen novels. Fortunately, the time he puts into his work shows and nearly all of his works are five-star quality. This book, a non-fiction follow-up to This Is My God (which is the only book of his I haven't read), continues the high-quality trend.

   Although designed for a Jewish audience, this book has plenty to offer anyone who wishes to learn more about Judaism and the direction it is going. This is a good blend of history, theology and memoir, well-organized and filled with detail without losing readability. I found of particular interest the second part, "The Heritage, or the Power of a Dream" which describes the sources of Jewish thought and tradition.

   Although not very religious myself, I am often fascinated with religion, and this book is a good addition to my collection on the subject. As he states in the Afterword, "If this book in any way helps readers to rethink the [future of Judaism] for themselves, I will have done, to the best of my ability, what I set out to do." He has accomplished this task very well.




5. Anyone interested in Judaism, what it means to be a Jew, Jewish history, Jewish meaning will love this book. It's usually very well written eloquent prose although sometimes it's a bit too diary-conversational.

No comments about Hannah: From Dachau to the Olympics and Beyond.

1 comments about Moses Maimonides: The Man and His Works.

1. Moses Maimonides: The Man and His Works by Herbert A. Davidson (Oxford University Press) offers a thorough survey of the life and writings of this most influential Jewish thinker. The work gives a refreshing account of his life and influence with a close survey of all existent writings. In the process some surprising facts about his life and times come to the fore as well as some common myths are dispelled. Important for beginners and scholars alike.

2 comments about Dear Cara : Letters From Otto Frank; Anne's Father Shares His Wisdom.

1. Dear Cara is a book about a man and a woman, across the world from one another, both in miles and the lives they lead. Otto Frank, who survived the death camps of the Holocaust but lost his daughter there, shares his hope and inspiration with a young American woman whose life is unfolding. His shares his unfailing human spirit and his love with Cara, a young woman who first wrote to him at the age of 13. Throughout her life, from her teen-age years, to college to marriage to motherhood, Otto Frank is there with her, offering his support and his inspiration. He listens to Cara's dreams, her troubles, her worries and through their correspondence, she feels the joy that a young person feels when someone is listening. A young woman's voice is heard. When, as an older woman, Cara's world is turned upside down, the wisdom and hope that Otto Frank gave her for twenty years, sustains her through her pain and provides her the support she needs to endure and accept, and ultimately, to grow from her own experiences. This book is must-read for young people and for adults who believe, or want to remember, through pain and turmoil, how important and precious hope, and love, is.



2. "I received your kind letter and thank you for it. It was very nice of you to send me your photo, so that I have a better impression of you as a person..."

   So begins Otto Frank's first letter to a young American girl in 1957, a suburban California girl named Cara as much in the mainstream of American society as the pop songs she listens to on the radio. That girl had read Anne's diary, had been deeply moved by it, and had written to Anne's father.

   He wrote back.

   Cara wrote to him again. Otto wrote back. She wrote again. He wrote again. And so on and so forth...for decades. They grew close. Cara faced all the same questions we face, about school, love, marriage, child-rearing, politics, family. But she had a very, very special mentor.

   This book is her story of that relationship. Yes, it's a remarkable pairing. But it's also a remarkable tour through the last half of the 20th century, through the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam, the Watergate days, too many wars in the Middle East; all reflected in a single woman's coming of age. The letters back and forth are always revealing and quite often gripping. They are about private troubles and public issues. And when Cara, as a woman, goes to visit an ailing Otto, by now an old man, it would take a reader with a hard heart indeed not to feel a lump in the throat, at least. Then, when Otto her a collection of something that takes us, the reader, completely over the edge, in the best possible way.

   We recommend this book to anyone, of any age. It is just special.

2 comments about The Fortune Teller's Kiss (American Lives).

1. This memoir is beautifully crafted. It took me back to another time and place, and it is still with me. The author presents us with a candid look at her fascinating relatives (She is from a Sephardic family with roots, traditions and superstitions carried forth from centuries in Turkey and Spain.) She shares the struggles and triumphs of her own childhood. I am recommending it to those of us who remember the importance of a skate key, and to younger readers, as well. It is a timeless treat that continues to ring true.



2. Since visiting Ellis Island's Museum, I have been collecting adult and children's books about the trials and tribulations that my ancestors had to endure, at Ellis Island. This book is a great addition to those books!

5 comments about My Just War: The Memoir of a Jewish Red Army Soldier in World War II.

1. I always enjoy reading first person accounts. This book was fair and was worth reading because of the few first person accounts of WWII from the Russian perspective. I found it fascinating that the author and his peers could readily see the evil in Nazism but so quickly overlook the crimes and brutality of Stalin's Russia. Another fascinating aspect was to see how backwards and brutal the soviet army was at that time (both to the enemy and its own people), yet it's soldiers still fought on with conviction.



2. This is simultaneously a moving story of the ability of the human spirit to survive the unthinkable and a fascinating account of Russia at war, as seen from ground level. The real wonder of the book is that Mr.Temkin - who lost home and family in the Holocaust, who endured appalling privations in Soviet labour battalions, who survived capture by the Nazi and the suspicions of the NKVD of escaped prisoners, who fought his way from the Don to Budapest in an infantry unit, who built a new life after the war as a Polish academic, only to become a refugee again in 1968, and who ultimately created a new life for himself and his family in the United States - could not just prevail, but do so with the generosity of spirit that radiates from every page of this book. A sub-theme of the story, equally inspiring, is Mr.Temkin's relationship to his wife, who suffered little less than himself, but who stayed a faithful support over sixty years. There is enough raw material in this book for a dozen novels but, the personal story aside, the most fascinating aspects are the details provided of what it was like to be a tiny cog in the massive Soviet war machine, not in a crack armoured or artillery or Guards unit, but in one of the vast multitude of "rifle divisions" - infantry units equipped with little more than the weapons from which they took tier name and dependent on "the horse with ten toes" for movement over vast distances and on the four-legged variety for transport of their supplies. Mr.Temkin's division could boast two motor vehicles by the end of the war - US-made jeeps for senior officers, and for the rest differed little from the units that had fought in the Crimea almost a century earlier. Much of the story makes painful reading, and spares us nothing, including details of the trail of rape and massacre cut through the civilian populations of Eastern Europe as the Soviet army, thirsty for revenge, lunged westwards. Despite all the horror - and the knowledge of the underlying tragedy of the loss of almost all the writer's family - this is a book filled with hope and inspiration. Its greatest merit may be that it rescues from oblivion so many decent, unassuming and courageous people - family members, peasants, army comrades - who live again in these pages. It is a wonderful book. Read it - and give it to your children and friends to read as well.



3. The book is a first person account from a non-Western perspective of WWII. I think one of the book's most interesting aspects is that it was written from the Soviet side, which I found very difficult to find (most eye witness books of WWII, published in English, are by Germans). The book is written in a simple style (you can see the author is not a professional novel writer) and is focussed on a very narrow window of the war, i.e. the window he saw. In that window though, some very interesting facts are relayed: treatment of Jews by the Germans and their allies, treatment of Germans and their allies by the Russians, etc. The other fact Temkin portrays very well is the attitude and atmosphere pervailing in the Russian army. Overall, the book can get trivial at times, but I would reccommend it to a WWII reader.



4. My Just War was with a doubt a very good book especially if you're intrested in ww2. It had alot of detail about what Gabriel Temkin had to go through fighting both as a red army soilder and being a jew. I think that this book should also be made into a movie so that everyone could see what it was like to be a soilder during ww2. I would recamend this book to anyone who can read it might teach some people some respect for their elders.



5. Dear Sir, I have noticed the recent changes in the Amazon's Website of my book:"My Just War" and I would like to propose that some excerpts from other editorial reviews be also added: 1.From "Publisher's Weekly" of Jan.26,1998: 2.from "Parameters"US Army War College Journal.Spring 2001.From the"Canadian Jewish News",April !998;4. the "Jerusalem Post" and the "The Jerusalem Report", July 13 and August 1998. There were also many very favorable rewies in many local papers in the USA as well as in England. With many thanks, Gabriel temikn.