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

1. "Dry Tears" is a memoir of the author during the years she and her family struggled for survival in occupied Poland. After many attempts to escape Nazi officials, they find shelter in a small town under the protection of a peasant Polish family, in exchange for financial benefits. The story is a lesson on faith, of compliance to ever adjusting circumstances in an environment filled with prejudice and ignorance. Well written, with no high literary aspirations, but with a high moral content. This is a must for adolescents and pre-adolescents, and for anyone who is not aware of what it really means to face adverse circumstances in life.



2. 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.




3. "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.




4. 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).



5. 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.

2 comments about They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland before the Holocaust.

1. They Called Me Mayer July is a beautiful book, both in the written word and the art work. It details the day-to-day lives of the Jewish people who lived in their 'schtetles' before the Holocaust and it goes into the various personalities, nick names, and jobs that were done during those years. Artistically, the detail is stunning and a joy to behold. For those of us whose ancestors came from these places, it gives us the opportunity to see and read what life was like, both the good and the difficult. I was so impressed that I bought a book as a gift for a friend and have recommended it to others. We owe a debt of gratitude to the author and his daughter for giving us this wonderful gift.



2. This book is a treasure! It provides reminiscences in text and in paintings of a Polish Jewish shtetl, Apatow or, as the Jews called it, Apt. Like Grandma Moses, Kirshenblatt began painting late in life and, like her, has produced primitive, lively, intimate illustrations of his remembered world. The text is equally intimate describing the people, their nicknames, and their lives. Anyone interested in furthering his or her knowledge of the shtetl, as told by one of its last living inhabitants, must read this book.

No comments about Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion.

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).

1 comments about Remember Us: From My Shtetl Through the Holocaust.

1. This is a magnificent account of the horrors of the Holocaust as lived by Martin Small. Author Vic Shayne has been able to give the reader the feeling of presence during these horrific events. Mr. Small's recollection is vivid and tragic at the same time. Having lost 34 members of his family to the murderous Nazi's and their collaborators he has dedicated his life to memorialize these unspeakable events in his art and poetry. Now his book 'Remember Us: From My Shtetl Through the Holocaust' brings his message to new heights with the chant of 'Never Again' and 'We Shall Never Forget'. This Herculean effort should be obligatory reading for everyone so that the horrors of the Holocaust as told by survivor Martin Small to Vic Shayne are understood and remembered forever.

5 comments about The Children of Willesden Lane: Beyond the Kindertransport: A Memoir of Music, Love, and Survival.

1. This is a story which every parent should read to their children. Talk about the history of WW2 and discuss the extremes of humanity. A book which once read you will never forget.



2. Full of history. Easy to follow. Great read for young and old alike.



3. This is one of my all-time favorite books. If you are a musician, you will fall in love with it. The story is inspiring and moving and will make you appreciate music to the greatest extent possible.



4. author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family
   
   from the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
   August 30, 2002
   
   Vienna, 1938. In the city of Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and Strauss, 14-year-old musical prodigy Lisa Jura looks forward to a promising career as a concert pianist. Hitler has other plans. With the breaking of glass on Kristallnacht, Jura's dreams are shattered.
   
   Internationally celebrated concert pianist Mona Golabek, with journalist and poet Lee Cohen, has crafted a loving, lyrical tribute to her mother, Lisa Jura, in "The Children of Willesden Lane: Beyond the Kindertransport: A Memoir of Music, Love, and Survival."
   
   Jura was one of 10,000 Jewish children saved from the Nazis by the British and sent on the Kindertransport to safety from Eastern Europe. Already being compared to "The Diary of Anne Frank," this simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting tale weaves together the stories that Golabek's mother told her about prewar Austria; the gut-wrenching separation from her family; life at the orphanage on Willesden Lane; and the power of music to help her survive.
   
   As Jura's mother, Malka, puts her on the train, she says the prophetic words that will sustain and inspire her daughter and future generations: "Hold on to your music. Let it be your best friend."
   
   In a world turned ugly, the beauty of music becomes Jura's strength, and, against tremendous odds, with the help and encouragement of the 30 other displaced children at the orphanage, she wins a scholarship to London's Royal Academy.
   
   "Each kid saw something in my mother's music that reminded them of what they had left behind in Czechoslovakia, in Austria, in Germany," says Golabek, a Grammy-nominated artist, "and that's what I tried to do in the story, not only to pay homage to my mother, but to all these kids and to their bravery."
   
   The book opens with Jura's tantalizing daydream of performing in a great concert hall and closes with the fulfillment of that dream, as she makes her debut before an exhilarated crowd. And in between, the pages burst with melody: Jura pounding the cadenza of the Grieg "Piano Concerto" to drown out the sounds of bombs during London's blitz, Jura visualizing Chopin fleeing a flaming Warsaw as she struggles with the somber coda of the "Ballade," Jura remembering her mother's Sabbath candles as she plays the solemn opening of Beethoven's "Pathetique."
   
   "My mom and her mother never cared if a piece is in C major. What really counts is the passion behind it, the image. If it's `Clair de Lune,' imagine the moon over a desert island. That imagination allowed her to survive the horrors of what she experienced, because a C-major chord will not inspire you through the horrors. It's the moonlight, the idea that maybe the composer wrote it for someone he loved. These things inflamed her imagination, and that's how she inflamed mine."
   
   And now Golabek's book will inflame the imagination of a whole new generation. The Milken Family Foundation, together with Facing History and Ourselves, an educational organization that teaches tolerance to 1 million students annually, are working with Golabek to bring the story to schools across the country by developing a companion curriculum guide.
   
   Plans are under way to launch the book in Austria, and make it available to teachers as part of the now mandatory four-year Holocaust education program for students.
   
   The saga of Golabek's 18-year struggle to get the story published is almost as harrowing as her mother's story itself. "It went through many, many writings; many, many ups and downs, starts and disappointments," Golabek says.
   
   Now the accolades and offers are pouring in. On Sept. 24, she will be an honored guest speaker at the California Governor's Conference for Women at the Long Beach Convention Center and will appear at Beth Am on Nov. 17 with her sister, pianist Renee Golabek-Kaye, and Jura's four grandchildren, all musicians: Michele, 16; Sarah, 14; Jonathan, 8; and Rachel, 7. Brandeis University will honor her at the Skirball Cultural Center next March 31.
   
   Last week Golabek was interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition and was the subject of a feature story by Andy Meisler of the New York Times. In the planning stages is a concert next year co-sponsored by the U.S. Holocaust Museum and the Austrian government. And, of course, Golabek is considering movie offers.
   
   On her syndicated radio show, "The Romantic Hours," which highlights stirring writings against a musical backdrop (Saturdays at 10 p.m., 105.1 FM), Golabek often quotes the poet Jean Paul Richter: "Life fades and withers behind us, but of our immortal and sacred soul all that remains is music."
   
   "That was a quote my mother taught me, and the whole reason why I wrote this book and why I created `The Romantic Hours' was that my mother felt through words and through music our souls would be immortalized."



5. I was unfamiliar with the Kindertransport that moved 10,000 Jewish children to safety from the Holocaust. This biography brings that event to life through the memories of Lisa Jura. At 14, her parents sent her to London and the book covers that wrenching journey and the next six years of her life. Growing up during the blitz in a refugee home with 31 children makes a fascinating book.
   Lisa's devotion to music weaves the story together as she strives towards her parents' dream. Becoming a concert pianist seems unachievable under the circumstances, but this touching biography details Lisa's progress towards that goal. This account has appeal for both adult and teen readers.
   I also recommend In The Shadow Of The Cathedral: Growing Up In Holland During WW II by Titia Bozuwa

5 comments about Crucible of Terror: A Story of Survival Through the Nazi Storm.

1. While this gentleman's stand is certainly commendable and his story moving, there IS one aspect of the whole "Jehovah's Witnesses" in the concentration camps issue which is never touched upon by these books, but is very important.
   
   Those in the camps referred to as "Jehovah's Witnesses" were in fact Bible Students (Bibelforschers); many whom were NOT affiliated with the WT, then or after. They were all labeled with the same "purple" triangle and lumped together. These faithful Bible Students who suffered and died in these camps too, NEVER associated with the Watchtower organization and were NEVER "Jehovah's Witnesses", a name not yet adopted at the time in Germany. Out of respect for these individuals this distinction SHOULD be made.
   
   Sincerely,
   
   (Bible Student - NOT JW)



2. This account is powerful, inspiring and deeply disturbing all at the same time. It's positive proof that no amount of oppression can destroy a person's firm desire to remain true to his convictions and faith.



3. Once I started reading, I just couldn't put this book down. An incredible account of one man's struggle for survival during the Nazi regime. This is one story that no one else has ever written or heard of before. He is one-a-kind.



4. One of the better books I have read on the subject. Clear and concise. That it was written from a Jewish perspective -- somebody who could not leave any concentration camp -- made it even more insightful. We should all be aware of the history that Jehovah's Witnesses were quite successful in peacefully standing against Hitler and his regime.



5. This is a touching story of endurance and faith. It is written with much dignity and can only be called an excellent example for all. It would encourage and strengthen any who read it.

5 comments about Miriam's Kitchen: A Memoir.

1. This is one of my all time favorite books.
   
   I first came across this book when I was living in Holland, and one day, while browsing the second hand book market in Amsterdam, I came across an editor's copy, how it ended up there I don't know, but I bought the book. I never realized how homesick I was until I read this book. . . it brought back such beautiful memories. The stories reminded me so much of my grandmother, now gone 25 years.
   
   Each chapter is organized by month, reflecting the Jewish holidays that take place in each month, the endless preparation, the planning, and most importantly, the cooking associated with each holiday.
   
   I was also brought up as an Orthodox Jew, and I so dearly remember my grandmother and mother cleaning and cooking for weeks, getting ready, especially for Passover. Walking to shul and then coming home to a delicious meal - I can close my eyes today and almost bring back those tastes.
   
   This book is a loving tribute to Ms. Ehrlich's mother-in-law, but it is a story of life as well, how to survive when survival is unthinkable, how food connects us so strongly with our past, and how making those special holiday meals helps to forge a strong spiritual future for our children.
   
   I did not realize how important it would have been for me to ask for my grandmother's recipes before she died and this is something I will always regret. I was able to find a lot of my grandmother's cooking in the recipes included in this book as well, and I make those recipes often, especially the egg salad, which is exactly how my grandmother made it. When I make it now in my kitchen, exactly as Ms. Ehrlich describes, I can almost feel my grandmother's presence - it makes me want to weep because it is such a small way of feeling close to her again.
   
   If you don't know a lot about the Jewish religion, this book is an easy and interesting way to become acquainted with our customs surrounding holidays, family, life and death. If you have been brought up in the faith, then this book will touch your heart, because it will remind you of your childhood, your grandparents, and perhaps your life now.
   
   Even though it is not a cookbook, all of the recipes are authentic, easy to make, and delicious. I have made all of them, many times over.
   
   I loved this book so much that when I returned to America I brought it with me. Because I was afraid that my editor's paper fronted copy would wear out, since I had used it so much, I bought two additional copies. The first copy I keep with my cookbooks and refer to it often - the second I gave to my mother, who treasures this book as much as I do.
   
   This is a wonderful, affirming story of life. It is a must read.



2. Well done, most interesting, all the various recipes, combined with memories from a time long ago. Have enjoyed it immensely.



3. Miriam's kitchen is a thoughtful, interesting, warm and homey memoir. If you are interested in material culture -- particularly food -- of various groups, you'll find it interesting. It's also a story about balancing identities -- Jewish, American, feminist, traditionalist, etc.



4. Elizabeth Ehrlich is a Jewish American woman who rejected, for many years, her connection to the practices of her Jewish faith. It is only through her discovery of her mother-in-law Miriam's kitchen and the foods prepared there that she learns to value the traditions that shaped her own family, traditions brought from the Old World and translated into the New. Through entries in her journal, through letters, memories, stories, and above all, through Miriam's recipes, Ehrlich recreates for us the story of her spiritual awakening and her self-guided journey into the lives of her foremothers, who nourished their faith and kept it alive and growing in difficult times, difficult places, through pain, separation, and even despair.
   
   This often funny, often heart-rending, always beautifully-evocative book is a powerful testimony to the importance of women's domestic contributions to the survival of their families, their communities, and their faith.
   
   Susan Wittig Albert
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   www.storycirclebookreviews.org



5. I read this many years ago. I love the stories that the author tells about her life and her family as related to food and Jewish tradition. I could relate. The recipies provided in the book are delicious. I am keeping the book as a reference.

5 comments about Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story.

1. Marion Blumenthal was a little girl in Germany when Hitler came to power and began his programs to rid Germany of Jews once and for all. With her family, she experienced the tightening grip of restrictions and humiliations forced on German Jews, including her father, a recipient of the Iron Cross for his bravery in WWI. Finally, they fled to a refugee camp in Holland, waiting for their visa to the United States. It was issued, but their passage on a ship was delayed two months, and in that terrible window of time, Hitler's armies conquered Holland. They ended up in one of the most infamous concentration camps in Germany, then, near the end of the war, were put on a "death train" to nowhere, moving from place to place in cattle cars infested with typhus as prisoners died, until finally being liberated by the advancing Russian army.
   
   
   
   This book is written for youth (I estimate 6-10th graders). It focuses more on the psychological stress of being a prisoner in ones own country, and glosses over the horror associated with Nazi death camps. That atrocities occurred are noted, however, this is a book about a family staying together from a pre-teen's perspective. I don't fault the book for not focusing on the atrocities; there is a haunting photograph of two women preparing dinner with hundreds of dead stacked up behind them. The horror of it all! But how does a child process this experience? That is what is missing from this particular book.
   
   
   
   Easy to read, and well-edited. The Holocaust continues to haunt... and to teach.



2. I had the honor of meeting the author, and no wonder she survived! This lady was as tough as they come! Liked the book, loved the author.



3. A child's perspective of the Holocaust and her life in the United States after liberation. Excellent reading suggestion for a children's Holocaust book.



4. This account of the Holocaust doubles as a succinct retelling of the German history that brought it about, making it not only a moving personal account of one family's journey, but a valuable informational source for those wondering how and why the Holocaust happened.
   
   Marion Blumenthal is only 5 when the story begins. Her German Jewish family got caught up in the inexorable tides of history, tried but failed to escape to Palestine or to the US, and ultimately fled to Holland. Unfortunately, Holland was overrun by the Nazis like much of mainland Europe, and the Blumenthals (father Walter, mother Ruth, brother Albert, and Marion) wound up first in Westerbork and later in Bergen-Belsen (yes, back to Germany).
   
   Young readers will get a first-hand account of what life was like as a child in the Nazi internment camps. Not as graphic as, say, Elie Wiesel's NIGHT, this book nonetheless is honest and forthright in its narration of Nazi brutalities. At times, the point of view (shifting between quotes of the mother, Ruth, and the first-person point of view of Marion) is a bit off-putting, but overall, this short, large-font memoir with pictures is a worthy choice for middle-school-aged and high school readers -- especially those new to this dark chapter in history. Recommended.



5. This is a good read but it is not exciting. I could take it or leave it. Its interesting to see how they recall and tell the events of the holocaust that they went through, but its not something that I would run out to get to read. I think Number the Stars, Annie Frank or The Hidding Place are more gripping that this one.

5 comments about Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust.

1. As far as I know, this book was the first collection of Hasidic responses to the Holocaust to make it out of the "Jewish literary ghetto" and into the mainstream, where it remains a popular read in both Jewish and non-Jewish theological circles. It was also the first collection of stories about Jews who did NOT lose their faith during the Holocaust (most of them, anyway -- there are one or two exceptions in the book.) Prior to this, religious Jews in the Holocaust were portrayed by the media as as "cowards who didn't fight back" rather than the religious martyrs that they were. (Most typical of this anti-religious period is the infamous line from the movie version of Leon Uris's EXODUS: "The only god I believe in is a gun.") I won't go into the politics of it here, but, suffice it to say, the post-Holocaust Zionist movement was more interested in freedom fighters than saints.

   The Hasidim, however, had a different view of their suffering during the Holocaust. God had not deserted them, even if He seemed hidden in a time of darkness. The Hasidim were telling their own Holocaust stories around the Sabbath table or at community gatherings but, because most of this telling was oral and in Yiddish, it was unknown to the general public. Enter Yaffa Eliach. As a professor of English literature at Brooklyn College, she began hearing these tales from her students. Brooklyn College had/has a high percentage of Hasidic students and, through them, Eliach got to know their parents and other Holocaust survivors, including some of the Hasidic Rebbes. The result is a fine collection of true Holocaust stories that will forever change the way you view Hasidic Jews. Courage, as this book demonstrates, doesn't always mean grabbing a gun. It can also mean hiding a child, sharing your food when you yourself are starving, or meeting death with your human dignity intact. To maintain one's faith under such adversity, to continue studying Torah and doing the mitzvahs even in a concentration camp -- these were acts of true resistance that shine through every page of this book. I give it ten stars!




2. Yaffa Eliach is to be commended for collecting and publishing these tales. They tell stories of Jews who despite horrible trials and sufferings kept their faith in God, and their decency as human beings. The paradox is often that only when human beings are subject to the worse trials do they reveal their greatness. These stories are stories of inspiration not only for Jews but for all of mankind.



3. i must say that I am surprised that no reviews I have come across so far adress what appears to me this books most remarkable feature: Its power of inspiring faith. In fact, I would site this book as one of the most concrete proofs of the existence of God in print. Stories of the divine powers that are granted to the compassionate, the devout, and the faithful surpass all description. Please read this book, I treasure it like a scripture, and the courage, profound faith, and integrity of its characters burns in the heart like fire. i have never wept like I wept when I read these simple stories for the first time, and I continue to draw bittersweet emotional sustainance everytime I read and re-read its pages. There is too many brilliant anecdotes to choose examples, But as I write I remeber the story of the boy whose friend apparently died in a forced labour factory. The young man was piled in the frigid cold of night in a pile of corpses after a terrible illness had left no sign of life in him. The grandfather of the boy kept appearing in his friends dream to tell him the his friend must be "woken up". After the third dream, the youth was more frightened of the dream than of risking his life to escape to where the dead were piled to investigate. The youth found his friend amid the corpses, and when he repeated the granfather's invocation to "wake up", he indeed stirred! The story concludes with the boy warming his friend, bringing him to safety, and survival. It is marvelous and breathtaking to discover that these miraculous and spellbinding stories occurred in the darkest heart of humankind's darkest hours, and that they have been compiled in this manner is a fitting tribute to is subjects.



4. This inspiring book is one of the best books writeen on the Holocaust. I read the book every year on Tisha B'av, the Jewish day of national mourning and never cease to be amazed, inspired and touched by the myriad of stories in this wonderful book. This copy is being given as a token of appreciation o someone I wish to thank.



5. A remarkable tale of Hasidic (Ultra-Orthodox) Jews and the miracles that happened to so many in spite of the ravages of the Holocaust.
   
   A mix of prose and poetry, tears and turbulence, you'll want to read it from cover to cover.
   
   One of the great pieces of literature related to one of the worst times in modern history.
   
   Michael