3 comments about Sunken Red (Twentieth Century Lives).

1. The book starts where the mother of Jeroen dies. For years he has hated his mother and tries to explain why. This leads him back to the Japanese camp where he and his mom spend several years in torment when he was only 5 years old. In the beginning you think of Jeroen as a strange man, but while the story goes on you start to understand him more and more. The ending will move you to tears. This is my all time favorite book and I can recommend it to anyone.



2. Ce livre retrace la vie terrible dans les camps de concentration en Indonésie détenue par les Japonais.Cela vous arrache les entrailles;et à chaque page les larmes restent bloquées dans notre gorge devant le courage de cette mère face à ce destin inhumain. Il n'y a pas de partie pris car la cruauté en tant de guerre est partout la même.



3. Angoissant, fascinant, d'une beauté et d'une cruauté absolue. Comment la perte d'un être cher fait ressurgir dans la tête de l'auteur ses souvenirs (insoutenables) d'internement dans un camp japonais en Indonésie, et comment de ces souvenirs, l'homme nait au jugement de lui même, de sa famille (des pages magnifiques sur sa mère) et d'autrui. A lire absolument.

5 comments about The Hidden Life of Otto Frank.

1. Apparently the news that Otto Frank had sold some of his product for making jam to the Nazi Germany during the war caused quite a stir in the occupied country The Netherlands. What is really strange is how we create heroes out of people who do not choose to be heroes. Otto Frank was a remarkable man. The story of his life is equally remarkable. He was the father of one of the most famous people who ever lived, Anne Frank. If it were not for Otto, his daughter's diary would not have been published. The fact that he would want to edit things out that were personal to him and his wife is completely understandable. We will never know whether Anne would have published her diary if she had survived. This is a balanced portrait of a man caught in extraordinary times. If it had not been for the publishing of the diary we would probably never know about this survivor of the holocaust. I think he was quite remarkable.



2. The Hidden Life of Otto Frank by Carol Ann Lee gives us a look at Anne Frank and her family from a different perspective, that of her father, Otto. The tragedy of Anne's short life is only heightened by the tragedy of her father's, who had to pick up his life and go on living after all of his family was destroyed by the Nazis. The fact that he was able to do so, and even become part of a new family is a real tribute to him. His absolute dedication to the memory of Anne and to the publication and promotion of her diary is laudable-- it is seen not only as a father's desperate attempt to retain some vestige of a daughter he obviously loved, but it is also his attempt to promote Anne's optimism and belief in the goodness of people.
   
   Otto Frank's story is interesting enough; Ms. Lee did not need to spend so much time dwelling on the possible role of Tonny Ahlers into the betrayal of the Frank family. A short chapter would have been enough, but Ms. Lee keeps returning to her theory to hammer her point home. It is distracting from a book that has enough drama as it is. To me, the wonder is that the family was able to remain hidden for so long when it seems that there were actually many people on the outside who knew about the Secret Annex.
   
   Generally children outlive their parents and hopefully become a credit to them. In the case of Otto Frank, however, it is he who is a credit to the memory of his extraordinary daughter.



3. I first saw this book while browsing through the bookstore, and was shocked by the title. It reminded me of too many tabloid books seeking to expose specious and degrading rumors. As someone who has read Anne's diary many times and who has had a great appreciation of her father from what I had read, I was curious as to what 'hidden life' would be brought against him. I started reading the book at the store, and luckily, it turned out better than what the title proclaimed it to be.
   
   While I thought that the parts detailing Otto's life and his experience's with his family were interesting and well researched, I also felt that the parts about Tonny Ahlers were not so interesting. A lot of times I felt as though she was scrambling for a connection between Otto Frank and Tonny Ahlers when none was to be found. In all, I am not convinced by the proposition she put forth that Ahlers was the one who betrayed the Franks.
   
   I often hated it when she finished talking about the Franks and moved on to Ahlers. If she had left Ahlers out, the book would have been a lot more enjoyable.



4. While there are many things that are explained about the characters in Anne Frank already, this book goes into very deep detail about them, even more than what one would've thought possible. I will reinforce what has been said by saying that the text was a little dry at times, but still a good read.
   
   Some of the complaints I have with this book are, the author tries way too hard to make Otto be the good guy. She contradicts herself when she does this. For example, she claims that Otto married Edith, Anne's mother because he was in need of money. She then goes into great detail about how he needed this for his business and his family, but leaves out that he married her for her money. There are several other little things like that in there, also.
   
   Another thing is with Tonny Alhers. The entire book basically makes the case that Tonny Alhers turned the people living in the secret annex, but in the epilogue, she contradicts herself by suggesting that Tonny's wife did it.
   
   Still, this is a very good and eye-opening book. It shows that there was a lot more issues that went on than is mentioned in the Diary.



5. I echo the previous reviews in that I did find the writing to be very dry at times, to the point that it was difficult to get through all but the most interesting parts of this book. But, in saying that, I have to admit that the parts I did find interesting were worth the 4 stars in and of themselves.
   
   In reading the Diary of Anne Frank one of the things that you don't realize (or at least I didn't) is how thoroughly it's been edited. Otto Franks took great liberties in deciding what would and would not be shared with the public and after reading this book those edits, and the truth they hid, really shine through.
   
   More than that, I found that Otto Franks to be as fascinating a person as his daughter (even if he is not as likable) and that fact made this book very enjoyable for me.

5 comments about Anne Frank : The Biography.

1. 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.



2. 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!



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 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



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

1. 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.



2. "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.

5 comments about The Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews, Expanded Edition.

1. One third of this book is standard heroic stuff. A non-Jew in a position of some authority takes steps to create a haven for Jews and -- in the midst of annihilation -- saves a lot of them. You have to find your way to this by navigating the first third of the book, which tells a different story: how to find someone using multiple information sources and documentation, both scattered and (some of it) sequestered. The last third of the book is given over to appendices and afterwords, original documents that only become compelling provided the heroism of the man has taken hold with the reader.
   
   Karl Plagge was a courageous individual in a time and place when individual courage was in short supply. His example, of a person who saw terrible things happening and took the initiative to stop them from happening within his purview to the extent he could, gives a glimmer of hope in the midst of the overwhelming despair of the Holocaust. That he had been a National Socialist very early on in its history is his initial credential as an unlikely hero, but the unfurling of his identity reveals this to be ultimately of little consequence in defining him. Yet Plagge was circumspect to a fault. Were it not for the documentation of his de-Nazification trial, there would be very little to show him revealing himself. One hopes it was not an overwhelming sense of guilt over what he could not do that made the man seem to place so little importance on what he did do (which did and does matter).
   
   Plagge's story does not have the razor's edge of Wallenberg's. Michael Good is not primarily a writer. But all in all this is a compelling new chapter in the story of the Holocaust. Vilna was of as much consequence as Warsaw for the Jews, and its story is not as well known today. And written from the viewpoint of one who only lives thanks to Karl Plagge, this is a book worth reading.



2. This is a remarkable book both for its deeply moving story and for its underlying message of how a day-to-day battle of moral choices can be waged with the strength of conviction. It begins with an existential question most people never have to ask and ends with the satisfying feeling of a debt repaid as completely as life can allow. I recommend this book to anyone.



3. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, located in Jerusalem is the largest holocause museum in the world. As you would expect it describes the terrible inhumanity the Germans imposed upon the jews and leaves you with a feeling of hoplessness. But in the museum there is one shining glory, the wall whereupon is inscribed the names of those considered to be 'Righteous among the Nations.' This term is used to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust in order to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. There are people of all nationalities listed on the wall. Among the names are some 380 germans. Among these is the name Karl Plagge.
   
   A low level officer in the Wehrmacht he commanded a military vehicle repair unit in Vilna, now Vilnius, Lithuania and he saved the lives of at least 250 jews, including the author's mother.
   
   This is the story of Major Plagge, who as usual for heros would admit to no special courage.



4. a superb and engrossing investigation of a nazi who tried to protect jewish people from certain death by setting up a factory not unlike oscar schindler. the son of a survivor who always told the story of the mysterious major plagge who saved many tried to find this man and his motives. spellbinding and heartening unlike so many other holocaust stories.



5. There is so much evil when Governments attack their own people as has happened throughout history. The Nazi Government in Germany was especially evil as it attacked many millions of its own people and neighboring peoples. The Nazi Government which was, as is always the case in evil governments, run by a relatively few number of people with awesome power, was on a murderous rampage in Europe. A very few courageous people stood up in opposition. One of these people is Major Plagge. It is thrilling to read of his courage, bravery and success. Everyone should read this book. Hopefully, then more persons could stand up against evil governments before its too late. Why is it that of all the species on the Earth that Man is the most evil? It is because of the accumulation of power in the hands of a few people. That is always a recipe for disaster.

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

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



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



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

4 comments about Moments of Reprieve: A Memoir of Auschwitz (Twentieth Century Classics).

1. This book is lovely, but it is worth pointing out that it revisits characters that Levi has written in about in his previous memoirs, and is much more satisfying as an appendix than a freestanding work. The chapters on Cesare and Lorenzo gain a great deal of depth if one has already read If This Is a Man and The Truce, where the two are major characters. (These two books have unfortunately been re-titled in America, with complete inaccuracy and for mysterious reasons, Survival in Auschwitz and The Reawakening.)
   
   Also, unlike The Periodic Table, which is also a collection of stories (and I think one of the best books of the 20th century), Moments of Reprieve is not designed to be a unified work of art. The stories were written under a variety of impulses, and most are individually brilliant and moving, but they do not gain strength from being around each other. The last chapter ("The Story of a Coin") about Rumkowski, even appears again -- with no changes as far as I could tell -- in The Drowned and the Saved, Levi's last completed book.
   
   For anyone wanting to discover Levi's writing, I would suggest beginning with The Periodic Table, If This is a Man, and The Truce. Also wonderful are his single novel (If Not Now, When?) and his poetry. This collection, while not essential, serves as a worthy addition to his greatest work. It is also a testament to his artistry, because it shows how much he consciously left out of If This is a Man and The Truce -- stories that a lesser writer would have scrambled to include -- to create the unified, devastating impression of those two books.
   
   Eventually, though, after reading those other great books, you will end up here, because I know of no one who has read them sincerely that has not wanted to spend more time in the company of this smart, funny, wise, and radiantly decent person.



2. I enjoy being older and having time to pursue the books I would like to read rather than have to read. I only discovered Primo Levi by seeing his name mentioned in reference to another author. And to think I might have missed this man's talent out of pure ignorance. What a shame there aren't many more of his works available, cut off by his depression and taking his life. Book quality excellent. Content of Levi's story exquisite.



3. This little memoir humanizes Levi's Auschwitz acquaintances, presenting them not merely as victims sitting around waiting to be gassed, but as lively, interesting people engaged in the full-time business of getting enough food to survive.



4. it was recommended by a good friend of mine to read a certain book by this author. i couldn't get my hands on the book recommended, but i decided to try this one at random. i was not disappointed. i thought this book was excellent. it is full of short stories about several people who levi remembers from his time in auschwitz. it is not a heavy book about the holocaust, it is a collection of interesting stories about people who briefly touched his life in some way. his voice and his style are unique, and his stories are thoughtful and intriguing. i feel like i've seen a glimpse of his personality and the personalities of the characters he has written about. i have since read the sixth day; quite a stretch from this one, but just as beautiful. i highly recommend both.

5 comments about Test of Courage: The Michel Thomas Story.

1. James Bond was a fictionalized glorified version of Ian Fleming's war career, but it's openly fictitious and admittedly entertaining (if shallow). This book has the fiction and the shallowness, but it reflects really poorly on Michel Thomas as a person. I've three primary objections:
   (1) his chauvinism: MT always complains that women outside his family betray him, yet he manipulates them for his own purposes with no second thought (the daughter of the camp commandant for example, must have betrayed him because he refused her offer to rescue him a day before all the prisoners were rounded up, even though he was playing her to help his own survival). This rush to judgment that others have the worst-possible motives also shows in his attitudes towards the Poles, where he claims that Poland had the worst anti-Semitism in Europe (even though his own relations in Lodz were very successful), largely because he didn't think he and his mother were treated well (the worst thing that happened was a cruel joke where neighbors acted like he'd fallen down a well), where not long before the author discusses how his mother had done something socially unacceptable in the period by divorcing twice - so is it anti-Semitism or would a Catholic/Lutheran/etc. woman who divorced twice be treated similarly?
   (2) The nonsense about the Gestapo giving up on torturing him after six or seven hours makes a mockery of the many people who had suffered under the regime for much longer.
   (3) The claim of entering a psychological state making him incapable of feeling pain when he's being tortured - if this is really possible (and keep in mind neither the CIA and KGB could replicate a such feat), then it also makes a mockery of all the people throughout history who have suffered. It's simply that they didn't have MT's strength of character and mind to overcome their pain. Furthermore, if he did figure something like this out, he should have been visiting cancer or burn wards and teaching that to people instead of teaching languages to celebrities.
   
   Skip this book - I'm disappointed that anyone would participate a biography that portrays him as a egomaniacal self-righteous misogynist (MT apparently participated in the writing of it). The way that it's written calls into question all the other claims that MT has made about his war record.



2. This book tells an improbable tale which, surprisingly, is entirely true.
   
   The book can be hard to follow chronologically for readers unfamiliar with WWII history, and its style can be a bit hagiographic at times, but the underlying facts of Thomas's life are supported by absolutely solid documentation and statements from Thomas's surviving wartime comrades, who went to bat for him when his bona fides were questioned by an L.A. Times humor columnist after the biography was published.
   
   In 2003, their testimonials were forwarded to the U.S. Army by Arizona Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic New York City Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, along with original military documentation from the National Archives concerning the specific battles in which Thomas participated. The following year the U.S. Army awarded Thomas the Silver Star for his bravery fighting against the Nazis in 1944. In a moving ceremony, Senators Bob Dole and John Warner pinned the medal on Thomas in the shadow of the Atlantic Wall of the newly-dedicated WWII Memorial in Washington, in May 2004. Thomas's family and friends, and several of his wartime comrades stood by, many with tears in their eyes, along with an honor guard of Army Rangers standing at attention. Because Thomas was also a recognized member of the French Resistance, the Ambassador of France, M. Levitte, also attended the ceremony, and saluted Thomas's wartime heroism.
   
   [...]



3. This book is loaded with factual errors [in my opinion]. It makes claims about the World War II feats of Michel Thomas that are completely at odds with military records, newspaper articles from that era and other reliable sources.
   
   Some examples:
   
   1. Author Christopher Robbins claims Thomas was an officer in the U.S. Army. In fact, Thomas was a civilian employee, and the L.A. Times, which debunked much of this book, has National Archives military documents from 1946 bearing Thomas' signature over the words "civilian assistant."
   
   2. In the book, Thomas said he was born in Poland. However, for 38 years, he told journalists he was born in France -- and different parts of France at that.
   
   3. Robbins claims Thomas was with the first battalion of U.S. troops as it entered the Dachau concentration camp in April 1945. After the L.A. Times proved otherwise, Thomas tried to backtrack, claiming he never said he was with the battalion, only that he arrived at Dachau sometime the first day. There are two problems with this explanation. First, the introduction to "Test of Courage" states that Thomas verified every fact in the book. Second, Thomas had been claiming he was with the first troops in newspaper articles dating back to the 1950s.
   
   4. The book says Thomas single-handedly discovered and rescued millions of Nazi Party ID cards from destruction at a paper mill near Munich in May 1945. But this version of events is flatly contradicted by October 1945 articles in the New York Times and London Express.
   
   5. Robbins also claims Thomas escaped Gestapo butcher Klaus Barbie. But in 1983, the U.S. Justice Department's chief Nazi hunter called a press conference to denounce Thomas' Klaus Barbie stories. And when Thomas testified at Barbie's 1987 trial, the prosecutor asked the jury to disregard Thomas' testimony, saying it wasn't made in good faith.
   
   Although the book purports to be thoroughly documented, the "evidence" [in my opinion] in it didn't hold up, as several media reports have demonstrated.



4. Being an avid fan of Michel's language teaching methods I was very very disappointed in "The Michel Thomas Story". Whilst Michel's early life and times made very sad reading, I felt that Christopher Robbins book, whilst good in many respects, did not really give an insight into Michel's personality or post-war life. It focused almost entirely on World War 2 and the problems that it bequeathed to Michel.
   
   For instance, Michel leaves Europe after WW2 and pops up in the USA but there is scant mention on how he made a living sufficient to finance and start up his language schools and the book practically ignores his contacts with many well-known people in Hollywood etc. His personal life must have had many more interesting threads than the writer of this biography has chosen to develop.
   
   If Michel himself were to write a biography I am sure that I would then feel that I knew the man behind the name and there is clearly much more of interest to develop in another book.
   
   Every success to Michel - his language teaching methods are simply magic and certainly work, even on me, a non-linguist!



5. Recently, John Carroll, editor of the Los Angeles Times, made some comments about this book at a symposion at UC Berkeley that in a nutshell give you all the reasons you need not to read this book. He stated:

   "We published a story awhile back, by a very clever reporter named Roy Rivenburg, about a man who published his autobiography. And, if you read the autobiography, you'd be amazed you'd never heard of this man, because he pretty much single-handed won World War II for us. It was a preposterous book, and our review of it was an investigative review. It debunked many of the claims in this book and had some fun doing it, had a few laughs at the author's expense. When you put yourself out in public and make claims that are preposterous, and publish a book on it, you're likely to get a reviewer who will look into that and set the record straight. I'm very proud of that story, we haven't retracted a word of it, we don't intend to because it was true."

   This book is actually a biography (not autobiography) of Michel Thomas by a British writer named Christopoher Robbins. The book is well-written and reads like a thriller, but thanks to some fine investigative reporting by the LA Times we now know that many of the "heroic" exploits of Thomas' life may be more fiction than fact.

5 comments about An Uncommon Friendship: From Opposite Sides of the Holocaust.

1. Friendship comes in many forms, and that relationship between Bernie and Fritz, from different sides, Jewish and Christian, of the deep divide of WW2, is a marvelous testimony to "friendship". The only bitter-sweet moment was when I realized that Bernie had given up his religious beliefs in his "americanization". His children were not raised as Jews; another generation lost to the Holocaust, as much as the six million were.
   
   I first saw this book when a seat mate on a flight was reading it. He praised it, so I ordered it. The book was well worth the praise.



2. In a world with a lot of open wounds in need of healing, "An Uncommon Friendship" helps bridge former sins and ongoing roots of bitterness to establish a world pregnant with new beginnings--every day. This book shows that other options are possible beyond the labels of cultural bigotry. When properly understood and appropriated, understanding and forgiveness are seldom far apart in life-giving relationships.

   Recently we came in contact with a person who has such a high disregard for Germans. If only they knew and understood the rich heritage German culture has also given as a gift to the New World of new beginnings.




3. I was very impressed with this book; for such a difficult subject it was beautifully written. I have been to the Holocaust Museum in Israel, and though the documentation there is quite graphic and disturbing, the voice of the child in Bernie, and the voice of the child on the other side in Fritz, completes a picture that is enlightening, but reveals a picture that no one wants to believe. It seems to me that is often the way people have dealt with this very terrible time, and the authors are very brave to tell this story. I think this book should be required reading for all college students.



4. The two authors of the book just visited my school today, and told me and the other students their stories. Bernat Rosner went to my school, Thomas Jefferson School, and he even mentions and has pictures of it in the book. I've yet to read it, but I'm eagerly anticipating it. Their stories are so touching, and I feel so honored to have met these two men. Also to have had a man as interesting as Bernie Rosner go to my school in 1950, it's just so amazing. They are very interesting people, and there's just so much more I could say, but this review would unfortunately become boring. I strongly suggest that everyone should read this book, the authors have two great stories to tell.



5. Each memoir is important in adding to the historical record of this terrible period, and this book adds a considerable dimension with the authors shared as well as separate memories and their astute and insightful analyses of every aspect of their experiences. By the time I finished reading this book, I felt I knew both authors well and also many of the people who surrounded them over the years. I hope the book is widely read and given a place of honor in Holocaust literature. It deserves deep attention by scholars and general readers and seems eerily prescient, too, in light of September 11th, and its concern for the horrors our species can inflict on its victims. If I were still writing book reviews, this book would be a prime choice for me. It deserves all the notice in print it can get.

1 comments about Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto.

1. The refuge Heppner evokes in vivid color is of war-time Shanghai: the one place Jews could escape Hitler without a visa. From harassment and worse in Germany, he and his family find squalor, hardship, and hunger...but also hope, inspiration and, ultimately, safety. A little-known chapter of the Nazi era.
   Marion Cuba
   Author, Shanghai Legacy