1 comments about Never Despair: Sixty Years in the Service of the Jewish People and of Human Rights.

1. In 194 a counsel in the Geneva office of the World Jewish Congress sent the first notice of the 'Final Solution' affecting Jewish peoples in Europe - it was known as the Riegner Telegram and while it was a pivotal point in his career, it by far wasn't the only memorable point in his life. This biography surveys the life of a middle-class Jewish family in Germany and tells how Riegner fled Hitler's rise and worked for the World Jewish Congress all his life thereafter, sponsoring many key programs. Any interested in Jewish history in general will find NEVER DESPAIR: SIXTY YEARS IN THE SERVICE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE NAD THE CAUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS to be essential reading.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

2 comments about Three Women in Dark Times: Edith Stein, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil.

1. This is not an easy book. It is a glance into the lives of 3 women, Hanna Arendt, Simone Weil, and Edith Stein, each of Jewish descent and, in particular, at the response each one made to Nazism. There is a review of each woman's life and her career. A lot of space is given to the education of these women, which is especially interesting since each studied under some of the biggest names in philosophy in the 20th century. It is not easy to follow, however, unless you have some basic knowledge of Heidegger, Jaspers, Alain, Husserl. But it is still interesting. Each of these women chose a different response (not just to nazism, but to the world, actually). Arendt became strongly Zionist, and an author of wonderful books; Simone Weil, strangely at odds with her heritage, but whose essays are marvels of clarity, chose a strange path of starvation (whatever the philosophical underpinnings, one wonders about anorexia); Edith Stein converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite nun, devoting her life to prayer (though still writing). Each of these responses is fascinating in its own right. I highly recommend this difficult, but rewarding book.



2. I am no philosopher, but have read the works of the three women who are the subjects of the book.
   I was hoping to put the three lives into the context of the intellectual and social world they lived in, and how and why they made their individual decisions on philosophy, religion, and their approach to the questions posed by both Nazism and the feminist movement.
   But little detail is given about the intellectual life. We are told the names of their mentors: but not any details of what these mentors taught (a major flaw for the non philosophy student who is not familiar with Heddiger etc.).
   At the same time, except for some fine passages on Simone Weil, there is little detail on the inner lives of the women: we see only the outline of their parallel lives, often mixed together in a confusing manner. Arendt's affair with her professor, a subject recently treated in detail in a recent Atlantic magazine article, is given one sentence. Stein converts, with no more detail on her inner life than one could read in a blurb in the Catholic encyclopedia.
   In summary, the author fails to provide details for the novice to understand the lives of these women, but does not go into sufficient depth for a philosophy student to learn anything new.
   However, the passages on Simone Weil are an exception to my criticism. I did learn a lot about both her writings and why she thought and wrote her famous letters.

2 comments about Bialystok to Birkenau: The Holocaust Journey of Michel Mielnicki.

1. This is an important, interesting, compelling, and well written testimony by Mr.Mielnicki. It is the kind of work that will take one beyond the well known general statistics and facts of the holocaust, and also into the realm of the heart. In particular it is highly informative regarding events in the Bialystok Region, from which hundreds of thousands of Jewish people were murdered. I read it in one sitting, and paused only when in it's pages I unexpectedly found Mr. Mielnicki's first hand account of the destruction of my families town of Zabludow Poland on June 26th, 1941. I highly recommend this book. In fact,it is a book that in an ideal world would be read by everyone. It contains a very good introduction by Sir Martin Gilbert, and is well illustrated with maps, and interesting and well chosen photos. This is a book to own



2. This is an important, interesting, compelling, and well written testimony by Mr.Mielnicki. It is the kind of work that will take one beyond the well known general statistics and facts of the holocaust, and also into the realm of the heart. In particular it is highly informative regarding events in the Bialystok Region, from which hundreds of thousands of Jewish people were murdered. I read it in one sitting, and paused only when in it's pages I unexpectedly found Mr. Mielnicki's first hand account of the destruction of my families town of Zabludow Poland on June 26th, 1941. I highly recommend this book. In fact,it is a book that in an ideal world would be read by everyone. It contains a very good introduction by Sir Martin Gilbert, and is well illustrated with maps, and interesting and well chosen photos. This is a book to own

2 comments about Anne Frank: REFLECTIONS ON HER LIFE AND LEGACY.

1. In this book the editors have selected thirty-one excerpts from various writings about Anne Frank and collected them together under four basic ideas: Anne's life, Anne as a writer, Anne on stage & screen and Anne in relationship to the Holocaust. Overall the selection of the writings is very good. They are of high quality and of varying points of view, particularly with reference to the last three sections of the book.
   
   For example, there is considerable difference of opinion to Anne's ability as a writer, some find her skills exceptional while others think her ability overrated despite her impact. Better known are the arguments over whether the play and movie produced from Anne's diary truly reflected the "real" Anne. Then there are the arguments, growing in recent years, as to whether Anne's diary is an "accurate" or "important" portrayal of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust. I may not agree with Lawrence L. Langer's assessment that the diary is not a "vital text" of the Holocaust but seeing his point of view allows me to think a little deeper about my own position. And therein lies the book's real strength.
   
   Ultimately, though the excerpts are brief and it's easy to plow through them rather quickly, this book can open one's eyes. Some of the material I had read before in other places but I was very glad to encounter the wide points of view that the editors were able to gather. The fact that Anne's single work still has the power to generate such scholarship 60 years later seems to point out its continuing importance in our experience.



2. As part of my effort to learn my role as the dentist in the 1955 version of the play at the local junior college, I read some 14 or 15 books by and about Anne Frank and this one capped my study quite nicely. I recommend it as the one to read after "The Definitive Edition" (or the fascinating "Critical Edition", if you're up to that), Willy Lindwer's "The Last Seven Months", Melissa Muller's "Anne Frank: The Biography", Miep Gies' "Anne Frank Remembered", and Eva Schloss' "Eva's Story". It's scholarly, well edited and footnoted, and has a fine bibliography.

No comments about A Jewish doctor in Auschwitz:: The Testimony of Sima Vaisman.

No comments about Music of Another World (Jewish Lives).

No comments about Out of the Shadows: The Legacy of Two Holocaust Survivors.

1 comments about Glimpses: Through Holocaust and Liberation.

1. I have just finished Glimpses and want to say it made a deep impression upon me. It's a moving account of the World War II experiences of the author and his wife. It's beautifully expressed and one of the best written personal holocaust narratives I have read.

   While not a Jew myself, I have long had an interest in Jewish history and especially in that darkest of periods known as the holocaust. Every time I read a book like this it is painful to realize that for every person who survived, there were thousands who were less fortunate. To know that these two people have remained together for so many years and are now helping others to learn the truth about this period in history is especially satisfying.

No comments about Reflections: Auschwitz, Memory, And a Life Recreated.

1 comments about I'm No Hero: Journeys of a Holocaust Survivor.

1. For me this book was truly a Godsend. Because I was never aware of the complete history of my family's experience during the holocaust, I always hungered to know the truth.
   When I recieved the book, "I'm no Hero" written by my Uncle, it filled in a part of my heritage that I truly needed to understand. I could not put the book down and to think that my Uncle has now dedicated the last years of his life re living this horrific part of his past to educate students all over the country I can only say,while his book is entitled "I'm no Hero" in my book he is.