5 comments about Hitler: 1936-1945: Nemesis.

1. The second volume of Kershaw's outstanding biography of Hitler covers the period from 1936 to his death. Kershaw does a superb job of integrating the biographical material per se with relevant narrative and analysis of German history over this period. Kershaw picks up and expands themes that emerged in volume one. Two in particular stand out. One is the overriding importance of Hitler's crude but powerful ideology. The point of Hitler's actions was the violent attainment of his social Darwinist goals; the elimination of European Jewry, the dominance of "inferior races" like the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe, and German domination of western Eurasia. War was not just necessary to achieve these goals but an indispensable part of the process of establishing German supremacy. The necessity of violence was not merely an ideological preoccupation but something with deep emotional resonance for Hitler. This was a man who found his service on the Western Front a personally transforming and uplifting experience. Kershaw shows well how a large number of Hitler's zealous supporters shared these horrifying views and how an even larger number of Germans, including virtually all of the traditional elites of the German state, were either supportive of Hitler's goals or willing to look the other way as long as he was successful. By the time it became clear that Hitler was leading Germany to disaster, Hitler's power was so well established that any kind of organized resistance became almost impossible.
   
   Kershaw shows well how Hitler's bold repudiation of the Versailles restrictions and the rearmarment policies that expanded the German economy led to enormous personal popularity. Under the umbrella of Hitler's success and great prestige, the Nazis were able to subordinate all the major institutions of German life, perhaps save the churches, which did offer some limited resistance. At the same time, the Party erected a powerful alternative governing structure and some of Hitler's most able and ruthless subordinates developed the powerful security services that policed Germany. Hitler personally established complete dominance over the Wehrmacht, the only institution that could have resisted him successfully. Hitler's daring and ability to capitalize on weaknesses of his opponents, coupled with a good dose of luck led to unprecedented success.
   
   Another major theme articulated by Kershaw is the nature of the Nazi state. The essentially indolent and politically shrewd Hitler ruled primarily by setting himself above day to day government and setting the broader ideological goals for Germany. Hitler's unwillingness to participate in the mechanics of government and his willingness to countenance competing sectors of authority led to an anarchic state (termed polyocracy by some historians) that enhanced Hitler's power because only he had the ultimate authority to adjudicate among the competing authorities. For much of his rule, it also insulated him from public disfavor as unpopular policies were associated with lower ranking Party or government officials. This system, which Kershaw describes as "working towards the Fuhrer" led to competition among different subordinates and power centers for who could gain Hitler's favor by pursuing the ideological goals of the regime. The result was essentially a race to see who could be the more effective murderer of those unfortunate enough to be enemies, real or imagined, of the regime.



2. I finally got around to reading both volumes of Kershaw's biography after plowing through the Fest bio. Fest's is better, in my opinion, although the first Volume of Kershaw's isn't bad. The problem with Volume 2 is that it's redundant, with endless anecdotes about Hitler's tantrums and paranoia---way too much padding. It's more of an historical account of WW2, instead of a biography, unfortunately. As well, Kershaw's contempt for Hitler gets in the way of acknowledging any successes on Hitler's part; he's unable to give the devil his due. Volume 1 is probably worth it; Volume 2 doesn't add much. Some people like Alan Bullock's bio of Hitler, while others prefer John Toland's. I haven't read either one.



3. How could a racial crank with no education rule Germany so effectively for years? If he was an evil genius, Why did he then fail, stupidly leading it into a second war and eventual defeat? Kershaw's answer is the Nazi phrase, "working towards the Fuhrer". When Hitler stated his desires or plans, he didn't have to issue actual detailed commands: he could count on his lieutenants to implement his will in practice.
   
   Thus making Germany's foreign policy (in particular) a copy of his own paranoid, ruthless personality, Hitler won some early victories against opponents used to dealing with "gentlemen" leaders and countries. Also, "working towards the Fuhrer" obscured his personality--that of a crank--behind competent experts. But once he desired the impossible (conquering the USSR) or once his will became increasingly vague and contradictory (during the war), the result was total catastrophic, with Germany willingly starting a war it couldn't possibly win just because the Fuhrer wanted it, with the "bonus" of complete government chaos as numerous competing organizations interpreted Hitler's latest vague speech in a self-serving manner.
   
   Kershaw's history shows in meticulous detail just how "working towards the Fuhrer" worked in practice: how it allowed Hitler to make his personal paranoia and racial hatered Germany's officlal policy, with all that that implies--the holocaust included--which is the main point of writing a new biography of him in the first place. This thesis, while surely it can never be conclusively tested, is a far superior explanation of all that had occured in 1933-1945 than simplistic "Hitler was evil" explanations. Evil he certainly was, but, as Kershaw notes, that explains nothing: numerous evil cranks exist. Why did so many cultured and supposedly humane and sane Germans support him is the interesting question, which Kershaw answers very well.
   
   Highly recommended.



4. I have read many books about the Nazism, but until I read this one I didn't really feel I understood how a little snake like Adolf Hitler could get intelligent people to follow him. "Working toward the Fuhrer", as Kershaw puts it, became the goal, regardless of the consequences. Being "one of us", rather than "one of them", was the only goal. Facinating stuff, and scary, considering the relevance to our own time.



5. To be sure, military historians may be upset because Kershaw doesn't cover every little thing when it comes to the war, but this is the place to start and finish when it comes to Hitler from 1936-1945. The book is very well written and highly readable. If you want more info on the war, there are certainly other places to go, but if you want to know about Hitler, start with Kershaw's 1st volume and move on to this.

5 comments about The Forger: An Extraordinary Story of Survival in Wartime Berlin.

1. I thought this was a very good book to show how clever some people can be in the face of adversity. This young man outsmarted the Nazis at every turn and lived to tell t he tale.
   I lived in Berlin from 1965-1968 and I'm sure that is one of the reasons I can appreciate this young man's exploits so much. I have been to a number of the places he mentions and it brought back old memories. Good reading.



2. Holocaust memoirs are big business and range from the highly erudite, acute and sentient observations of a "favored Jew" (Victor Klemperer), the exquisitely dangerous role of an active resister (Jan Valtin) to the inane (this book) with everything in between. As the book's subtitle suggests, this is an "extraordinary story of survival in wartime Berlin".
   
   Perhaps the most amazing aspect of this memoir is the author's total lack of perspective and oblivious unconcern about his life. He has the slightly sociopathic character of a petty criminal operating in a democracy, wherein the worst possible outcome would be a few years in jail (where he could further perfect his methods). In this case, however, the undoubted outcome of his apprehension would be a grizzly death in the hands of the Gestapo: document forgery would certainly command the specific attention of the SD and it's most expert "interrogators". In comparison, not even a "train to the East" would be frightening. A few sessions in the Gestapo dungeon broke just about every man and that, most assuredly, is what the author would have faced. This fate would have been explicitly known by him (as proof see, for example, Eric Johnson's seminal work on the role of the Gestapo in maintaining domestic security before and during the War), yet the author suggests that he is (or was) blithely (and foolishly) unconcerned. Frankly, only a complete fool would caper about as he did, even allowing for the theory that the best place to hide is "out in the open". I suspect the author's recollections have been massaged for the sake of improved sales.
   
   The book is a "quick read" and the reader's interest is maintained, despite the pre-ordained good outcome (to wit, he escapes and lives happily ever after and writes this book!). I was reminded of Christopher Isherwood's Berlin stories (flirting with danger and invested with much drama and decadence), but those adventures took place in the (relative) safety of the Weimar Republic.
   
   Perhaps the author's duplicity, which allowed him to prosper and even enjoy capering about amidst the dire perils for Jews in wartime Germany persists in this book: he hints that, maybe, with a little "luck and pluck" (a la Horatio Alger) everyone could have avoided The East.



3. The writing style is very choppy, doesn't flow. The story is very good, though!



4. The Forger is a story that has been written many times over. The "Last Jews In Berlin," by Leonard Gross, comes to mind, although being presented in the first person increases its poignancy. Schonhaus' characterization of himself is quite credible, and it must be assumed that the original German version must read well. Unfortunately, the English translation is not as good as it could be. Finally, Cioma's crossing the Suisse border was rendered as being much too easy. The reader gets the impression that the author was in a hurry to complete the story.



5. I was VERY disappointed in this book. One has to read half of the book before finding any information on his experience as a forger of documents. There is too much information on his female conquests, one of whom was a German officer's wife. Those exploits added nothing to the story, were unnecessary and detracted from the main theme. It's a shame he had to use half of the book for this sort of thing before getting to the main gist.

3 comments about Auschwitz and After.

1. The other two reviews are so insightful and accurate, in my opinion, I should have little to add. Yet, after reading "Auschwitz and After", I felt I had to express something of how the book made me understand and grow. As a convert to Judaism (born in 1951, I was on the pathway my whole life, I realize now), I have read many, many books/memoirs/histories on the Holocaust. Many of them have been very moving, indeed, beginning with Anne Frank's Diary, on through to "Maus". Though I acknowledge that these words have been said before, I still believe that Charlotte Delbo's words put me into that Hell more than any other survivor's testimony to date. Delbo's words do more than say "this happened and that happened". They are poetry...yet how can poetry apply to any experience in a death camp? Surprisingly, scarily, the poetry transports the reader there more truly than any film, any historical analysis, even better than any well-written survivor account. At first I thought I would not like it; my sensibilities were offended that someone would write in poetic format about an experience at a death camp ("Maus" was different; it was a cartoon, yes, but drawn by the son of a survivor, not a survivor). After finishing Delbo's triology, I feel that her words (not all in poetic form) made me understand as much as anyone who did not experience a death camp, how it felt, how one survived, what one endured when one "came back" to the "real world".

   Due to the passage of time, we are losing the remaining Holocaust survivors. Hence, Spielberg's and others' efforts to record the testimony before it is too late. There has been more attention lately paid to the children of the survivors' and how their parents' experiences affected their lives. Delbo's words transcend the words of one survivor - she really makes the reader understand what happned to those who "came back", how little they had to give, in some cases, to their spouses, to their children. American culture puts a lot of emphasis on "getting over, moving on". To some extent, I believe this is usually a healthy thing to try to do; but some experiences fall outside the realm of being able to "get over it". I would suggest that some experiences are so traumatic that one cannot "process" them and get over them. How is forgiveness possible when the entire world is affected as a result? Some experiences mark a person and maybe a culture permanently, and to deny or to try to repress this is unhealthy. At the end of their lives now, most published Holocaust testimonies report that the death camp experience "never leaves you" - something "survivors" probably didn't believe when they were first liberated. The fact that the Holocaust survivors are becoming fewer and fewer makes Delbo's book all the more important because it conveys the true horror, the true evil of human degradation and genocide - and explains why the Holocaust, as well as other genocides have and will reverberate from generation to generation. Her book made me realize that understanding and vigilance, not "processing" and forgiveness is the answer.




2. This book is a translation of the famous postwar trilogy of Charlotte Delbo, a French Resistance fighter who was caught and sent to Auschwitz, then transferred to Ravensbruck. She was, and is, quite well-known in France. Though she is now deceased, the translator, Rosette Lamont, knew Delbo personally and is the foremost expert on her work, having written a number of articles on Delbo. Another who has written sensitively about Delbo is Nathan Bracher. Like all translations, there is a little something lost in the English rendering. If you are able to read the French, the original titles are "Aucun de nous ne reviendra," "Une connaissance inutile," and "Mesure de nos jours." Other books by Delbo you might find interesting are "La Memoire et les Jours," and "Le convoi du 24 janvier." She also wrote a number of plays, and poetry that isn't in this trilogy.

   Thanks to the work of the Video Archive for Holocaust Testimony at Yale University, the Survivors of the Shoah project by Steven Spielberg, and the efforts of the new National Holocaust Museum, there is no shortage of testimony from Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. But Jews were not the only victims of the Nazi regime, and there is surprisingly little testimony from non-Jewish survivors. Delbo is probably the only non-Jewish victim who became an important literary figure in the postwar era, and her position as victim along with her eloquent indictment of Christianity and Christian culture for their complicity in the extermination of the Jewish victims with whom she feels strong kinship and empathy make her work an absolutely unique contribution to post-Holocaust literature. Feel free to e-mail me at schnaibl@fas.harvard.edu for more bibliographical references.




3. I have never read a book on the topic of the Holocaust that grasped it quite as well as this one has. Other books make the Holocaust sound 'too good' compared to her stories and accounts that are portrayed in this book. If you want to get a real grasp or feel of the Holocaust experience in a poetic and creatively written path, then this is a book you should read. Also, for anybody interested in the Holocaust, this is a definite must. It is basically as true and real as an account on the Holocaust can possibly get. It is simply an amazing piece of work.

5 comments about I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years.

1. One should read this book only after the first volume covering the years 1933-41. The story of Victor & Eva's survival of detention in the Jews' house, the Dresden bombing and subsequent wanderings stunned me. But Victor's courage in continuing his secret diary for 12 years comes through - as does his humanity ad personal growth.
   
   The diary jotting sryle means you pick it up and read a section at a time, but you will most likely be drawn into finishing it within a short time.



2. And I will get the other years of this author's diary. This is not a fast paced WWII battle book; this is the diary of a poor soul who had to live through every moment of a terrible regime, to endure even more when he thought he'd reached his limit. If you're interested in what it was like to live day to day in Hitler's Germany (as a Jew or a gentile)--to understand what it was like to watch it begin and grow and eventually implode--this is an excellent read. I would say it is for those deeply interested in the psychology of the times; not a passing interest. I'll get the other books and read them in order of the years they cover. I really want to understand how the Third Reich could ever BE.



3. This is actually the second volume of Klemperer's diaries, published in two volumes. I highly recommend that you buy both volumes as a set and read from the beginning how a bureaucratic mindset advanced towards ultimate evil.
   
   In the end, Klemperer's diary doesn't fully answer the haunting question, "How could it have happened?" But you will find some definitive answers here to questions that Holocaust scholars have debated over the years.
   
   For example, Klemperer's experience answers the charge that virtually all Aryan Germans knew from the beginning exactly what the Third Reich's intentions were towards the Jews. Klemperer's actual interactions stand as refutation of this blanket indictment. Often when he visited Aryan acquaintances to conduct business - he would then jovially be invited to come back that evening for schnapps. Klemperer had to explain that he couldn't come back later for schnapps - that as a Jew, he was prohibited from boarding any vehicle of public transportation after 6:00 PM, that he had a general curfew, and that of course, he had long since been banned from owning his own car.
   
   Klemperer was always circumspect in recounting these laws he labored under to his "Semitophile" acquaintances. (That's an awkward translation of the German phrase Klemperer probably used to refer to Aryans who were sympathetic to Jews. But it is perhaps the only word that was available to Martin Chalmers, who otherwise has produced a generally fluid translation of Klemperer's journals.) At any rate, Klemperer was careful never to appear too whining or too critical of the restrictions placed on him. He didn't want to alienate these Aryan allies. Nevertheless, he repeatedly found himself in the position of having to enlighten them about the government's latest round of restrictions. And his listeners were almost always genuinely surprised to hear about these laws. Their ignorance in the face of all the anti-Semitic propaganda blared daily from radios, blazoned from the newspapers, seemed to be more a function of people's tendency towards plodding self-preoccupation than an indication of any active complicity with the advancing evil.
   
   I think you'll find that Klemperer's account also carries a very relevant warning to us in our current pursuit of terrorists at all costs. Klemperer survived the early rounds of call-ups for the concentration camps because he was a decorated World War I hero, and because he was married to an Aryan. For these reasons, he was given some initial grudging dispensation from the worst Nazi reprisals. However as the War progressed, his past service to Germany and his Aryan affiliation came to count for less and less. Finally his number was up and he, along with the last handful of Jews remaining around Dresden, were scheduled for transport. The only thing that saved him was the Allied bombing of Dresden. Most local Nazi records were destroyed in this notorious bombardment. So Klemperer and his wife, having survived the bombing, were also able to survive those last most brutal months of the Nazi regime by assuming new identities and wandering through the German countryside from town to town, passing themselves off as a typical displaced Aryan couple. If the Nazis' meticulous records (documenting family lineages and confirming who was where) had remained intact, Klemperer would certainly have been deported to the gas chambers.
   
   So if you don't already have doubts about the increasing surveillance measures being taken in the U.S., presumably to guard against terrorists and other "evildoers" - reading these journals will give you pause. One of the lessons of Klemperer's journal is how tyranny proceeds by little increments of paperwork. Its power is in keeping tabs.
   
   Klemperer risked his life to write the entries in these journals, because it eventually became a capital crime for a Jew to possess paper or any pen/pencil. So it feels almost sacrilegious to make any criticism of this supremely brave and literate account. However I do have one small criticism. And that is Klemperer's common masculine tendency to put his wife in the background of his life. Eva Klemperer comes off in the diary as a shadowy adjunct to the importance of Victor's work producing these pages.
   
   She is mentioned, more frequently in the first volume of the diaries, but this mention is usually limited to reports of the fact that she had another hysterical fit that day, or that she engaged Victor in another round of angry lamentation, or that she suffered some physical malady. He does acknowledge her collaborative bravery. She also risked her life every time she smuggled the pages of his work out of their small assigned apartment into the hands of friends for safekeeping. But we never directly hear Eva's voice in all this. The reader is only left to guess at the actual substance of her outbursts.
   
   You will probably feel impelled to read between the lines to flesh her out. Perhaps Eva wasn't the prettiest girl in school, so she took the one marriage proposal that came her way. She married the intellectually accomplished Victor. Victor was available because Aryan prejudice, even in those early years, already limited him socially. We can imagine her outbursts of recrimination as the Nazi noose grew tighter around their yoked necks. Why did you have to be Jewish? Why have you dragged me down with you? I could have led such a happy life. And instead, look at me - scrounging for rotten potatoes, under constant threat of beatings and death - and all because of you!
   
   If only Eva had written her own diary, we might have had some additional fascinating insights into why and how a couple stays together under such trying circumstances. We might have gained a greater understanding of the ties of love and the chains of having nowhere else to go. As it is, we have only Victor's side of the story. But that is a powerful, must-read insight into how tyranny grows, brick-by-brick, petty edict by petty edict.



4. Because my friends all know what a book-hound I am, people often ask me what my all-time favorite book is. Admittedly the answer to this would change over time, but, at present, "I Will Bear Witness" is the one that first pops into my mind.
   
   I found this very personal account of the days and nights of a German Jewish man--an inoffensive and formerly rather conservative German nationalist academic married to a Gentile--during the Nazi terror regime to be absolutely breathtaking. Indeed, I was so caught up in his account that I took an unexpected day of vacation from work just to not interrupt my reading once I had started.
   
   Further, I found myself sprawled on my bed, as is sometimes customary with me, surrounded by ancillary books, atlases, and maps --a behavior that signifies I'm reading a book that has utterly gripped me and a book that is expanding my horizons.
   
   Klemperer was (just barely) saved from being sent to a concentration camp due to his marriage to a non-Jew. However, he lived every day under the threat of torture and deportation to a camp and his journal tells of the years of grinding anxiety over his fate and the fate of his wife, friends, and relatives-many of whom were taken. It also speaks to the minutiae of life under the Nazi's--such things as their penchant for legalisms to justify their treatment of the Jews embodied in his incessant embroilment in Nazi demands that he take part in the legalisms of their confiscation of his property. Moreover, as the war draws to a close, he draws a stunning portrait of life as a war refugee--a picture that applies to war refugees the world over throughout time.
   
   Kudos to those who elevated this book to number one among the history choices-it deserves it and in my mind deserves even more.



5. Victor Klemperer's diary of the years of the Hitler dictatorship and his recording of the day-to-day lives of the Jews of Dresden, his thoughtful and insightful commentary on the methods (particularly the language of the propaganda) of the Third Reich, the heart-wrenching stories of those who were taken away never to be seen again, his experience in the firebombing of Dresden in 1945 and his miraculous journey home should be required reading for everyone about the horrors of tyranny and war. It is also a tribute to the true human spirit and the power of the intellect. Klemperer never lost his determination to live, despite all the blows of terror that were aimed at him, his family, and his friends. That he believed there was something to live for--in the midst of utter barbarity--should inspire all of us to work for a better world. It did me.
   
   A remarkable record of a dark time. Reading it gives one the courage to carry on in the dark times that have come again.

5 comments about Jack and Rochelle: A Holocaust Story of Love and Resistance.

1. This is a truly amazing story of human courage. Jack and Rochelle were not only brave enough to run away from their Germany captors, but then spent years living in the woods surviving and fighting back. Even after the Russian liberation and their departure from the woods, Jack and Rochelle fought danger constantly until they could get to an American displaced persons camp. They were such survivors. I can't imagine living through what they did, especially at their young ages.
   
   I read this in a day because I couldn't put it down.



2. Jack and Rochelle Sutin were Jewish and met during WWII. I have read many stories of the holocaust from the perspective of the concentration camp. But never a story like Jack and Rochelle's!! They escaped from the ghetto and hid out it the woods during the war. (Small groups of Jews banded together in the woods.) Sound idyllic? Their existence was horrific, dreadful, and desperate! They were often reduced to being like animals. If a woman arrived pregnant, no one wanted her in their group - a baby is noisy and would be too risky. (If the woman was accepted into the group despite her pregnancy, she was forced to kill her newborn or someone in the group killed it for her.) Jewish women, who were alone and did not find a group of Jews to join, often had to perform sexual favors to find someone to take them in or help them. (Cruel and heartless Russian partisans were the worst offenders!) Despite the absolute horror of this true story, the story of Jack and Rochelle is inspiring. They met in the woods, and survived - overcoming great odds. They later married and came to the USA. The book is also well-written, and is an "easy read" in regards to the writing style.



3. Jack and Rochelle is probably one of the best books I have read in the past 5 yrs. It is truly amazing what they endure during the war and how they survive. There truly isn't any words to describe how much I loved this book. Thank you Jack and Rochelle for writing your experiences! This is a well written and easy to read book. The story is very easy to follow and so important to be read! I hope that everyone has a chance to read this book. It makes you realize you need to be a kinder and more understanding person to others. Hate is an awful thing....and there is still too much of it in our world! Thank you Jack and Rochelle! God bless you both!



4. Ably edited by their son Lawrence, the instructive and inspiring Holocaust narrative of Jack and Rochelle Sutin provides ample proof of both the degradation implicit in the Shoah and the astounding strength and courage Jewish partisans demonstrated in their battle against the attempted Nazi genocide. "Jack and Rochelle" is a deceptively easy book to read; the chapters consist of blended chronological testimonies; Lawrence Sutin honorably avoids imposing his own voice on his parents, instead allowing his mother and father to describe, in their own words, their own cadences, the horrors they faced and the gritty resolve they mustered to fight back. Rarely does a subtitle so accurately depict the contents of a memoir as does their own: "A Holocaust Story of Love and Resistance."

   Both Jack and Rochelle came from educated and enlightened eastern European Jewish families. As the two of them chronicle the onset of anti-Jewish depradations, they remind us of the rich texture of their pre-war lives. This dimension of humanity, of lives complicated by strained love relations, competitive urges and the deeply felt need for independence, makes the Nazi onslaught all the more unsettling and horrific.

   Several themes predominate in the Sutins' braided lives. First is the omnipresence of Jew hatred, whether it be in pre or post war Poland, in the brutally repressive Soviet bureaucracy or the finely honed hatred of Nazi Germany. Indifferent neighbors, vicious anti-Jewish Russian partisans (who commit ghastly sexual offenses against women who want nothing more than to join them in battling a common enemy), and the active participants in human eradication, the Nazis, make the Sutins' world one of constant peril. Survival is never taken for granted, and Jack and Rochelle's descriptions of their physical torment, often undertated, is wrenching to read. Personal sacrifice exists on every level: physical, social and spiritual. Rochelle's first child dies within a day due to exposure when its survival imperils others; Jack is literally covered with pus-filled boils as a result of living outside the boundaries of human habitation.

   Yet, neither Jack or Rochelle never complain, never give themselves away to self-pity. Instead, they are infused with the Judaic command to remember and Rochelle's mother's insistence on revenge, to take action to avenge the murder of their people. In this charged atmosphere of sanguine justice and physical erosion, amidst the rank and fetid habitat of primitive partisan surroundings, hope and love survive. Jack dreams that Rochelle will appear. She does. Despite sexual abuse and spiritual depletion, Rochelle gradually accepts and receives Jack's love. He has never stopped loving her.

   "Jack and Rochelle" is above all a cry of victory. It is a cry that murder and eradication cannot conquer a people. It is a cry that memory and consecration to life will prevail over death. It is a cry that love can endure, even if it is formed in the absolute crucible of death.




5. A true story well told. An uplifting story about the power of love, faith, and self reliance. The unbelievable resiliance of humans to survive and keep their sanity in a world gone crazy. The book does not dwell on the horrors or even give explicit descriptions. The two main characters had a hard enough time and were not physically tortured or held prisoner. They simply hid out and lived in terror for several years until miraculously making their escape to the West. These were two lucky people who nevertheless suffered years of fear and depradation.

5 comments about Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China.

1. Being impacted by Hitler's regime about the same age as Ursula Bacon, I can easily empathize with her tribulations. I had not been familiar with the events reflected in "The Shanghai Diaries." Ergo, I am grateful to the author for sharing her life story. She is a keen observant; her insight and hindsight are remarkable.
   
   Ursula Bacon's last sentence is "All in all, I have been one lucky girl-child." This conclusive statement is indicative of Ursula's soundness of judgment. Ursula and her parents managed to get out from Germany, In May 1939. As refugees, sheltered in Hongkew, a restricted area in Shanghai, China, Ursula and her parents were living under most primitive conditions. The family was very cognizant of their predicament, but was more concerned and was lamenting the fate of those who were left behind in Germany. Her father said: "This is not a paradise, but we don't have to worry about the Gestapo, the SS. Compared to Hitler's death camps, his butchers, his ovens, his gas chambers - we had merely been inconvenienced!" Ursula's mother believed that complaining: "Dig us deeper into the black hole of despair." Ursula deemed life to be a gift and meaningful, even in times of adversity. She manifested appreciation for the beauty of nature. She often reminisce the creative aura of her childhood. She values greatly any act of human kindness in her new surroundings, in a strange land. Plato (427-347) said "A grateful mind is a great mind; it eventually attracts to itself great things" As the only Holocaust survivor of my immediate family, Ursula's assertion that she is lucky is most appropriate. She and her beloved parents survived the war; they survived Hitler.
   
   I was profoundly impressed by Ursula's husband, Wolf, saying: "I shall never hate anybody ever! Not a group, not an individual!" To hear such a positive statement from a person who was compelled, by Hitler's racist policy, to leave the country of his birth - and had been subjected to unjustifiable hardship - is highly commendable. This is indicative of Wolf's character and prudence. Despite my being dehumanized and tortured under the Nazi yoke, I shall not hate either!
   
   The Shanghai Diaries widens my horizon' it fortifies my adherence to. the values my murdered dear father had instilled in me:"Hate Hatred and shun violence."
   
   Alter Wiener, author "From A Name to A Number"



2. I am not a reader of novels, mostly technical material. Recently I was engaged to direct a video interview with Ursula Bacon. Not familiar with her I went to Powell's Books in Portland and found a copy of her book Shanghai Diary. I had only planned to pick out a few facts to give me an idea of how to shoot the interview. Once I started reading I had to buy it. This is a book I read from cover to cover. But not a book for the weak of heart.
   
   On May 23, 2008 I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Ursula. She is as "sharp as a tack." During the videoing the moderator introduced her and from then on it was all Ursula. She related numerous stories that were almost word for work from the book. What a memory.
   
   After we finished with the video she talked with all the crew and signed a copy of Shanghai Diary for the studio library. Of course I had her sign my copy too. What a gracious lady. I'm looking forward to reading her other works and our next studio session.



3. Between 1938 and 1941, approximately 18,000 to 20,000 Jews found a safe haven from Hitler's havoc in the one city that did not require visas, police certificates, or proof of financial independence: Shanghai.
   
   In the past decade, a number of these refugees have decided to pen their memoirs. One highly readable account of the era between Jewish immigration and expulsion, is Ursula Bacon's Shanghai Diary. She offers an interesting account of her efforts to adjust to her challenging and strange new life and to make sense of the past, present, and future, while living in Shanghai between 1938 and 1946.
   
   At age 11, Bacon, the only child of a Jewish family, arrived from Germany in 1938 to start a new life. Mr. Bacon had been a successful businessman in Germany, but now he eeks out a living in his Shanghai wallpapering business. Mrs. Bacon finds odd jobs using her sewing skills. Despite earning a meager living, Bacon describes the many hardships her family still faces: suffering numerous indignities, food shortages, living in fear of the many rampant diseases and the lack of medicine, difficulties in finding living quarters and their inadequate size, and other daily struggles. Undeniably, young Miss Bacon was learning enough for a lifetime in only a short time. She attends a Catholic school, where most classes were taught in French. At home and on the streets, she learns to speak Mandarin Chinese and befriends a Buddhist monk. Ursula also learns English in school and on the streets. Eventually she too finds a job, as a governess and tutor to three concubines. While they learn from her, she also learns from them: Chinese views of sex, marriage, and women. It is a tender age to be learning why healthy baby girls are left in local trash bins!
   
   Although these difficult years in Shanghai far surpassed what they had imagined, the Bacon family had no idea much worse life in Germany had become in their absence. Ironically, the Bacons also had no way of knowing that life in Shanghai was about to take a turn for the worse and that they would end up in a ghetto even though they were 8,000 miles away from Hitler! The approximately 18,000 to 20,000 Shanghai Jews were forced in a Hong Kew slum in an area that totaled less then one square mile. As with many families, the Bacons lived in a single room, which they divided with a bed sheet and rented the "second room" to a young couple. There is no longer any such thing as privacy, which was difficult for a young lady Ursula's age.
   
   Ghettoization and its new "rules" made it difficult for many men to continue their work, further reducing family incomes. Many Jews died from malnutrition, the horrendous sanitation situation, lack of medicine, shootings, and bombings. The economic pressures and health concerns required people to live by their wits now, more than anything else.
   
   Through all these challenges, the Bacons try to remain optimistic and to view their time in Shanghai as temporary, until they receive their American visas. While her youth is an asset in that regard, the author also receives excellent advice from some wise adult friends. Some of my favorite quotes include: "If you let the past live your life, the present will have no meaning, and the future is impossible." And "after this time comes another." These words will serve expats -or anyone-- well.
   
   While some readers and critics have suggested that there are a number of inaccuracies in Bacon's story--for example, one Shanghai historican claims that Bacon never swam through the filthy Huang Pu river in the dark and actually rescued American airmen-- the book is still a highly readable memoir of an interesting time in a fascinating city. Bacon provides us with an insider's view of WWII-era Jewish Shanghai that makes enjoyable airplane, vacation, or rainy day reading.



4. I loved reading this memoir. It was an easy read that was character driven and suspenseful. The language was not unnecessarily pretentious, and getting into the story was easy. Further, I knew nothing before reading this book about the European Jews who found a haven of sorts in Shanghai during WWII. While they suffered many indignities, shortages of food, medicine, shelter, and clothing, they were much better off than the European Jews who went to their deaths in the camps. Ironically, they also fared better than non-Jewish citizens of countries allied against Hitler and Japan during the Japanese occupation. Non Jewish civilians of the allied countries or captured POWS participated in tragedies like the Bataan death march. They were interred in Japanese prison camps and subjected to grueling forced labor. There they starved, froze, and died of injury and disease probably in greater number than the Shanghai Jews. The Shanghai Jews were subjected to some but not a great deal of forced labor. They were required to police their own ghetto and dig the occassional ditch. Jews did die because of a lack of medicine, sanitation and adequate nutrition. However, many Chinese civilians suffered the same losses even before the war. Still this does not excuse the ghettoization of the Jews into terribly crowded conditions, rules that precluded most of them from earning a living even though they had skills or precluded them from owning property. Luckily aid from Jews in the U.S., Canada, Australia and South Africa could reach them. For some this was their only means of support and they lived wretched lives. However, the narrator and her family arrived a little better off than most, and her father was a well liked industrious and optimistic businessman. Her mother took in mending and used her excellent seamstress skills to earn money. She tolerated her reduced circumstances without complaint and focused on the sunnier future she was sure would follow the war's end. When the author's father could not work much after the Japanese occupation, their circumstances were reduced. Because the ghetto was seriously overcrowded most occupants could afford little more space than 100 sq. ft. for every three people. Sanitation was completely lacking, and the description of the "honeypots" was truly odoriferous. Imagine several people suffering from amebic dysyntary using the same water closet outfitted with a rustic chamber pot. The author could have let her story fall into the trap of excessive sentimentality, but she did not. For this and her family's optimism I give her Kudos. I gave this four stars instead of five, because I don't think it rises to the literary level of a five star book. Still I highly recommend it. It is a great novel to take on an airplane, a vacation, or to read on an inclement afternoon. It can be read in a few hours.



5. Several months ago I saw the author, Ursula Bacon, on BookTv (C-Span 2). I was very impressed with her; her lecture was excellent; and the true story of her life from the age of 10 to 18 was compelling. So, I immediately ordered her book. But the book sat on my desk for weeks making me feel guilty about not reading it. I too am a writer. So, finally after completing one book and revising another one, I took a break. And what a break that was--when I was transported to the CHINA of 1938-1946! Ms. Bacon, an only child of a Jewish family, left Germany with her parents as Hitler and his cohorts were rounding up Jews and transporting them to Death Camps.
   
   By the time Vati, Dad, and Mutti, Mom, were looking for countries to immigrate to, every country had closed its doors to German Jews except Shanghai, China. And Shanghai was a total mess, worse than anything most Americans would ever see. But Ursula's family lived in the filthy disease-ridden slums and survived by bartering their few possessions for food. Ursula, up until then a very sheltered child, attended a Catholic school where most classes were taught in French. And most of the time she remained optimistic, made many European and Chinese friends of all ages, learned to speak Mandarin Chinese, encouraged her Mutti, and helped Vati with his business endeavors.
   
   Ursula became an adult before becoming a teen! And she encountered many bizarre situations which she handled better than most adults. The worst was when she was 12 or 13 and killed a drunken Japanese soldier with her bare hands when he attacked her as she walked home from a friend's house late at night. She didn't tell her parents, though, because she didn't want to burden them with additional worries.
   
   This intriguing and inspiring survival tale is about Jewish refuges in China during WW II, though it depicts the color of Shanghai and the many nationalities struggling to survive their wartorn world. I didn't want SHANGHAI DIARY to end! However, I couldn't wait to finish it, so I could pass it on to an friend whose daughter adopted the most delightful Chinese girl who I predict will someday be an important leader in some capacity.
   
   The world has grown so small today that every American should go out of his or her way to become acquainted with other cultures and religions. And every American teenager should be given the opportunity to live in a foreign country to learn new languages and cultures. I give this wonderful book MORE than FIVE STARS! And I hope parents will share it with their teens and high school teachers will use it in their classes. Thanks, Ursula! K.J. McWilliams, book reviewer as well as author of Pirates, The Journal of Leroy Jeremiah Jones, a Fugitive Slave, The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo, and The Journal of Darien Dexter Duff, an Emancipated Slave, winner of the Young Adult Fiction 2003 Royal Palm Literary Award.

5 comments about After Long Silence.

1. I'm sorry but I couldn't finish it... so I did not get to the part of the author being lesbian (!) It was... funny, predictable, I read books like that before written by Jewish Americans, they all seem to use the same myths over and over and base whole book around them. You read one, you have a feeling like you read them all. Boring...



2. I really enjoyed reading about the holocaust from the perspective of the second generation. The content was often not pleasant (what holocaust story is?)but the effect on the next generation and the family relationships made for a different story line that I appreciated. I definitely recommend this book!



3. Imagine as a young adult, passionately involved in your career, you start pulling away the pieces of the facade your parents had created to protect you and your sister fom the truth about your own family. Like pulling a thread and unravelling your entire wardrobe to show your nakedness, Helen Fremont knew whe was dealing with sensitive, even explosive issues, but he could not stop pulling that thread.
   What she has done with this remarkable memoir is show her family's roots and branches in ways she never knew existed before she and her sister began discussing the "What if's?" It is a moving story packed with complicated relationships and the true history of her parents' lives and the terrors they went through during the Holocaust era in Europe. You finish the book wondering how such a powerful story could be supressed, and cheering for Helen Fremont for unearthing it. As with so many memoirs, you are also left wondering, "where are they now?" and hoping for a sequel.



4. I have given this book as a gift to at least five friends. I couldn't put it down!



5. From today's perspective, it is difficult to comprehend just why a couple who survived the Holocaust would hide their Jewish identify from their daughters for years, insisting that they are Polish Catholic refugees in the USA. This memoir, however, explains how their fear of a repeat pogrom drives them to deny their heritage, keep secret their loss of religious identify, and assuage their horrific memories and guilt at surviving.Fremont and her sister's quest to discover the truth causes their parents much pain, but the author is clear that the family's pain had dominated their lives since birth.

5 comments about Sala's Gift: My Mother's Holocaust Story.

1. Excellent book. meticulously researched. Easy reading. I wasn't aware some Jewish people were slaves. I recommend this book. It was an honor to Ann Kirschner's mother.



2. The story of Polish Jews who were lucky enough not to be sent directly to the death camps, yet unlucky enough not to make it onto Schindler's list or find some other long-term refuge. Writing mostly about her mother's family as they lived for six years on the precipice, Kirschner produces something amazing: an important piece of scholarship that never feels like a historical tome. Rather, it stands on its own as a deeply moving, character-based story that will leave you wanting to revisit passages about remarkably brave and beautiful people -- some survivors, some not -- who were nearly forgotten by history. Despite Kirschner's proximity to the story, she never forces herself into the narrative; rather, she weaves personal elements into the story only when they can add a new and critical dimension. The result is a book that deserves to be dog-eared and passed around repeatedly.



3. Ann Kirschner meticulously weaves the story of her mother's survival with the overwhelming accounts of the Holocaust...a fine balance between biography and history lesson.



4. This is a very moving tribute written by a daughter about her mother. It is also well-researched and well-written, shedding new light on the movement of mail through work camps and even concentration camps. Sala's story of survival and redemption is remarkable, and the reader can well imagine the emotional roller-coaster the author must have experienced uncovering her mother's story.



5. I was so moved by this book I will include share my heartfelt comments to the author.
   Just want to THANK YOU for such an amazing book! Your decision to share your mothers personal life with readers who benefit so from your investment of labor and emotion is generous and to be admired! When you were complete it must have looked like E=Mc squared did to Einstein! Simple on the surface with the complexity of the universes author within. My highest regards to you and Sala Kirschner.
   Glenn from Tampa Fl and sometimes Lake Tahoe Nv

5 comments about My Brother's Voice: How a Young Hungarian Boy Survived the Holocaust: A True Story.

1. Stephen Nasser recently came to my company to speak about his account during the Holocaust and I have just finished reading his book. I have to admit that I wasn't exactly motivated in the beginning to read the book as I like to stay away from depressing subjects such as the Holocaust, but once I got started it was hard to put down. Reading much like a diary - which is what his writings are based on - it's very light and easy reading. As with any book about the Holocaust, it's filled with many descriptions of unimaginable cruelty and viciousness, some of it very graphic. Yet despite what the author went through on a day to day basis, not knowing if and when his living hell would ever come to an end, the fact that never gave up hope was inspiring to say the least. Most of us thankfully will probably never face the level of hardship that Stephen Nasser experienced. It makes you think that if a barely teenage child can have everything taken away from him and still live for the next day, why can't we?



2. I found the book, My Brother's Voice, to be extremely powerful, moving, challenging and awakening. I was unable to put it down once I started it and would recommend it to anyone who feels they may have challenges in their life. Mr. Nasser shares that it is the power of your mind that triumphs over all. It was a truly moving and thought provoking read. I give it my highest recommendation.



3. I just finished listening to Mr. Nasser speak with 3 classrooms of fifth graders and admit I was moved to tears. Even though few "gory" details were given (naturally to fifth graders) the essence and horror of what he endured could be felt in the room. How courageous a man to keep alive and share those horror-filled times; not to mention the sadness of losing your entire family. Thank you mr. Nasser for your honesty and courage and for not allowing us to ever forget. "Never again."



4. I just purchased this book right from Mr. Nasser. I attended a talk that he gave to some students this afternoon. Before even reading this book, I can tell you that it will touch our hearts, and more importantly, will change the future. Hearing about how he put together his diary to make sure the truth was finally told makes me think that I will start and finish this book tonight. G-d bless you, Mr. Nasser.



5. Before I begin..because this comment is long if you want a heartfelt personal account of the Holocaust READ THIS BOOK!!
   On a recent trip to Poland I was fortunate (or unfortunate enough) to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp. The visit heigthened my interest in the Holocaust that we have all heard of, read books and saw pictures of. However, the impact of actually being there in the buildings that housed those that survived the gas chambers by being "strong" enough to work. The gas chambers and crematorium where hundreds of thousands of the weak, the sick, the old, most women and children too young to work, met a horrific end to their precious lives! This very camp is where 13 year old Steven "Pista" and his 16 year old brother Ardis, along with their family members, began their journey after being rounded up by the Nazis.
   
   After visiting Auschwitz and returning home to Las Vegas, I became thirsty for knowledge to understand how such a horrific event could have occured right under our noses as WWII was in full bloom! I began reading and watching everything I could get my hands on, beginning with Schindler's List. I had seen the movie when it first came out, but it was far more impactful after actually visiting the factory, which is also being turned into a memorial much like Auschwitz. As I read book after book and watched movie after movie I still could not get my arms around the event. One morning I was reading our local paper, The Review Journal I came across an Ad about My Brothers Voice. I hurried to the nearest bookstore and bought the book. I began reading the book and could not put it down. I would read before I went to work.....worry about Pista and Ardis all day, hurrying to return home at the end of my day so I could read more, and to make sure they were OK. I read the book in 2 days!
   
   Of all the books I had read, including the Diary of Anne Frank..all paled in comparison to the extremely well written account of Dear Pista and Ardis' horrific journey. As I read the book I felt like I was there with them, could see what they saw, and feel what they felt! At this point, I will add that I am an American Catholic with an unexplained ignorance of what really happened from 1939-1945....that ignorance no longer exists! After reading this book I felt I knew Pista and Ardis, that is how well written this book is. It also helped me to put some closure to my recent obsession...the Holocaust.
   
   About one month after reading this wonderfully written book, I had the pleasure of meeting Pista, who it turns out lives right here in Las Vegas! I saw another Ad in the paper advertising his book and a phone number to call if interested in having him speak at schools, churches, and other organizations. I work for MGM Mirage which is a huge advocate of Diversity Training. I thought how wonderful if we could have him speak at some of our many Diversity Classes! I called the number and to my surprise it was PISTA that answered the phone. I was speechless, for a couple of seconds!!!! After a lengthy conversation with this wonderful man it turned out that he was having a book signing that very night. After work I rushed home to get my daughter and went to listen and learn more from Pista! He is such a sweet and passionate man, now fortunately much older than the 13 year old boy that endured what no child or adult should have to. He is not bitter, he is not predudiced, he has forgiven, but not forgotten what we must all learn more about. Not just to be better Americans and appreciate how lucky we are to be born in the US, but to be better human beings!! To love our families and our friends, to be grateful that we have good food and plenty of it to eat. We have a warm comfortable bed to sleep in and we work hard to have these things, not work because we are forced and beaten falling into "bed" starving, having eaten only a small piece of sawdust bread after a hard days work. Unimagenable...you bet, but TRUE! It would be impossible to write a book like My Brother's Voice without having lived through Pista's misfortune of being born to a family of Hungarian Jews! Same as my opening comment, my closing comment is the same.....READ THIS BOOK!!! I promise you, you will see the world through different eyes!
   
   Denise Fillmore
   Las Vegas, Nevada

5 comments about Things We Couldn't Say.

1. I bought this book at the American Book Center in The Hague, Netherlands, a few years ago. As I knew many of the places mentioned in the book, it took on an even deeper meaning for me. I love this book, and I list Diet Eman and Hein Sietsma as heroes. Definitely 5+ stars!



2. The true story of true Christians, and Dutch patriots, Diet Eman and Hein Sietsma, and their courageous risk of everything to resist Nazi tyranny and hide thousands of Dutch Jews.
   True Christians always love the Jewish people and Israel, and true nationalists are opposed to both Communism and Nazism, both the antithesis of national self-determination.
   Diet recounts her own life, and experiences and what she saw and heard, as well as her deep faith in G-D, that guided her in all she did and thought.
   Diet recounts her experiences in Scheveningen prison, where she describes how Jewish families, who were caught in hiding, were hauled into the prison, mothers, fathers and children: 'On the nights the guards brought Jews in, we always heard the children crying all through that place. It was bad enough for us to have to suffer through a place, like Scheveningen, but it was terrible to hear those poor innocent children crying.'
   It is up to true Christians and righteous gentiles to stand by the State of Israel today, in the struggle for her survival and that of her children, against the monstrous Islamic-extreme leftist hate machine.



3. Excellent book. The book is fast paced, exciting and touching.
   
   The risks and sacrifices that the author and her fiance went through for their beliefs and for unkwown people amazed and inspired me. Highly recommended.



4. The account of the author and her experiences fighting the German occupation of Holland during WWII is harrowing. It is hard to imagine that any human being can display so mush courage at such a young age.



5. I have read more than 75 books of this genre depicting this period of history. "What would I have done under the same circumstances?" That is the question I am always asking of myself whilst reading these stories. This is the story of a group of people with the courage of their convictions...Diet's story is inspiring and touching. It illustrates perfectly that the power of prayer is undeniable and when 'all one can do is pray' one has done everything.