2 comments about The Lesser Evil: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1945-59.

1. Victor Klemperer's The Lesser Evil completes his three volume diary as a Jewish college professor in Germany from 1933 to 1959. In this volume, he covers the years from the end of the Second World War until his final illness and to my mind provides the most rewarding literary experience. To be sure, his account of the tightening Nazi noose following Hitler's ascension to power and the horrors and restrictions of the war years as a Jew married to an "Aryan" woman have few equals in Holocaust literature. Only the fire bombing of Dresden on the eve of a scheduled deportation of his city's remaining handful of Jews and their spouses allowed him to survive. But the post-war years provide the fascinating portrait of a genteel intellectual dedicated to the rule of reason (a major scholarly pursuit as a Professor of Romance Languages and Literature involves his work on the French Enlightenment) trying to balance between the resurgent militarism and consumerism of the triumphant western powers and the repression of a socialist German Democratic Republic, the title's "lesser evil" where he chooses to live. Klemperer is keenly aware of his own inconsistencies as a secular humanist with a deep appreciation of traditional spiritual values, often describing his situation as one of falling between the two chairs of the East-West confrontation that became the Cold War. In 1951, the grieving widower remarries within a year, feeling both guilt and gratitude and humbled by two women more talented and generous than himself. Hardly heroic, he manages to seem admirable as he struggles to keep afloat despite terrible times and petty academic politics.



2. I was excited to read the rest of his life and journal : I do like a lot how he writes. I do not like at all, all the editorial cuts and even less when they felt they have to remplace it with a cold short story "what was cut" altering a lot the flow of reading.
   
   Or it was not important, and they could have put (...) like elsewere, or they should have left it there. His journals are so important, I am so sorry that I cannot read German, where they are twice as long. Already, the second wife cut some from his words, now the editors and the translators. Really pity !

1 comments about In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry.

1. This is the newest and in my opinion best introduction to Varian Fry, still a relatively unknown and unsung hero of World War II. This book is targeted at a young audience, nevertheless I recommend it to anyone seeking an introduction to a remarkable man through whom we can all draw inspiration. The author has done an excellent job conveying the danger, intrigue, frustration and ultimate success of the Emergency Rescue Committee's most charismatic character. The photographs are excellent as well as the appendix and source notes.
   
   Great job Carla Killough McClafferty

5 comments about Man Is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag.

1. The most important thing that I gained by reading Janusz Bardach's book is that the will to survive is as important as food when it come to survival. More times that he imagined, he survived because he felt that he would, like he had a special angel or just more "good luck" than other people. It doesn't matter if it's true, it only matters that you believe it.
   
   Luck is also helped by brashness and the will to succeed. His story about becoming a medical assistant, though he had absolutely no formal training, reminds me of Solsenitsyn's tale of how he survived the Gulag by lying about having training as a nuclear engineer. It's the ability to adapt that keeps you alive. Goebbels said that if you told a big enough lie enough times, people would begin to believe it. The only way to survive in the Gulag was to lie to yourself and everyone else.
   
   Since so many of the NKVD were corrupt and brutal, the only way to survive in there world was to also appear to be corrupt. Stalin sent so many of the NKVD and those who worked for them to prison, that they were well cared for by their ex-comrades, because they knew they had a good chance of joining them. Who could survive better in a criminal state within a state then a criminal?
   
   This is a story of hope without all the 'hearts and flowers'. It just the true story of what went on, warts and all (lots of warts).



2. This is one of the most unbelievable stories I've ever read. It's written with superb simplicity, making it a rapid and engrossing page turner. What a great gift Bardach has given us in writing this book about his horrific and heroic experiences. This is the best account of any world war 2 camp survivor, period. He clearly illustrates that the Soviet Union was about as horrible a place to be as Europe at the time. The book is as well written as the story is interesting. Fantastic. Thank you, Janusz!



3. I read this after reading The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin. This book may be bleak and shocking, but remember, the author survived! It is an amazing, gripping, shocking story about humanity. I loved it.



4. I can't really say anything that hasn't been mentioned already, and I think that it would be inappropriate to give away any of the plot.
   
   This is simply the most fascinating story of survival of any that I have ever seen. It is incredible as well as inspiring. It teaches you to value your life, and the relationships that you have with the people you care about most. There were so many instances when he could have resigned to his fate and accepted death, but instead he kept going. Millions of people died in prison camps during the war, and unfortunately all of their stories cannot be told. But to understand what they had to go through in their fight for survival, nothing beats this book. Besides telling his story, it examines the history and psychology behind what happened to him. And overall I believe that it is a valuable read for anyone interested in Russian Gulags or prison camps in general during WW2.



5. Janusz Bardach, who became a plastic surgeon in Iowa City, Iowa in 1972, recounts his experiences in the Gulag in this bleak tale of survival reminiscent of Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. A secular Jewish man and supporter of Stalin and communism living in Poland In 1939, he and his family fear their future as Germany's military forces are set up along the border. He is eventually drafted into the Red Army, but when he inadvertently gets his new tank stuck in a river, he's arrested and given a sentence of 10 years of hard labor. He, like the other prisoners, spends most of his time working to meet ridiculously high work quotas, while in a constant state of starvation. He travels from camp to camp during his six years in captivity working in various work situations including a mine, the forest felling trees, and as a medical assistant working with tuberculosis patients (which he eventually contracts). Once he recovers, he's sent to work in a psych ward, where the main focus is exposing the "fakers," those trying to get out of work. His job is to inject them with a seizure-inducing drug, which he does reluctantly. With a little help from his one surviving family member, Polish army officer brother, he is eventually released and finds out the fate of his grandparents, parents, sister and girlfriend. They were all executed.

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

1. After the terrifying ordeals Tec had to go through to survive, what else could she do but close her eyes? Tec is unsparing in her description of atrocity, fear and suffering, yet I found this autobiography surprisingly unsentimental and fair. She recognises that many people suffered, not just Jews, injects homour whenever possible, even if only wry at times.
   What touched me was: the incredible resilience and strenght displayed by people throughout the book; the way the instinct to survive and goodness comes to the fore in some people, inspite of the world falling apart around them.
   Tec does not dwell on the tragic, and the book is therefore infused with hope and will to live. The people in it seemed to always hold on to their vision of survival and adapt with ingenuity to any altered situation. Added to this is the power of knowing throughout that this is not a story, but a memory, a true account of events, which makes it a very different reading experience.
   In my belief, it is vital, particularly in the spoilt Western lives that many of us live, that we read narratives such as these. It prevents us from forgetting how privileged we are, it helps us to retain a level of humility. Indeed it grounds us in a way and makes us evaluate what is really important and what attitude we should have towards the things we are blessed with, both in terms of freedoms and safety as well as materially.



2. As is so often the case, it's the little, seemingly innocuous, niggling details that hit home the hardest, even more than the outright horrific. It's not that the accounts of the brutal murders and unthinkable cruelties are minimized-- it's that the human brain refuses to dwell on, refuses to really wrap one's brain around them, as sort of a self-preservation. But the little details hit you upside the head like a 2x12 and you get it, and your brain wraps around it firmly, and you can understand as well as anybody who has not experienced the Holocaust can understand. Two examples: when the family was going into hiding, they left their city of Lublin to travel by train to Warsaw, before going to their final destination. The parents did not speak Polish well, and because the mother definately looked Jewish, she decided to dress as a woman in mourning, wearing a hat with a veil to obscure her face. Both kids looked Polish, and spoke the language fluently. (The older sister went ahead of the others.) The father repeatedly coached his daughter beforehand, saying, "Don't look sad!" That was how the Nazis and Poles could ferret out Jews trying to pass as Poles. "The Jews have sad eyes." Voila! And why wouldn't a Jew look sad? How could they not be sad? And yet, if they wanted to live, and wanted to pass, they had to act like everything was fine whenever they were out in public. With all the horror, with all their relatives who had been murdered or deported, with all the brutality they saw in the streets, and heard about through the grapevine, with all the hardship of finding a place to stay, and working, and feeding oneself, and worrying about one's family, who was scattered, on top of that, you had to look happy, because if you didn't, a Nazi or Pole would see your sad eyes and know you were Jewish! How excruciating!!
   
   Another thing was the author mused about how one's life could change in a fleeting moment. You could just happen to miss an "Aktion"...or just happen to arrive home when one started. Life was so capricious. A Nazi
   could spot someone entering a home, or selling on the blackmarket, or you could just miss being seen. These fleeting moments were fraught with life or death consequences, and yet you had no control over them.
   
   Were you seen or not seen, and by whom? As much as the brutality of genocide, it would seem to me that the constant stress of being on your toes every minute would be like traversing an unmarked minefield every day for years. Think of the psychological toll it took on the survivors!
   
   I can't think of another Holocaust survivor's story which articulates those aspects as well as this author does.
   You know the thing they tell writers, "Describe, don't tell." This author does. You feel you are there with her.
   
   It is very telling, that when she first wrote the book, she ended it when the war was over, and they went back to her father's chemical factory. She describes how she's afraid to look, and closes her eyes... and there it ends. In this edition, however, she write a rather extended epilogue, explaining that to go back to that time, even after a distance of 30 plus years, was too difficult. The memories of having to sort out all her feelings, her identity and place in the world, continued anti-Semitism, an assassination attempt on her father, plus her post traumatic stress disorder (which she doesn't call by name), was far too depressing and too daunting to even try to go there in her own mind, let alone to write about it.
   
   I just finished reading this, but I imagine it'll stay with me for a long, long time, right up there with Elie Wiesel's "Night".
   
   This is one of the most moving, succinct first-person accounts of the Holocaust I've read.



3. As I ponder how or what I could write about this story, I ask myself: Who am I to write any kind of critique about this story? For that matter, who are any of us to critique a story as compelling and personal as this one? Neither I nor just about anyone else in this world is in a position to speak critically concerning this autobiography of one family's unlikely survival, a true story of cheating death daily while friends, relatives and peers were slaughtered by hatred. This intensely personal narrative deserves only the reader's respect and appreciation that the author had the courage to put her story on paper and share it with the world.
   
   Hers is a story of remarkable, miraculous survival, told from her very personal experiences, thoughts and observations when she was a young Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied Poland. Her story is simply written, gripping, harrowing, and emotionally exhausting. It is a story I shall remember for a long, long time. I treasured the moments I spent absorbed in her experiences and recollections, the introspection her words conjured in me, and the gratitude I felt for never having been forced to experience the dread, fear and violence that this family endured every minute of their existence for a period of years.
   
   I was distinctly impressed with the strength of character and leadership her father displayed. His paternal wisdom, guidance and competence bound this family together and sealed their survival against all odds. Absent his clarity of thought, calm demeanor and strength of will, I think this family would not have survived. He inspired the resolve in his family to keep going; he summoned from deep in their souls the spirit of survival. I could only hope to be half the father he was were I to have been in such a circumstance.
   
   This is a story that today's youthful and historically uninformed generation should read and understand. Only through knowledge of such history can we perhaps stave off for a few generations longer the tendency of history to repeat itself (as we now see happening in Africa).



4. "Dry Tears" is an autobiographical recollection of life in wartime Poland, during the Holocaust. Not only did the author and her sister have to "pass" as non-Jews and live in constant terror of being caught, they also had to worry about their parents, who couldn't "pass" and who lived in hiding.

   I've read perhaps a dozen books by Holocaust survivors. This may be the first time that I thought about each individual murder as that: an individual murder, and not as genocide. What happened to the girls' governess in the early pages of the book left me more sleepless than anything since "Anne Frank."

   Sometimes, however, there are the occasional winners in a war. The author's family survived as an intact unit. That, dear readers, is a victory.

   This book belongs in every historian's library, be it public or personal. Deeply moving, it's not too much for a mature teen to read, and I will be suggesting it to a friend's young adults.

   "Dry Tears" will haunt me for a long time.




5. Dry Tears is an unforgettable Holocaust memoir and coming-of age story. Tec is a gifted writer and her comments about her experiences are deeply insightful.

   Tec was hidden during the war---disguised as a Polish Christian, she lived with a variety of families before settling with a working-class family who also took in her parents (neither of whom spoke Polish well enough to "pass") and her sister.

   What is most interesting (and depressing) about Tec's story is her slow realization that the family who took her in was anti-semetic. As a child, she experiences deep confusion about this and wonders how she should feel when the family compliments her by telling her that she is not "like a Jew." Her conflicted feelings about this family (she grows to love and respect them while at the same time being appalled by their prejudice) illustrate one of the greatest paradoxes regarding prejudices (***). The sad truth is that when one looks behind the stereotype one always discovers individuals who defy the stereotype (Tec herself experiences this---she assumes that one of the woman who takes them in---Stella--is a typically stupid and lazy member of the working class but when Stella is tortured by the Nazis and refuses to eveal any information, Tec is forced to look beyond the stereotype todiscover a very real and very complicated individual).

   Tec's story also explores an aspect often not found in books dealing with adults under the Holocaust. As a hidden child who could "pass" as a Polish Christian, Tec spent her days as Krysia, a Polish Gentile. Not surprisingly, this caused her to become deeply confused about who she was---like all pre-teens and adolescents, Tec was struggling to discover her own identity but unlike her peers, Tec was forced to hide this identity.

   I have read a great number of Holocaust memoirs---and this is not the "typical" memoir (as far as one can say there is a "typical" memoir). Several factors make this book unique---Tec's age at the time of the Holocaust, her insights into her own experiences (not surprising as Tec later became a scholar specializing in this period) and her openness about her struggle to assume an identity at a time when she was forbidden to assume her true identity.

5 comments about Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered (The Helen Rose Scheuer Jewish Women's Series).

1. I found this book extremely tedious, poorly edited, full of boring speculations and philosophical self centerdness. Am shocked at myself being able to say this about any survivor, but there you have it. I kept thinking, "OK, now when are you going to get on with the actual story", before realizing that it just droned on in this way. A much better book that I just read is 'A Jump for Life', a far more moving account and likeable woman.



2. There are many excellent memoirs describing the Nazi death camps, but this one touched me in a way that no other book has.
   
   My fiancé died in the World Trade Center, and this is really the only book that resonates with the deep, bitter grief I felt in that disaster's aftermath. I don't mean to compare 9/11 to the Shoah at all, but Kluger articulates many of the contradictory feelings and beliefs I myself have struggled with, including my frustration at being shaped by something that everyone knows about, but almost no one understands. I felt a shock of recognition when she complained about people visiting Auschwitz as a sentimental gesture, because I feel that same (totally irrational) discomfort about people visiting "Ground Zero". Though I have lived my life as an intellectual, Kluger spoke to the savage in me that still rails and howls at my loss.
   
   This is oftentimes an angry, bitter book, but she mentions in passing that she has grandchildren, so I believe she found some measure of joy in her life after her internment. After my tragedy, I was forced to ask myself how someone who doesn't believe in life after death can go on in the face of the gruesome injustice of existence. I never really found an answer, but I kept on living, and I don't intend to stop anytime soon. I heard a lot of my journey in Kluger's voice as well, and I am exceedingly grateful that she wrote this book.



3. Ruth Kluger gives a remarkably lucid and thoughtful account of her experiences as WWII Austria, and eventually the concentration and forced labor camps of Germany. Even though English is not her first language, Kluger writes remarkably succinct and cogent English prose, and she confronts the moral and emotional complexity of the holocaust in her memory. "Still Alive" is loosely structured, as Kluger prefers to record the events as she recalls them as opposed to adhering to strict chronology, but the result is very interesting, she superimposes her thoughts and secrets as the horrible events unfold. She paints a vivid and, at times unusual portrait of the Nazi holocaust, often ruminating on the pain and humiliation (she wonders if her father trampled children when sentenced to the gas chamber), but also the sheer enormity of the camps as an historical event, she recalls that when she received her tattoo she felt glee because she realized that she was a part of something that was much larger than herself, something "worth witnessing." A third of the memoir is post-holocaust, Kluger recounts her experiences in New York after the war as she and her mother struggle to regain control of their lives, and look for possible meaning and redemption in their past-suffering.



4. The author doesn't simply recount fact and opinion, she has truly analyzed her childhood growing up in Vienna and then through the Holocaust and concentration camp. What a treasure we have in this book to document one girl's life, living through a horrific time in history. It is a bonus that the author is such an outstanding writer. Kluger allows the reader to relate to her life through their own life experiences. She is certainly someone I'd like to know better. Highly recommend.



5. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was written in a way that went through Ruth's life during the Holocaust years. It starts at the very beginning and just talks about her whole experience. I like how Ruth mixed in experiences and comments from the future. This showed how the Holocaust still impacts her life and what she thinks about her surroundings. No one will ever be able to understand what Ruth had to suffer while in the concentration camps. But I feel that by reading her life story it makes it seem more of a reality and brings to life aspects of how the Jews were treated during this time period in American history. All the hardship and discrimination that Ruth had to endure shows the power and willingness she had to live. I liked how she never said it was strength that le ther live rather it was mostly luck. I thought that reading this book made me feel greatful for everything that I have. I would recommend reading this book if you want to realize what life during the Holocaust was like.

5 comments about The Rings of My Tree: A Latvian Woman's Journey.

1. The product was in excellent shape when I received it. The book looked as if it were new and bought right off the book store shelf.



2. An excellent book which relates very closley to my own Mother's situation, in escaping from Latvia with her Sister, Mother and Father. I felt the book was very true to the plight of all of the Baltic People and their forgotten past. A very easy and understandible read. I enjoyed it and bought copies for my siblings. Well Done!



3. The Rings of My Tree is a well-told story of one young woman's journey starting in pre-WWII Latvia. We follow Jane's friend Mirdza as she is ripped from her beloved home in Liepaja (which was also my mother's home at the time the war started), is separated from family and friends, and ends up, like so many of our own family and relatives, in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany. For those of us that are Latvian, it is a familiar story. However, many Latvians of my generation, including myself, regrettably never heard the whole story from their parents, for one reason or another--most often it was because they were memories they did not want to recall, or that they simply wanted to "spare us." Still, over the years, I had gathered bits and pieces of my parents' separate experiences, and reading Mirdza's account helped me put those pieces into context and understand them better.
   
   Regardless of what your own history is with the WWII and immigrant experience, The Rings of My Tree is well worth reading. As I mentioned, the story is familiar, and there are no great surprises--but I found peace in Mirdza's quiet strength as I read this book. Before reading Mirdza's tale, I had read book reviews that described Mirdza as submissive; I don't agree at all. She was assertive when necessary and smart enough not to make waves in the face of dire consequences, even when threatened with death. In her new home she learned how to get along for the greater good. Like all of the brave Latvians that survived the ravages of war, the camps, and then started over as immigrants in new countries, Mirdza showed great courage and tenacity. She was able to survive separation from family, countless atrocities, a bombing injury that left her with a permanent limp, and extreme prejudice from her new community after finally making it to America-ostracized as a "German" since she had arived from Germany and spoke English with an accent-all without a single trace of bitterness. To face every day anew, with quiet inner strength, required the heights of courage.
   
   I'm writing this review from a personal perspective for a reason. I've corresponded with the author several times. Moreover, reading the book motivated me to finally sit down with my father and interview him about his experiences during and after the war. My parents had always been reluctant to talk about those times; it was just too painful. My mother passed away several years ago, and my father always looked forward to my monthly visits and loved to chat so I had a feeling he'd be ready to tell his story. He agreed, but he wasn't feeling well, so I put it off. Unfortunately, he passed away Christmas Day, 2004. Now his story will never be told. So I urge you, fellow Latvians, read this book. If you have stories of your own to tell, tell them, and if you have parents living to share their stories, have them do so while there is still time, that is, if they're at all willing.



4. The monsters and beasts in my childhood bedtime stories were not imaginary. They were flesh and blood and in human form, and usually they wore the uniforms of the Red Army. They marched in my parents' memories, relentless and cruel, driving them from their homes in Latvia during World War II. My parents were refugees, displaced to camps in Germany in the 1940's while awaiting sponsors for their immigration to the United States. Although I was born in the States, I have known two homes, two cultures, two languages, two histories, and the stories on which I was raised have become a part of my ethnic inheritance.
   
   Reading Jane E. Cunningham's book about another Latvian woman's personal journey as a refugee from Latvia to the United States during the war was like hearing the stories of my parents all over again. What amazed me, however, were the accuracy of perception and a to-the-core understanding of an experience the author could not have shared. Cunningham, after all, is not Latvian. She is an Irish-American living in Connecticut, a teacher, and no closer to the Latvian experience than, well, crossing the street, as it turned out. For 45 years, Cunningham has known and befriended her neighbor, Mirdza Vaselnieks Labrencis. Now a woman in her mid-eighties, Mirdza has shared her stories about her home in Latvia and her journey to America with her most attentive neighbor, resulting in this slender but powerful book. Cunningham has even written it as a first-person account-a daring move, but one at which she was surprisingly successful. In nearly every detail and perception, the story is Mirdza's. It is also the story of most all Latvian refugees.
   
   To survive-"where there is life, there is hope"-Mirdza undergoes a psychological shifting in her spirit and in her psyche. "Inside my still anesthetized cocoon, the soul of the self is changing. This forced-by-war metamorphosis was a lonely place to be, and yet it seemed to be a place of unconscious, unfolding change that surfaced through a new, foreign determination that surprised me. Survival is a funny thing... tied to self-respect. The greedy monster ministers of war had separated my family, killed some of my friends, issued a warrant for my life, bombed my house... raped and pillaged my country and took away the normal use of my left side... the caterpillar in my mind was losing its slow-crawling legs and I have no idea when the wings of courage developed, but there was a flapping inside of me." (pgs. 31-32)
   
   Pushed to its limits, human nature shows its true colors and true fiber. A frightened girl emerges a strong, determined young woman, doing what she must to survive and to establish some semblance of a new life for herself. It is not in her nature to be bold, Cunningham writes of her heroine, nor is it the nature of a nation to be subjected to the depravity of war. Those who cannot adapt-die. Those who find wings and tap into a core wisdom of resilience-live. Mirdza makes a decision to live.
   
   To survive one does what one must, sometimes shutting off the mind, other times shutting off the heart. When required, both are called back into action. Cunningham writes of Mirdza's life in German refugee camps with a compassionate honesty, never glossing over Mirdza's very human moments of weakness, but letting her moments of personal heroism quietly shine in their own illumination.
   
   Cunningham's account of a story so far, surely, from her own as an Irish-American living in Connecticut is testimony of the ability to bridge two cultures and two very different perspectives on life to form very human bonds of friendship. This slender volume is highly recommended for anyone willing to take a moment to appreciate what makes us all different... and what makes us all the same.



5. My mother escaped from Latvia in 1944. Her path to freedom, through Poland, Berlin, and Hanau, was very much like that described so well in this book. This book tells a compelling story of Mirdza. It is a must read for anyone who is interested in the Baltics, or in what life was like as a refugee during WW II. It is down to earth, highly readable, and heart warming. Once you start reading it, you can't put this book down. This book also is inspiring when life seems hard.

5 comments about The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler.

1. This is a vague, basic overview that should not be considered by anyone who is searching for insight or more than general recall.



2. This book is very informative. It gives the background of one of the world's most infamous men. It is not biased in any way. Instead, it gives a clear history of Hitler's life. Readers might be surprised to find out about the many accomplishments of this much-hated man. It made me think about how Adolf Hitler could have contributed to society, instead of hurting so many people. Things could have been VERY different...It is so sad to realize he wasted his talents and destroyed many lives because of hate.



3. This book is about Adolf Hitler. Before I hated Hitler blindly only because of the Holocaust. Now I still hate him, but with a bit more understanding. There is no excuse for what he did, but I believe it may not have been entirely his fault. As he had a difficult child, with his father abusing him or his brothers, and later, after his father died, living homeless and poor in Vienna and Munich, I believe he may have been looking for a center to focus anger and to blame for his misfortune, and he found it in the Jewish people. On April 20, 1889, Hitler was born in a small village in Austria named Braunau. His mother pampered him, but his father had a short temper and would yell at and whip his children often. Adolf was not particularly good at school, gaining average grades at best. He was described as thin and pale. Hitler's ambition was to become an artist, but his father refused. Hitler only went to the college his father wished him to go to because that college had drawing classes. Hitler's father died on January 3, 1903, and in 1905, Hitler got a lung infection, and used it as a reason not to go back to school. Therefore, Hitler's education officially ended when he was sixteen. A couple years later, in 1907, Hitler's mother died of breast cancer. Hitler became homeless and had very little money. For years, he survived by painting postcards and then selling them. He barely managed to afford a small one-room apartment. When WWI started forcing Austria to conscript soldiers, Hitler at first avoided being drafted into the army. However, when Germany entered the war, Hitler willingly entered the army. He got many awards, but had to quit when his eyes were damaged. He soon started plotting to become Chancellor of Germany. He didn't want to be President, because the President actually had no power, and the Chancellor was the most powerful. Eventually he got his wish and made the Chancellor and President the same thing and even became the dictator for life of Germany. He wished to expand Germany and moved first into Austria. Austria was given to him to avoid war, and he even got part Czechoslovakia without bloodshed. However, as he moved on Poland, WWII was started. After many defeats and losses, Hitler turned to a goal of his- to destroy the Jewish people. An "option" was suggested and mobilized. Soon hundreds of Jews were being carted to death camps where they were exterminated or sent to factories to make supplies for the war. An attempt to assassinate Hitler failed, but injured him so he diminished. Always a powerful speaker, Hitler remained this, but was so shaky, the effect was diminished somewhat. Eventually, Hitler was pushed into an underground bunker in Berlin. There he shot himself in the head, and his new wife, Eva Hitler, took poison so as not to be captured by Allied troops. They were then cremated and buried. Several of Hitler's followers also killed themselves, preferring not to be killed by Allied persecutors. I would recommend this book to anyone who wished to know a bit more about Hitler or students who want to do a biography on him.
   
   T. Sprock



4. Adolf Hitler was one of the most evil leaders in human history.he dreamed of making Germany the most powerful country in the world.Hitler hated Jews,communis,andgypsies.He led to the organized murder of over 6 million men,women,and childern.



5. I do not pretend to be an expert on European History from the end of WWI until the end of WWII. Additionally I hesitate to judge anyone's book as I realize that a book represents a huge amount of work and an author spends a great deal of time crafting conclusions or even questions that the author says cannnot be answered. However, I have read perhaps a dozen books including Toland, Shirer, Fest and even that recent book by Junge that deal directly in large parts with the life of Hitler. I have also read perhaps four dozen academic books dealing with European history in the first half of the 20th century. I am aware of the of the feuding conclusions regarding Hitler's and the German people's culpability and conduct regarding WWII. I thought this book might give me more insight or least throw some weight to one of the sides of the current historical arguments.
   
   After reading the book, I found myslf severely disappointed. This book is so basic, it reads like a high school textbook. Indeed, it deals with areas of historical dispute by simply ignoring arguments in an almost breathtaking ways. For example, the author, absent one passing comment, simply rejects the argument that the Nazis had been behind the burning of the reichtag in 1933. Likewise, the author left out some of the most basic points found in any serious study. For example, he writes that Germans, dressed as Polish military, seized a German radio station. Although perhaps a bit too much to ask, the author totally leaves out the multiple postponements leading to the jump off. Not surprisingly, the auhor left out the fact of the German units that jumped off early and had to come pack over he border. As to the seizure of the German radio station, the author left out that the Germans left dead concentration camp inmates [called

5 comments about Joshua and Isadora: A True Tale of Loss and Love in the Holocaust.

1. This is a true story of the author's grandparents' determination to survive in the face of horrible conditions during World War II and their desperate efforts to hold on to their families, their dignity, their hope for a future. It is a loving retelling of their stories by their grandson against the backdrop of his travels to the same places they had journeyed through, struggling towards freedom and security. This is a beautifully written, absorbing tale of their two journeys, separated by 60 years and extraordinary hardships. Definitely worth reading.



2. Benanav is a talented writer, turning a family history and personal journey into a page-turning adventure. He helps the reader understand the horror of the era, yet does so without sounding either maudlin or unsympathetic: a delicate balancing act made all the more difficult given the family connections. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book.



3. This was an incredibly heartfelt book. It was extremely informative and added some new thoughts about how tenacious and courageous these people were. It was flawlessly written.
   
   Michael Benanav is a gifted young writer. His compassionate writing of this story made it a wonderful reading experience about a time in history that should NEVER be forgotten.
   
   KL



4. A chronicle of the author's grandparents who were married in a refugee train en-route from the Nazis, without speaking a language in common. True life fairy tale? Uplifting tale of people recovering from incredible oppression? Really it's so much more than this. This book is part history lesson, as the roots of European Jewry are explained, part travelogue, as the author travels to the places his grandparents were, and part historical narrative, the personal thread that ran through Europe convulsing during the war.
   
   Joshua, Isadora, and several generations are given life as real people. Foibles when the young grandmother gets into a horse-drawn carriage accident while sneaking out for sweets. Heroic moments when a Jewish school is set up against a backdrop of pogroms and discrimination. Questionable decisions when disassembled weapons are hidden beneath the baby father of the author's bedding as British soldiers come searching. Heartwarming moments when children forge friendships in fetid refugee camps. A nuanced view of a now gone Europe is presented without easy moralizing. The same peasants that ransack corpses as they fall out of forced marches provide a starving young girl with life saving food. Life in concentration camps is presented starkly. Skill with sewing uniforms brings double rations and points out the absurdity of who lived and who died.
   
   The book is mindful to be honest about the limitations of being based on old memories forged during difficult times. Ways that reality could have differed from recollection are noted. This breathes humanity into the people who made these memories. It makes them less idealized icons who shined at their moment in history, and more humans doing their best in a difficult time.
   
   It is a pleasure to be welcomed into the life of the author and introduced to the people in his history. This is really a magnificent work.



5. A sad story beautifully written by a loving grandson. All very true and actuate. Very touching.

4 comments about Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943.

1. This book is one of the most touching and inspiring books I ever read. This book will touch the heart of anyone - whether Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. and even an atheist!
   
   The battle of a soul in those dark days (the German Occupation in the Second War World) trying to keep sane, asking herself how not to loose hope and remain human, avoiding hate, in spite of all what is going around her. This is a journey of a Soul from focusing in herself changing to focus in the world around her.
   
   I bought the book also for 3 friends of mine as a New Year present!
   
   P.S.: Since my English is NOT my mother tong (I'm an Israeli), I'm apologizing in advance for spelling (and other mistakes). Thank you for understanding.



2. I read this book over twenty years ago and it remains one of the most inspirational books I've ever read. I leant it to a client who lost it so I must buy another. Thankfully it's still available.



3. A young woman who is running out of time writes about her experiences as a prisoner of the Nazis in a concentration camp in World War II in 1940s Europe. She responds to the demands of society and of life as she finds it in both its pedestrian and hopeful forms, while also musing about what a distracted God might be doing up in heaven as so many innocent people perish at the hands of so many cowardly and sadistic oppressors. Ultimately she converts to Catholism and she dies in a concentration camp at the age of 29. Even with the crushing and depressing burden of a predatory society of captors constantly hovering over her, captors to whom she would soon sucuumb by her physical death, she wrote about life, social roles, her relationships with others and God prodigiously before her life was stolen from her in a dark place and a dark time by the human forces of evil. The strength she must have called upon to do this work while living in day to day oppresssion and unrelenting misery is stunning to imagine.



4. Etty began life with the same silly angst and shallow aspirations that we endure each day. Then came the war and her experience as a Jew in Holland. The transformation of this young intellectual to a woman of great depth takes the reader on a soul journey of such transcendence that one's paradigms are forever changed.

   Add to the story a great and musical quality of writing and a brilliant mind . You have Etty, my heroine, my mentor.

2 comments about Kasztner's Train: The True Story of an Unknown Hero of the Holocaust.

1. Anna Porter has done a great job in bringing this story of a hero of the Holocaust to her readers.



2. An expertly researched, captivatingly written and long overdue book about the courage, ingenuity, successes and ultimate sad persecution of a great but much maligned hero. Brava Anna Porter!