No comments about The Keeper of Memory: A Memoir.

3 comments about The Parnas: A Scene from the Holocaust.

1. Insightful,analytical and comprehensive portrait of a loving character.Is a masterpiece. Full of drama,but it was a real life drama.The "parnas" was a sensitive man struggling with his own imaginative fears but valiantly facing the real fear.



2. Pisa, Italy. July, 1944. As the Nazis and Allies collide, Giuseppe Pardo Roques, lay leader of Pisa's Jewish community, is a refugee in his own home. Struggling to display strength in spite of a bizarre and debilitating neurosis, the cultured, learned and generous Pardo plays host to several others, Jews and Christians both, seeking shelter from the battle. The Parnas reconstructs Pardo's final days and his ultimate confrontation with the Nazis. At once memoir (the author knew the characters), psychological profile, and meditation on good and evil, the book's defining quality is compassion. I'll read it again.



3. This is an incredible story.

   Silvano Arieti was an extremely gifted, and very well known, psychiatrist. He was born in Pisa, Italy and, as a child, looked to The Parnas--or synagogue leader, Giuseppe Pardo Roques--as a mentor. The Parnas was mentally ill. His illness inspired Arieti's career--which, as it developed, convinced Arieti all the more that "mental illness may...espress the nobility of man."

   Arieti dreamed he would one day cure The Parnas, but The Parnas was murdered by the Nazis in WWII. Decades later, Arieti recreates the last days of The Parnas, providing us with a moving potrait of an incredible man in terrible times.

   While Arieti's conclusions are profound, this book is definately accessible to the high school reader.

1 comments about When Memory Comes (George L. Mosse Series in Modern European Cultural and Intellectual History).

1. April 2008 - I read this book when it was first published. A very beautifully written and translated memoire of a Jewish boy raised as a Catholic in order to save him from the Nazi death camps.

1 comments about Narrow Escapes: A Boy's Holocaust Memories and Their Legacy.

1. if I was to describe "Narrow Escapes". In fact, I believe that the pain and sorrow that Holocaust survivor Dr. Samuel P. Oliner faced as he tried to escape from the horrible claws of Adolph Hitler during the Second World War, could never be described. The horrors that he faced are too great for words. The most piercing fact in this book is that the war stories in it are not the stories of a man but the ones of a SMALL CHILD who was forced to become a man much faster than lighting and in the most afflictive situations.

   This book is a must read because we all must know the truth about the history of the human race. I strongly believe that every one of us is responsible for what happens today and must keep in mind the future of next generations. Dr. Oliner says, "knowledge of the past may somehow avert similar future...those who remember the past will do all they can to prevent its recurrence."

   This book broke my heart way before the Germans came to Zyndranova, the little village near Czecholovakia, when Little Oliner's mother got sick and he was only six-years old. It was at this time that he began to make sense of his world. After his mother's death he exclaims, "My mother is dead. But that is only for a short time, isn't it?" And like if his mother's death was nothing, his father takes him away from his love ones, into another village, in the house of male strangers. It was there, all alone, that he held a job at the age of seven while he went to school. Could you imagine your own child in this situation? Although Oliner doesn't mention in his book, I believe that these agonizing situations were only preparing him for what was to come when the Nazis arrived. These situations were his training ground to face the monster that would take over the land and his people. But the hardships of times and the warmth of his family brought the best out of him. And his fight has not ended yet.

   The rest of the story is for you to read in suspense but mostly in deep grief. As I read the book, I often felt glad that the child who was facing all the hardships of the Holocaust was not my sixteen year old son. In fact, I thought about my son the entire book. But the sad part is that although he was not my son, he was the son of another woman. In a war, my child or the child of another woman or man is the same. It brings pain. Being forty years old I have learn that it is a thousand times better to die in the face of injustice that to live in silence before it.

4 comments about At the Mercy of Strangers: Growing Up on the Edge of the Holocaust.

1. I really liked this book. I'm a teacher in adult education and I found this to be a very accessible, personal account of Ms. Loebl's experiences as a teenager hiding from the Nazis in Belgium during World War II. In telling her story she manages to bring in a lot of background information for people who don't know much about the war. The students liked it a lot.



2. This autobiography is moving, beautifully written, and hugely important to Holocaust Studies, Jewish Studies, and contemporary European History.

   As a memoir, _At the Mercy of Strangers_ alternates between two voices: that of the young German Jewish adolescent hiding from Nazi persecution (the book includes Loebl's actual diary that she kept while moving from place to place in Brussels) and the retrospective voice of Suzanne Loebl, accomplished art critic, children's book author, and science writer, who survived the war and moved to the U.S. in 1946. These two voices are so beautifully counterposed it is easy to see the resonances of each in the other.

   Her hiding places risky, the identity papers her family purchased for her detectably false, often hungry, always always alone, Loebl's diary recounts her daily struggle to find employment as a maid or governess (her cover from Nazi detection) and the daily reality of working for employers who, realizing she was Jewish, often took advantage of her, sometimes fired her at whim, and excluded her from even the most basic human kindnesses. Buffeted about in war-torn Brussels, Loebl's interrupted education, the disappearance of Jewish family, friends, teachers, resistance fighters, her constant hunger (physical, emotional, and intellectual) do not fundamentally dampen her spirit, which is so large it spills beyond the margins of every page.

   This book is so accomplished it is difficult to categorize; it includes so much World War II history woven in and out of both narrative voices it should be required reading for college students studying this historical period. As a piece of Holocaust literature, this book illustrates the complicated ways that the story of one highly intelligent, articulate German Jewish adolescent is, itself, a political one. (In the tradition of New German Cinema, I can see this book rewritten as a screenplay depicting the impact of World War II on the personal life of one individual.) Without a doubt, _At the Mercy of Strangers_ is also the finest autobiography this reviewer has ever read.




3. As a child in grade school, I heard and read more than my share about the Holocaust, as I was very interested. But never has a book struck me in this way--pulled me in. It suddenly made me look at World War II in a different way. It gave the war a personal aspect for me...put a name and a face on it. This book has allowed me to look at the Holocaust in the different way.



4. At the Mercy of Strangers : Growing Up on the Edge of the Holocaust was a decent book that displayed the times and feelings of the times during the holocaust fairly well.

5 comments about Light One Candle: A Survivor's Tale from Lithuania to Jerusalem.

1. Solly Ganor has told us a powerful story of his life as a child and youth during the Holocaust. His details and honesty reveal a family that loved and cared for each other, worked hard, and took chances to survive. His autobiography with its details helps remove many misconceptions about Jews in the Holocaust that people create from the more common short and simplified accounts of the period. This is not an easy book to read, but it will greatly help you to redefine your understanding and respect for people caught in difficult situations as well as other genocide situations.



2. Most accounts of the Holocaust I've read, especially memoirs tend to be by Jewish survivors from Germany, Poland & Hungary. This memoir is by Solly Ganor, a Lithuanian Jew who describes the horrors of the Holocaust as experienced by him, his family, and other Jews...his tale is one of hope, courage & faith in the most horrific times...and is told with amazing clarity. His descriptions of life in the Kaunas ghetto is told with vivid detail, the hunger, suffering, and the ever present threat of 'actions' are all described with a level of intensity that often reduced me to tears. It is an emotional account, and the images evoked will not soon fade from one's memory.



3. Light One Candle: A Survivor's Tale From Lithuania To Jerusalem is the autobiographical story of Solly Ganor, a man who survived the unspeakable holocaust of the Second World War when he was 13 years old through the intervention and rescue of a Japanese American soldier in 1945 (who himself had been releases from a U.S. internment camp for Japanese Americans just a few months earlier. Light One Candle is a powerful and vividly told memoir of struggle, starvation, and the brutal tolls of concentration and extermination camps. Light One Candle is a welcome eye-witness testimony and a very highly recommended addition to personal reading lists as well as academic and community library Holocaust Studies reference collections.



4. i have read well over two hundred memoirs. This is worth crying over (not that other ones aren't also) and listening to very carefully. without sentimentality - without profession of feelings that may or may not have been felt but remembered...solly ganor brings the reader inside his mind and heart.



5. In LIGHT ONE CANDLE, Solly Ganor takes the reader into that nightmare world of the Holocaust--I could practically feel the harsh elements, the constant danger of the camps. This book isn't anther rote recitation of death counts. There's so much heart and compassion for all those sweptup in these horrors. The insights into camp life include the primal nature of life stripped to itsbasics--such as the "storyteller" who keeps the outside world and traditions alive. Particularly poignant is Cooky, Ganor's childhood friend whose account of the slaughter at the Ninth Fort is more compelling than Dante's own descent into Hell. Ipersonally feel Ganor's book is deserving of some national/international award. Actually, reading the book I wonder how Ganor got it all done. It must have been so painful to revisit these terrible, incomprehensible, sublime, poignant memories. To me it's the best book on the Holocaust, personal or otherwise--certainly it should be a companion to any serious study of this subject. To me it hits at the heart, gets into the soul. It's the humanity of the account,particularly those heart-rending final glimpses of the condemned trying to smile as they wave good-bye.

2 comments about A Conspiracy of Indifference: The Raoul Wallenberg Story.

1. The title of this book is unfortunately an accurate description of Raoul Walllenberg's fate. Why wouldn't (or couldn't) the United States step in to save a man they later named an honorary citizen from the Russian prisons? Or for that matter, why did Sweden abandon a countryman of family stature the likes of a Rockefeller in the United States? This book is part biography, part mystery novel as to what may have happened to Raoul Wallenberg. Gersten explores in depth each possible angle beyond the well-known factors of his life, yet allows the reader to make up his own version of the truth behind his tragic disappearance. One can only wonder how many heroes there would be in the world if they were all treated this way. I did not know who Raoul Wallenberg was before I read this book, and now I will never forget him.



2. Ronald J. Gold, a Chicago lawyer, said this about the book:

   I found the book very interesting. Why did the Russians grab him (Wallenberg)? What was so special about him that they would go to such extremes to keep things secret? Did they kill him or did he just waste away?

   The legal issues were interesting but basically showed that even well-respected lawyers allowed their vanity to get in the way of the objective. Did anyone ever honestly believe that you could successfully sue the Soviet Union in a federal court? The only reason they won initially was because Mother Russia had defaulted and the trial judge was compelled to rule in their favor.

   I think the above shows, however, the value of a book like this. Although I had heard of Wallenberg and saw his name listed on the path of martyrs in Israel, the real issue is that he saved Jews. The book must have taken countless hours of research and the author should be proud of his effort.

No comments about LEGACY of COURAGE: A Holocaust Survival Story In Greece.

5 comments about Diary of a Man in Despair: A Masterpiece about the Comprehension of Evil (Duck Editions).

1. I have read this book twice, once in the original edition and then this edition. It is a fabulous book.
   As to the Reck's aristocratic prejudice, this is something he is quite clear about, but he is a democrat as well -- hence he praises the opposition for being just that. Also, the individuals who really bear the brunt of his wrath are the Generals, the Junkers and the Kaiser before him who forsook their aristocratic upbringing, and sold out Germany long before Hitler took power, and then flirted with him as a novelty.
   
   It is hard to understand Reck's viewpoint without at least visiting or living in Germany and especially Bavaria -- which is a bit seperatist. Also, note his praise of the Munich uprising -- a communist uprising -- where people were still treated with diginity.
   
   His anger is with the sort of lowering of standards, the rise of the masses spurred on by hate, and constantly bombarded with propaganda. It is truly a remarkable book and one that has tremendous relevance for these times.



2. It's hard to believe this isn't a work of fiction. This guy is filled with hate and rage and loathing as he watches the German-speaking people descend into madness. Incredible writing, powerful ideas. Get it.



3. The title is a calumny. As his translator, Paul Rubens, points out, Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen was a prophet - not in the vulgar sense of one who predicts future events, but a prophet after the fashion of Jeremiah, William Blake and Dostoyevsky: one who comments on the present from the perspective of the Most High. As such, even when his own death is imminent, Reck most certainly does not despair. Like the three individuals mentioned above, he is angered, disgusted, saddened and horrified by what he sees around him; his journal is filled with images of Calvary, the plague, and the Apocalypse; yet he continually strives to see his own and his country's ordeal as a time of suffering and repentance which must be endured to make way for a new and better world. None of which is to say that his thinking is "mystical" in the sense of being vague or escapist; indeed, the immense value of Reck's diary, both as literature and as a historical document, lies in its brilliant combination of sharp observation and lucid analysis. Although he makes the all-too-common error of lumping in the plotters of 20 July 1944 with the many opportunists who tried to dissociate themselves from the regime as defeat began to loom, Reck's analytical passages offer as clear and concrete a picture of the corruption underlying Hitler's Germany as any historian I have encountered. Telling details of life in the Third Reich - the omnipresent thuggery and tale-bearing, the forced barracks-gymnasium atmosphere, the all-pervasive lies and propaganda - spring out of every page through tartly written anecdotes and vignettes. The peculiar detestability of the Nazi functionaries - frustrated schoolteachers and jumped-up mailmen posing as masters of the world - is described and analysed with perception and admirable loathing. This elderly, conservative, royalist aristocrat - a member of a class who, because they did not support the Weimar Republic, are too often labelled supporters of the Nazis - displays a courage, intelligence, breadth of culture and (I cannot emphasise it enough) a faith which makes his journal as moving a human document as the more famous diary of Anne Frank.



4. It is true that Reck has a sense of class superiority to the Nazi's but that does not obscure his central point--he knew they were monsters--and he died for that. Counts for something you know. The invective is superb and more over Reck recognizes real resistance like the Scholl's (were they aristocrat?) and damns the generals assisanation plot as a an opportunistic move. Furthermore The Nazis crimes were pandemic--the annhilhation of the Jews, but also gypsies--and if one is making measurements which seems to me silly--the obliteration of 20,0000 soviet citizens. By the other reviewers logic if the destruction of the Jews is the question by which Germans will be judged, then Stalin becomes a heroe for saving the bulk of Soviet Jewry --sending them behind the Ural mountains--I don't think I want to go that route. It also explains why Israel refuses to make Dietrich Bonhoeffer a "rightious gentile" which is a scandal.
   No The Nazis were monsters such total monsters that any costly resistance derserves honor. This is the best anti-Nazi book theis Jew has ever read.



5. If, like me, you view the nazi era as a reaction against modernity, this is a book that will cause severe cognitive dissonance.It's Written by a member of the old Prussian aristocracy whose biggest problem with the nazis appears to be their populism. It's laden with classist terms like "canaille" and "mass-man" to the extent that he almost appears to blame german workers for their own alienation which led to the development of nazism. This is not the only dubious historical claim: he seems to believe that ndudstrailisationwas responsble fro the two world wars and not the other way around. Nevertheless, there are enough fascinating insights to make the book worthy of your attention, and it's worth bearing in mind that he wasn't writing with the same sense of historical distanciation that we have. Just remember, the worst thing about the nazis wasn't that they were boorish illiterate charlatans but that they killed 6 million jews and almost brought an end to western civilisation.

1 comments about My Brother's Voice.

1. What a great read! Mr. Nasser's incredible and heart-wrenching experiences during the Holocaust are presented to us as a testimony to the powers of love, faith, and the will to survive. It is refreshing to read an autobiography that not only describes the cruel and unjustified treatment from the SS but also the kindness of some Wehrmacht soldiers, not merely the every-man-for-himself stories prevalent in many Holocaust books but how helping other prisoners lifts the human spirit. In other words, Mr. Nasser's book gives us not only the dark aspects of the Holocaust (and they're very dark), but reminds us intelligence, attitude, and hope can lighten the heaviest of loads.