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

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



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

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




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



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



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

5 comments about Tilli's Story: My Thoughts Are Free.

1. An amazing book about an amazing woman's struggles in German during the Nazi rule & later Russian rule. This should be included in every library collection of WWII books. It's a different perspective than any other WWII book out there. It's from a farm girl's veiw of the war & Hitler. All a true story that will open your eyes to life & war & family love. You will not be able to put it down. Also, a great book club selection with many great discussion points. Everyone I've given this book to LOVES it & you will too.



2. This book just made me feel like I was there in all the horrors Tilli was going through. I understood her feelings about the people and conditions she endured. Her love for family members, her determination to change her life, but not her inner self. This should make it to Oprah's book list if anything does. Just a wonderful book, the first one I've ever seen spanning WWII and the two Germanies.



3. I love good thrillers, and this truly is one. The things young Tilli had to endure just to acheive something we take for granted every day. Freedom. She had such hope, such spirit. Nothing could stop her, and nothing could stop me from reading! It was a wonderful retelling of an amazing journey. One everyone could learn from.



4. This book was beautifully written...I was virtually transported in time and walked every step with Tilli thru her explicit details of the events of her childhood. Once I received the book in the mail I just could not set it down until I read it thru. She showed tremendous strength and courage as each horrible event happened. Everyone who has ever questioned our freedom in the USA should read this book and never complain about our way of life.



5. This book is absolutly wonderful! It is so interesting to get a different perspective on this time in history. Anyone who has read Anne Frank or seen/read Schindlers List needs to read this too.
   
   I would suggest this as a great cross-curriculum novel for high school/college.

1 comments about Flares of Memory: Stories of Childhood During the Holocaust.

1. I had to read this book for a class, I am a senior at college. I attend school around the PIttsburgh area, so I am proud to know that this is from here. There is a story Robert Mendler who is a great speaker. he spoke to my class a few weeks ago. It is good to know that the stories are being written down so generations to come will know what happened and how people survived.

No comments about Letters from Prague, 1939-1941.

1 comments about God Does Play Dice: The Autobiography of a Holocaust Survivor.

1. This is an account of how shear luck and personal fortitude can enable a person to survive and continue to learn and grow under the most horrendous conditions.

   As with all holocaust stories, from the beginning one knows the outcome, which in this case is happy. The middle and necessarily horrible part is told forcefully, but with a degree of detachment which makes it bearable. The tone reminded me of Frank McCourt's in Angela's Ashes.

   The story of how the author put together a very successful life afterwards is fascinating. She also has sympathy for those who were not able to cope with the aftermath, and has substantial insight on the effects of the experience on herself and on her family.

   In summary, very well written and an important addition to the record being left by this generation. They must tell their stories so that it never happens again.

5 comments about The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood.

1. Every story of survival from the Holocaust is incredibly unique and Mark Kurzem's The Mascot is no exception. I must say that once the author's father, Alex Kurzem, begins to unlock the memories--after over 60 years of silence--of escape from near certain death, his nurturing by would-be executioners, and ultimate search for his true identity, the book is nearly impossible to put down. The basic reservation I had about the book--which is presented in narrative form--is that whenever the story drifts away from its riveting father/son dialogue, the telling become a bit wordy and almost extraneously repetitive. I found myself doing a lot of skimming so as to get back to the meat of the story--the father's cathartic-like revelations. But, that said, the book is very worthwhile reading.



2. Our author, Mr. Kurzem, Australian-born, of Latvian Jewish descent, finds out in his late adolescent that his father has been hiding his true childhood story for over 50 years. The son had been raised to consider himself a Latvian, as were others who emigrated to Australia via the German DP camps at the end of WWII. His father had been a reluctant Latvian, who married an Irish Catholic woman, but still, our author did consider himself to be Latvian until he got a call from his father. He was doing research at Oxford, so he was no slouch academically.
   
   AS this very absorbing book progresses, we learn through the son that the father is himself unsure of who he really was, as he stumbled through the Latvian forest until adopted as a "mascot" (age 6) with a Latvian troop. He quickly learned Latvian, and later GErman, as these troops were working with the Nazis in expunging Soviet Communists, i.e. Partisans, from their country, after Germany came to liberate them from the Soviets. The remarkable story unfolds slowly, but with a wonderfully satisfying ending, as the son and his father go back to Latvia in post-Soviet 1990's, to see if the few clues can lead to his village.
   
   Sure enough, through hard pushing and some sheer amazing lucky coincidences, they finally determine that the father is a shtetl Jew, who was spared death in a mass shooting by escaping in the night into a forest behind the village. The photographs in the book are very interesting, showing the details of clothing, houses, people's faces in those terrible times.
   
   The final chapter condemns the Latvians for cooperating with the Germans, which is a slap in the face to anyone who knows the Latvians' miserable history. When they lost their independence to the Soviets, had their farms collectivized, their property stolen, their families shipped to Siberia and so on, most Latvians knew who controlled the Kremlin: the Jews, a fact none can deny. They appointed their own brethren in Riga to bring Communism with an iron fist, forming councils to destroy everyday Latvians' lives. When German soldiers arrived to destroy Communist control, there was no Latvian hesitation in wreaking revenge on the perpetrators, including the women and children. Jews became Partisans, running through the forest to escape arrest, often fleeing to Communist Russia. Many were innocent of any political involvement, as is true in any country.
   
   However, our author, an educated man, omits this critical part of Latvian history, wipes them all with one "brown" brush, yet the Latvians did exactly that: call all Jews "reds", regardless of their true allegiances. Many were true Latvian nationalists and complete capitalists, who would never tamper with the rights to property against anyone. Too bad for these, it seemed; the devastation was too great.
   
   I highly recommend this book for serving up a very exciting page-turner, as one wishes to see exactly how this young boy survived such a strange experience. You can understand how he waited until very late in life to reveal his story to anyone, including his children, because he could be persecuted by both Latvians and Jews, and above all, those millions who suffered at the hands of Communists. Their descendants are still angry!
   
   Poor man! What a terrible time and place he was born into! But he was lucky to get down to Dresden, survived its bombing, get into a DP camp, and achieve an emigration visa to Australia. Imagine if he, like so many of the troop he'd joined, had been stuck back in the Communist land! His son would never have been born, for he would have been shot by Commies.
   
   The son shows bitterness, but the father knows himself to be VERY LUCKY!!!



3. I could not put the book down. It's amazing what a 5-6 y. old can remember after hiding it away and not talking to anyone about his past for 50 years. Written very well, thought provoking, and makes you wonder how one should define a "Holocaust Survivor."



4. After reading a highly favorable review in the New York Times, I rushed down to the bookstore where a friend works to see if they had this book, and was shocked to find that they did not have it and that no one had been asking about it.
   
   It's such an amazing story--a young boy escapes death in just the first of an unusual set of circumstances and developments, twists and turns, leading to events that cripple him later as a husband and father until he feels compelled to reveal his story to his son, the author of this book.
   
   I have read a number of "survival" books about the Holocaust. Surely this is the most unusual. It reminded me in some ways of Martin Gilbert's THE BOYS, but this is a completely different story. This is a Jewish boy who was adopted by Latvian troops collaborating with the Nazis, and as an adult, he has clearly suffered from guilt and confusion such that the reader experiences the journey as well. As I read on, I found myself wondering if the truth would turn out to be different from what the boy's memories were, just as the author clearly did as he listened to his father's story, a tale slowly revealed over the course of a few years in the late '90s, almost fifty years after the original events in Russia and Latvia in 1941-45.
   
   And there are several levels on which this story works. In the WWII period, you get a feeling for village, or shtetl, life in Russia through the initial memories of the boy as well as later when he and his son do further investigations. You get what seems to be a likely accurate picture of the soldiers, higher officials, and collaborating civilians the boy came to know. There are vivid depictions of the later war years.
   
   Later on, after the author begins to find out the fuller story, father and son confront mixed reactions from scholars and Jewish organizations as well as the Latvian community in Australia, where the author grew up not knowing he was Jewish until his father felt compelled to find out who he really was and where he came from.
   
   I really liked the way the book was organized, mostly short chapters, and here, the author or his editors really did well in observing that sometimes "less is more". Thus, there is not an extensive discussion of some minor characters, colleagues, friends, and others whom the author consults and confronts as the story of his father unfolds, yet we understand pretty well where these characters are coming from.
   
   Finally, I commend the book for its helpful index, maps, and of course the fascinating photos that are reproduced showing the young "Alex" in his SS uniform. It's a little puzzling that the modern photos are rendered in the same grainy way as the old ones, but that is a minor complaint.



5. Like the reviewers before me, I cannot praise this book highly enough. It's an absolutely riveting story, filled with twists and turns and has a remarkably satisfying ending, if one dare to say that. The interweaving of the son's reactions and the father's revelations that join together finally in a concerted search for the father's origins and the validation of his memories is spellbinding. Like others before me, I couldn't put it down. As these belated stories of survival surface, particularly regarding those who were children at the time, one can only stand in awe again at the variety of human experience (and resilience). The father paid a heavy price for his silence to his family all those many years, but he was caught between Latvian complicity with Nazi crimes (which local Latvians tried to suppress) and his own shame at an identity he could neither abandon or verify. The father and son were interviewed on NPR in November (it's archived on line) and well worth a listen.

1 comments about Diario de Ana Frank.

1. Excellent book. I teach mostly Hispanic students. We read the English and Spanish version simultaneously. It really helped them understand. I always tell them it only takes one person to change the world, even a little 14 year old German girl. Now they understand.Well written, clearly translated.

5 comments about Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary, the First Complete Edition.

1. Hannah Senesh is known as the Joan of Arc of Israel, and is a national heroine in that little country of heroes and heroines.
   Her poems are learned by heart in Israel, and her acts of courage, self-sacrifice and love for her people, has led to forests, parks, streets and settlements throughout the country being named after her.
   
   Her diary, which begins when she was 13, shows her remarkable spirit, intelligence and love for the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.
   At the age of 23 she returned to Hungary as part of an Allied to mission to save Jews from the Nazi death machine. She was captured by the Nazis and tortured to reveal more about the mission and her comrades, but never broke under these circumstances. Her heroic and cruel death at the hands of the Nazis is recounted.
   
   The book is divided into several sections:
   Memories of Hannah's Childhood by Catherine Senesh, the Diary, the Letters, and the acounts by friends and comrades of her courageous mission into Hungary, and her cruel death at the hands of the Nazis.
   The final section consists of a reproduction of some of Hannah's finest poems.
   
   Hannah Senesh was born in 1921 to an assimilated Jewish family. Her father, a sucesful journalist and playwright died when Hannah was 6 years old. She was enrolled in a Protestant school. The deteriorating situation of the Jews in Hungary led Hannah to embrace Judaism and Zionism-the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, which she was passionate about and dedicated to.
   She became involved in Maccabea, a Hungarian Zionist students organization.
   But she also loved beautiful clothes and ice-skating and was enthusiastic about life and living. She was interested in astrology, spiritualism and development of the soul.
   The sensitivity of her gem of a soul and her intelligence is shown in this excerpt from her diary. It could serve as a testament to Hannah Senesh herself:
   "There are stars whose radiance is visible on earth though they have long been extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for mankind",-
   Indeed in these dark days of the resurgance of anti-Semnitism and the Satanic international campaign to destroy Israel, it is comforting and inspiring to read her words.
   Also interesting are Hannah's words about Jewish nationhood and Zionism:
   'If we had to define Zionism briefly perhaps we could best do so in the words of Nahum Sokolow: "Zionism is the movement of the Jewish people for it's revival.'
   In these days when Jews around the world are being pressured by evil forces to renounce Zionism we would do well to remember Hannah's words.
   "We canot renounce a single on of our rights, not even if the ridiculous acusation were true- that Zionism breeds anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is not the result of Zionism but of Dispersion. But even if were no so, woe to the individual who attempts to ingratiate himself with the enemy instead of following his own route. We can't renounce Zionism even if it does strengthen anti-Semitism...For only Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish State could ever bring about the possibility of the Jews in the Diaspora being able to make manifest their love for their Homeland. Because then they could choose to be part of the Homeland- not be necesity but by free will and free choice".
   In these days it is so important to remember her words and her story.



2. I had never heard of Hannah Senesh until I planned to go to Israel and was looking at possible places to visit. After I heard about her I wanted to know more. This book tells the story, in her own words of how a young Jewish woman came to be an Israeli hero. It makes me wonder if I too would have the courtage of conviction to stand up for something even to death. A very remarkable story indeed.



3. 
   The story of Hannah Senesh is the story of a heroine of the Jewish people. This volume contains her diary including a record of her early years in Hungry and her time in Eretz Yisrael, two chapters about her by her mother, and chapters by fellow soldiers in the British Army from the Yishuv who served with her when they were dropped behind enemy lines during the War. Hannah Senesh was the daughter of a well- known Hungarian playwright who died when she was six. She and her older brother were raised by a very caring and devoted mother . In her school where she was outstanding she suffered from Anti- Semitism. And as Nazi power grew in Europe she moved toward a deeper connection to her own Jewishness, at one point announcing that she had become a Zionist. Her diary records her decision to go to Eretz Yisrael, and her years of education there at Nahalal. It is the diary of a spirited, intelligent and idealistic person. She volunteered to serve in the British Army Unit which was to be dropped behind enemy lines in the hope of helping rescue Jews. She and her fellow soldiers from the Yishuv were connected with the Partisans' struggle against the Nazis in Yugoslavia. The day before she was about to enter her native Hungry where she most hoped to help the Nazis entered and took control of Hungry. Upon hearing this news she cried. A friend asked her if this was because she was thinker of her mother. She said ' That the entrance of the Germans to Hungry doomed one - million Hungarian Jews to death. She was not wrong. The greatest share of Hungarian Jews were eventually murdered by the Nazis. She entered Hungry was captured, and was placed in prison. The Nazis brought her mother to the prison , and told Senesh that if she did not give them the information that they wanted the secret radio codes she had they would torture her mother before her eyes. She begged her mother's forgiveness, and she herself was tortured. But she did not give away the information. Eventually she was taken out and shot to death . All those associated with her admired her tremendous courage and integrity .
   Her ambition was to be like her father a writer, but not a playwright but a novelist. Her love and dedication to the Jewish people in the land of Israel that she came to love so much are strongly apparent in the work.
   Perhaps the best tribute to her is her own words,
   "There are stars whose radiance is visible on earth though they have long been extinct.There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for Mankind.'



4. Hannah Senesh is the story every Jew should know, a heroic woman who fought the Nazis, parachutting into Europe in the worlds darkest hour, but beyond that her wonderful diaries tell the story of a young Jeiwsh girl finding herself, and her Jewishness amid the tumult of Europe and the Kibbutzes of Aretz Israel. This is a wonderful new volume on a true Jeiwsh Heroin, a message to all generations that evil must be confronted, ironically sometimes it is the most unlikely people that rise to the occasion. A heartrending book.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman



5. For such a small stature as Hannah was, she is one of WWII's, strongest women. It is a must read for any philosophical or history buff. In addition, would make a great movie if someone would be wllling to do so.
   
   Once you pick up this book you will devour it. Her life and who she was will remain forever in your memory. I envy her.
   
   For 20 years Hannah's diary still remains so dear to my heart.

4 comments about With Bound Hands: A Jesuit in Nazi Germany : The Life and Selected Prison Letters of Alfred Delp.

1. While one cannot help but sympathize with Father Alfred Delp SJ, the story drags in that it relies on Father Delp's sad and pensive letters from prison. As a new naive priest, he was lured into "dangerous" company by his Jesuit superior Roesch who then went into hiding leaving Father Delp to be hung out to dry.. Not as interesting a story as it sounds.. Tragic though.



2. Reading books by and about those who spent time in Nazi Germany is always difficult and sometimes discouraging, yet often they end up dispelling the evil they recount by the triumph of the human spirit against it. This book should be a Holocaust classic right up there with Elie Wiesel's Night or Etty Hillsum's An Interrupted Life and Letter from Westerbork. However, our main character has more in common with Etty then Elie, for Elie was rescued in the dying days of the war, and both Etty and Alfred Delp, our hero, did not make it out.
   This is the story of a young man studying to be a Jesuit Priest, a man who pushes the boundaries in his own order and ruffles some feathers outside of it as well. He is a man who has faith and is certain of the things he believes in. He is also certain that Hitler will fail and from early in the war is part of a group that is trying to create a plan for the rebuilding of Germany after the war. This group that he joined was called the Kreisau friends. In an early letter Delp wrote about the resistance: "Whoever doesn't have the courage to make history is doomed to become its object. We have to take action." P.48. Throughout the war Delp had many roles: parish priest, teacher at a boys' school, active resistance friend and community leader.
   Delp was arrested for a murder plot on Hitler, a plot about which he did not actually have any knowledge. He believed to nearly the end that he would be acquitted in his trial. In December of 1944 he wrote: "Today was a good day. Even though in the end we're chained and locked up, the heart of the day is the mass. We pray and trust and are not in the least bit modest about what we expect from God." P.107. Yet as time wore on, he would despair. But his faith in God would stand firm.
   This book is an amazing testimony of the power of the intellect and of steadfast faith, in very troubled times.



3. So often tragedy appears to be a failure or defeat in life when in fact it is a beginning of something worthwhile and beautiful. The imprisonment and execution of Alfred Delp, as revealed in his letters and the author’s commentaries in this book exemplify that truth. The reader may find it hard and even tedious to become embroiled in the desperate struggle to hold on to life by a man whose faith in eternity is never questioned. But this microcosm of the lives and suffering shared by millions under the Nazi regime is an example of the eventual futility of evil and should cause us to appreciate more deeply the freedom purchased for us today by those lives. The book is the beautiful fruit grown from the seed of one man’s death. It should be read.



4. With Bound Hands: A Jesuit In Nazi Germany by Mary Frances Coady presents the life and selected letters of Fr. Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest, youth leader, intellectual, and a dedicated resister to the Nazi regime who was taken prisoner and eventually executed by the Nazis. Father Delp's smuggled writings and prayers to friends and family mark a man transformed by the crucible of suffering, and provide a sober view of the depths of human cruelty as well as the struggle to endure. With Bound Hands stands as an enduring testament against the Nazis and their crimes -- and powerful reading for Catholics today.

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