No comments about And Life Is Changed Forever: Holocaust Childhoods Remembered (Landscapes of Childhood).

5 comments about No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home.

1. In many ways, this work is more complex than you would first think. Note the various reviews here. This work seems to bring out all sorts of emotions. This work is not easy to review. I suppose the best place to start is to state my humble opinion in reference to a couple of points. First, I don't think that the author was actually "putting down" the good folks in his old home town. I think he was just calling it the way he saw it. I have traveled through this area of the country extensively, spent quite a lot of time there. To be honest, the author nailed a certain segment of the population quite well. Now let me state that I am from and live in the Ozarks is S.W. Missouri. Some of the folks here, myself included, make the people of the author's home down seem down right sophisticated. I have traveled and lived all over this country for more years than I care to admit to. To be quite frank, the people the author described here can be found in just about ever town in the U.S., from coast to coast. Kentucky does not have lock on "town characters." Secondly, the author indeed has some rather harsh things to say about Morehead State University. This was silly on the author's part. Schools are schools. I work with a lot of Harvard and Yale graduates that have far less "education" than a lot of Jr. College drop outs I work with. School is what you make of it after you get out. Those attending this college should not feel bad. After all, the author himself graduated from this "inferior school," made the most of it and seems to have done alright for himself.
   
   Now, as to the book: It is actually rather well written. I do like the author's style. The story was good, easy to follow and simply interesting. This is actually two books in one. The first is about the author and his family returning to the hills of Kentucky to teach and possibly make a difference. The second story is that of his in-laws, both of whom were Holocaust Survivors. At this point I will state that I think it a shame that the author choose to use this method to tell these two stories. Both really should have been extended and made into two separate works.
   
   The author is very, very good ad descriptions, the country, the people the background. The author is quite good a capturing emotions. Chris Offutt is obviously quite a talented writer. I should also note that a few other reviewers have stated that the author made most of the stories here up. I doubt that very much. The stories just ring too true. He may have done a bit of embellishment here and there, but is that not what most authors do?
   
   I am giving this one only four stars rather than five for two reasons. First, there is an element of "sour grapes" that runs through the story which I found unbecoming and secondly, I feel the author should have devoted an entire book to his in-laws and their stories.
   
   I do recommend this one highly. It is a very good read.
   D. Blankenship



2. The author writes about his returning to his home to his eastern Ketucky roots to teach at the local college, and "give back" to his hometown. That part of the book was informative for me since I did not know a whole lot about that part of the world and its people. But, the really intersting part of the book is the parallel story he tells about his mother and father inlaw, who are Holocaust Survivors.
   That part of the book, which documents his inlaws' survival stories, is especially memorable. Now the fascinating aspect of all of this to me was that the two stories, ie his memoir, and the inlaws' history, have virtually nothing to do with each other.
   The two stories remain separate throughout the book.
   
   Offutt's style of short concise sentences, and chapters makes for easy reading. His insights into the Appalachian culture
   are eye opening for us outsiders.
   
   I recommend the book, especially for those who might be considering "going home" to give back. According to Offutt, it isn't easy.



3. The book No Heroes suffers from a severe dislocation, when Chris Offutt tries to tell the story of Arthur and Irene, his in-laws, and their shattering Holocaust experiences, but basically giving them short shrift and only a few paragraphs compared to his lengthy tales about encountering old chums, teachers and girlfriends when he returns to teach in the hills of Kentucky.

   His little hostage to fortune, Sam, doesn't like school there, so Chris doesn't stay long. In a way it's a shame he wrote this book because it makes nearly every person in the Kentucky hills sound like a moron. He is unforgiving in his characterization. can people really be this small-minded and idiotic? Maybe so, but he isn't doing the Kentucky visitors bureau any favors.

   At the same time, he's great at describing things, and the colorful dialect of many of his old Morehead buds will provoke a round of belly laughs, some of their sayings are both priceless and profane. He sounds like a funny and likable guy, except he's a little bit on the preachy side.

   Not really a success, but maybe he's written other and better things, I'd read more of him.




4. this memoir reads like a journal and seems to square many assumptions the writer went into a larger world to confirm. my own experience: leaving the south, making friends from other cultures, then coming back (for what?) line up almost perfectly with the trajectory of Mr. Offutts story. Progress has been made, work needs to be done.
   Locals who have problems with this book, I have advice: go and be.
   Chris is actually doing you a service...



5. Yes, I am educated enough to spell misrepresentation. I am also a graduate of Morehead State University and soon will have a Masters of Business Administration. Wait it gets better. I also have already obtained an MCSE, MCSA, Dell Certified Technician, A+ Certification, Brainbench Computer Technical Support, ExPert Rating Computer Technical Support, and 17 other professional certifications. Could this be possible? Yes, it is. Morehead State University is a fine institution and there are not as many "hicks" roaming the streets as Mr. Offutt would like to believe. There is no mistaking his imaginative talent and excellent authorship, but his egotistical dreamland is very questionable. I would recommend this great work of FICTION to anyone out there who enjoys a good Kentucky redneck or imbreed joke because you are just as imaginative as Mr. Chris Awful (oops, eye lowst meye diktonary!!!)

4 comments about A Match Made in Hell: The Jewish Boy and the Polish Outlaw Who Defied the Nazis.

1. It was indeed a fine match that paired Morris/Moishe/Moniek Goldner, a man with a compelling story to be told, with Larry Stillman, a man who can really tell a story. I have read many books and stories on the Holocaust and its survivors, many by the most celebrated authors in the world. This book compares favorably to the best of them by the best and most famous of these authors.
   
   Everything about Morris is amazing and told with clarity and great style by Mr. Stillman. It is the kind of book you will stay up all night in order to finish. He has clearly done his research carefully to give a flow and continuity to what must have been somewhat disjointed and random series of incidents remembered by Mr. Goldner.
   
   Buy this book for yourself and enjoy the pleasure of sharing it with your dearest friends.



2. Of all the fascinating personal stories coming out of WW II that I've read, A MATCH MADE IN HELL is unquestionably at the top of my list. It's a gripping, nail biting true account of a notorious Polish outlaw and a young Jewish man who is determined to survive long enough to avenge the horrible death of his family at the hands of the Nazi occupiers. Author Larry Stillman has done a magnificent job in researching and writing this book. The young Jewish man survived the war, came to the US and now lives in the Chicago area. A must read.



3. A Match Made In Hell: The Jewish Boy And The Polish Outlaw Who Defied The Nazis is the true story of sixteen year old Moniek Goldner and Polish outlaw Jan Kopec. The two were brought together by chance during the darkest days of World War II and formed a most unlikely partnership. Moniek began as an accomplice to robbery and black market trading, but soon learned enough to join a resistance group -- and that made it possible for him to commit acts of sabotage and directly fight against the Nazis. An important contribution a particular aspect of the struggle against the Nazi holocaust, A Match Made In Hell is a powerful, unusual, and vividly memorable story of desperation in murderous times.



4. This book not only appeals to people who enjoy an action packed story, but also to those interested in issues of morality, personal development, survival, religion, and WWII history. A great book discussion pick!

5 comments about Will to Freedom: A Perilous Journey Through Fascism and Communism (Modern Jewish History).

1. I am a PhD student doing Operations Research - more specificly, Mixed Integer Programming - that is why I purchased this book, just because of the curiousity about the autobiography of a brilliant mathematician in our field.
   
   I started this book in the end of Feb and couldn't help stopping digging into his unbelievable and inspiring life stories and have already started the third time. Everytime I get new gains and thoughts. First, it is definitely a good encouragement for my research work, by his enthusiasm and passion for knowledge and mathematics; in addition, I always can judge my attitude to life and people by learning from his experience and his eternal optimistic awareness. Here is a book, where you can find faith, justice, intelligence, honesty and love.



2. This memoir lays out in exquisite prose a touching, insightful journey through a series of challenges that are almost incomprehensible to those of us who have grown up in happier times. As I read I could not help but wonder how I would measure up to the ethical and moral standards set by Professor Balas. His academic excellence and stature are well known to all of us who have worked in any field related to mathematical programming; this book makes it clear that in addition to being an exemplary academic in every way, Professor Balas is also a very great gentleman, in the best British sense of the word. I can only say I am proud to have known him.



3. If ever I get imprisoned I'll remember to use a coffee-stained napkin and stale bread to make a chess set. I also learned from Egan Balas that to exercise in a confined space one takes an odd number of steps - else one walks in circles. Algorithmic ingenuity enabled him to successfully take up mathematics in his late 30s, against the conventional wisdom that good mathematicians do their work when young, and become an outstanding professor of industrial administration, applied mathematics and operations research at Carnegie Mellon University.

   He tells stories of his lives - escaping death narrowly - "according to my own taste", making it one of the most compelling biographies I have ever read.
   This would be an extraordinary thriller if it were fiction - but it's not, it's real. The highly personal account of how a Transylvian Jew became a revolutionary worker, a dapper diplomat, a tortured prisoner and a creative academic takes one through some absolutely awful scenes. Balas' craftiness enabled him to survive and his toughness under severe torture protected his friends. This is not some second hand account of Communist and Nazi hate, Balas drags the reader through his pain and suffering. There are happier moments - such as when he comes out of prison and addresses his daughter - not realizing that he's speaking to a younger sibling born in his absence and that his daughter has grown considerably.

   For anyone who wants to understand willpower and survival in Hungary and Romania during the 2nd world war this is a must read. Besides historical interest, the story's suspense makes it an ideal gift for thriller and spy story readers.




4. Professor Balas from Carnegie Mellon University is one of the most respected members of the Operations Research community. I am a big fan of Professor Egon Balas, having read his papers on the "Lift and Project" method in solving mixed integer programming problems.

   Nothing moved me as much as this book though. I agree with the reviewer from Toronto, the book is definitely a great scientific mind at work, where Egon describes clearly and in vivid detail all that he went through, without any bitterness or resentments.

   A triumph of the human spirit against all odds and adversaries!




5. Truly a fascinating story. I was born in Romania and went to college in Cluj during the late sixties. The period of time between 1945-1954 was always a mystery to me. Egon Balas has opened my eyes on many aspects of my country's secret past. The book is very engaging and kept me captivated until the end. Egon's story is representative of what happened to Transylvanian Jews who were communists before and after the war. While not all stories have happy endings like Egon's, I know of many people with similar stories. None of them talked to me in so many details and so eloquently as Egon did in his book. I am greatful to Egon for making this very personal account of his life public, so that the story of the communist Jews of Cluj is not lost forever. Great book !

2 comments about Surviving Despair: A Story About Perseverance.

1. Herman's descriptions are so good that you feel you're right there with the main character watching the moments of his life unfold and seeing him persevere through all the horrors of the war and the holocaust and beyond. The story follows a boy from a small village in Poland, where he grew up before the war, to separation from his family, flight to Russia, and his attempt to make a life after all his losses.



2. I finished reading "Surviving Despair" yesterday; it took a while because I wanted to go slowly and absorb the historical information. Also, there were so many times I just had to stop because the tears blurred the words. It is such a powerful story with so much sadness, mixed in with some happiness and hope. It is a remarkable document of an unimaginable time in history.
   
   David was so reluctant to share with others (even his own family) the trauma and tragedies in his life. Yet, he obviously shared so much with the author, Herman Taube.
   
   David's relationship (or lack of) with his sons and grandchildren was so disturbing. I wonder if Uriel had married a Jewish woman and had Michael been straight would it have been easier to connect with his sons. I think not. I think his sons were too much a reminder of the children he lost in the fire.
   
   The book also reinforced the role of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in the lives of the survivors.For so many survivors, the museum is their voice. David certainly found new purpose in his life at the museum.
   
   Thank you, Herman, David and Rose for this precious gift

3 comments about The Choice: Poland, 1939-1945.

1. I was captivated by the author's courage as she tries to recreate with honesty, the events happening around her during the war. Although she can sometimes see only colors or shapes, she doesn't fill in what might have happened, only what she can remember. It was a joy to read of her family's reunion in a honest way, without celebratory prose. What a view she creates of the real-life drama in sometimes a matter-of-fact way. She neither paints herself as heroic or courageous, just as a girl trying to live against terrible odds.



2. Ms. Eber is able to take you right into the horrors she faced, both as a child and as an adult. She's unflinching in her own self-examination as well as in recounting the events she witnessed. As a writer who struggles with capturing painful emotions and memories on paper, I have the utmost respect for this author's courage, not only for living, but for putting it all into words. She has a gift and we are fortunate that she's shared it with us.
   Namaste.



3. I was impressed with the author's descriptions of the lives led by Jews in Poland prior to and during WW II.In that respect the book is well written,however there is a big missing piece.What is missing is the story of the escape from the German work camp and the ensuing two years in hiding.The auther took us up to this point and then gave us no detail about the years in hiding or how she found the farm family that allowed her to hide in their chicken coop.
   The book had a tendency to be a bit long on philosophical observations with added poetry and short on narrative story.
   Much was left out as she skipped around from 1939 to present.

3 comments about Beyond These Walls: Escaping the Warsaw Ghetto - A Young Girl's Story (Virago Modern Classics).

1. This book was intriguing. After forty years, the author, Janina Bauman, is ready to tell her story of her life and experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. The story begins telling what a good life Bauman has with her father as a doctor and a loving close Jewish family. Then as the story goes on the war begins and their town is transformed into a Jewish ghetto. They are forced slowly to move from place to place, within the ghetto, each one worse than the other. With her remaining family she escapes the ghetto only to find more problems along the way to freedom, but in the end everything works out. This book gives in excellent detail, Bauman's experiences of friendship, love, death, poverty, adventure, and family problems. Many of her personal diary entries are included also showing exactly how she was feeling. The story is full of adventure and feeling and it was a joy to read.



2. THis book is one of the best I've ever read. It is clearly written and keeps you turning pages. The book chronicals the adventures of a teenage girl during the Holocaust years. It is not a depressing read, rather it is very inspiring and exciting. I highly recommend it.



3. Winter in the Morning is a captivating book. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. It gives a very detailed account of a young girl's life during the Holocaust. It shows how this wealthy Jewish girl becomes stricken with poverty, alienated from her friends, and was sent to another school. It gives accounts of all the "safe houses," which were the houses that took Jews and hid them. It also showed how they lived in the ghetto with many other Jews, fighting disease, lice, and finding food that was scarce. This book was very inspiring, as well as well written. It gives an insider's version of the Holocaust and war and is very interesting, factual, and moving. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in what really went on in the Holocaust.

5 comments about Destined to Live.

1. My review focuses on matters undeveloped by the other reviews.
   
   Ungar's childhood in Krasne (near the Zbrucz River) repudiates the notion of anti-Semitism (and Christian-clergy hostility) being the constant companion of Polish Jews: "Both Father Hankiewicz and Father Leszczynski mainly preached the loving kindness of God. Because of the priests' behavior, the peasants didn't bear a grudge against Jews...The result was that I had the unbelievable good luck of growing up without either hatred or fear. My playmates were Polish and Ukrainian children and no one ever insulted me or tried to beat me up...Of course, they knew I was Jewish...But they considered me one of theirs." (pp. 66-67).
   
   At least some of the sporadic anti-Semitism which Ungar later did experience was clearly related to the entrenchment of Jewish economic hegemony, which worked against Poles. One Pole said: "I don't know about Lvov, but around here they [the Jews] own all the big buildings, they own the stores, they own the banks. They take our money, and you can bet that they make sure Poles can't get into business themselves." (p. 86)
   
   Ungar provides a seldom-heard Jewish viewpoint of service in the Polish Army just prior and during the German invasion of Poland in 1939. He discusses training, tactics, mobilization, and his wounding during a Luftwaffe air raid.
   
   Polish nationalists commonly suppose that even totally assimilated Jews (like Ungar) seldom become Poles at heart. Along these lines, Ungar candidly admitted that: "I would never have called myself a patriotic Pole..." (p. 31).
   
   After Poland's defeat, Ungar made it back to Lviv, in the Soviet-occupied zone. He touched on Jewish-Soviet collaboration: "It also seemed to Wusia [Ungar's first wife] that they [the Soviets] trusted Jews more than Poles or Ukrainians." (p. 120). "Besides that, you began to see Jews in high positions, which would have been unthinkable before. There were Jewish army officers, Jewish party members, and Jewish city officials." (pp. 136-137)
   
   Up to the time of Operation Barbarossa, most local Jews thought of the Germans as a cultured people who wouldn't do especial harm to the Jews (p. 154). After the Lviv Ghetto was formed, some of the Jewish ghetto police acted reasonably towards their fellow Jews. "But many acted more like devoted servants in the hope of ingratiating themselves with the Gestapo. Others were just callous, brutal people, untouched by any of the nobler sentiments when it came to hunting down their fellows. That was how the Germans turned Jew against Jew." (pp. 171-172). "Neither of us knew any [Jewish] policemen, besides which, many of them were cruel and unscrupulous." (p. 277).
   
   While at Janowska Labor Camp, Ungar was denounced to the Gestapo by oberjude (the German-appointed chief of the Jewish workers) Tenenbaum (p. 253, 276).
   
   Contrary to some reports, Ungar never claims to have been at Belzec. He saw some bodies along the railroad tracks, inferring them to have originated from a failed escape from a Belzec-bound train (p. 298, 321).
   
   Unfortunately, Ungar cheapens his work through a sudden outburst of primitive Polonophobic innuendo late in the book. He denigrates the AK after accusing it, without a shred of supporting evidence, of being behind the killing of Rabbi Barfield. (p. 313, 316). Following Yitzhak Shamir, Ungar blanket-slurs the Poles for imbibing anti-Semitism with their mothers' milk. (p. 316)



2. I have read this book and have learned so much more about my husband's employer. We always knew Mr. Unger had a heart of gold. He has helped our family so much through hard times, when the economy was so low. Never once has he laid his employees off. My husband, Joe Iervolino began working for Mr. Unger when he was 19. He is now 65 and ready to retire and still working for Mr. Unger. Throughout all of the hardship this man endured, he has always shown compassion and loyalty to those he employs. There must be thousands throughout the United States. He came here almost penniless, yet he has made thousands enjoy the best of what being a middle class American has to offer.
   His sponsorship of the Holocaust Museums in NY and DC has educated millions of people. His company, National Envelope has given thousands of people well meaningful employment. The next time you throw out an envelope that contains junk mail, a letter from a loved one or a bill, you are probably handling a product made by a National Envelope Employee, such as my Joe.
   Read the book. It will touch you in such a way as he has touched our lives and made us thankful that this immigrant made it to our shores.
   Destined to Live is one of the best Holocaust survivor books I have ever read. It will open your eyes to how inhumane some men can become. After becoming a victom of such men, William Unger not only survived but, became a great human being. He shows only compassion to others and hates no one. He is the ultimate survivor and an example to all of us who suffered through any sort of inhumanity. I feel this book is a "Must Read" for everyone, young and old, alike.



3. Another wonderfully written account of the atrocitites that Jewish Poles faced during WWII. A must read for ANYONE or ANY color, ANY religion, ANY ethnic background!

   Mr. Ungars' nephew, his wife and daughter - happen to be my neighbors and close friends. So when reading this, it becomes a much more personal story to me and my family when reading this.




4. When the Germans invaded and conquered Poland, a young Polish soldier was in more peril than most. Wilo Ungar was Jewish and badly wounded. Because he wore the Polish uniform he was given the last rites by a priest who thought Ungar was Catholic. For the months after his recovery that he was held prisoner by the Germans he was saved by his captors ignorance of his ethnicity. Finally released he made his way back through war-ravaged Poland on crutches. He was given refuge by Polish families and eventually smuggled himself across the German-Soviet border, was captured by the NKVD and imprisoned as a spy. Ultimately he made his way back to the city of Lvov and reunion with his girl. They married and when Germany turned on Russia, they and their baby Michael managed for a while to evade Nazi roundups but in 1942 they were caught and separated in a time when the Nazi holocaust was being carried out in earnest. Highly recommended for students of the Holocaust, Destined To Live is the riveting story of Wilo's search for his family in a world of love and death, organized violence and the indomitable human spirit.



5. William Ungar's memoir of survival is the single most moving account of the Holocaust that I have read. With vivd and heart-renching portrayls of his young wife, infant son, other raltives and friends who perished during the Holocaust, Destined to Live brilliantly depicts the devestating emotional toll the Holocaust wrought on those that survived. Without a trace of bitterness, Mr. Ungar describes how he managed to survive the Nazi's occupation of Poland, and went on to create a powerful life that postively impacted the lives of countless others. Destined to Live is not a memoir about survival for survival's sake. It is a gripping tale of how humans, even in the most dire and unjust of circumstances, can use the powers of love and perseverence to create true beauty and greatness. If I were to recommend one book to someone who wanted to learn about the impact of the Holocaust on those that survived, I would recommend Destined to Live.

No comments about Memoirs of A Stormy Life: May We Never Be Tested With That Which We Can Be Punished.

2 comments about One Step Ahead: A Jewish Fugitive in Hitler's Europe.

1. This is an incredible memoir. The events the author went through when he was basically still a kid had to have been terrifying. Yet he tells his story in a very straightforward, understated way that only someone of his generation could do. He doesn't really go into the emotional toll his years of hiding, running and fear had to have taken on him. He just tells his story - and it's riveting. I'm glad he had the courage to write this down. What a wonderful way to honor his mother and 3 beautiful sisters.



2. I came across this escape memoir in researching my own family's escape from Antwerp during the invasion of May 1940. This is a well written, meticulous and gripping account of a 5 year odyssey through France and Italy during the war, including an account of pre-war life in Germany and Belgium. In addition to the usual depressing experiences, the writer recounts the numerous, often poor, rural (Christian) families he encountered who were incredibly helpful and generous, as well as Italian priests who aided the refugees and funneled desparately needed funds during the prolonged hiding. The author adds to his vivid, detailed first hand accounts some admirable fact and date checking, as well as references, often missing from such memoirs. A wonderful and well done book, deserving of more comment and sales than it has apparently achieved.