3 comments about Ruth's Journey: A Survivor's Memoir.

1. I hope that any one that relly like to understad a jurney of life has to read it... life will look in other color at the end of the book. Good for the soul



2. Ms.Glasberg has had the courage to dig and relive her unspeakably hellish past. She has performed an everlasting act of kindness by giving thousands of Jews murdered, some sort of dignity. So many of them whithout even a marking to attest that once, not long ago they were part of families and communities full of life. May their memories live forever. As a decendant of a family from the Jewish Community in Chernowitz this book has taught me much of what became of my extended family back then.



3. Unlike the other books where the concentration camps are well known and they are all the same story, this one is uniqe. Instead of gas chambers and crematoriums the people in Bershad were starved to death and near liberation, they were shot. even after liberation the book is exciting and heartbreaking. do not leave it sitting on the shelves.

1 comments about Pioneer Jewish Texans: Their Impact on Texas and American History for Four Hundred Years 1590-1990.

1. This was an amazing book. I had never even heard of Texas Jewry, but this tought me so much about it. It was so interesting ,and I learned so much. I really recomend this for pleasure reading, or it could be very useful for projects or reports.

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

No comments about The Keeper of Memory: A Memoir.

3 comments about Remember.

1. The Holocaust needs to be remembered and should be mandatory for the school children of today. This book would be a great way to introduce the Holocaust to people of all ages, even the very young, without ever coming across as simplistic. The author's quality of writing shines through and the artwork by Chellie and Joan have wonderfully illustrates this very moving story.
   
   The artwork really complements the narrative, and I like the use of graphite and charcoal, as it reminds me of the great German artist Kathe Kollwitz, who died in 1945. Though Joan and Chell don't render with the edginess of Kollwitz, their softer style seems more appropriate for the tone of the book. My favorite illustrations are Chell's Train to Nowhere (p. viii & p. 70), Joan's In the Army Now (p. 7), and her interpretations of photos from the Warsaw Ghetto, p. 65 through 66. Usually I prefer to see drawings done directly from life, because working from photos taken by other people often means we're seeing the photographer's composition and visual choices, not the sketcher's, so an important element in the artistic process is missing. There's also a tendency for drawings made from photos to be over-worked, and to lose certain freshness in translation. But Joan's photo-inspired work avoids those pitfalls and is truly INSPIRED. Her drawings reflect her individual style as an artist, and her passion for her subject matter makes them particularly expressive and vibrant. Well done!!



2. I just finished reading it, and what a poignant experience it was! Joan is both articulate and eloquent, and her narrative flows naturally and gracefully. That's no small accomplishment, and her easy style makes Paul's story accessible to people of all ages, even the very young, without ever coming across as simplistic. I think Holocaust education is mandatory in most public schools today, and this book could be a great introduction for young readers. It's appropriately somber without being scary or hopeless, and the young GI, Paul, is not only a real person, but an appealing personality and role model. Although forced to deal with mind-boggling evil, he doesn't despair, and finds an even greater resolve to do the right thing because of his experience with the dark side of human nature. "Remember..." is an important book in many ways, and I believe it could have a very wide readership and attract the interest of a major publisher.



3. This book reminds us what it's like to be a young solider in the mist of a horrible war. You can relate Paul's experience to the young men of war today. The illustration are a work of art but my favorite photo is of Paul sitting on the grass holding 2 bottles of wine with this big mischievous smile. We are letting our history slip away, need to show our children the horrors of war, concnetration camps, death camps,and that the holocaust was real not only for the Jews but for many.

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.

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.

No comments about The Unwelcome One: Returning Home from Auschwitz (Jewish Lives).

5 comments about On Burning Ground: A Son's Memoir.

1. Michael Skakun's book, "On Burning Ground", makes for a unique memoir as it is the story of his father's experiences during WWII, and not his own experiences, or even his interactions with his father. Joseph Skakun led an extremely interesting, almost unbelievable life, as he did everything he could to evade detection as a Jew and survive the war. It is a story that will leave readers amazed, questioning how anyone had the strength to do what Joseph Skakun forced himself to do.
   
   Joseph's story begins in December 1941, when the Germans come to his town to liquidate it. He tries desperately to escape with his mother, but in the end, he is the only member of his family (as far as he knows) to survive a mass execution. Skakun escapes not once, but twice, from the ghetto, slowly making his way into Lithuania, and finally Germany, where he worked as a farm laborer. His command of several languages helped him along the way, as he gradually assumed the identity of a Muslim from the countryside, hoping that the similarities between Islam and Judaism would help him elude detection. Eventually, he realized that the only way he could guarantee his own safety from the growing suspicions of other laborers was to join the Waffen SS. As Joseph prepared to step fully into the machinery that has been responsible for the destruction of his people, he questioned his actions but knew there is no other way. If he ccould get close to the front, he could escape once and for all.
   
   "On Burning Ground" is a fascinating story, generally well-told, with details that bring Joseph's experiences to life. Joseph's survival is in part due to luck, but more greatly due to his resolve and his ability to forsake outwardly everything that he held dear. Michael Skakun does an admirable job telling his father's story, and examining what his father must have been going through emotionally and psychologically. I thought it an odd choice to narrate as did, refering to the main character as Father rather than taking a third or first person point of view. At times certain elements seem repetitive, but overall Skakun paints an incredible potrait of a remarkable man. It is an unique story of hope that comes from such sorrow. It is a story that needs to be told.



2. This was a nice story, but it was clouded by some very philosphical rantings by the son both early in the book and at the end. Also troubling was the son's writing of his father's story. He talkes about his father, then his grandfather and grandmother, and it is difficult to follow, especially early in the story. I wish he would have written it as his father's narrative as told to him.
   
   This is a very harrowing account on how one person survived the Holocaust. Skakun was blessed with blue eyes and blond hair, and it was fairly easy to pass himself off as an Aryan, with the exception of his circumcision. Both passing into Germany and his physical for the Waffen SS necesitated him taking a physical in the nude. I think his heightened awareness of how vulnerable he was resulted in a certain nervousness, which could have resulted in his uncovered secret identity.
   
   This is a nice easy read about a very lucky Polish Jew. His unconventional route and his luck led to him surviving the war. Skakun credits the good deeds of his mother in his survival of the war.



3. No one can doubt how much Michael Skakun loves his father and how proud he is of his fathers amazing story of survival. However. I would have toned down the flowery writing, after all, in a biography there really no way of knowing all the expressions of the faces in the room, the smells, the sounds, etc. I also would have included a postscript on whether the subject of the book is still alive, where he lives, or where he spent his last days. Too many loose ends for me, but a book that is very good and worth reading.



4. I have always had a deep interest in the Holocaust, I think it is because of the fact that it occured so recent in our history, it is so incredible that in our modern society, a country such as Germany was so willing to carry out such a morbid and shockingly sinister plan of brutality and murder. That ordinary citizens could be so callous and treacherous,...I am amazed!

   Joseph Skakun, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, takes us on a journey into his mind numbing past. Divine intervention, solid logic and humblness, play a major role in his reason for survival.

   Personally I think this story is very unique and wouldn't be surprised to see it become a movie.




5. Skakun's experiences are comparable to those of Yehuda Nir in "The Lost Childhood" and Moshe Perlman in "Europa, Europa". The crowning irony is Skakun's (almost) joining the Waffen SS in order to hide his Jewish identity, and to survive. However, there are just a few errors of background historical fact which mar "On Burning Ground". E.g., on page 203 Julius Streicher is named as the founder of the Nazi paper "Volkische Beobachter". This is wrong. Streicher founded "Der Sturmer". Volkische Beobachter was an outgrowth of "Munchener Beobachter", a paper purchased and re-founded by Dietrich Eckart. This is the sort of mistake that better editing might have caught. But "On Burning Ground" still stands as a riveting account of survival through quick thinking and a lot of luck.

No comments about Leap to Life: Triumph over Nazi Evil.