No comments about Jurek Becker: A Life in Five Worlds.

2 comments about The Bronski House.

1. Philip Marsden's book is a small masterpiece. It is poetic and evocative. He has a sharp sense of details. No wonder he has now written his first novel after a couple of travel books.
   Trough his friendship with Zofia Illinski and access to her mother's letters, diaries etc he portrays a lost world, the upper classes in Poland and Belarus between the wars, and how their world is completely shattered by it.
   The various personalities in the book are fascinating among them Zofia's mother who is an exceptional woman, strong, talented, beautiful and with a spirit that saves the family from extinction.
   Marsden's journey together with Zofia to her childhood is very moving.
   All in all this is a very good read. You don't have to be interested in Poland or in history and the likes. This book will interest and move you.



2. The language is so poetic and fluent, it hurls you away, lightly and fluffily to a different era; a world long gone and forgotten. It has something of an East European Gone With The Wind theme, only much more concise and fleetingly. I longed for more pages, a hundred more, fivehundred more, in this novel too timid and subdued somehow. Perfect script for a fullblown-no-expenses -spared Hollywood film!

No comments about The Last Eyewitnesses, Volume 2: The Children of the Holocaust Speak (Jewish Lives).

No comments about A Plant Once Uprooted Can No Longer Hug the Ground.

5 comments about Troubled Memory: Anne Levy, the Holocaust, and David Duke's Louisiana.

1. Troubled Memory is the story of the Skorecki family, which survived the Hoocaust by escaping from the Warsaw Ghetto and going into hiding, intertwined with an accessible history of the Warsaw Ghetto. But is is also the story of Anne Skorecki Levy, 45 years later and transplanted to Louisiana, deciding that she doesn't want Klansman and Holocaust denier David Duke to become the governor of her state. On all three counts - as a tale of survival during the Holocaust, a history of that time and place and the story of little Anne Levy's dogged pursuit of the bigshot politician during his election campaign - the book reads like a taut thriller, a real page-turner from beginning to end.
   In its linking of the Holocaust in Poland with the troubled racial history of the American South, Troubled Memory is reminiscent of Styron's Sophie's Choice - except that this is fact, not fiction. It's a compelling, genre-busting book that is not quite like anything you've read, and it leaves you both feeling good and with much to think about.



2. I am a student at Tulane University and have taken a seminar with Dr. Powell on the Holocaust. This book is the last book that he included on the syllabus for the course, and I understand fully how and why he wrote this book. At first I was a bit leery of his inclusion of his own work in the course, but the work is a great synthesis of traditional Holocaust study and how it pertains to American (particularly Southern) culture today.

   The first half of the book largely provides a survey through a personal account of the sociopolitical landscape of World War II-era Eastern Europe: the reasons that the Holocaust occurred, bystanders, perpetrators and victims psychological profiles, as well as giving a very readable human interest story of the narrative of this one particular family. The second half picks up where most Holocaust narratives leave off: the post-war years, the family's emigration to America and the challenges that they faced in New Orleans as Holocaust Survivors, and finally, Anne Levy's battle against David Duke and the formation of the Louisiana Coalition against Nazism and Racism. The first half of the book is essential for understanding her drive in the second half of the book, and Dr. Powell does an excellent job in connecting traditional and new scholarship on just how frighteningly close Louisiana came to David Duke's authority and how important it is to be aware of the ideals that the Louisiana Coalition and Anne Levy espouse.

   This book is written in a highly readable manner: the diction is not overly dense nor confusing and the personal story allows non-scholars to enjoy the material as much as a student of history or politics would. It is very obvious that Dr. Powell put an immense amount of personal effort and dedication into this account, and his contribution to the historical documentation of the Holocaust and its impact on contemporary society is a testimony to his skill as a historian.




3. This story chronicles the survival of small Jewish girls who were hidden in an armoire by their desperate parents in the closing days of the Warsaw ghetto. It easily matches the personal resonance and innocent terror of the far more famous Anne Frank Story.

   Even after their final liberation as perhaps the only intact nuclear family to survive that infamous ghetto, the Skorecki family was due one more date with history. Survival, it turns out, was the story within the story. Little Anne Skorecki Levi, the little girl who survived by staying silent inside that armoire struck a blow five decades later for Jewish survival by speaking out against Louisiana's Neo-Nazi gubernatorial candidate David Duke, and helping to engineer his electoral defeat.

   This account of Anne's travel along the arc from victim to victor is an inspiration and a reminder that each of us can and must preserve our collective memory, however troubling.




4. I read books on the Holocaust to try to understand the times, the mileu, the horror, and the suffering. After more than 20 books, I realize that I can only scratch the surface. I will, however, never stop reading because of my fear that someday the deniers and the downgraders might get the upper hand.

   Thank you to the the author and Anne Skorecki Levy for relating a story that is very, very moving as well as insightful and timely.




5. Lawrence Powell set out to write a book about the David Duke phenomenon, about how a KKK leader and Nazi could sit in the Louisiana legislature and run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican. But work on the book took him in another direction after he interviewed Anne Levy, a Holocaust survivor who confronted Duke in the state capital. Captivated by Levy's story, Powell has produced a terrifying, poignant and finally a triumphant book about the Holoaust as witnessed through the life of one of its survisors, Anne Levy.

   Troubled Memory is a beautifully written and tender account of a personal story that stands as an intimate history of Hitler's final solution. Powell's prose will carry you into the Warsaw and Lodz ghettos and into the vegetable bin where 6-year-old Anne and her sister hid from the SS. This is a book that makes the Holocaust relevant to every reader. It will fill you with horror and wonder, and it will move you to tears.

No comments about Wiesenthal File, The.

3 comments about A Boy in Hiding: Surviving the Nazis Amsterdam 1940-1945.

1. This memoir is one that could be read by preteens and young adults as Stan is eight when the his story begins and the account is written from the perspective of a boy during Hitler's treatment of the Jews in the Netherlands. I couldn't put it down. Questions of how did the Jews survive outside the concentration camps, how did the they get food, how did they cope are deftly answered by the experiences of this one child. I hope my grandchildren will read this notable memoir.



2. I had the pleasure and honor to meet the author, Stan Rubens, at a book signing recently and purchased his book as a show of support. Little did I realize at that time, that this book would change my life and provide answers to questions that I had as a Jewish child growing up in America that were never answered by my own family. Mr. Rubens has told an amazing story of courage, resilience and fortitude that people in this country would be wise to read. I was captivated by the content and couldn't and wouldn't put the book down until I was finished. I am purchasing multiple copies to give to my friends and family in the hope that it has the same emotional impact on them as it did on me. As a fellow author, I salute Mr. Rubens' effort and believe that this book should be mandatory reading for everyone so that the message is never lost on future generations.



3. Good details about the Jewish Holocaust, told in a first hand manner.
   Some parts unclear. Earnest.

1 comments about Hershey Bar Sandwich.

1. It is deep, entertaining in a special kind of way, innocent but frank. It let's you see inside other person's life, heart, thoughts, feelings + hopes, and makes you feel like you know them (or want to meet them in real life) especially when you look at the included collection of photographs that are a treasure of memories, you can realy identify youself with all settings + people involved, no matter what age or origin you are or if you have been through a war yourself. It shows you the whole picture, lots of history facts that aren't neccessarily thought in school, all in a very enjoyable-to-read story. I wish Helga L.L.Rule would write + publish a second part. After reading to he point where the book ends, you would like to find out how it went on...(can't really say that about a lot of books).
   If you or your ancestors came from Europe, you might really relate to it even more or have more understanding of what your family / friends went through at the least.
   SUMMERY: This autor should write more books! it is educational (in all kinds of ways) , entertaining , heart breaking , and somehow it gives you hope...
   read it, you'll know what I mean.
   PS: I will always love you, Kaethe Oma

1 comments about Invisible Walls and To Remember is to Heal: A German Family under the Nuremberg Laws (Jewish Lives).

1. Ingeborg Hecht. Invisible Walls and To Remember is to Heal. Translated from the German by John Brownjohn and by John A. Broadwin. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1999.

   Most people have heard about Hitler's Nuremberg Laws. But few are aware of their actual significance. Ingeborg Hecht's book Invisible Walls and To Remember is to Heal shows in detail the impact of the laws on the everyday life of her family, her Jewish father who got divorced before the laws were promulgated, her Aryan mother, and her brother and herself, the half-Jews. History comes alive in her book: The exact wording of a legal passage (given with its date) is followed by the descriptions of the results of these orders. But there are also glimpses of human compassion, the revolt against dehumanization. And at the end, she does not shy away from looking critically at the reparation efforts by the new German Federal Republic. The importance of Ingeborg Hecht's book is also shown in its second half which gathers responses to the first half which was published by itself a few years before this new edition.

3 comments about Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

1. This was an excellent book, very touching and very emotional, and Anne is a hero, a brave little girl.
   
   When the war occurs, Anne and her family take refuge in The Secret Annex which is the back of a house. She writes down
   her thoughts and feelings routinely, as in a diary. Abruptly, the
   entries end.
   
   It isn't until the afterword that we learn of her terrible fate. The sad part is that the incidents in this book
   really happened. I give this book 5 stars:)



2. Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young girl
   
   I think this is a great book. Anne Frank shows great emotion and tells her life in the "secret annex." She tells about her love life and how her experiences were in this life. I think people should read this book. It's educational in a way and will let you understand a little about what went on behind closed doors.
   
   Anne's diary explains how she felt during her time in World War II. She was very unhappy about having to leave her home and go into hiding. While she was in hiding her and her family were captured by the Germans and taken to Jewish camps. Then after they were captured her father found Anne's diary and gave it to the world to read. Now we the people have all access to the thoughts of Anne Frank.
   
   She was a young Jewish girl that lived a sad life. Anne had a good since of humor, a pretty smile and the heart of a true young girl. This girl who bared all in her diary will live on forever even though she is no longer with us. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about how life was in hiding during the Holocaust. It maybe sad, but this is a amazing story.
   By: Sarah age 13



3. Anne Frank is about a girl who wrote a diary about her life. The main charecters are Anne and her family. The main problems are that they're Jewish and the Germans were prejudice against Jewish people at that time. The Germans were sending them to concentration camps. My favorate character was Anne because she is a really brave girl who writes a diary about her life and her terrible tragedy.

   I could relate to Anne Frank because I come from another country where I was born and I also was having security problems there. I think I feel the same things she felt because sometimes I feel fear to be in Colombia, my native country. That's what she also felt.

   I liked the book a lot, and I didn't have a favorite part of the book, because I liked the whole book...

   I would recommend this book to people because I think it's really interesting and it's a true story. If I had to be someone in the book, I would be Anne because I would like to be recognized as a great writer in history.