3 comments about Never Far Away: The Auschwitz Chronicles of Anna Heilman.

1. This book gives much insight into pre-war conditions in places such as the Warsaw Ghetto, etc - none of this taught in History classes; Annas memoirs are deeply moving. I wish the book read more smoothly; every page has numerous footnotes explaining words definitions and who people were, causing constant interruption in such involved reading. I believe 98% of the footnotes could have been eliminated by including them within the paragraph, making the entire book smooth rather than disheveled. Her story is sad but moving and educational.



2. This is a wonderfully written and descriptive memoir. Anna's vivid and beautiful memories of her life before the war are particularly involving. I, personally, was captivated by them. Her concetration camp memoirs are heartbreaking and informative. A very worthwhile read.



3. Never Far Away: The Auschwitz Chronicles Of Anna Heilman gathers and presents the memories of Anna Heilman, who fought for survival in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Anna's life in Warsaw became one of loss and a fight to live as she recalls her life before, during and after the war. A striking, gripping memoir of life in the camp and a very strongly recommended addition to academic and community library Holocaust Studies and 20th Century European History Studies readling lists and reference collections.

5 comments about In My Brother's Image: Twin Brothers Separated by Faith after the Holocaust.

1. This Book is for everybody to read, it is very interesting and powerful



2. The book, In My Brother's Image, was a book that caught my attention and made me want to keep reading. This book showed this very well. You learn about Gyuri and Miklos', identical twin brothers, life before the war when they were best friends, during the war how religion had torn them apart and the events leading to it, and after how different they had become. Miklos' son Eugene wrote the book, not Gyuri or Miklos. He vicariously wrote it and he makes it seem as though he were right there. The accounts in this book are based upon his father, uncle, aunt, and printed documents from the time such as newspapers and books.
   I, personally, am very into the Holocaust and what happened to families before, during, and after the war so if you are too I definitely think you should consider this book. If you like to see how people can change on a general level this is a good book. If you are like me, liking to learn about the Holocaust or history for that matter, this is an excellent book. Those on grade level 10, 11, and 12 (and on) will be able to understand book because of the language and words used. So once again read this book.



3. I remember reading about this real-life story a number of years before this book was actually published; I still have the clipped article from the Boston Globe in one of my scrapbooks. Then, when I was a student at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mr. Pogany came to our Hillel one Friday night and after services and dinner read from his book and spoke to us about the story behind it. Having met the author makes reading a book even better!
   
   I've very interested in what befell Hungarian Jewry during WWII, possibly because it's so painful and haunting to realise that they were the last nation to be invaded by the Nazis, the final Jewish community in Europe still pretty much fully intact, but for the men who had been drafted into labour battalions or sent off to work camps several years earlier. It's an even more interesting and unique story because the family became Catholics shortly after WWI ended, and they were very devout, so much so that the author's uncle Gyuri eventually became a priest, and his father, Miklós, had seriously contemplated becoming one too. Because of a painful health condition, Gyuri got permission to recover his health in Italy, which was a stroke of luck, since he got out before things really began getting worse and worse, even before the arrival of the Nazis. Though the twins' mother was deported and murdered, the rest of the family did not live in the small town she did, and because they were in Budapest did not suffer the fate of the other Hungarian Jews in smaller towns and cities, who were packed into ghettos and then deported. The Budapest Ghetto wasn't erected until very late in the War, and when Miklós and his wife Muci (also a distant cousin of his) were finally deported, they were "only" taken to Bergen-Belsen as opposed to one of the death camps in Poland like the majority of their Hungarian co-religionists had been.
   
   Because he was tucked away safely in Italy, a place which only lost about 19% of its prewar Jewish population, in the care of the holy mystic Padre Pio, Gyuri was not subject to anything like his twin brother and the rest of their family were. He could never understand why his beloved twin had lost faith in Catholicism and Christianity, how he could go back to Judaism, the religion they'd left as small boys and had never even really been very much of a part of in their early years before they all converted. Many people both then and now have made apologies for the collaboration, either active or through silent complicity, of ordinary citizens in allowing the Shoah to take place, much like Gyuri did, but Miklós and Muci had seen firsthand what had happened to them. Despite nearly thirty years of being a good Catholic, he was not protected from even the "good" labour brigade for converts. In the eyes of the Nazis and ordinary Hungarians, his family were still Jewish. The local parish priest arranged for their mother Gabriella to be taken from the ghetto to his church every day to hear Mass before she was deported, but he still didn't try to hide her or protect her from deportation. This book explores the complex relationship between not only the brothers who were separated by faith but also how the Church failed to protect its members, all members, and to speak out against what was going on, and how something of such a large scale could never have happened without the kind of hatred and collaboration from the common folk that the Poganies saw breaking through the surface after the Nazis and Hungarian fascists came to power.



4. I thought this was a good book and could not put it down. It explores the issues of assimilation among Budapest's Jews, conversion issues, Jewish and Catholic relations, Jesiwh security or lack thereof, Catholic complicity in the Holocaust and the Catholic church setting the stage for millenia that made the Holocaust possible. It also talks of family love and connectedness despite serious philosophical differences. We're discussing this in my book club and it should be very interesting.



5. As the child of parents who came from the strictly Orthodox Jewish community of Hungary, and as one raised within that Orthodoxy, albeit transplanted to America, this book exposed me to a portion of Hungarian Jewish history I never really knew. This book speaks of the tragedy of so many Hungarian Jews. Jews who were totally estranged from their ancestral faith, who had no attachment to their heritage. For those people, Judaism was an undesirabe yoke to be cast aside or at best ignored. This book tells the reader however that one cannot truly escape his true identity. The true hero of the book, the author's father, discovers this in the hell of Bergen-Belsen. His uncle, the priest, spends the war in relative safety, but always in fear that he would be denounced. That uncle also has to contend with the very real possiblity that his Hungarian coreligionists "allowed" him to escape to Italy into the warm embrace of Padre Pio and the Capuchin monks not out of dedication to him in the spirit of Christian fellowship, but rather out of a desire to be rid of another Jew.
   The emotions that pervade this book are powerful. The characters are real. The dialogue, while made up, displays the pathos of the characters and speaks to the reader's soul.
   This book is about many things: religion, families and their dysfunctions, theodicy, Catholic-Jewish relations, and overding all of those, this book is about the complexity of life. Like all great works, the message of this book will be shaped by the reader and his/her weltanschaung.

5 comments about The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler.

1. This book is very informative. It gives the background of one of the world's most infamous men. It is not biased in any way. Instead, it gives a clear history of Hitler's life. Readers might be surprised to find out about the many accomplishments of this much-hated man. It made me think about how Adolf Hitler could have contributed to society, instead of hurting so many people. Things could have been VERY different...It is so sad to realize he wasted his talents and destroyed many lives because of hate.



2. This book is about Adolf Hitler. Before I hated Hitler blindly only because of the Holocaust. Now I still hate him, but with a bit more understanding. There is no excuse for what he did, but I believe it may not have been entirely his fault. As he had a difficult child, with his father abusing him or his brothers, and later, after his father died, living homeless and poor in Vienna and Munich, I believe he may have been looking for a center to focus anger and to blame for his misfortune, and he found it in the Jewish people. On April 20, 1889, Hitler was born in a small village in Austria named Braunau. His mother pampered him, but his father had a short temper and would yell at and whip his children often. Adolf was not particularly good at school, gaining average grades at best. He was described as thin and pale. Hitler's ambition was to become an artist, but his father refused. Hitler only went to the college his father wished him to go to because that college had drawing classes. Hitler's father died on January 3, 1903, and in 1905, Hitler got a lung infection, and used it as a reason not to go back to school. Therefore, Hitler's education officially ended when he was sixteen. A couple years later, in 1907, Hitler's mother died of breast cancer. Hitler became homeless and had very little money. For years, he survived by painting postcards and then selling them. He barely managed to afford a small one-room apartment. When WWI started forcing Austria to conscript soldiers, Hitler at first avoided being drafted into the army. However, when Germany entered the war, Hitler willingly entered the army. He got many awards, but had to quit when his eyes were damaged. He soon started plotting to become Chancellor of Germany. He didn't want to be President, because the President actually had no power, and the Chancellor was the most powerful. Eventually he got his wish and made the Chancellor and President the same thing and even became the dictator for life of Germany. He wished to expand Germany and moved first into Austria. Austria was given to him to avoid war, and he even got part Czechoslovakia without bloodshed. However, as he moved on Poland, WWII was started. After many defeats and losses, Hitler turned to a goal of his- to destroy the Jewish people. An "option" was suggested and mobilized. Soon hundreds of Jews were being carted to death camps where they were exterminated or sent to factories to make supplies for the war. An attempt to assassinate Hitler failed, but injured him so he diminished. Always a powerful speaker, Hitler remained this, but was so shaky, the effect was diminished somewhat. Eventually, Hitler was pushed into an underground bunker in Berlin. There he shot himself in the head, and his new wife, Eva Hitler, took poison so as not to be captured by Allied troops. They were then cremated and buried. Several of Hitler's followers also killed themselves, preferring not to be killed by Allied persecutors. I would recommend this book to anyone who wished to know a bit more about Hitler or students who want to do a biography on him.
   
   T. Sprock



3. Adolf Hitler was one of the most evil leaders in human history.he dreamed of making Germany the most powerful country in the world.Hitler hated Jews,communis,andgypsies.He led to the organized murder of over 6 million men,women,and childern.



4. I do not pretend to be an expert on European History from the end of WWI until the end of WWII. Additionally I hesitate to judge anyone's book as I realize that a book represents a huge amount of work and an author spends a great deal of time crafting conclusions or even questions that the author says cannnot be answered. However, I have read perhaps a dozen books including Toland, Shirer, Fest and even that recent book by Junge that deal directly in large parts with the life of Hitler. I have also read perhaps four dozen academic books dealing with European history in the first half of the 20th century. I am aware of the of the feuding conclusions regarding Hitler's and the German people's culpability and conduct regarding WWII. I thought this book might give me more insight or least throw some weight to one of the sides of the current historical arguments.
   
   After reading the book, I found myslf severely disappointed. This book is so basic, it reads like a high school textbook. Indeed, it deals with areas of historical dispute by simply ignoring arguments in an almost breathtaking ways. For example, the author, absent one passing comment, simply rejects the argument that the Nazis had been behind the burning of the reichtag in 1933. Likewise, the author left out some of the most basic points found in any serious study. For example, he writes that Germans, dressed as Polish military, seized a German radio station. Although perhaps a bit too much to ask, the author totally leaves out the multiple postponements leading to the jump off. Not surprisingly, the auhor left out the fact of the German units that jumped off early and had to come pack over he border. As to the seizure of the German radio station, the author left out that the Germans left dead concentration camp inmates [called



5. When ever you think of Adolf Hitler, you always think of what he has done wrong. I bet you never knew how he got people to believe him in his speeches. This man was a person like me and you until some dramatic changes in his young life. Did you know he also was very clever and, charming? Also he was very
   intelagent and poor.
   In this book it tells all the things that happened to Adolf Hitler.It tells how people believed. How people thought he was the one to lead Germany, but I guess that they never thought he would do so much evil.
   He also wanted to do things in his life, and make a good difference as he was interested in the arts. This book tells his life from the beginning as a baby to his death. This shows how Adolf got supporters of the Nazi Party and how the Nazi Party got started.
   I would suggest this book for people who want to learn about Adolf.Also I'd recommend this book for people 7th grade and over.

5 comments about At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor on Auschwitz and its Realities.

1. Amery did not only pick up a new French-sounding name, but (although this book was originally written in German) apparently also the circumlocutionary style of the French. If you like a book full of idle verbiage, with arguments beginning nowhere and leading nowhere, and references to passé writers such as Sartre, then this book is for you.
   
   But it's not merely the style that I disliked. All essays (rants, more like) gravitate around Amery's pathological hate for all Germans, past and present. All Germans, except for some four individuals he mentions by name, are inherently bad. Nazis all of them, and torture is the essence of their being. Amery is dissatisfied with the world, because after the war, Germany was not permanently turned into a potato patch as the Morgenthau plan had envisaged it. A typical only child, Amery seems to think that the world should turn around his personal sufferings and frustrations. He hardly ever speaks of his fellow prisoners, and if he does, he belittles them because they are not interested in, let alone able to quote Liliencron or other poets Any Intellectual Should Know. Finally, as could be expected, the post-war generation of Germans is bad, because they do not want to permanently crawl in the dust before Amery.
   
   I regret having spent money on this book.



2. Of all the Holocaust books, this book stands above the rest, with the content focused not on the gory details of Nazi atrocities (which are by themselves worth reading if you want to validate the experiences of those who suffered), but rather on the psychological implications of being a victim. Only books by Primo Levi contain this degree of depth of thought and introspection.



3. Prior to reading Amery's book, I thought of myself as thoroughly read in what one French scholar has called "the writing of the disaster," but Amery's may be among the half dozen essential texts in the now overwhelming body of Holocaust literature. A profound meditation on language, on mind, and on disaster in the 20th century.



4. Ever since writing a term paper on Amery's "At the Mind's Limits", I have continuously come back to this work. There is a lifetime's worth of contemplation to survey here, not that this is an autobiography or even a complete memoir, but the years of his life on which he writes and the experiences dissected provoke a lifetime's worth of questions, mostly unanswered.
   
   I think of this work as a distinct and great existential accomplishment. It provokes the reader to empathize while simultaneously making him question or even feel guilty for such empathy. How can an intellect, in the modern west at least, empathize with one who has experienced dehumanization to such an unimaginable degree? The short answer is that to try to do so is impossible and even probably detestable, morally speaking.
   
   But isn't the motivation of Amery's expression the prevention of such dehumanization in future? And isn't such prevention dependent on empathetic attempts at least (among other things)?
   
   These are unanswerable contradictions for the reader. But the introspective applications make this a necessary book to read over and over again.



5. This man, who lived caught between paralyzing fear and paralyzing anger, refuses to countenance the immoral world he found so horribly crude, ignorant and inadequate. I know of no more unrelenting self-criticism or self-asceticism than portrayed here in this work.

   Every "outsider" will recognize immediately that the author talks to him/her. No matter by what standard one is taken as an outsider, here is a priceless analysis of your experience, writ humbly, clearly and painfully.

   Every "moralist" will recognize immediately the accusations the authors aims in your direction with too-precise accuracy that will not allow you to wriggle free of the dread implications.

   Every "religionist" will recognize the futility of responding in comforting platitude to the undeniable evidence of evil writ hugely in this thin volume.

   I know of few intellectuals who will receive the meaning of this work with welcome. To almost all others, it will be set aside with well-explained rationalizations...

   But for the reader who knows what "outside" means, what "cataclysm" means, and what "torment" of any stripe whatsoever means, then here you will find a comrade. Here you will find words of encouragement to struggle on...your lot is not as bad as it could be, after all...for here we find our comrade who has endured to the very limits of the mind. And survives, with bright intellect intact and sharp. Uncomfortably so.

   A note on the "Auswitz" in the title--Don't allow this word to dissuade you from the universal human experience that is the focus of this work. Any and every human being can take an enhanced image of life and world from this resource.

5 comments about The Periodic Table.

1. Like other reviewers, I sometimes found the science in this book a bit hard to follow. But that was made up for by the general loveliness of Levi's dry wit. My favorite examples-
   
   - "a livered [solidified] paint is much more rebellious, more refractory to your will than a lion in its mad pounce; but, let's admit it, it's also less dangerous."
   
   - "Gina then made a cruel decision: if she couldn't bind herself to the man she cared for, the only one, there would not be any other . . . she forbade herself marriage forever in a refined and merciless manner, that is, by getting married."
   
   -"It was clear that Bonino's story would be far from brief; but I remembered how many long stories I myself had inflicted on people, on those who wanted to listen and those who didn't. I remembered that it is written [Deuteronomy 10:19] 'Love ye therefore the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.' and I settled back comfortably in my chair."
   
   - [before the start of the book] "Troubles overcome are good to tell."
   
   This is not a Holocaust memoir like some of Levi's other works; it is a group of [mostly autobiographical] little essays, almost all about Levi's pre- and post-Holocaust life, by a great writer who just happened to have been in Auschwitz.



2. Entertaining, sad, and insightful. What a loss to the world. "Carbon" chapter is fascinating. Began second reading immediately following the first.



3. It's an emblematic title for a book designed whit tales that confection a whole history. The book is a metaphor of the periodic table: elements conform substance so words conform ideas.
   
   Primo Levi is a mentor; he begins a melancholic tale, connecting us with characters and at less expected time we receive a little lesson about chemistry, -it's a good way to spread science, didn't it?- but that's not enough for him so we also get his testimony about how he suffered WWII.
   
   Primo's statement is hard: "... I felt guilty at being man, because man had built Auschwitz..." at last it's not clear if he got peace at his mind; but, I must recognize he is honest, because somewhere in the book he says that Primo Levi writes for Primo Levi.
   
   In conclusion, it's a gentle book wrote to present a testimony of a man who was born Jewish in Italy, studied chemistry and suffered the war.



4. I didn't know what to expect when picking up this book. I'd recently finished the not unrelated Garden of the Finzi-Continis and thought I might find some variant on this. Yes, both books consider Jewish-Italian culture in the years surrounding WWII, with the specter of the holocaust in the background (mainly). But they are quite different. F.C. has at its roots the humanities, and P.T., the sciences. And what I most enjoyed about P.T. was the chemistry. It's a rarity in literature to find a subtle appreciation for the career of the scientist, and Levi succeeds admirably. This book would be an outstanding choice for any science and engineering student to read just to see how one can ply a trade, be it in the laboratory, the mine, or the consulting business. Bravo, Dr. Levi.



5. In this collection of stories, Primo Levi lets go of the Holocaust theme, and tells the story of his life through the prism of his profession as a chemist. As others have said, each chapter is headed up by a different element, and through the properties of that element he explores a theme. There are two chapters--"Lead" and "Mercury"--which are completely fanciful. "Lead" is about a mythical tribe that makes its living mining lead. Not knowing that the metal is deadly, they all ultimately die of a mysterious disease, but they accept it as their fate, the price they pay for fulfilling a special role among men. "Mercury" is about a couple living on a desert island, which holds inexhaustible reserves of mercury, and what happens when two newcomers, one an alchemist, joins them. Both stories are riveting.
   
   I have to admit that I, as well as my very literate book group, lost a lot by having forgotten most if not all of our knowledge of chemistry--not that we had much to begin with. Some familiarity with the science I'm sure reveals a whole new level to the writing.
   
   Some reviewers criticized the lack of insight about the author's time in Auschwitz, but I see that as one of the amazing aspects of this book. For good reason, so many Holocaust survivors are irreversibly marked and changed forever by their experiences. That Levi can write a rich and compelling book that gives weight and significance to the other parts of his life is evidence of an amazingly strong and resilient spirit.

5 comments about For Those I Loved.

1. I just had the "pleasure" of having to remove all my books from my office so the room could be painted. I came across a favorite I had forgotten I owned and must tell you, THIS BOOK will make you realize how much you MUST stop this petty "he said-she said" with those you love.
   FOR THOSE I LOVED by Martin Gray with Max Gallo is one of the most gut wrenching, soul searching books I have ever read.
   It is a Biography of Martin Gray who, in his own words, was living a pleasant life in Warsaw September 1939 when "he and everyone else was plunged into an endless hell of butchers and bombs, corps and concentration camps, a nightmare from which it was impossible to awake. At that period our lives had the resistance of stone, and our stones had the eternity of life."
   Martin Gray did survive that nightmare, but lost his entire family. How he did it builds the exciting first half of the novel. Settling in Southern France after the War he builds a successful life, has a new family and what happens next................. Well, I read this book ten years ago and I'll stop by telling you I have never been able to put it out of my mind. It's a WONDERFUL READ. I just purchased it here again for a friend overseas.



2. This review assumes the veracity of at least most of the book's contents, and is based on the 1972 English-language version.
   
   While in the Warsaw Ghetto, the Germans attempted to make Gray a Jewish informer (p. 96). He played along.
   
   Then the "resettlement" of Warsaw's Jews to Treblinka began: "Jewish policemen with raised clubs yelling orders: they needed six thousand heads that evening." (p. 101). Those Jews who attempted to hide in their homes were often betrayed by their neighbors or relatives in the Ghetto (p. 103). Gray reports what happened after the Jews in an area had been cleared out: "Afterwards, Ukrainian, Latvian, and Lithuanian SS men and the Jewish police searched the buildings, looting, killing anyone they caught there. They smashed the furniture, wrecked the beds and broke through the walls: they looked for hideouts where families had taken refuge, for gold and jewels." (p. 109).
   
   Gray also describes scenes around the death trains being loaded with human cargo: "I followed them to the hospital to find out. The cattle cars were there, lined up at the platforms, policemen yelling. I recognized the mighty Szmerling, whip held high dashing from the herd to report to the SS. Yet he was a Jew. Like them. Like me. They were shoved into the cars, separated, and if anyone shouted, protested or struggled, they got a blow from an iron bar, or a bullet." (p. 102)
   
   In time, it became Gray's turn. But after escaping from Treblinka by stowing away on a departing supply train, he experienced the incredulity of both Poles and Jews. For instance, near Zambrow, Gray encountered a Jewish work gang with no German guards anywhere near, because "the Germans trust us." (p. 162). They scoffed at the notion of Treblinka.
   
   Polish peasants sometimes denounced or killed Jews known or suspected of thievery. Gray sometimes sought Polish help, while at other times he simply stole from Poles during his treks in the countryside (e. g., p. 158, 183, 184).
   
   There is an account of an alcoholic Polish man who betrayed several Jews (pp. 233-234). The reader may not realize that the Germans encouraged alcoholism among Poles, both to degrade them and also to exploit this dependency as leverage for such collaborative acts as betraying Jews.
   
   Gray's experiences shed light on Jewish-Communist collaboration, a major factor antagonizing Poles against Jews during and after the war. He at first has positive remarks about the AK (p. 187) before lapsing into standard, mostly unsubstantiated, accusations of the AK and NSZ denouncing and killing fugitive Jews. He joins the AL, and includes a photo of himself and Mieczyslaw Moczar in the book. Moczar sends him on a mission to spy on the NSZ, from which he narrowly escapes with his life (pp. 224-226). Later, after the arrival of the Soviet occupants, the NKVD also uses him for espionage: "Do your best, find us the NSZ, the informers, the denouncers, the collaborators, the people who don't like us." (p. 233)



3. I could not put down this beautifully written book. It is an extraordinary story of an extraordinary man. After completing this book, my thought was - here is a 20th century Book of Job. The story is of survival beyond all odds, of suffering beyond one's endurance, and of an improbable faith, yes, the faith in G-d despite the tragedies that would overwhelm and destroy any ordinary human being. A MUST read for all who attempt to comprehend man's ability to endure in the face of horrific evil inflicted by other men, and, tragically, by fate itself.



4. I first heard of this book when I was in college during a course on the autobiography. We didn't read it, and it was only mentioned in passing. The theme of the course was autobiography & truth and we spent a great deal of time discussing what our expectations of authors were in terms of telling the truth.
   
   Martin Gray's book is particularly problematic because it is extremely inspiring. It tells the story of survival and heroism in the face of the Holocaust and sends a strong affirmative message about the ability of victims to take their destiny into their own hands. Very strong, and very moving.
   
   Unfortunately, it appears that there are troubling doubts about the accuracy of Gray's book. We know that he lived in the Warsaw Ghetto. We know that he lost his parents. That something terrible happened to him, nobody questions. However, some of his accounts of Treblinka appear to be impossible. He supposedly saw things at times that they did not yet exist. His role in N.K.V.D. is not mentioned. He also (more understandably) elides the fact that he took some serious "short cuts" (wording from the introduction) in setting up his antique business.
   
   The thing is that as you read the book, there is something very implausible about the feel of the text. He does so much, accomplishes so much, and without the ordinary pacing of ordinary life that seems normal even in the most heroic of men. It is clearly so important to Gray to show that there were Jewish heroes during the Holocaust that it seems possible that he would be willing to stretch the truth in order to make his point.
   
   We will never know how much of For Those I Loved is truth. And that, it seems to me, is too bad. The crazy folks over at the revisionist extreme right have seized on the inaccuracies in Gray's book, and use them to attack other unimpeachable memoirs and accounts of the Holocaust. No matter how noble his mission was in the beginning, it is time for somebody to set the record straight. I personally suspect that the truth would be found to outweigh the lies, but then I generally have high hopes for people. Gray's passion and the strength of his life speaks to his essential sincerity.
   
   For Those I Loved was ghost written by Max Gallo.



5. If it's all a true account of Martin Gray's life experiences, then it's remarkable. If not, as the previous reviewer contends, then it's a shame. I found it an interesting read, giving it the benefit of any doubts. However, the writing is often redundant in it's expressions of despair. Without doubt, such experiences would be despairing, however the frequency of mentioning it is distracting. A long read but not too difficult to get through. A story of many, deep losses.

3 comments about Hidden Letters.

1. Hidden Letters is a treasure trove of letters and postcards written in 1942 by an 18 year old Dutch Jew named Philip "Flip" Slier, sent almost daily from Flip to his parents from within the forced labor camp that held Flip. Flip was eventually executed in the Nazi death camp Sobibor. Now translated and reprinted, completely unedited and enhanced with annotation from Deborah Slier and her husband Ian Shine, Hidden Letters is a first-person account of life in Nazi-occupied Holland. Black-and-white photographs and interviews with those who knew Flip, as well as with Selma Wijnberg-Engel (the sole Dutch survivor of the October, 1943 uprising in Sobibor) round out this firsthand testimony. A welcome addition to academic and community library Judaic Studies in general, and Holocaust Studies collections in particular.



2. When you read HIDDEN LETTERS, the book is going to leave a mark. It's going to hurt down deep and leave you thinking about things long after you've finished the book. After receiving the book, I admit to approaching the book warily. The subject matter is brutal, and it's devastating to anyone who's a parent.
   
   First, a little history on the book. The letters that comprise the human narrative within the pages were discovered in Amsterdam in 1997. They were written by an eighteen year old Dutch Jew named Philip "Flip" Slier. He was sent to a Dutch labor camp in 1942. When first sent there, Slier believed he was going to be treated humanely, though restricted. He didn't know the horror that awaited him, or that he would soon be dead.
   
   At the time Slier first went to the work camps, letters shipped regularly between the families and the restricted men. As I read the letters, I was stunned by the naïve manner that Slier exhibited. He honestly thought he was only going to be there for a short time, and that his experiences there would be nothing more than what he would endure during some summer camp.
   
   As a father of five, I know how innocent kids can be. They think they know so much, but they're blind to so many things. They often don't know they're in over their heads until it's much too late.
   
   And that's what happened with Slier.
   
   I felt somewhat guilty while reading his letters, almost voyeuristic into a world of pain and innocence. The letters are inane and even cheerful. At times Slier obviously felt he was on some grand adventure. At other times I could see that he was putting on a front for his parents, acting brave while he was scared to death, or at least mightily confused by what was going on around him.
   
   That human element, and that innocence, is what is going to haunt me about the book. Slier also took a camera with him. He took several pictures and sent them back home to his parents and friends, and those people managed to hang onto them throughout the blackest days of World War II. I saw his face, and I saw how much of a kid he still was. He aged decades in months, and he finally got killed.
   
   That's one side of the story, but the authors added a tremendous amount of history materials to further the reader's understanding of what was going on in this area at this time. More pictures and maps fill the book. On one hand, HIDDEN LETTERS is a short journal of tumultuous times in a young man's life, but on the other hand the book is a great historical record. I love history, and I equate it with the story of people rather than names and dates. But Philip Slier's story truly brings home the fact that history is made up of people more than dates or events.
   
   HIDDEN LETTERS is going to satisfy the armchair historian's perusal of the time period, and will give some sense of people and what was going on to genealogists that have discovered they've got family members that were in this camps at the same time. For either of those groups, I'm sure the book would be a beneficial addition.
   
   The parents saved those letters all those years. I can't imagine what it must have been like to pull them out every so often and read the last words of their lost son.



3. Hidden Letters is impossible to put down. Philip "Flip" Slier was interned in a Nazi labor camp in the Netherlands, but wrote loving, optimistic letters home--and took many photographs. Then he, and virtually all of his extended family, disappeared into the Holocaust.
   When the letters were discovered in Amsterdam in 1997, a search was made for Flip's closest relative, who turned out to be his first cousin Deborah, whose father had moved his family to South Africa and thus enabled them all to live through the war.
   Deborah and her husband, Ian Shine, spent ten years having the letters translated and researching the places and the people they described. They interviewed many survivors of the Holocaust and the war, and include information about almost all--including their photographs and ultimate fates. Over 300 photographs are included.
   Flip could write and you fall in love with him as you read. When the letters stop, it is devastating.
   This is a compelling, disturbing, and heartbreaking great read.
   Kathleen Baxter, columnist, School Library Journal

5 comments about The Sergeant in the Snow.

1. A slightly different perspective makes this novella unique. The thread of a soldier on the eastern front in the cold Russian winter is a common one but this time it is based on the memoirs of an Italian. A good and quick read.



2. Mario Rigoni Stern's slim memoir of his World War Two experiences sheds light on the effective destruction of the Corpo di Spedizione Italiano (CSIR) in Russia, which is perhaps one of the lesser-known events of the Eastern Front and of the entire war itself. As a personal narrative, Stern's view is from the ground and he offers little or no strategic view of how these events came to pass. This however, adds to the book because as a grunt--even in a position roughly equivalent to an American platoon sergeant of today--he wouldn't have had much access to or inclination to see the war in such a manner.
   
   Plenty of combat abounds through the short tale. Particularly once Stern and his fellows realize the entire front is collapsing and that they're caught in a "bag," slang for encirclement by the Soviets, the fighting becomes fierce. It is interesting to read the accounts of Italians, Germans, Hungarians and other taking part together in desperate attacks to break out of the Axis Powers' first epic disaster on the Eastern Front.
   
   Throughout the book courses one vein of thought that is ever-present in Stern and his soldiers: survival. "Shall we ever get home?" one soldier asks of Stern every time he sees him. "Which direction is Italy in?" others asks from the middle of the frozen steppes. And as the situation deteriorates during the long retreat westwards, Stern constantly commands and reminds the men to "always stick together." Alas, as these memoirs always illustrate, many do not make it home.
   
   A short but good work covering the Italian experience in World War Two, Stern tells his tale of the Italian Army's fortunes as seen and lived through by one of its peasant and elite Alpini soldiers.



3. very spontaneous and genuine story, of young people catapulted across Europe for no reason, and still performing their duties and trying to be human. you can rely feel the soldiers pain and the bitter russian winter with the words used by the author.



4. The words in the title are those of one of the author's close comrades-in-arms in the Tridentina Division, which had been attached to the Italian 8th Army on the western bank of the Don in 1942. In December of that year, the Romanians on the left flank of the Tridentines buckled under a strong Soviet offensive, and the Italians found themselves suddenly enveloped. Ordered to withdraw on 19 December, the Italians, along with Romanian and Hungarian remnants and remnants of the German 298th Infantry Division, marched west through icy wind, snowstorms and heavy drifts in an attempt to break out of the pocket. Sergeant in the Snow is a vivid first-person account of the story of this macabre odyssey up to the climactic Battle of Nikolajewka on 26 January 1943 and its aftermath.
   
   Rigoni's memoir is at once urgent, tragic, heroic and poetic. He relays the essence of the Italian spirit, so different from that of the stern and disciplined Germans, and recounts in flowing narrative and earthy dialogue exactly what it was like to march, hungry and exhausted, over 300 miles in the Russian winter. Rigoni divides his memoir into two parts: (1) the Strongpoint, wherein he tells the story of his division's struggle to repulse Soviet thrusts on the Don, and (2) the Bag, wherein he tells the story of the breakout from the pocket (the bag). As mentioned above, the climax of the action, and there is plenty of that here, takes place on the memorable 26th of January when the Italians and Germans defeat, at terrible cost, three Soviet divisions at Nikolajewka and finally break out of the encirclement: "My men hesitate, hold back, one or two of them are already wounded, and I shout: 'Come on.' I too hesitate a bit, but we're in it now, whatever happens."
   
   In the midst of battle chaos and the fog of war at Nikolajewka, one of those inexplicable and mysterious episodes occurs when the famished Rigoni enters an isba only to find a group of Russian soldiers there: "They're armed. With the red stars on their caps. My rifle's in my hand. I look at them, turned to stone. They're eating round a table, taking the food with a wooden spoon from a common bowl. And they look at me with their spoons held in mid-air....There are also some women. One takes a plate, fills it with milk and meal and offers it to me with a spoon from the common bowl....No one breathes a word. The only sound is of the spoon in my plate; and of each of my mouthfuls....The Russian soldiers watch me go out, without moving."
   
   Kudos to Northwestern University Press for bringing this remarkable book to light again. Unfortunately, the book is small and the print small, too. The translator's grammar and mechanics are somewhat archaic, and there is the glaring, almost unforgivable, absence of any maps. Dialogue should be rendered in alternating paragraphs as each character speaks, thus reducing the possibility of the reader's being confused. Although there are some footnotes along the way, this excellent memoir would certainly benefit from a thorough re-edit to include many more. In spite of these publishing flaws, The Sergeant in the Snow is a far better memoir than Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier and as good as Bidermann's In Deadly Combat. Highly recommended.



5. I am shocked to find the great many people who are unaware of Mussollinni's ill-fated pursuit of glory in the east. His broken dreams left many Italian families orphaned and widowed. This well written account of the brutality of combat on the Eastern front is a fine addition to any WW2 eastern front library. It is well written and fascinating.

5 comments about After Long Silence.

1. Imagine as a young adult, passionately involved in your career, you start pulling away the pieces of the facade your parents had created to protect you and your sister fom the truth about your own family. Like pulling a thread and unravelling your entire wardrobe to show your nakedness, Helen Fremont knew whe was dealing with sensitive, even explosive issues, but he could not stop pulling that thread.
   What she has done with this remarkable memoir is show her family's roots and branches in ways she never knew existed before she and her sister began discussing the "What if's?" It is a moving story packed with complicated relationships and the true history of her parents' lives and the terrors they went through during the Holocaust era in Europe. You finish the book wondering how such a powerful story could be supressed, and cheering for Helen Fremont for unearthing it. As with so many memoirs, you are also left wondering, "where are they now?" and hoping for a sequel.



2. I have given this book as a gift to at least five friends. I couldn't put it down!



3. From today's perspective, it is difficult to comprehend just why a couple who survived the Holocaust would hide their Jewish identify from their daughters for years, insisting that they are Polish Catholic refugees in the USA. This memoir, however, explains how their fear of a repeat pogrom drives them to deny their heritage, keep secret their loss of religious identify, and assuage their horrific memories and guilt at surviving.Fremont and her sister's quest to discover the truth causes their parents much pain, but the author is clear that the family's pain had dominated their lives since birth.



4. I was very surprised to learn that Helen Fremont was able to become a lawyer and knew nothing about the Holocaust. What kind of education did she obtain? How was it possible that she wasn't interested in her parent's history? Even if they were Roman Catholics.
   Book is full of historical errors (Warsaw was captured within hours, it was safer to be a Pole in the streets a Lvov during the German invasion)
   It bothered me that the street names were Misspelled (Owacowa instead of Owocowa, Mariacki Platz insead of Plac Mariacki)
   The story itself was very interesting. I wish however it was written by her parents.



5. This is one of my favorite books of all time. It is a real eye opener even after years of hearing, learning, and reading about the Holocaust. I plan to read it again.

3 comments about The Diary of Petr Ginz.

1. A very thought provoking account of the holocaust. At such a young age Petr inspires through his art, poetry, boyish nature and keenness to learn. Such a clever boy could have grown to be an amazing man and no doubt, if given the opportunity, would have contributed a lot to the world. Unfortunately he was murdered at Auschwitz at age 16 so we are left to a two year snippet of life as he saw it.
   
   His account of Prague during the occupation is very matter of fact, which is very poignant in itself, as it seems almost a natural state of being to Petr. His diary provides a unique insight into the systematic erosion of his rights and the rights of the Jewish community, and the seemingly endless transportation of his friends and family.
   
   Sad and cruel. But I'm glad the diary was uncovered and I was able to experience it is such a small way.



2. This book must be read by both young and old. It will touch your heart and soul. I was moved to tears many times while reading.



3. In reading numerous Holocaust accounts, one is struck especially by the tragic loss of young lives, who had yet to experience the richness of life...Petr Ginz is one such soul. The Diary of Petr Ginz is a chronicle of a 14 year-old boy's day-to-day life under Nazi occupation in Prague. The entries themselves are brief, but are accompanied by Petr's poetry and illustrations, a testament to this young boy's talent, and resilient spirit. His diary chronicles his life between 1941-1942, and ends in Aug 1942, prior to his being deported to Thereisienstadt where he was incarcerated for two years before being sent to a tragic end at the Auschwitz death camp. One can't help but feel a sense of impotent rage at the Nazi monsters that robbed so many innocent souls of a life meant to be lived, especially at the senseless killing of ones so young, and in Petr's case, and many others, possessing such talent that would have enriched the world. This is a remarkable diary, in the vein of the diary of Anne Frank, and other Holocaust diaries that prove the resilience of the human spirit during a dark period in history.