No comments about The Healing Presence.

5 comments about Beating the Odds: A Boyhood Under Nazi-Occupied France.

1. A young boy wanders from one vivid experience to another to another, just like kids do. His childhood had unique exposures to Nazi terror and horror, to be sure. But throughout those grim days, there remained that irrepressible insouciance of youth. There was even hero worship when he became involved with the French underground. He brings us right along with him as he becomes a man.

   This author described what was, more than anything else, a normal, adventuresome boyhood. Although I was expecting something more like "The Diary of Anne Frank", this book was more reminiscent of "Huckleberry Finn".




2. Seeped into the depths of war and dispair of mankind, Dr. Burnell takes us on a journey through Nazi-occupied France during WWII. As opposed to the atrocities of holocaust victims in that same era, we are instead introduced into the lives of the common citizenry as they struggle through each day not knowing who is friend or foe. Dr. Burnell's family must decide when to run and when to stay; while knowing their decisions set them at risk to lose everything, including their lives. Balanced with historical facts, Dr. Burnell tells a tale that has us turning the pages, immersing us into the joys and sorrows of a family that in the end prevails despite their losses and succeeds in spite of the tragedy brought by war.



3. Dr. Burnell tells a story of fear, brutality, resourcefulness, courage, and sensitivity. These emotions are the backdrop to his autobiographical tale of growing from just-past-childhood to near-adulthood in Nazi-occupied France during WW 2. Burnell describes how he and his mother survived the relentless threat of the Nazis as they fled from city to city in France just barely ahead of the Nazi persecution. From Strasbourg in the eastern part of the country to Paris to Bordeaux and finally to Lyon in the south. Along the way his stepfather was consumed by the Holocaust and by the end Burnell was fighting back by working for the French Resistance. The writing is clear, personal, and carries the read along swiftly. I could barely put it down- thus I read it in just a few nights.



4. This is a well written, interesting memoir of a Holocaust survivor in France. The sections on political events are well placed and provide appropriate historic background to contents of the book.
   Myself a Holocaust survivor, I learned from it a lot about life in France during those years and enjoyed reading it.



5. "Beating the Odds" by George Burnell is the exciting autobiography of a youngster growing up in Nazi-occupied France during WWII. In 369 action packed pages, the author traces his journey from Strasbourg, France in 1939 until the end of WWII in May, 1945. "Beating the Odds" is a real page turner that reads like a novel full of twists and turns. As an adolescent French Jew, George with his family lived in constant fear of discovery by the Nazis and moved frequently to ellude them. Despite these risks, he manages to join his Uncle David, a Dentist, and others in the French Resistance and narrowly escapes with his life. This fascinating memoir gives the reader an interesting and unique perspective on WWII in France and I highly recommend it to you.

No comments about Memories, Dreams, Nightmares: Memoirs of a Holocaust Survivor (Legacies Shared).

No comments about Fragments Reading Group Guide: Memories of a Wartime Childhood.

1 comments about Bad Times, Good Friends: A Memoir--Berlin 1945.

1. Ilse Margaret Vogel's book about her tense final months in bombed out Berlin near the end of World War II is well worth reading. Unlike most WW II books detailing life experiences, Vogel captures the youth and excitement of she and her friends that even war could not diminish.

   Vogel's skill as a storyteller is evident as she recalls how she and her friends worked in small ways to protect or shelter those pursued by the Nazi SS. Their efforts, seemingly small, saved lives. The personalities come to life in glimpses of the risks they take and the small victories they share. Some survived, some did not. But the difference they made is significant.

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

1. 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.



2. 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.



3. 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.




4. 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.



5. What can I add to the above? Not much. I rarely read Holocaust memoirs, but this one was amazing. Michael's father, Joseph, a Talmudic scholar with blue eyes and blond hair, who tried to save his mother in Navaredok/Novogrudek Poland, failed, and fled to the forests and to Vilna. As a circumcised male in Vilna, Joseph took on the identity of a Muslim Tatar, studied Islam, and became a foreign laborer in Berlin. A hidden Jew pretending to be a Muslim living in the Nazi capital during the War. And then he enlisted in the SS!

No comments about The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, Day.

4 comments about World War II through Polish Eyes.

1. This book tells the incredibly true story of a Polish-American woman whose life encompassed most of the major events of Poland in World War II: the Katyn Massacre of Polish leaders by the Soviets; the random abduction of Poles on the streets of Warsaw for deportation to the Nazi concentration camp at Oswiecim (Auschwitz); the Polish underground; the Warasw Uprising (the larger, longer, and lesser known uprising--not to be confused with the earlier Warsaw Ghetto Uprising) and the resultant systematic destruction of the city; and the atrocities of the Soviet "liberation."
   Based on the accounts of the protgaonist, the story is compellingly told, with only a few awkwardly written coversations between her and her grandson (which sound more like history lectures than believable dialog), and an occasional mistake with the author's English (my belief is that the author has learned English as a second language). These are minor, technical problems, though, and should not keep anyone from reading this important saga of one family's struggles for survival during those horrific times. The story of Poland's occupation, and its heroic struggle against annihilatio from both their Nazi enemies and their so-called Soviet allies is little known in the West. This book helps to give the reader a true feeling (with a human face)for what went on during one of the worst times in human history.



2. When Hitler swallowed Austria and Czechoslovakia, he got APPROVALS from Britain and France. Poland was the first to resist him - and that is how World War II has started. This is known. The tragic fate of some 6 millions of Polish citizens during WWII is known too. Some 800 years earlier the Kings of Poland granted special priviledges to Jews so as to attract them to Poland and also save them from persecutions elsewhere. Hitler ended 800 years of coexistence of Christian Poles with Poles of Mosesian religous denomination (this is how Polish Jews were known inside Poland) by killing nearly all members of the latter group.

   Less is known here in the United States about the sufferings of
   non-Jewish citizens of Poland. VERY LITTLE is known about the diabolic JOINT plot of Hitler and Stalin to erase Poland and all its citizens from the surface of the earth. From a historical perspective, this book about Danuta and her life journey provides a wealth of important facts from first hand experience. Stories told me by my father Ludomir Boncza-Brzostowski confirm elements of the story of Danuta, also from first hand experience. He was among those who at the end of Warsaw 1944 Uprising got to the east side of Vistula so as not to surrender to the Nazis; as described in the book, most of those trying to do so were killed by the Nazi artillery. The command of the Polish Army on the Soviet side was taken away from Gen. Zygmunt Berling by Stalin - precisely because Berling tried to help the Uprising. As vividly desribed in the book, Stalin wanted Warsaw destroyed by Nazi hands.

   However, the above description of the book might give a totally false impression ! This is also a FASCINATING book about love and atrocity, friendship and war, adversity and solidarity. Do not be fooled by the awkward book title.




3. World War II Through Polish Eyes
   By
   M.B. Szonert

   This powerful story depicts the gehenna of one Polish family during the greatest human catastrophe in Poland's history. Young Danuta and her family struggles through the invasion of Poland, the defense of Warsaw, and the German occupation. They suffer tragic losses in Katyñ, Siberia, Auschwitz and dozens of other concentration camps, in Gestapo and NKVD prisons, on Monte Cassino, in the Warsaw Uprising, and on the Western front. Danuta loses her husband and her father but thanks to the tenacious solidarity of the Polish people she survives the war with two small children. She later tries to begin a new life, remarries in the 50ties, and immigrates to the United States.

   The book is easy to read thanks to many dialogs and vivid images. What is striking in this story is the attitude of the Polish women - mothers, daughters, and wives. For example, 19-year old Danuta writes to the Auschwitz commander asking him to show a photograph of her newly born son "Jêdruœ" to her husband - an Auschwitz prisoner. In a humanitarian flash, the commander actually releases Danuta's husband from the death camp. It reminds me of my own story when my own photograph (my nickname is also "Jêdruœ") saved the life of my father when he was called to the infamous Pavilion Number 11 in the same concentration camp. Danuta continues her crusade and later fights with the Gestapo to recover the body of her husband, and with NKVD to save her father and brother. Although the women were wise and prudent in those difficult times, the men were often too reckless and were dying unnecessarily.

   This work is not only a fascinating story but also a history book. Each episode from Danuta's dramatic life is told in the larger, historical context. Presented with great diligence to assure a balanced approach to difficult issues, the historical context is well annotated and illustrated with documents and photographs. Written with a keen eye and thoroughness, this valuable work brings to light the enormity of the genocide committed on the Polish nation during WWII.
   Prof. Andrew Targowski
   WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY




4. The novel is a spellbinding portrait of a young girl, Danuta, and her family's journey from peacetime Poland to the German and subsequent Soviet occupation. The author provides a balanced blend of historical background along with intense emotional drama. One can sense the intensity of the hardships, suffering and periods of joy and triumphant over ultimate terror, dishevel and human tragedy. Danuta's extreme resourcefulness, perseverance and wit against the German and Soviet occupants allow her and her family to survive eventhough impending danger is always omnipresent. This true account of Danuta's life expounds on actual events such as random transports to concentration camps, Katyn massacre, indiscriminate shootings and beatings, starvation, ect.. The story line includes a microcosm of the brutalities and cruelties exacted upon the Polish population during World War II. This true story is supported with annotations with a bibliography of historical references. The reality of Danuta's life is also supported with copies of letters written by her husband from Auschwitz prison and other documents to further exemplify the harsh and abominable conditions of life in wartime Poland. The story continually returns to an elderly Danuta who is instructing her young grandson on the historical background of Poland's barbaric occupation centered on the conspiracy of the German-Soviet agreements and subsequent betrayal between the two dictators. Poland becomes a battle ground in the quest for power while Polish resistance, including members of Danuta's family, struggles to resist German and Soviet oppression. The apprehension and tension and hope for the end of the German occupation results in the subjugation of Poland by the Soviet apparatus. Danuta's family must adjust to the Soviet regime change which proves to be a desperate struggle to resist total subjugation of Poland. This novel is a recommended reading to better comprehend the human tragedy of Poles during World War II as seen through the eyes of young Danuta.

No comments about Nacht Und Nebel.

No comments about The Little Yellow Train: Survival and Escape from Nazi France (June 1940-March 1944).