5 comments about The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank.

1. "How can I find tranquility?
   Years later, the tumult of the men resounds,
   The swishing of their whips,
   Above the people being pushed along,
   And stamping of boots,
   Cries of anguish.
   I have seen so many go to a desperate death,
   Across a dirt path, on which their weakened feet
   Dragged them to the gate
   Smoke cannot speak,
   From the chimneys they slip out, formless above my head,
   And are taken by the wind,
   Robbed of their bones.
   Since then, despite my clothes, I am naked.
   And remain exposed to synonyms.
   Therefore it is not tranquil within,
   The whips are still lashing,
   And at the most unexpected times,
   The packing paper pictures come forth,
   Chilly, yellowed, gray from smoke,
   And stiff with death at night when I want to sleep."
   Ronnie Goldstein- van Cleef,
   
   This novel was an eye opener for me of the Holocaust and all that the Jewish people were made to bear. Death looked them all in the eye, and from day to day, no one knew if they would see another day. They were humiliated and dragged down, stripped of their self-esteem and their strength as never before in their lives. Husbands were separated from wives, and some children from their parents. Many got sick and died before reaching the gas chambers. Many looked already dead in skeletal form breathing their last breaths.
   I applaud the six women who gave interviews from this book. These women saw Anne Frank and her family and sought to help them any way they could. These were brave women, who endured the suffering of the death camps and came out alive. Hannah Elisabeth Pick-Gosslar, Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper, Rachel van Amerongen-Frankfoorder, Bloeme Evers-Emden, Lenie de Jong-van-Naarden, Ronnie Goldstein-van Cleef, we thank you for sharing this horrible time of your life. It must have been very hard to relive, so thank you. Thank you so much for your courageousness.
   Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 07/03/07)



2. "The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank" is only periphally a book about Anne - but it is pointedly a book about Anne's experience in those last months of her life. With the exception of her close friend Hannah Goslar, who talks about her at length, Anne is mentioned only in passing by the other interviewees, all of whom were acquainted with her. But their individual stories of what they endured in Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen is also her story, and illuminates her time in the camps as she herself would have - but never got the chance to. A good addition to a library of Anne Frank material, or an excellent compendium of personal experiences during the Holocaust, whichever way is more valuable to the reader.



3. Anne Frank's name is one of the most known names in the world. She stuned the world with her diary. But there were still so many unanswered questions about what happend after they were betrayed? Everyone knew that she died at a consintration camp, but what did she die of and so many other questions ligered in the minds of the millions of people who have read her diary. Finally Willy Lindwer took up the challenge of finding out what happend in the last 7 monthes of her life. I recomend this book to anyone and everyone, but I recomend reading her diary first. This book picks up where her diary left off and continues to the day that she died.This book is told by the women who knew Anne Frank and her family at the concentration camp and not only tell what they know happend to her, but their story as well. It is truly and amazing book and a must read!



4. "The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank" by Willy Lindwer was originally a documentary. The author and filmmaker's encounter with the women who knew Anne Frank, after her family was captured, left him with more material than could ever be told in a documentary. It is collected here in this powerful and necessary testament to the legacy of Anne Frank.
   
   The book begins with a slight overview of Anne Frank's life. It then gives way to the stories of six women who knew her - some before her deportation to the camps, and all of them during her final days at Bergen-Belsen. The collection begins with the reminiscences of Hannah Elisabeth Pick-Goslar, Anne's childhood friend (who she wrote about in her diary), who later threw her Red Cross packages across the barbed-wire fence of the camp when they miraculously encountered one another again. The stories the women have to tell are similar - their treatment in the camp, the way they met Anne and Margot - and all of them were inexplicably touched by her life. Some felt an overwhelming sense of failure at not being able to do more to help these poor sisters, but there was little they could do, especially when both were fighting typhus and had little will, or strength, to survive. At least one even made comment that had Anne known her father was still alive, she might have fought a little harder to see her beloved Pip once more. Anne was the 'apple of her father's eye' and his life after the liberation of Auschwitz was to let her words bear testimony for her.
   
   These women all have powerful and miraculous stories to tell. The fact that they survived the death camp is a miracle in itself. One of the women's husband survived Auschwitz with Otto Frank and many of them had the privilege of meeting him after the war; and one had the sad 'honor' of confirming Anne and Margot's deaths. Perhaps the story of Rachel van Amerongen-Frankfoorder is the most compelling for her witness to not only the girls' final days, but to their deaths as well. Both the Frank girls died of
   typhus a few short weeks before the liberation of the camps. "The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank" is a crucial examination of an amazing life cut short by unimaginable cruelty, and to the miracle of those who survived to tell it in their own words.



5. This is one of the best books I have ever read. A must read for all ages. These ladies are some of the most courageous people in the world. They perserved knowing that their demise could be any day. But living was too important to them so they dug deep within themselves to keep their spirit alive and they succeeded. Hooray for them!!! Miep Gies is also a very courageous person. She is right up there with these ladies. "Anne Frank Remembered" by Miep Gies and Alison Leslie Gold is also a wonderful book. If you are looking for excellent reading and a time frame for the life of Anne Frank, then by all means read this book. I don't know if I could handle the pressures that these ladies went through to live, and I hope that I never have to endure their suffering, but if I do, I will take these 7 women with me and draw on their strengths and spirit to keep me alive.

5 comments about Hidden Letters.

1. I was most pleased with the quick response in filling my order. The book came in perfect condition and I was most glad to present it to my friend who is the rabbi. He had not heard of the book and it was nice to surprise him. The size of the book seems like what should be placed upon a coffee table, however, I probably would never place it there. My friend was quite impressed with the detail and thoroughness in the treatment of the subject. He also commented on the quality of paper and presentation.



2. So much has been written about the Holocaust that its difficult to add anything of value, but now we actually do have something that does just that; Deborah Slier & Ian Shine's new book "Hidden Letters".
   Thanks in particular to the extraordinary layout and design, we move naturally and effortlessly between the specifics of Flip's life and letters to the wider context of the Final Solution as it was implemented all over Europe and the entire Soviet Union. The usual numbing statistics come to life....the effect is at once informative and deeply emotional.



3. 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.



4. 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.



5. 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 In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer.

1. First I listened to the book on audio. I liked it so much I got the book a year later andit it. Amazing story of survival. Hiding right in a Nazi officers home. WOW. What courage.
   
   A must read for those who what to never forget.
   
   Uplifting to what we can and will do for others when we have to.



2. Whereas the novel I mentioned in my title left me feeling cold (not to mention the author was a small child when she writes about her experiences, which must be grainy), this powerful account is simply written, but also written well. It's deliciously descriptive and emotional. I felt like I did walk in Irene's shoes, for I saw everything through her eyes (true, it was written in first-person point-of-view), instead of like watching a movie.
   
   By the way, I think this would make a great film, though I am not sure if there is an actress beautiful enough to play Irene (who really should be played by a young, unknown girl, age appropriate, not a trashy pop starlet, who would degrade).
   
   Through it all (being raped by two Russian soldiers and left for dead, becoming a German officer's mistress to protect her Jewish friends, etc.), Irene maintains an innocence that is refreshing, and when she loses her first truelove before they have a chance to marry, it broke my heart.
   
   I will say I have an even dimmer view of the Catholic Church than I did before (not Catholics in general, just some of the politics of the religion), because when Irene goes to a priest to confess being a German's lover to save the lives of her friends, he says, "They are Jews", and I could actually hear the inflection in his voice that said, "They're just Jews", like they weren't worth saving. This un-Christlike priest refuses to give her absolution, which, from a doctrinal standpoint I understand, but not from a spiritual standpoint. Yes, Irene was sinning, but she was not committing crimes against humanity, and I believe my God is a merciful and just God and that He understands for He can see Irene's soul.
   
   This deeply religious, courageous woman has earned my respect and her chronicle is hardcover worthy.



3. My 14-year-old daughter read this book and insisted that I read it. When I finally agreed, I could not put the book down. The story is so well told that you can can truly understand the experience of a 17-year-old girl in the midst of the horrible events. A compelling book that everyone should read and discuss.



4. I often think of this woman in my day to day life. She serves as a testament to all mankind that we must put others first and fight for the just cause. What she went through herself is quite harrowing. I am happy that she has been honored with a tree planted in her name at Yad Vashem in Israel. An easy read and a book that you cannot put down. She is truly inspirational.



5. Unlike most characters featured in such books, Irene Opdyke had no vested interest in helping the Jews during the Nazi occupation of Poland. She began her work in small, timid steps, gradually growing more bold and forceful as she matured. The story is told in an entirely credible and sympathetic way, without forcing young readers to wade though long narratives of graphic atrocities. I found the afterward to be the most moving and memorable part of the entire book.

5 comments about Stella: One Woman's True Tale of Evil, Betrayal, and Survival in Hitler's Germany.

1. I was prepared to loathe Stella. How could anyone turn in her friends to the Nazis, knowing they were going to be tortured and killed? How could anyone not see her as a horrific ogre, and damn her forever? Much to my surprise, as the book went along, I found I had more and more compassion for her. Let me be clear: what she did was wrong, to be condemned in the strongest terms. But, give this a quarter turn, and look at it through Stella's eyes: she was born in 1923, the only child of a well-to-do couple who doted on her. Stella was spoiled by her parents, self-centered, and in my opinion, a self-hating Jew. From 1918-22, Germany saw the assassinations of 376 bureaucrats and politicians, about one every four days. There were riots by right-wing thugs, and Jews were often attacked, all this before Hitler even came to power. Granted, a young, spoiled, self-centered child doesn't follow these things (or even many precocious nonself-absorbed children),
   but they are definately noticed in one's subconscious. It sets the psychological stage. Mis en place. By 1935, Jews were fired from their jobs, or forced to sell out their businesses for a pittance. The Goldschlags went from well-to-do to barely scraping by. When she was 20, Stella's beloved parents were scheduled for transport. The Gestapo wanted Stella to turn in her friends (the "u-boaters", Jews in hiding). She said no. Then the Gestapo tortured her. She said yes. The author gives examples of those the Gestapo approached who refused to turn in their friends. Many said no. However, none of them was tortured. The reason I feel compassion for Stella (and obviously much, much more for her victims), is she lived an over-protected, sheltered life, and was psychologically unequipped to do anything else. Let's face it, virtually none of us has lived in her shoes. I would hope that I wouldn't make her choices. I know they aren't a part of my values. But to me, Stella was a product of Nazi and Gestapo torture and abuse. What Jew did not experience trauma in Nazi Germany? How could one not be traumatized by the situation, year after year? And to be a coddled 20 year old and tortured by the Gestapo on top of that? I in no way condone Stella's actions. I deplore them. But I cannot damn her because she was egregiously exploited by the Nazis and didn't have enough of a psychological and moral foundation to do the right thing. She broke. And although most of us would say, "Oh, I'd never do that!", we have not been in that position. Maybe most people wouldn't do that, but I feel certain a lot more of us would do that , if we had lived a life similar to Stella's. That's the key. The world is made up of different people, of different backgrounds, and most importantly different strengths and weaknesses. She didn't have the character or moral fiber to stand up for what's right. Later, some eyewitnesses said she'd smile and act as though she really enjoyed betraying her friends. There, too, I don't necessarily accept that at face value. When someone lives in horrific conditions 24/7 for years, they have to sometimes delude themselves to keep from going insane. The brain cannot handle 24 hour horror for years on end. So, I say that she wasn't smiling and enjoying it, I believe that it was merely an involuntary coping mechanism. I believe this is born out when she makes friends with an older woman who eventually draws Stella out, and helps her to see that it is wrong under any circumstances. Stella arranges to have her second husband do the dirty work. After the war Stella was convicted and served 10 years. I will grant you, that compared to her deeds, that is an insulting slap on the wrists. But for those of you who are bloodthirsty in a desire for revenge, take comfort. She has been in a crueler, far stricter prison than any government institution: the prison of her mind. She has no friends, virtually sees no one, gets no joy from life, and keeps her shades drawn. The author was peeved that she still sometimes lied about her crimes, and took it to mean she had no remorse. I took it to mean that she still psychologically has the need to try to delude others because she cannot bear to admit everything to others that which she has come to admit to herself. The life she now leads is to me loud testimony that she recognizes the horrors of what she has done, and what she can never undo. I am an informal student of post-traumatic stress disorder, and Stella exhibits all the signs. During the war years she also exhibited them, too. She was a pitiful victim. She did the wrong thing, horrible, horrible things, and she will go to her death paying for her sins. This is tragic story on many different levels. She deserves this prison of the mind, but I still feel compassion for her.



2. "Stella" is the fascinating tale of a lovely, young and blond Jewish woman given an incredible "Sophie's Choice." 'Die along with your family or cooperate and save both yourself and your loved ones.' Cooperation, of course, meant cooperation with the Nazis at the lowest level. Stella would have to search out and betray hidden Jews to the Nazi death machine.
   
   Stella made her choice and I do not judge because, never having lived through the horror of arrest and threatened extermination, I don't know what I would have done. I'd like to think I would have chosen "honorable" death over dishonorable life...but...I really don't know. Nobody knows what they would do if faced with a similar fate and a similar choice. Christ said, "Let he who is without guilt throw the first stone." I wouldn't and won't throw that stone.
   
   Stella made her choice and it was a horrific one. She became a griefer and was responsible for hundreds of arrests. Hundreds died who might have survived had Stella never existed. The story implies that Stella may have taken some satisfaction in her skills. I don't doubt it. Once a person gets pointed in a certain direction she usually gains satisfaction from a job well done. Besides, there is the Stockholm Syndrome where the victim identifies with her victimizer.
   
   This story is valuable at seveal levels. It is a study of human nature under remarkable stress. It is also a study of the complexities and inconsistencies of the Nazi extermination system. Stella lived but her family died. Would she have also been killed if the war had gone on longer and her source of victims dried up? Or would she have lived like a lovely butterfly in a bottle? Would she, with her blond good looks and charm, become an honorary Aryan?
   
   I'm reminded of a story told on Heinrich Himmler. He is walking outside the wire of one of his camps one day and spots a goodlooking blond man behind the wire. He called him over so he could talk to him, "Are you a Jew?" "Yes." the clueless man answers. "Are your parents Jewish?" asked Himmler. "Yes." replied the young man. "Are your grandparents Jewish?" "All Jewish." the man replied again. Himmler shook his head, "Then I'm sorry I can't help you."
   
   This story is fascinating because it implies that Himmler may have saved the man had he proved less than completely Jewish. Likewise, Stella might have survived the Holocaust even if Hitler had won the war.
   
   Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God" on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico



3. Stella is my kind of history. First person who was there, through their own eyes. When I majored in American History I wondered what happened to the Jews who were my age during the war. Thinking that I would not have fallen in the Nazi traps which led to the camps. This book helps explain where the 20 year olds went during the war. The author was in Berlin before the war with many school friends and neighbors. The follow-up with his friends and the stories of their lives during and after the war is amazing. Riveting. I couldn't put it down and would recomment this book to anyone interested in Berlin history during the war.



4. Wyden mixes personal reminiscences about his youthful schoolboy infatuation with schoolmate Stella with a history of the persecution of Jews in Berlin and Stella's ever duplicitous role in it. Ultimately, he portrays a pathetic, lonely and isolated woman who refuses to acknowledge any guilt, real or alledged, or personal responsibility in betraying Jews to the Gestapo.
   
   This book is history and personal anecdote while concurrently begging thought provoking questions about guilt and capitulation. One could easily conclude that had Stella been born in a different place at a different time she would have been a totally ordinary person living out an uneventful life. Sometimes it almost seems that Wyden wants to believe this too. For her part, she claims that even had there been any cooperation with the Gestapo it was to spare the lives of her parents. Is she guilty out of concern for her parents (they ultimately perished) and therefore somewhat forgiven by the "I was just obeying orders" defense so frequently echoed throughout World War II and VietNam; or is she guilty because an ordinary person was born into and negatively impacted by the truly bizarre and cruel world of 1940s Berlin?
   
   Stella is ultimately a disturbing portrait of a truly personal human tragedy; her own and those who suffered for it.



5. Few can match the infamous Blond Poison, Stella Goldschlag, who stalked the alleys of Berlin seeking former friends, School Classmates and neighbers as as well as total strangers not out of loneliness but in order to betray them and send them to the Gas Chambers to be murdered in her place during the Holocaust. She well deserves her reputation as a Judas to the Jews of Berlin, the men, women and children whom she betrayed by the score to preserve her own life.
   
   This book is basicly her story. Written by a former classmate.
   
   It details much of her early life to the best of the author's knowledge. It then goes on to describe her career as a Griefer, one of the scores of Jews who openly chose to assist the Gestapo finding the Jews in hiding so to deport them to the death camps in exchange for their own survival.
   
   A career in which Stella Goldschlag was one of the Gestapo's best.
   
   One could compare her to the infamous Blond Irma Grese (who is not mentioned in this book) but Wyden shows her life was a far cry from nightmare that of the infamous Blond Beast's. She was not mistreated. Her mother spoiled her. Her father hardly interfered. She certainly had contact with better men in the beginning. A far cry from the horrors of Irma Grese's nightmare life that ultimately exploded with deadly fury upon the inmates of Auschwitz with all the savagery of a mistreated dog.
   
   When one looks at the infamous Blond Poison and her Domestic Partner Rolf Isaacson one finds no reason to sympathise with them at all. They did what they did as a matter of choice. Wyden even reports the infamous Blond Poison enjoyed her work.
   
   This is the story of one woman's choice in Evil.

5 comments about Four Girls From Berlin: A True Story of a Friendship That Defied the Holocaust.

1. Marianne Meyerhoff had a good story to tell but unfortunately she failed to give it it's due; it has so much unfilled potential. It is poorly written and what was sorely lacking was any real investigation and research into her story; so much was needed to be said. I had the feeling that she was encouraged to write the story and did so too quickly to be effective. I question her facts, and translations from German to English. Had she interviewed her principals more throroughly the results would have been better. The book is short, only 241 pages and I had the feeling that at times she was putting in irrelevent material just to pad the pages. Marianne did not ask the pertinent questions that a good writer/investigator would have and it wasn't until the very end that her husband supplied her with questions to ask that she should have thought on her own. There was much left hanging. The story could have had so much more to it and left so much unsaid. One wonders what her mother's friends did during the war; why was more attention not given to how her mother's things were hidden; why did Erica refuse to talk about Ursula at the end and why was more space not given to her mother's rescue and hiding after the illfated trip of the St. Louis. It was very disappointing and at the end I felt that too much had not been said. The one redeeming feature was the many photographs of the family and friends.



2. Rich in heartfelt emotion and profound wisdom, this exceptionally well-written piece is a multi-faceted literary gem. Brilliant first-time author Marianne Meyerhoff empathetically chronicles her mother Lotte's fragile reawakening to life years after a harrowing solo escape from the Nazis to America left her in torment and shock as the only survivor of her extended Jewish family.
   
   One fateful day a huge, mysterious container arrives at their door in Hollywood, California, like a special delivery from God. It contains family heirlooms, treasured photos, letters, and documents. Lotte's closest German girlfriends, none a Jew, courageously and repeatedly risked their lives to smuggle them out of her family's home in Berlin and restore them to her after the war.
   
   From Ms. Meyerhoff's diligent quest for personal identity and family history emerges an unforgettable saga. It honors the enduring, inter-generational friendships between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans who courageously defied, sometimes openly, the Nazi tyranny and persecution destroying their country and robbing them of their loved ones.
   
   As engaging as her narrative is, the philosophical examination of key issues inherent within her characters' tragic circumstances equally compels our reflection. She gives voice to the view that forgiveness is most of all for the sake of the one forgiving, who needs to be released from remaining a victim.
   
   For Marianna's grandfather, the Old Professor, to flee the Nazi regime would be to commit a dishonorable act of betrayal to his beloved German homeland. How could he turn his back on his country when it needed him most to speak out against the injustice?
   
   Rabbi Benny reminds us that spiritual healing requires giving up hating those who would destroy you because to return their hate is to destroy yourself; and that without the power to choose between good and evil, there is no freedom, and no possibility for spiritual transformation.
   
   Finally, the question of redemption. Is there a way to "make good again" the Holocaust?
   She offers two important suggestions. The first is to "own up to it" and incorporate it into the German educational system's curriculum, so that subsequent generations can benefit from "the healing power of remorse" and learn right from wrong.
   
   The second suggests there is no "antidote". "All one can do is hope to artfully and productively accommodate the heartache in the beauty of the present unfolding of life."
   This book fulfills that mission.



3. This is a fascinating story. But it is seriously marred by sloppy editing, particularly in the rendering of almost all the many German words and phrases. While reading the book, I had the feeling I was looking at an early, uncorrected draft, one that never received the attention of an even minimally competent German language consultant. This is unacceptable in an expensive hardcover book. And it greatly diminished the author's fine work.



4. This is a poignantly written tale of one woman's gradual dawning awareness of the tragedy that befell her family; it's a tale of the holocaust, crafted by one too young to have understood its immensity at the time, but who had to try in the aftermath to understand why she and her mother stood alone with no near relatives.
   
   It's also a tale of outreach and forgiveness towards those she might have condemned. The result gives us a new understanding of those tragic events and of the nation that brought it about. The author's tale is as much one of hope and salvation as it is a tale of tragecy.
   
   I recommend it unqualifiedly.



5. Marianne Meyerhoff has written an affectingly-personal account that serves a greater purpose: to remind us, yet again, of the strength to love in the face of manifold evil. It is the story of a woman of indomitable spirit, Lotte, who, with the help of an extended family that includes the three other 'girls' of the book's title, salvages a collection of heirlooms--the severed bonds of a family history torn apart by Nazi Germany. Lotte finds a new home for herself and her child, the author, in the United States; the salvaged artifacts serve as a poignant testimony of loss and, above all, love. This is a book you will not soon forget.

5 comments about Nazi Hunter: The Wiesenthal File.

1. "Nazi Hunter: The Wiesenthal File" by Alan Levy looks at the life of Holocaust survivor, author, and Nazi Hunter, Simon Wiesenthal. The book describes fascinating accounts that go from the extremely sad, to the morbidly funny. There is a tension within, and for those who read Holocaust accounts, this book offers something that few others can: justice. One of the more amazing moments came when, in the case of Adolf Eichmann, Wiesenthal, used a studly friend nicknamed 'Manos' (Spanish word for hands) to seek out Eichmann via. seducing the war criminal's former lovers in order to get informmation. This vignette fits in well with Wiesenthal's life, because we find out that Wiesenthal was not only a Nazi hunter, but also a political humorist.
   
   Levy also demythicizes Wiesenthal, who seems to have occasionally manufactured facts in his quest for Nazis. These manufactured facts, however, are a pieces of a bigger picture painted by Levy. The author is to be commended for his research into Wiesenthal, especially because he seems neither committed to defending, nor debunking his subject.This reviewer does think, however, that Levy more often than not gives Wiesenthal the last word when criticism of his subjects arises.
   
   The structure is by sections, each focussing on the life of one person: Wiesenthal, Mengele, Eichmann, and others. With each story, we find a personal history and a psychological profile of the characters, followed by an account of what happened to them after the war. We also find some very interesting speculations, and, in many cases, evidence to either support, or argue against the speculations, most of which were made by Wiesenthal. One of the strongest sections is on Raoul Wallenberg, a man who saved tens of thousands of Jews and who disappeared into Soviet prison camps. Although the evidence presented about his imprisonment is scant, it brings to life an historical figure who should occupy the same household name status as others, including Oscar Schindler. Some critics point to lack of hard evidence by Levy in his descriptions of such characters as Wallenberg or even Mengele. This critic disagrees. Levy provides enough information for the reader to reach a conclusion on his own (please forgive masculine pronoun) without being pounded over the head with an argument.
   
   One of the stronger aspects of the book, to me, is the use of photographs. Although few in number, the pictures tell us a lot about the characters. Eichmann, the handsome and proud young Nazi, and a later photo of him in court looking more like an unemployed accountant. The younger Mengele, witht he gap between his teeth and the deranged elder Mengele, whose mustache comes into the narrative later in the story. Nazi, Franz Stangl, who is shown holding his daughter, and the mighty Raoul Wallenberg, whose face defiantly faces to the left, where other pictures of Nazis reside.
   
   The last one-third of the book loses its steam when it goes away from Wiesenthal's hunt for Nazis and into some of his high-profile rivalries. But any adept reader can skim those pages and still come away satisfied.
   
   Nazi Hunter is portable in its function. It can be taken to the beach, read in bed. It's narratives are well-written and engaging, yet they do not gloss over the profound moral obligations that are placed upon the reader. Who was responsible? How do behind-the-scenes tensions affect the lives of good people and the fate of evil-doers? How should the world move forward in the wake of a tragic period in history? Although about 500 pages in length, it is a page turner, yet, it is insightful in its explanation of different character types who emerged out of World War II, and, in the humble opinion of this reader, a great read for anyone interested in Nazi Germany and what happened to the perpetrators after its demise.



2. This is an unusually well written book. The sections on Weisenthal's early years are fascinating, but ultimately, this is not a biography, as it is the story of Weisenthal's " clients " which is the most haunting. Don't agree with other reviewers that the book is non critical of Weisenthal - within a supportive framework, the author makes it quite clear just how hopelessly wrong Weisenthal got it on Mengele, and there are plenty of quotes from his detractors, including leading Jews.
   
   One of the best books on the Holocaust and its aftermath I have read.



3. This book is well intentioned and should certainly be read, but it is not a work of scholarship. It is poorly written too. It is frustrating.
   
   The book does not live up to its title. The author reveals little of Wiesenthal's files. For that, it is recommended you turn to Wiesenthal's books.
   
   The book is poorly structured, bounding together several biographical entries, largely unconnected with one another. Some entries span a few pages, others span over one hundred. The main entries concern Eichmann, Wallenberg, Mengele, Stangl. Raoul Wallenberg the hero finds himself squeezed between mass murderers Eichmann and Mengele.
   
   This is the sort of book that makes you want to read more, to look up details, to check facts, to find out more. It creates needs more than it satisfies them. It is a frustrating book.
   
   The book is well intentioned, but poorly written. It consists of a string of assertions that are not backed up by references. It suffers from the weaknesses of an eyewitness account, except that the writer, Alan Levy, has not witnessed anything himself. And he does not tell us where his facts come from.
   
   In several places, Alan Levy corrects Simon Wiesenthal. Wiesenthal's writings are full of mistakes, we are told. Alan Levy compares the two versions of Wiesenthal's memoirs to show how his views have changed over time. He corrects this or that assertion, but because he never tells us where his facts come from, this is a useless exercise bordering on the profane.
   
   Simon Wiesenthal was not a scholar and he has often been wrong. But this is mostly because he relied on eyewitnesses' accounts and anonymous denunciations. It is also because, driven as he was by a desire to bring to justice nazi mass murderers, his strategy was to keep the hunt alive by publicizing believeable nazi spottings as well as not-so-believeable spottings. What reasons does Alan Levy have for writing such a sloppy book?
   
   This is a frustrating book because it is full of facts we would like to check, but cannot because there are no references to the sources.
   
   Turn instead to: Raoul Wallenberg, by Sharon Linnea. Into That Darkness: From Mercy Killing to Mass Murder, by Gitta Sereny (this is a biography of Stangl). Mengele: The Complete Story, by Gerald L. Posner. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, by Hannah Arendt. The Sunflower, by Simon Wiesenthal.



4. I was quite disappointed by this book (I hesitated between 2 and 3 stars, and finally opted for 2, to balance the enthusiastic reviews that this book gets)
   When I started reading it, i had great expectations. Here was a book that would tell me the story of Simon wiesenthal, a survivor of the Holocaust that swore to hunt Nazi around the world, and bring them in front of justice.
   The description of wartime and the horror of concentration camps is quite good (although anything written by Primo Levi is much better). The wartime life of wiesenthal himself is well described, although it sounds a little romanticized. It could have set the ground to understand what drove this man in his postwar hunt. But that's where the disappointment comes : it doesn't. The book goes back and forth between a mere collection of facts and a blindly admirative account of Wiesenthal's life. Whatever Wiesenthal says is right, whatever Wiesenthal does is great. What this book lacks is independant investigation. The author seems to be satisfied with Wiesenthal accounts on pretty much everything in the book. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say Wisenthal lied on anything. But a biograph should not rely solely on the testimonies of his subject. And when he does quote somebody else, the quote is not properly referenced (there is a certain flakiness in Levy's journalistic methods).
   Rather than giving fuzzy criticism, let's look at one particular example:
   Page 136 is symptomatic of the lazy writing in this book : the first part of the page is a long citation of Annah Arendt, explaining how Eichman got out of Europe after the war (Levy doesn't give the reference of the quote). Then he goes on to quote an ecclesiast who helped Eichman getting out, testifying how he didn't realized that the person he was helping was a Nazi (Levy also ironizes about the fake innocence of the priest). Here, once again, we don't know where the quote is coming from. Did Levy directly asked the ecclesiast ? I doubt. More probably Levy got this quote from Wiesenthal himself (probably from one of his books). This is symptomatic from this book : it comes so close from a direct testimony of Wiesenthal that he even forgets to remind us when he actually is quoting him. So then, why not just reading one of Wiesenthal's books instead?
   This is just an example taken randomly. Other -more serious- points on which Levy doesn't take much distance from Wiesenthal include :
   -when Wiesenthal proposed that Eichman be dressed a a Nazi during his trial (page 156, Levy qualifies this idea as "emotionally right", I personally find it grotesque)
   -On the controversy between Wiesenthal and Israel's secret services as to who took the most important part in Eichman's capture (once again, all we have his Wiesenthal point of view, taken for granted).
   
   The function of a biography (and this book is advertised as a biography) is to give a balanced, honest account on one man's personality, not trying to hide its complexity. On that regard, Alan Levy partially fails.
   As I read again my comments, I realize that I have been a little bit harsh. The book is not bad, it is just that it is written more like a thriller than a book on history.



5. First of all, I'd like to state the book (most of it) was quite riveting. Levy begins with a look at Wiesenthal's experience as a young Jew in pre-war Europe. He later chronicles Simon's life during the war in the camps and his search for his family after the war. The stories make for fascinating reading. Then, Levy writes how Simon got into the business of Nazi hunting.
   
   The chapters describing the hunts for Adolf Eichmann (and the rivals between Mossad and Wiesenthal), Josef Mengele, and Franz Stangl were absoluting quality reading. After the chapters on these three Nazis, and the brief chapter on the concentration camp guards, the book takes a different path and describes the ordeal of Raoul Wallenberg. Although Wallenberg was not a Nazi, but a humanist dedicating to saving the lives of Jews, I had to ask myself what this chapter was doing in the book. Nevertheless, it was quite fascinating to read about the ordeal Wallenberg faced and to read what actually happened to him during the war, and especially, after the war.
   
   At this point, you can quit reading the book. The next chapters dealt with Bruno Kriesky and Kurt Waldheim. I didn't have a clue who Bruno was. (I believe he became chancellor of Austria during the '70s). Why was he in this book? As far as I can tell, it was due to Simon and Bruno not liking each other. Bruno was a Jew who claimed that he was not a Jew and tried to distance himself from Jews during the war. He didn't kill any Jews, so why have his story in this book? It's wasted space.
   
   As far as Waldheim is concerned, the jury appears to be out as far as his guilt is concerned. There never seems to be direct evidence pointing to Waldheim as to whether he was responsible for killing partisans (or at least KNEW some killings took place)
   in Yugoslavia. Waldheim's superiors (during the war) say that he did not have the authority to kill or order killings; a sargaent who reported to Waldheim said that he did. Some say he was present at the time the killings took place; others said he was not. Some say that as part of intelligence, and as a lowly lieutenant, Waldheim would not have known about partisan killings. Others said how did he not know? If no one knows the truth, why read it about in this book? Even the Yugoslavian government has refused to prosecute. So, I may ask, why fill 150 pages of this book if there is no conclusive evidence that Waldheim is guilty? The later part of these chapters were very boring. The book was about hunting murderous NAZIS, not about people who were ashamed of being Jewish or about German Army officers.
   
   The book should have included the hunt for Nazi Klaus Barbie and other Nazis who eluded capture for many years. Then, I would have rated this book 4 stars. But, to include chapters on Bruno Kriesky and Kurt Waldheim? A real time waster.

5 comments about Leap into Darkness: Seven Years on the Run in Wartime Europe.

1. an incredible story about the human spirit and the will to live against all odds.



2. Well, the writer is my Grandpa. I am 10 years old so I read it early. My mom helped me out a lot. But thats not exactly a bad thing! Everytime I came to a word I didn't know she would tell me. My mom really could help because my mom was even the one who read it and edited it so she was one of the first, and that really helped because she knew the whole story. I first thought it wasn't such a bad tradgedy of what he did, but after I accually read it, I really changed my mind! If you have not read it, you really got to. Even if you are ten like me, try and you will really like it! Expeccially read it if you like biographies and autobiographies, cause this is an autobiography! Even if you don't like non-fiction, read it anyway! This is so cool that it sounds impossible, and im it sounds impossible it's as fiction as any other book!



3. The part that most struck me was when he wrote "Before the war would end, little Austria would supply nearly half of the staff of all Nazi concentration camps and death camps." and the story he tells of being a boy in Vienna in March 1938 "when Hitler entered the city and found a quarter of a million people rapturously cheering him". He says his cousin Sonja still lives in Vienna "where the citizens now call themselves victims....hoping to keep their secret from the rest of the world". Hitler was an Austrian and so was the head of the Gestapo Kaltenbrunner and many many other Nazi's.



4. I've read several books about the holocaust,whether their authors were survivors of the death camps, survivors on the run, or even non-Jews who helped others survive by hiding them. This book was an incredible story. His escapes were brave and amazing. I'm always looking for more stories such as this, it is amazing to me, there are so many stories, I want to know them all. If you have any other recommendations, e-mail me at Stacy1212@aol.com. Great book, must read.



5. I just finished this book, I coulnt beleive the outcome of it.It was so shocking to hear all of this. I couldn't put it down. Im very interested in the Holocaust, even though im not a surviver, but it is so interesting on how people were back in WWII, it amazes me that people had to go through all of this..I would diffently reccommend this. Thanks to Leo and Michael, to share such a tragic story and a big and unhumian peice of your life, a peice of history..Best Wishes

5 comments about Recollections: An Autobiography.

1. If you have read Man's Search for Meaning, this autobioraphical reflection from Frankl is very good. It is good to read about his life from his recollections. Doesn't take long to go through and I would suggest reading after Man's Search for Meaning. Frankl writes in such a way to make 'things' easy to relate to.



2. It is just wonderful to know about this special men in our world who has suffered to the core of his being and brought a great point of view in sicology to the worls



3. It was so interesting to read Frankl's youthful experiences, and learn about his pre-concentration camp life in Austria under the Nazi's. I had not been aware of his wife's forced termination of pregnancy.



4. Viktor Frankl has presented us with snap shots of the key events in his life. These recollections were never intended for publication but through the encouragement of his publisher this slim volume was made available for readers. Thus begins our journey in looking at the life of the founder of Logotherapy and the author of "Man's Search for Meaning."

   Frankl's life is filled with interesting portraits. We learn of his mother's patrician background and the fact that she was descended from a family of prominent rabbis. His father was a struggling student and was director of the government's Ministry of Social Services.

   We get to see this inquisitive young man as he is impacted by Freud, Hirschmann, Schilder and Adler as he begins to step int the field of psychoanalysis. Through his philosophical questionings and debates with these giants in the field we find Frankl developing his own methodology. March of 1938 became a turing point for the young man as his country is invaded by the Nazis and he is placed in a concentration camp. From that experience wee see a new personality arising who meets the psychological, emotional and spiritual tensions in his life with utmost grace.We see a man who has the opportunity to leave Austria and avoid the concentration camps but he elects to stay and care for his parents.

   Unfortunately this memoir is not a full autobiography of Frankl. You receive sketches of his life and end up wanting more. Read in conjunction with Man's Search for Meaning, the reader can gain further insight on this great personality. I believe this book serves as a supplemental text for the author's Man Search for Meaning." Hopefully a full scale biographical work will come out on Frankl. Until then, this slender volume will whet your appetite to learn more about this great man.




5. "Recollections" is episodic, much like sharing a cup of coffee with a casual acquaintance and trying to divine their life story from those conversations. Dr. Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" is a landmark book for many seekers--including me--and I jumped at the chance to read this so-called autobiography of a giant in the field of diagnosing modern society's malaise. The book is a pleasant read, with Dr. Frankl's humor guiding the narrative. There's not much in the way of how Dr. Frankl coped with returning from concentration camps to find every member of his family--including his young wife--dead. The late Dr. Frankl's narrative is light and episodic, like afternoon conversations instead of Freudian analysis.

5 comments about Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary, the First Complete Edition.

1. Hannah Senesh is known as the Joan of Arc of Israel, and is a national heroine in that little country of heroes and heroines.
   Her poems are learned by heart in Israel, and her acts of courage, self-sacrifice and love for her people, has led to forests, parks, streets and settlements throughout the country being named after her.
   
   Her diary, which begins when she was 13, shows her remarkable spirit, intelligence and love for the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.
   At the age of 23 she returned to Hungary as part of an Allied to mission to save Jews from the Nazi death machine. She was captured by the Nazis and tortured to reveal more about the mission and her comrades, but never broke under these circumstances. Her heroic and cruel death at the hands of the Nazis is recounted.
   
   The book is divided into several sections:
   Memories of Hannah's Childhood by Catherine Senesh, the Diary, the Letters, and the acounts by friends and comrades of her courageous mission into Hungary, and her cruel death at the hands of the Nazis.
   The final section consists of a reproduction of some of Hannah's finest poems.
   
   Hannah Senesh was born in 1921 to an assimilated Jewish family. Her father, a sucesful journalist and playwright died when Hannah was 6 years old. She was enrolled in a Protestant school. The deteriorating situation of the Jews in Hungary led Hannah to embrace Judaism and Zionism-the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, which she was passionate about and dedicated to.
   She became involved in Maccabea, a Hungarian Zionist students organization.
   But she also loved beautiful clothes and ice-skating and was enthusiastic about life and living. She was interested in astrology, spiritualism and development of the soul.
   The sensitivity of her gem of a soul and her intelligence is shown in this excerpt from her diary. It could serve as a testament to Hannah Senesh herself:
   "There are stars whose radiance is visible on earth though they have long been extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for mankind",-
   Indeed in these dark days of the resurgance of anti-Semnitism and the Satanic international campaign to destroy Israel, it is comforting and inspiring to read her words.
   Also interesting are Hannah's words about Jewish nationhood and Zionism:
   'If we had to define Zionism briefly perhaps we could best do so in the words of Nahum Sokolow: "Zionism is the movement of the Jewish people for it's revival.'
   In these days when Jews around the world are being pressured by evil forces to renounce Zionism we would do well to remember Hannah's words.
   "We canot renounce a single on of our rights, not even if the ridiculous acusation were true- that Zionism breeds anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is not the result of Zionism but of Dispersion. But even if were no so, woe to the individual who attempts to ingratiate himself with the enemy instead of following his own route. We can't renounce Zionism even if it does strengthen anti-Semitism...For only Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish State could ever bring about the possibility of the Jews in the Diaspora being able to make manifest their love for their Homeland. Because then they could choose to be part of the Homeland- not be necesity but by free will and free choice".
   In these days it is so important to remember her words and her story.



2. I had never heard of Hannah Senesh until I planned to go to Israel and was looking at possible places to visit. After I heard about her I wanted to know more. This book tells the story, in her own words of how a young Jewish woman came to be an Israeli hero. It makes me wonder if I too would have the courtage of conviction to stand up for something even to death. A very remarkable story indeed.



3. 
   The story of Hannah Senesh is the story of a heroine of the Jewish people. This volume contains her diary including a record of her early years in Hungry and her time in Eretz Yisrael, two chapters about her by her mother, and chapters by fellow soldiers in the British Army from the Yishuv who served with her when they were dropped behind enemy lines during the War. Hannah Senesh was the daughter of a well- known Hungarian playwright who died when she was six. She and her older brother were raised by a very caring and devoted mother . In her school where she was outstanding she suffered from Anti- Semitism. And as Nazi power grew in Europe she moved toward a deeper connection to her own Jewishness, at one point announcing that she had become a Zionist. Her diary records her decision to go to Eretz Yisrael, and her years of education there at Nahalal. It is the diary of a spirited, intelligent and idealistic person. She volunteered to serve in the British Army Unit which was to be dropped behind enemy lines in the hope of helping rescue Jews. She and her fellow soldiers from the Yishuv were connected with the Partisans' struggle against the Nazis in Yugoslavia. The day before she was about to enter her native Hungry where she most hoped to help the Nazis entered and took control of Hungry. Upon hearing this news she cried. A friend asked her if this was because she was thinker of her mother. She said ' That the entrance of the Germans to Hungry doomed one - million Hungarian Jews to death. She was not wrong. The greatest share of Hungarian Jews were eventually murdered by the Nazis. She entered Hungry was captured, and was placed in prison. The Nazis brought her mother to the prison , and told Senesh that if she did not give them the information that they wanted the secret radio codes she had they would torture her mother before her eyes. She begged her mother's forgiveness, and she herself was tortured. But she did not give away the information. Eventually she was taken out and shot to death . All those associated with her admired her tremendous courage and integrity .
   Her ambition was to be like her father a writer, but not a playwright but a novelist. Her love and dedication to the Jewish people in the land of Israel that she came to love so much are strongly apparent in the work.
   Perhaps the best tribute to her is her own words,
   "There are stars whose radiance is visible on earth though they have long been extinct.There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for Mankind.'



4. Hannah Senesh is the story every Jew should know, a heroic woman who fought the Nazis, parachutting into Europe in the worlds darkest hour, but beyond that her wonderful diaries tell the story of a young Jeiwsh girl finding herself, and her Jewishness amid the tumult of Europe and the Kibbutzes of Aretz Israel. This is a wonderful new volume on a true Jeiwsh Heroin, a message to all generations that evil must be confronted, ironically sometimes it is the most unlikely people that rise to the occasion. A heartrending book.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman



5. For such a small stature as Hannah was, she is one of WWII's, strongest women. It is a must read for any philosophical or history buff. In addition, would make a great movie if someone would be wllling to do so.
   
   Once you pick up this book you will devour it. Her life and who she was will remain forever in your memory. I envy her.
   
   For 20 years Hannah's diary still remains so dear to my heart.

5 comments about The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany.

1. My bookclub is entering into its Holocaust Month. Someone recommended this book to me last year and I thought, it sounded interesting enough to read. Interesting just barely describes this book. Haunting is more the word that I think of when I finished this book. Incredibly lucky are two more words.
   
   There are so many books out there about the Holocaust that it can be confusing sometimes to read what. This book definitely should be read simply because it's beautifully moving, tragically sad and not only that, it provides a different viewpoint of what happened during the early years of Nazihood in Germany and before the "Final Solution" was proposed to exterminate the Jews. This happened and I don't recall hearing much about any of this till I read this book. Before Hitler and Goring proposed the death camps and just while trying to get rid of Germany of the non-Aryan blood, they came up with a solution that provides entertainment and music/art/theater productions just for the Jews. This is a place for the Jews to retreat to. They were only allowed to play Jewish pieces written by Jewish artists/musicans. And they were left alone in the 30s and early 40s. Well, not quite completely left alone as they still had to follow the Nazi rules. But it was a place of refuge for the Jews, especially in Berlin.
   
   This book, while devoting a huge portion to the Kulturbund and its orgins, the author writes of his personal family history. His mother and father were musicans in the Kulturbund. And they suffered horrible tragedies as the war progressed over the years. However, they were young, in love and naive like a lot of people were. They did manage to escape Germany but they also managed to leave behind family members which have haunted them and their children even to this day. It is very intense reading at times and with hindsight on the reader's part, it is very hard to fathom their optimism that things will work out ok in the end. Not only that, this book brings up the question of whether or not the Kulturbund was good for the Jews or kept them compliant enough to keep them in Germany instead of escaping to other countries, so the Nazis could gas them too. This book is haunting and disturbing. The questions that the author may have unknowingly stirred are now raised in my mind ... and the answers are not easy to figure out.
   
   This is not your typical Holocaust book nor is it like the other books about the camps ~~ this book simply tells a tale of two musicans who were unfortunate to be caught up in the times that stirred Germany (and the world) ~~ but yet, their love of music has sustained them through the years before they left Germany. Are they heros? Not in the sense that we associate it with. They are more like survivors and like all survivors, they carry a burden of guilt that resounded through the years. But it is a book that honors the memory of those who were left behind in a time of turmoil that even today, still vibrates through the years.
   
   9-28-07



2. MG's story of his family during the early Nazi era is an unusual glimpse into the lives of German Jews during the period from 1933-1941. He writes about the Kulturbund, an organization created by the Nazis to (1) rid Germany of Jewish influence in the arts and (2) provide propaganda coverage of the maltreatment of Jews by the Third Reich.
   
   In my opinion the book is generally well written and seems to be the result of careful research. My one complaint is that MG frequently quotes conversations which I doubt have been recorded in any way. I don't like that in historical writing, but in this case I was willing to overlook it, because of my interest in the story.



3. What do we really know about our parents' life before we were born? That depends largely, I guess, on how much of an interest we show - and on how much they are willing to reveal. Because in the life of every person there are instances and times they rather wish to forget, and not revive time and again by discussion, even if only among their nearest and dearest.
   
   Such, in the lives of author Martin Goldsmith's parents, were the years from 1933 through 1941; so much so, in fact, that Goldsmith likens that time to the massive ash tree in the house of Germanic warlord Hunding, the setting of the first scene of Richard Wagner's opera "Die Walkuere:" Something looming large, yet never openly acknowledged. Because before George Gunther Goldsmith, furniture and home decorating salesman of Cleveland, Ohio, and his wife Rosemary, a violinist with the St. Louis Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra, became American citizens in 1947, they had lived a whole other life - the hunted life of Jews in Adolf Hitler's Germany. And only years after his mother's death, on a trip to his father's home town of Oldenburg, did Goldsmith catch the first glimpses of what was hidden behind that massive ash tree, and George Goldsmith began to talk about the events which his, the Goldschmidt family had witnessed there; as well as the early life of Rosemarie nee Gumpert in Duesseldorf, the couple's first meeting in Frankfurt, and their later life in Berlin until their lucky escape to the United States. Beginning with this visit, Martin Goldsmith retraced his family's path to the early years of the 20th century, when his paternal grandfather Alex Goldschmidt took residence in Oldenburg, and his maternal grandfather Julian Gumpert settled in Duesseldorf.
   
   How intensely personal this voyage into the past must have been becomes clear in the account of Goldsmith's visit to Oldenburg prison, as a participant in a march retracing the path taken by the Jews - among them the author's grandfather - driven through the streets of Oldenburg in 1938 by Nazi thugs, to later be shipped off (at least temporarily) to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. But although he writes about his very own family, and now in full knowledge of their fate, Goldsmith's narrative is in no way sentimental. With a journalist's detachment he talks about Guenther and Rosemarie, Alex, Julian and their wives and other children; turning a nonfiction account whose outcome is clear from the very start into a heartstopping tale few would be able to believe if presented with it under colors other than that of the plain historic truth.
   
   Prominently featured in Goldsmith's account is the Jewish Culture Association, or Juedischer Kulturbund; as of 1933 the German Jews' only permitted artistic organization, in whose orchestra Guenther and Rosemarie had met and which had formed the center of their life until they finally left the country. One of the most controversial institutions of Nazi Germany, it reunited what was left of the country's Jewish musicians, artists, writers and composers - providing a modicum of shelter in an increasingly hostile environment, but also a convenient tool in the Nazi propaganda machine. Were the members of the Kulturbund instrumentalized to deceive public opinion, at home and abroad, about the true intentions of Hitler's government? By giving their Jewish audience a sense of comfort and "belonging," did they also prevent some of them from rescuing themselves when there still would have been time? The surviving members of the "Kubu" and their families, interviewed by Goldsmith, come down on both sides of the issue; and the fate of the survivors is probably as symptomatic as that of the many who ultimately did perish in Nazi concentration camps - chiefly among those the Kulturbund's charismatic founder Dr. Singer, who not only let himself deceive into returning to Germany after already having reached the safe shores of the U.S. but saw a mark of distinction even in his deportation to the "model" concentration camp of Theresienstadt.
   
   Yet, for Guenther and Rosemarie the years with the Kulturbund were dominated, above all, by the musical companionship they experienced. What does seem to have haunted them most for the rest of their lives, however, was their very escape to America, while their remaining family members were stuck in Europe and, one way or another, died in Hitler's concentration camps - and the feeling that with a little effort they just *might* have saved at least some of them. The letters of Alex Goldschmidt and his younger son Helmut, written to Guenther from captivity in France after their own unsuccessful attempt to flee to Cuba, are among the most chilling testimonials contained in this book; and the decision to translate and include them conceivably cannot have been an easy one for Goldsmith. Indeed, it apparently was the knowledge of his family's fate that, all talent and love of music aside, eventually compelled George Goldsmith to forever retire the flute which, in his life as Guenther Goldschmidt, had been the only item of true importance besides his beloved wife Rosemarie; thus punishing himself in a way no outsider could have done. Yet, the couple's gift for music lives on in their son, who in his own way has brought many hours of joy to radio listeners all over the U.S.
   
   Martin Goldsmith's "Inextinguishable Symphony" - named for Danish composer Carl Nielsen's Fourth Symphony, which sets music, as a parable for life itself, against war, terror and destruction - is as much a personal journey of discovery as a journalist's account of historic facts; seeking to understand rather than to judge. It deals with a time in which morality was thoroughly upset by a profoundly immoral regime, which cannot possibly have remained without effect on anybody who witnessed those events. In applying our own values to those facts, I think we would all do well in being careful to, likewise, make a thorough effort to understand before we judge. Goldsmith's insightful account is a great place to begin such a process.
   
   Also recommended:
   The Jewish Response to German Culture: From the Enlightenment to the Second World War (Tauber Institute)
   The Pianist
   WITNESS: Voices from the Holocaust
   Hitler
   Holocaust
   Conspiracy
   The NPR Listener's Encyclopedia of Classical Music
   The Beatles Come to America (Turning Points in History)



4. This story was impossible to put down and when you finish, it stays with you for a very long time. Its hard to believe that Gunther and Rosemary didn't make every effort to help their parents emigrate to U. S. What really bothers me most is, not being Jewish, what would I have done in Germany in the late thirties and early forties when I saw these atrocities happening?



5. I listened to Martin Goldsmith on "Performance Today" (and still listen to his successor, Fred Child) for many years. This man who for years described classical music on the radio -- composers and their life story, pieces and their histories, in accessible, engaging, and lightly humorous ways, and even sometimes tied it in to his love of baseball -- he also has an extraordinary family story. It's moving and well-written, and makes me think about the extraordinary stories that must dwell in the depths of my own geneological past.