2 comments about A Good Man in Evil Times: The Heroic Story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes -- The Man Who Saved the Lives of Countless Refugess in World War II.

1. As the previous reviewer from Portugal noted, humanity sometimes fails to acknowledge people who do the right thing. Sousa Mendes was just such a man. He was a Portuguese Council in southern France at the time of the German invasion. Jews from the low countries and France fled south trying to get to the neutral countries of Spain and Portugal. These countries sealed their borders in most cases, so one had to have a visa to get across the border. Sousa Mendes violated his country's rule aginst these stateless persons, and literally issued thousands of visas so that these Jews and other opponents of the Nazis could escape. In the process, he destroyed his career and eventually died in poverty. He did do the proper thing where most others abided their country's rules.
   This was an inspirational read. Fralon details the life of Sousa Mendes and Portugal's role in both World Wars. He also details a little of the fascist rule of Salzaar. Unfortunately there were no happy endings with Sousa Mendes. The Portuguese government even balked at honoring him, and was forced by outside pressure to recognize what he did in the nineties.



2. It is regratable that great men are rarely aknowledge as so in life. Aristides de Sousa Mendes was no exception, but his acts were expeptional. This book was long due. It's finally here, it's very well written, a just tribute to a men of honour, and I thank the author for it.

No comments about The Holocaust On Trial: The Case of Ernst Zundel.

1 comments about The Holocaust Odyssey of Daniel Bennahmias, Sonderkommando (Judaic Studies Series).

1. This Holocaust survivor account is unlike any other in that it chronicles the fate of the Greek Jews in detail. Daniel's narrative is orderly and factual, bringing forth important items of history I have not seen in other studies. The description of the deadly cattle car ride to Auschwitz is broken out in great detail, to the degree that Daniel and the author place the reader in the midst of the un-imaginable dehumanizing experiences told there. The day-to-day tasks of the Sonderkommando are told in a slightly different light than one would read in Filip Mueller's "Eyewitness-Auschwitz", yet they are instructional from Daniel's point of view. His life was saved in some of the deadliest circumstances in what I believe was Divine intervention. One part of the book I especially enjoyed from a historical aspect was the fate of the ss officer Otto Moll, who I read of in other Holocaust literature (several survivors write extensively on this person-no morbid fascination with him, however). There is one account in the book that is a black cloud over an otherwise fine work, and that is the treatment the Greek Sephardic Jews were given by the European Ashkenazic Jews---the Greek Jewish people were looked down upon and reviled as "whores" and "cholera" by their fellow inmates. I highly recommend this work to any serious student of history, and I wish that I could meet Daniel Bennahmias someday. God bless you, sir!

2 comments about Saving Children: Diary of A Buchenwald Survivor and Rescuer.

1. Jack Werber wrote this book with the assistance of the distinguished scholar William Helmreich. Werber whose wife and three year old daughter were murdered by the Nazis risked his life to save Jewish children. In his obituary which appeared in the NY Times in Nov. 2006 his action is described in this way.
   
   "Mr. Werber, a son of a Jewish furrier from the Polish town of Radom, was the barracks clerk at Buchenwald in August 1944 when a train carrying 2,000 prisoners arrived, many of them young boys. By then, with the Russians advancing into Germany, the number of Nazi guards at the camp had been reduced. Working with the camp's underground -- and with the acquiescence of some guards fearful of their fate after the war -- Mr. Werber helped save most of the boys from transport to death camps by hiding them throughout the barracks."
   Among those he saved was the later Chief- Rabbi of Israel Israel Meir Lau.
   After the war Werber came to the United States married for the second time, and had two sons. When he passed away he was also survived by six grandchildren and two- great grandchildren.
   In America he became a successful businessman as manufacturer of clothing, primarily coonskin hats which were very popular during the Davy Crockett age.
   May the memory of this righteous Jew and human being be for a blessing.



2. A truely remarkable personal account of life in Buchenwald both before and during WW2. Although a little dry at first, I soon grew to appreciate the direct, frank writing style of the author as it helps the reader understand that the most horrific events and conditions were simply a matter of day to day life in a NAZI concentration camp. Well worth your time and money.

3 comments about Anne Frank.

1. Simply put...this is THE best book for introducing Anne Frank and the Holocaust to the youngest readers. I disagree with the Horn Book that the folk-style art doesn't fit. Instead, it makes Anne seem like a little kid to the youngest readers/listeners. Buy this book to teach about Anne Frank and the Holocaust..it's perfect!



2. This is a wonderful book for young children to read to introduce them to the holocaust. i am 22years old, an di had to read it for a childrens literature class, and it had me spellbound! the pictures are a great attention grabber for children and help them follow along. this would be a wonderful teachers aid in a classroom! the illustrations are wonderful, colorful and cheery. yes, the cheery pictures do not fit with the plot, but it is perfect in a childrens story. keep up the good work Yona



3. This book is sooooo GOOD! The author really does a MARVELOUS job! The book is so FANTASIC that I couldn't put it down, even when my parents told me to go to bed(I read it under the covers)! I recomend this book to ANYONE interested in the Holocaust!

1 comments about Encyclopedia of Biblical Personalities: Anthologized from the Talmud, Midrash and Rabbinic Writing S.

1. excellent resource for finding behind the scenes information on biblical personalities. fascinating and informative.

4 comments about When Light Pierced the Darkness: Christian Rescue of Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland.

1. This study is very comprehensive, yet Tec acknowledges the possibility of a sampling bias (p. 235). Virtually all Polish Jews who survived the war had been helped by Poles (p. 72), most of whom had been strangers to them (p. 227, 233), and a significant fraction of whom held anti-Semitic beliefs (pp. 61-63; including the hard-core variety: Chapter 6).
   
   Emmanuel Ringelblum had supposed that members of the Polish middle class (small businessmen), supposedly desiring Jews' deaths in order to avoid repaying money owed them, would be the least prone to save Jews. Tec refutes this canard (p. 119).
   
   Tec devotes Chapter 5 to Poles who (usually driven by poverty, p. 93) aided Jews solely or primarily for financial gain, but lacks context. For centuries, the only relationship between Jews and Polish peasants had been a buyer-seller one. So why wouldn't some Polish peasants view Jews only in terms of money?
   
   Unlike Jan T. Gross, who belittles the German-imposed death penalty for aiding Jews, "The survivor Pola Stein, for example, articulated this position, noting: `I do not accuse anyone that did not hide or help a Jew. We cannot demand from others to sacrifice their lives. One has no right to demand such risks.'"(p. 129). At times, Poles "cracked" under the strain, and killed the Jews they had been hiding for fear that Jews sent away could (whether voluntarily or under torture) divulge the identity of their erstwhile benefactors to the Germans (pp. 93-95).
   
   The Germans removed the boots of fugitive Jews after killing them (p. 67). This upends the assumption that a bootless Jewish corpse must have been the victim of a Pole.
   
   Tec refutes Gross' argument about Jew-helping Poles keeping their acts secret out of fear of postwar anti-Semitic disapproval. In actuality, the secrecy was motivated by the fear that the Communist authorities would connect Jew-helping behavior with past involvement in the anti-Communist underground (p. 126).
   
   All along, Tec consistently emphasis traditional Christian teachings about Jews, but completely ignores the reverse. How many devout Poles were hostile to Jews because they knew that Jews saw them as idolatrous worshippers of the Bastard Son of an adulteress, and of three gods? She frequently mentions the blood libel. Oddly enough, I have spoken with numerous elderly Poles who remember pre-WWII Jews, and have yet to meet a single one who believes in anything like that!
   
   As for the Zydokomuna, Tec comments: "Up to World War II Poland's Communist party was small, numbering not more than 20,000 members. In this Communist party Jews held most of the leadership positions." (pp. 209-210).



2. In addition to 6 million Jews, approximately 3 million Polish gentiles were also murdered by the Germans during World War 2. Poland was the only country with an automatic death sentence for the slightest assistance to Jews. Polish-Jewish author Nechama Tec does a valuable service in this study of Poles who assisted Jews. When it comes to analyzing the "why" of such assistance, however, her book has the shortcoming of using too small a sample for this purpose. Nevertheless, her book is both inspiring and informative. It is clear that Polish assistance was the norm, if only because many Poles were involved in the rescue of a single Jew. Tec's book is also a powerful rebuke to much educational Holocaust material, which either virtually ignores Polish aid to Jews, or even maliciously portrays Poles as being in cahoots with the German Nazis.



3. Although there are other books that cover the subject of Christians who helped Jews during the Holocaust, this one filled some gaps that the others didn't - to my mind, anyway. The author, Nechama Tec, looks at people who helped for all the right reasons - and also those who helped in spite of their semitism. She tries to find the "why" behind all the altruism and also explores how class and politics affected the decision to help the Jews. I found the writing style to be a bit dry for my taste at times but I still couldn't stop reading this book. Recommended!



4. If you want to discover the the true humanity that lies hidden through all classes of society then this book is the one to read. It views the holocaust from the noble within humanity and helps one to think about what their own responses would be in a similar circumstance. Besides this, the writer is very skilled and a pleasure to read.

No comments about Belsen: The Liberation of a Concentration Camp (Routledge Twentieth Century European History).

1 comments about The Mezuzah in the Madonna's Foot: Marranos and Other Secret Jews: A Woman Discovers Her Hidden Identity.

1. Anyone interested in reading several excellent reviews of THE MEZUZAH IN THE MADONNA'S FOOT, (re-issued in 2006 by AUTHORS GUILD BACK-IN PRINT in this larger print edition, including an added photograph) will find them listed under the two (hard-cover and paperback) earlier editions above. This book is the first of Trudi Alexy's HIDDEN IDENTITIES TRILOGY, followed by THE MARRANO LEGACY, and, finally, IN SEARCH OF FORGIVENESS.

5 comments about Journal 1935-1944: The Fascist Years.

1. A diary can be as interesting as the person who writes it is and Mihail Sebastian is a complex character. I liked the way he documents his love exploits, the illusions and the hopes he has, his love of music as the ultimate refuge, the detailed account of writing his best novel, "The accident", and his plays, the total sincerity and subjectivity. There are so many nuances in the friendships he keeps - like the one with Mircea Eliade, Iron Guard legionaire and his friend for more than 15 years, like Camil Petrescu, colourful and overconfident writer, and many more.
   When reading the diary, you come to know the frivolous Romanian interbellic "elites", the painful exploits of literary creation, friendships streched by political divide, the uncertainty of the war, the humiliation of the Jews during fascism. Besides, Sebastian's writing style is beautiful and easy to follow.
   This book is mostly perceived as an account of the Holochaust in Romania. However, it has much more to offer. Not only the grim and the militant view of the events, but the full caleidoscope of Sebastian's personna.



2. First of all, the "Journal" is exquisitly written.
   Then, this is The Book for understanding multiple facets of life in war-time Romania, shining light on previously hidden places.

   A note of strong dissagreement with a previuos reviewer's assesment of reasons for which the book is supposedly absent from Romanian bookstores:

   This book is not "out of print" in its original version, it has been printed multiple times (last time in 2002) and is available as we speak. It is being bought off the shelves like fresh bread every time Humanitas re-prints it.
   Thousands and thousands of Romanians bought, read, discussed, reviewed and raved about the Journal. We were changed by it, as any other feeling human would! Countless echoes in the press, radio and TV shows were generated by this publication.

   Sebastian's Journal became a cornerstone of our perception of Romania's past, not just for a handful of passionate readers but for a whole nation.
   Noam, research before you write.




3. This is a unique document from any perspective you approach it. I found it particularly revealing about my father's background; Bucharest's middle class before WWII. The author came from a Jewish community who regarded itself as an assimilated part of a basically friendly Rumania. The amicable feelings towards Rumania have always run deep in its Jewish expatriates. Those who immigrated to Israel recreated a piece of pre-war Bucharest in Tel-Aviv. The book's description of a specific social set fascinates, with its elegant frivolity and gregarious bonhomie that was stifled under Ceausescu, but survived in my parent's social circle and in that of the Rumanian Jewish community.

   Sebastian parades a delightful set of characters. From the comical Prince Antoine Bibescu, who walks to theatre among the barbarians "en pantoufles," to the playwright Eugène Ionesco, Sebastian's pen never fails to capture the essence his friends' personalities. Ionesco is mentioned only in passing but his predicament is sobering, if not unique. He was not able to keep his job because of his mother's Jewish background. Ionesco, who never identified himself as Jewish, had not experienced life as a minority and had difficulties dealing with his new status. Apparently he had an emotional breakdown before he finally succeeded in returning to France. I do not think that Ionesco or his biographers ever expounded on that chapter of his life from this perspective. What he had experienced in Rumania at the time may explain the inspiration for his play, Rhinocéros (1958).

   This amusing social tapestry is but a background and introduction to the real drama of this diary. The author portrays the gradual evolution of a very sinister external reality, and more significantly, his own reactions to it. It illustrates a difficult and conflictual internal process of disillusionment, of realigning one's internal alliances, or, perhaps, the creeping realization that your friends are turning into rhinoceroses. As the author discovers during the peak of the persecutions, this is a process many assimilated Jews went through in past centuries under similar circumstances.

   Sebastian refers to his homeland as "a Balkan swamp," where people change political affiliations like they change their shirts (something at which Ionesco's father was particularly good). He makes some lucid observations about Rumanian Jews' easy optimism and, contrary to common belief, the Jews' short memory of past tragedies. This selective amnesia of prior calamities is an attitude prevalent among Rumanian Jews in Israel, who nurture a sympathetic viewpoint about the events described in this book.

   Indeed, this book confronts basic notions many people hold about that era of Rumanian history; making it highly controversial. My parents are a perfect illustration of the strong but contradictory feelings it arouses. My mother, deported from Cernauti (Chernovitz) in Bucovina to a concentration camp with the rest of her family, had no problems accepting Sebastian's account. My father, on the other hand, who hails from Bucharest, responded with disbelief to my reports about my revelations from the text. He remembered many of the events reported, for example the confiscation of the radios and the forced labor, but he refused to put it in any special context. His recollection was suffused with what seemed to me like heavy denial of the meaning and purpose of the regime's behavior. He combined this with a peculiar version of the history of those times, and a disturbing set of rationalizations of events ("it was only the Iron Guard," or, "everybody I knew survived"). He agreed to read the book, but after he received it, changed his mind and refused. Needless to say, my family, like many others, has never reached an agreement about the basic facts of the period. Another way of understanding the kind of condoning spirit displayed by my father is that it is representative of ethnic minorities' traditionally docile attitude towards authority. This deference, accentuated by fear, may also explain how millions of Jews were gullible enough to allow the Nazis to gas them. The Israelis' intransigence represents a backlash against generations of this servile obeisance, not unlike the kind of militant political transformation experienced by American blacks in the 20th century.




4. The fabricated myth, by the Roumanian Nationalists, that Roumania was a "good" place to be for a Jew, during the Holocaust is to be completely and forever forgotten. From the accounts of Mihail Sebastian, it is obvious that the Roumanian intelligentia, the literary circles were filled with Legionairs that spreed antisemitism in a most vicious manner. The German SS Killing Detachments were, according to Eichman's testimony during his trial, abhorred and disgusted by the crude cruelty of the Roumanian troups during the deportation of the Jewish population from Bassarabia to camps in Transnistria. The Roumanian Nation as a whole, is guilty of the extermination of is Jewish population, collectively the Nation should repent just like the Germans. This of course requires self-examination, admission and a certain degree of intelligence. In conclusion, I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the true socio-political climat in Roumania during WW2.



5. Mikhail Sebastian was the Romanian Walter Benjamin. Trained as a lawyer and a literary critic, Sebastian published a highly-regarded novel at the age of 23. He held one of those literary-functionary jobs requiring very little actual work or presence at the office which Europe once awarded to its philosophers and artists. Like Benjamin, Sebastian was a skittish, highly personable writer: a professional skeptic, an independent thinker, who could amuse himself indefinitely with his own thoughts and company.

   To see the War through Sebastian's eyes in this diary is to finally understand it. The journal - together with Radu Ioanid's recently published history of the Romanian holocaust - certainly explodes the myth that Romania was a "good" place to be Jewish during WW2. In fact, the Antonescu's wartime government - reactive always to the country's popular ultra-fascist Iron Guard - annhilated half the country's Jews, some 150,000 people. The "cut" was purely geographic: Bessarabia and Bukovina, two cities bordering Odessa with large Jewish populations, were targeted for ethnic cleansing; whereas the Jews of Bucharest were merely subject to statutes barring their employment, use of amenities, etc. But what's most extraordinary about the Journals is the way that it gives this kind of victimage-by-chance a human face: curious and halting.

   Over the course of two years, Sebastian is exiled from the inner circles of the Bucharest literati. His close friends and mentors, Nae Ionescu and Mircea Eliade, have become intelletual leaders of the Iron Guard. Sebastian waits in Bucharest, increasingly unemployable due to anti-Semitic statutes and restrictions, borrowing money to pay the rent while fully aware of the massacres and pogroms that were taking place in the northern regions of his country.

   The apartments of Bucharest Jews were confiscated; and then their telephones; and then eventually their skis?! Each week brought new onslaughts of mad and crippling restrictions. Sebastian notes tbe "mute despair that has become a kind of Jewish greeting." He witnesses this, with no illusions, while trying to piece together a subsistence living for himself and his parents, at times writing plays which would be produced under the names of non-Jewish friends, which he was eventually best known for.

   Sebastian never married; he had a number of simultaneous & consecutive affairs with married and independent women, as was the custom at that time and place. He had no children. He has a great sense of vocation as a writer and a thinker, and this Journal comes closer than any document I've read to conveying a sense of the "dazed stupor ... with no room for gestures, feeling, words" that comes from living alongside horror.