1 comments about Till They Meet Again.

1. Great Read!!This novel is fast paced and riveting. I could not put it down. Ms. Elovic's character development is superb. The storyline is unique. I would highly recommend this novel.

5 comments about Until We Meet Again: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Holocaust.

1. In the small town of Hrubieszow Poland, two lovers Meyer and Manya attempt to escape to terrible hands of the German Nazi Soldiers. When many atempts to escape fail, both lovers suffer deportation, seperation, and close-to-death situations. Going to camps such as Flossenburg and Aushwits both Manya and Meyer struggle to hold on, but at the same time rely on one day being together back in Hrubieszow. When both of them believe they will never be reunited with they're families after the war has ended, Meyer and Manya's son Michael Korenblit finds out some informations on his mothers family while making this book.
   
   This book is the most amazing, Holocaust book I have ever read. There is not one book that has takin my breath away or have drawn tears to my eyes such as this one has. Imagine having nothing to hold on to, Do you think Manya and Meyer would have survived without one another? As hard as it got, thoughts of being with eachother kept Meyer and Manya still holding on. I recomend this book to anyone, because out there there really is a God and if you ever loose everything, faith is one thing you cant loose.



2. I'll admit that this book started out a little slowly for me, but by about chapter 18, I began to be drawn more and more into the story of teenage sweethearts Manya and Meyer, Manya's little brother Chaim, and their friends (even though the writing style employed wasn't always that dramatic or riveting). The story begins when Manya and one of her brothers, Chaim, make the very difficult decision to leave their family in the hiding place in the wall of their house in the ghetto of Hrubieszow to join Meyer's family hiding in a haystack, in 1942. Perhaps I would have been more drawn into the story initially had it begun earlier on and slowly introduced the characters and situation, instead of starting off rather in media res. And perhaps the events might have come even more alive for me had the book been written in the first person instead of by two secondhand parties. It also kind of kills the dramatic surprise by revealing at the beginning that Chaim was discovered in early 1982, with the reader knowing all along he survived instead of only saving it for the epilogue, when it would have had far greater dramatic effect.
   
   All that said, however, the book does a rather good job at conveying the increasingly trapped and horrific situation the characters found themselves in. Many of the decisions they made, and breaks from outsiders they got which ended up contributing to their eventual survival, could be attributed to only luck, since many other people in similar situations might have had far different fates for making or not making those same decisions. After leaving the haystack, Manya, Meyer, and Chaim returned to the new ghetto in Hrubieszow, where they were put to "legitimate" work, though always in constant danger of brutality and deportations. Sometime in 1943 (the book isn't very good at all about giving a specific timeline of when exactly a lot of this stuff happened), Chaim was taken, and then a bit later on Manya, Meyer, and a few of their friends were deported as well. Initially the young lovers were in the same camp, but were eventually separated, promising to meet again in Hrubieszow at the end of the war. The two of them went through a seemingly endless stream of camps over the next two years, suffering bestial treatments and conditions, but got through with a little help from their friends, and, most importantly, their love for one another. Under such intense times, what would have been just a routine teenage romance in ordinary time turned into something much more serious, emotions magnified as people turned and clung to those they already had a powerful connection to, nurturing and keeping alive the one remaining thing that they still knew for sure, that kept them sane, human, hopeful, normal. It seems amazing to people living in comfort in the present day that love could have survived and even flourished under such awful inhuman conditions, but after reading a powerful story such as this one, it doesn't seem like a surprising phenomenon at all.



3. I think this is an incredible book and I don't think the Editorial Review does it any justice. The Editorial Reviewer understood that the story was incredibly moving and wanted it to be written more fairy tale-like, however it is not any fantasy-like because it is and was SO REAL and I think Korenblit perfectly captures its highly-emotive atmosphere. I suggest this as a read not only for historical information about the Holocaust but as an overall life-lesson that love can make you strong and that among all evil there will always be some good.



4. I met M. Kornblit, received his book, and read it in two days! It caused me to be thankful for every minute I live in a peaceful country, every morsel of food I partake, every single material thing I have...It is truly the most unforgettable book I'll ever read.



5. I had the the privilege of meeting Mr. Michael Korneblit during a recent book signing at the Holocaust Museum in DC. He personally shared what the book is about, then apologized for "making me cry". I could not wait to read the book! Let me admit that I am an audible learner and not an avid reader, but this book is a turning point. It is easy to read and definitely holds one's interest. The authors wisely chose, in this case, to focus on the love story more than the atrocities of the holocaust -- yet certainly get the point across. This is a lovely story about commitment and integrity tested to the limits. God bless these families and all survivors or relatives of those lost. Thank you for this book.

2 comments about Eyes of the Blind.

1. Dr. Hoogstraten's account of going into hiding as a young medical student in Nazi-occupied Holland is gripping. A firmer editorial hand might have focused the tale, which occasionally strays into a few too many family reminiscences that, although adding color, do not advance the story. The tale itself needs no such embellishment. However, having said that, those interested in daily life in occupied Holland and in life after liberation will find much here that is not normally recounted in texts on the subject. A thoughtful book from a erudite author.



2. A fast paced, true to life thriller. A brilliant look at war through the "Eyes" of those who experienced it first hand. Hoogstraten tells a wonderful story, that is truely his to tell!

No comments about People Who Made History - Oskar Schindler (paperback edition) (People Who Made History).

1 comments about The Hidden Children of the Holocaust: Teens Who Hid from the Nazis (Teen Witnesses to the Holocaust).

1. This is a short book, only 64 pages, with large print and lots of photos, so it is quick to read. Although I think the book could be longer, I still give it 5 stars because any book that makes people, especially the younger generation, aware of what happened during the Holocaust is an important contribution. The book is designed to inform teens as it relates the stories of several people who were teenagers at the time they were in hiding during WWII. Because the stories are short, young people who might not ordinarily take the time to read historical text, will find it easy to become generally informed about what these survivors went through, and the circumstances of their persecution by the Nazis.

   Each of the biographies in this book tells a unique story...some teens were hidden in private houses, often moving from place to place, and one 12-year-old girl survived in the forest, eating insects and raw rats. Once she had hidden in a haystack with other refugees, but they were discovered and attacked by anti-Jews who stabbed the haystack with pitchforks. When all was quiet, she climbed out and found the others' mutilated bodies lying on the ground.

   The book ends with updates about those teens' lives today.

   This book and the other seven in the series (Teen Witnesses to the Holocaust) would be useful for a quick study on the Holocaust.

4 comments about Off-White: a memoir.

1. Laurie Gunst's book takes you inside the world of the country-club South and gives a unique portrait of the "upstairs/downstairs" relationships. Her topic is supposed to be race. She provides a compelling account of her relationships with the blacks in her life, and how she has won her struggle to create human relationships that overcome the distortions prescribed by society. But I also found the work very powerful in talking about the hidden intensity of surrogate mothering -- in her case, the black caregiver who was emotionally available to her in ways that her biological mother could not be. There are passages of great beauty in the writing, as well as painfully honest self-examination. This is not a perfect book, but it is brave, admirable, and unfortunately still necessary in a society that continues to take comfort in certain forms of self-deception.



2. as a young southern "christmas tree jew", i found this book to be touching, and sad. as someone who did not feel the direct sting of jim crow and still seeing the ghost of it everywhere, i thought the story of the 'unsavory grandfather' fascinating. the duality and doubly binded mentality is examinined, tho not as thoroughly as i would have liked it to be in her later years. i think gunst's story is triumphant in many ways, and what my hope for it is is, not to piss off black folks (which i am sure it will) but to make white folks think about their own relationship with their own whiteness in the world. i think this book is a good tool to educate and open discussion - the childhood memories (mythic thought) and adolescent (romantic) are honest and true and well written. however, in the end, in adult life, she does not quite make it to the higher level of thinking (philisophical). she is on the cusp. i felt certain questions were unanswered, for fear of failing to do so. maybe her next novel will cover that one. maybe it will only raise more questions. i liked this book. it's gutsy.



3. This is just more mammy business. If you're white, you're white. Period. Nobody knows or cares about what went on in your house or wherever. This is America, and you're American, and you're white. That means racist.
   Stop trying to act like you're better than everybody else.



4. Somewhere between the harsh lines of black and white lie the inevitable shades of gray, as Laurie Gunst so adequately describes in her memoir, OFF-WHITE. Growing up in Richmond, Virginia, Gunst formed a strong bond with not only her nanny and caretaker Rhoda, but with all of the faces of color that shared her life.
   
   Already marked different because of being Jewish, Gunst felt her insides were different as well. In many ways, she saw herself as a white face with a black psyche due to her family's racially liberal ideals and her environment. She was the surrogate child of many African-Americans who were not only workers in her family's wealthy home, but also genuine adopted family members. She takes her readers on an identity pilgrimage throughout her childhood and adult years, adventures at Harvard and in Jamaica, and climaxing with the search for ancestors of both blood and spirit.
   
   While I thought OFF-WHITE started out a little slow, once I got to know the cast of characters in Laurie Gunst's life, I was smitten, intrigued, and enthralled with every last one of them. Gunst's writing is pensive and reminiscent without being too philosophical or academic. While the prose is certainly intelligently written, it was done so in a way that I felt she was telling me a story rather than relating mundane facts. Valuable lessons and awakenings abound in Laurie Gunst's memoir, and I am glad I got to know her and the people who touched her life.
   
   Reviewed by CandaceK
   of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

No comments about Writing a Modern Jewish History: Essays in Honor of Salo W. Baron.

5 comments about The Hours After: Letters of Love and Longing in War's Aftermath.

1. Ever since discovering Anne Frank back in Junior High School, I've always been interested in books about the Holocaust. I recently finished The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy. It's a very well written and important story about the Holocaust. And when I finished it I wanted to know what happened after the end of the book. What happened after the Jews were liberated? Everything from their previous lives was gone, their homes destroyed their families dead, murdered. What would they do? I hadn't read anything about after liberation.
   
   The Hours After tells the wonderful and uplifting story of what happened to Gerda Weissmann after liberation. The story is revealed to us through letters between Gerda and her fiancé, Kurt Klein, one of the American soldiers who liberated her from a slave-labor camp in Czechoslovakia in May 1945.
   
   At first I didn't care for the format of the book. I felt it had a sometimes awkward rhythm, going back and forth from Gerda's voice to Kurt's but at some point that feeling disappeared and all I could focus on was what would happened next.
   
   I thought their letters to each other were beautiful, especially Kurt's. What a wonderful gift they have in these letters. I also thought that the way the letters were written was interesting, maybe it was the way they translated from German to English but they seemed very old fashioned even for 1945.
   
   I thought it interesting that Gerda said her gushing (about her love and affection for Kurt) and sharing her deepest feelings was impolite. Later she asked to be forgiven for the burden she imposes on him by discussing the loss of her parents and the disappointment she's caused her uncle by not asking his permission to marry. I wonder the origins of such formality? And sometimes I wish there was just an iota of it left in our culture today.
   
   I was moved by the story of Gerda's Grandfather who was exiled to Siberia and how she drew strength from his experience. Gerda is an amazing person, very smart, she never seems to get frustrated by the bureaucrats who make her emigration to the United States so difficult. And when she had the opportunity to exact some justice or revenge (in the case of her landlady and her son) she could only feel empathy for them. What an amazing and compassionate soul!
   
   The process of preparing all of their papers for their marriage and Gerda's emigration to the US was excruciatingly prolonged! Gerda and Kurt communicated primarily by sloooow snail mail that was delivered via go-betweens until April 1946 (with the exception of a few telegrams). How different from our lightning fast communications and overnight deliveries of today.
   
   A wonderful and uplifting story!



2. After I read Gerda's "All But My Life", I absolutely had to read this book. I had to know more! "All But My Life" and "The Hours After" are two of the best books I have ever read.



3. This book is a very good read. It shows the compassion of love and trust. I am one that enjoys reading letter so this was perfect book for me. This book is comprised of letters written back and forth between the two authors. It is completely nonfiction. It shows the two peoples raw and bare emotions. It does take a while to read. It is not an extremely long book but it takes a good while to read. It is an easy read. The word choices arent difficult and the sentences aren't very complex. This sweet books talks about the way a couple met and lived through post war in Europe. The man was her liberator. She was a victim of the Nazi's cruel treatment. They became good friends while she was being treated in a medical hospital. As their relationship grew it became more loving and caring than anyone could have ever thought possible. They fell in love just as he was going to be sent back home. As this tragic point in the story happens it is counter acted by a wedding proposal and a vow for a marriage and a wonderful life together. As he left Europe, it started the wonderful wait until they could be married in Paris in 1946.



4. I think this was a okay book. It was very boring and kind of dragged. But I do like there love story, it was very touching.



5. We typically don't write or receive personal letters anymore. That is just one of many reasons why this book, with the different life experiences Kurt and Gerda W. Klein had during the war, is so compelling. Imagine this 25 yr. old U.S. serviceman helping this young woman, who had grown from adolescence to adulthood on a Nazi death march, come to grips with who she is and what's to become of her. The book provides a first hand account and perspective through their letters to eachother, as the hopeful re-building of countries and lives is surrounding them. This is a must read, especially poignant in the tenuous world situation we all find ourselves in, post Sept. 11th. The fact that these two young people married and built a life together is a wonderful love story.

1 comments about Being Rapoport: Capitalist with a Conscience (Focus on American History Series,Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin).

1. Bernard Rapoport is one of a kind for many reasons. He's a resoundingly left-leaning, labor-union-supporting insurance company founder and funder of liberal Democratic candidates and causes down in the heart of Texas, where such a fellow is distinctly unusual. For most of his adult life, he's put his money where his mouth is, even when he had to borrow the money. Now that he has considerable of his own money, he and his wife continue on an even grander scale supporting educational projects here and overseas. .
   
   Rapoport has always been politically active, and for anyone who's lived in Texas 50 years or so, his recounting of friendships and dealings with national and local political figures will bring back many memories. Underlying all this is his story of personal accomplishment in raising himself from financially poor beginnings through business perspicacity and sheer force of personality.

5 comments about Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker.

1. Mr. Mandel's book, "Saying No to Power" serves primarily as an apology and justification for 20th century's second most oppressive dictatorship - the Soviet Union. The author is a well-known Soviet sympathizer and apologist, and has been one throughout his life.Saying no to power? Not quite, Mr. Mandel is in fact saying yes to Soviet power.



2. ....

   Its a very interesting life story in any case. William Mandel grew up in a milieu which is long gone: a highly literate, politically active, urban working class. He spent a significant part of his childhood in the Soviet Union; was deeply, though ambivalently, involved in the Communist Party U.S.A(CPUSA) - (he was kicked out and then readmitted, at which point he resigned); He was interrogated twice by HUAC, as well as by Roy Cohn during the McCarthy hearings; He was the victim of red-baiting through-out his career; He was involved in the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley; he is a principle actor in the current Pacifica Radio fracas.

   Along the way William Mandel has encountered a huge number of characters, ranging from Eleanor Roosevelt, to Paul Robeson, to Jerry Rubin. His political outlook has changed from Marxist-Leninism to his current disavowal of Socialism.

   He is such an acclaimed scholar of the late Soviet Union that he was, for a time, a member of the Hoover Institute, a bastion of right-wing American triumphalism.

   In short, William Mandel has led an exciting life. His autobiography should be an exciting read.

   Sadly - it ain't so. Outside of the first few chapters about his boyhood, which are charming, this book is a chore. Mr. Mandel appears distraught that his contributions to the history of the American Left have been under-appreciated and is therefore concerned with setting the record straight. There are more references to personal correspondence extolling Mr. Mandel's impact on the world then there are to Mandel’s own writings!

   Fascinating questions are left unanswered. He infers that he has given up on Marxian Socialism since it has proved to be as utopian as the 19th Century socialisms that it sought to replace. He suggests that civil libertarian concerns gnawed at him while he was a practicing Communist. But he never presents a critique of Marxism. Given that this is a relatively recent intellectual development for Mr. Mandel, one would expect some substance in this regard.

   There are also the odd omissions and tantalizing facts that are not followed through upon. William Mandel offers a seemingly cogent case for the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact: tying together Stalin's desire for a secure western border with the incursion into Finland. Mandel seeks to make us understand that this pact was primarily a vehicle for the defense of the Soviet Union against a set of hostile and intractable enemies. trange...there is no mention of the invasion and division of Poland.

   As for tantalizing facts, there is one point where William Mandel mentions a recent CPUSA convention wherein the Commies called the Cops! Apparently there was a group of dissidents who were attempting to participate, and the Cleveland Police Department was called upon to enforce Party Disciplne. But this incident is not expanded upon. (This is, in fact not merely an offhand anecdote. The CPUSA subsequently split into two groups: one of which expounds Social Democracy ala Western Europe – and which has left the Party, the other is a bunch of aging ideologues. This has spelled the end of the CPUSA as a viable force, even in left-sectarian terms. Given the sturm and drang that followed the CPUSA throughout its history, and inspired Mandel’s most courageous moments – indeed, given the force that the CPUSA had in Mandel’s personal life, from childhood forward, one would think that the Party’s demise is worthy of comment.

   Perhaps William Mandel could author a follow-up volume which details and analyzes the history of the American Left in the 20th Century. He would be in a unique position to do so, and it would be an exciting and entertaining book.

   Bottom line: if you're building a library on the American Left, get this book for the sake of completeness.

   Otherwise look for William Mandel's other works on the Soviet Union. I note that there is a new one due in July.




3. This is a profoundly sad book that encapsulates the intellectual tragedy of our times and as such, is illuminating, though not in the manner its author and his supporters would prefer. Mandel's was perhaps the loudest and most articulate voice serving, in effect, as a propoganda arm of the Soviet Union through decade after decade when the extraordinary brutality of Stalinist dictatorship devoured its own children and created unparalleled police states in Eastern Europe and around the world. Mandel never seemed to realize that the Soviet Union of his dreams was one vast Potemkin village barely masking an unending daily terror. The enormous irony of Mandel hysterically proclaiming his civil liberties before HUAC is apparently lost on both himself and those fellow communists who for some odd reason always want to drape themselves with the grand banners of "fighter for world peace and justice." But no apologist for state fascism could ever publish a self aggrandizing book in America entitled "Saying No to Power" merely for their vigorous assertion of their own first amendment rights to praise dictatorships and deride the one nation on earth whose commitment to freedom of speech has been made foundational. Very very few passionate counterpart activists for freedom and justice within the former Soviet Union ever lived through the Gulags (or even through the basement of that ghastly tower on Dzerzhinsky Square). Commisars Yagoda, Yeskov, and Beria failed to provide microphones, news cameras, and printing presses to the dissidents of the Soviet Union, although for five decades the inhuman screams from the interrogation rooms hardly needed amplification. They were, of course, never heard as far as Mandel's Berkeley. No to power? George Orwell is smiling even now.



4. Book review by: Mike Rhodes

   What's it like to spend your lifetime fighting for social change? SAYING NO TO POWER takes you on a journey that puts you on the front line in the struggle for peace, social justice and socialism. Mr. Mandel is a "red diaper baby" who had graduated from high school at fourteen when his parents took him to the Soviet Union in 1931 to help build socialism. Back in the U.S., he joined the Communist Party at eighteen and was assigned to industrial Ohio where the steel, auto, and rubber unions were being built. In the 1950's when McCarthyism was looking for commies under every bed, they found Bill and ordered him to appear before all three witch-hunting committees, two in the U.S. Senate and also in the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities. Instead of being intimidated, Mandel turned the tables on Senator Joe McCarthy and demanded an end to the witch-hunt. He had faith in the American people's desire for free speech as stated in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

   We follow Mandel into the 60's and learn about the significant role he played in the Free Speech Movement and as a commentator on KPFA (KFCF 88.1 FM, our local progressive radio station). He is one of the most knowledgeable experts in the country on the former Soviet Union. In the 90's he was removed from the air for "deviating" from the subject matter of his regular program.

   If you want to learn about the life of someone who has spent most of the last century in the struggle to build a better America, read SAYING NO TO POWER.

   ###




5. "Saying No to Power" is a well-documented account of the U.S. climate and history of the past 7-8 decades, a gigantic mural painted with heart. For decades now, Bill Mandel's life has obviously been devoted to promoting world peace by fostering a deeper understanding between his country and the USSR. His insights into the Russian people are priceless, not only because he speaks Russian but, more importantly, because he speaks Human. Came the Cold War and the demonizing of the USSR, and he became a symbol of courage and free speech among the people of the United States when he stood up to McCarthy himself. Over the years, I met many people with extraordinary stories about the McCarthy era, and it was enriching to see them all in context, thanks to this book. Integrity, courage, a burning sense of justice and fairness, a spirited stand for peace and freedom for all, within and without the United States, Bill Mandel has this in common with all those friends I have met along my path. Without people like them, what would have happened to free speech? I also treasure his genuine respect for women and his ongoing fight against racism. I believe that everybody who wants an in-depth look at the main roadblocks to world peace will find this book useful and inspiring. It found its niche among my reference books, as I'm sure I won't lack opportunities to consult it now and again.

   Dr. Viviane Lerner, Ph.D.