No comments about Dream Homes: From Cairo to Katrina, an Exile's Journey (Jewish Women Writers).

5 comments about The Men with the Pink Triangle: The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps.

1. Written in the first person, this book describes in vivid detail the horror of day to day life in a Nazi concentration camp. It's one man's eyewitness account of the camps, the death and degradation he faced on a daily basis, and how he clung to his humanity ~ and his life ~ against such unbearable odds.
   
   Most telling ~ though not really very surprising, given the vast power differences between prisoners and their guards ~ was his recollection of camp politics. He managed to survive by taking advantage of a guard whose friendliness toward him turned into sexual interest.
   
   This book is not for the faint of heart. The scenes of horror that play out ~ the executions, the torture ~ are not graphic in their description, but the stark, terse language in which they're conveyed, married with the sense of hopelessness you read between the lines, speak more to the brutality of the Nazis than a thousand descriptive paragraphs ever could.
   
   But this was probably one of the best books I've read on the Holocaust. I wish it were required reading for every person, everywhere, as a testament of the human spirit in adversity and a warning to us all. Perhaps then we could begin to move past our differences to a more peaceful co-existance.



2. This is a must read for everyone who wants to discover the whole truth abut the concentration camps that the devilish Nazis set up during WW2. It's also a must read for every gay man in the world because it documents an important chapter about how gay men were so ill-treated (starved, beaten, horribly tortured, dishonorably killed) during ww2 and afterwards. I'm just sorry that the author didin't identify himself, because if he was living today I would try to find him and thank him for telling his story. It also documents the horrible descrimination that the gays suffered after 1945 until the 70s and how differently they were treated than the jews. These had the holocaust horror recognised immediately after the war was over, but no such luck for the few gay men who survived the camps (mostly Sachsenhausen and Flossenburg). Don't miss this book if you're setting up any kind of document, museum, documentary about gay people in the 20th century. I'm so touched by the men who died in those camps, I just can't believe how much they suffered....I've been at Sachsenhausen 2 months ago, and they had a sign in memory of the gay people that have died there, but I didn't realize the horror in it's full scope. All this just makes hate more and more anyone who defends the nazis and that deny the holocaust. I hope the nazis who did these crimes burn and suffer in hell for all eternity for everything they did. But I think it won't be enough punishment.....



3. The dirty closeted secret of the Nazi Holocaust is and was the persection of gays and the subsequent systematic effort to exterminate them. This book is an eye opening account of an actual gay survivor of this 20th Century atrocity. It is absolute MUST reading for anyone who wants to understand aspects of the Holocaust, or for any gay man or woman in America today. Eye opening and brutal, this book will provide the reader with a glimpse of history not often told.



4. Such a good book. It gives a different perspective on the Holocaust. It's a page turner...I couldn't put it down once I got past the first few pages. Everyone one should read!



5. A sodomy law had been on the German law books since 1871, a law known simply as Paragraph 175. Only a few people were ever sentenced under this obscure law until June of 1935 when, after the rise of Hitler and Nazism, the Nuremberg laws were enacted and the consequences of Paragraph 175 strengthened. Where once before, you had to be caught in the act of same sex relations, now simply receiving a letter or the spreading of idle gossip would have you sent to a concentration camp.

   "The Men with the Pink Triangle" is one anonymous man's account of the harshness and cruelty faced by gay men at the hands of the SS and the ruling Nazi party, as well as by the other prisoners -- criminals, politicals, emigrants -- who viewed "filthy queers" as lower than the rest of them. They were distinguished by the large, pink triangles sown onto their prison outfits, making them easy targets for taunts and punishments. Also, homosexuals labored through the worst of the work details and "volunteered" for medical experimentation, which usually resulted in their deaths.

   Some advantages also appeared for gay men. The "Capos" who were in charge of the prisoner barracks, often made lovers of some of the prisoners, giving them some protection and better rations and clothing. As is says in the book: "Homosexual behavior between two 'normal' men is considered an emergency outlet, while the same thing between two gay men, who both feel deeply for one another, is something 'filthy' and repulsive." The anonymous man used this to his advantage and survived the camps and the threat of being sent to the front lines.

   Ths is a moving and powerful story about survival and about the right to be who you are, during one of the darkest times in world history. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood.

1. I just finished reading Jennifer Traig's incredibly engaging memoir. Who knew a book about a serious condition- OCD, more specifically srucpulosity- would be so entertaining, yet endearing? I was constantly reading parts of the books outloud to my husband, who was wondering why I was giggling.
   Traig is both a gifted and clever author as she gives us an inside peak into a world of extreme religion and cleanliness.
   The story was captivating, the writing wonderful, and yes, the devil is in the details. If you are considering buying this book, definitely buy it. Put a tissue on your head and read it!!



2. Is it wrong to fall over laughing when reading a book about a person with severe OCD? If so, I'm in some deep cosmic trouble, because this was hilarious.
   
   "Scenes" aptly describes the book because, as Traig herself makes clear, her battles with the disease were sporadic. Plus, the book has scattered through it various (also very funny) quizzes, proofs, sample SAT questions, and so forth that give insight into the OCD mind. Somehow, Traig helps us find humor in the horror of bloody, chapped hands, anorexia, and hair-pulling. It's almost a hat trick; I'm not sure how she did it.
   
   Traig and her family, as presented in the book, are immensely likable and weather the bizzare with good humor. There are colorful portraits of them as well as of Traig; no member of her immediate family is there as a mere prop to her own story, which is a real strength in the book, something that helps make it more substantial than many of the more "me-centric" memoirs.
   
   Religion plays a heavy part in this memoir, something that many readers may not expect, but it was the key piece of Traig's disorder. I personally found it fascinating to read about, as so many elements of Orthodox Judaism were unfamiliar to me, and, again, I thought it gave the book a good deal of substance. Some readers may be put off by this element of the unfamiliar, while others may find it intriguing (and it certainly makes this book stand out from any other OCD memoir). The book becomes not just a "book about a girl with OCD" but also a more profound look at a girl coming to terms with her identity and faith. And again-- to be able to make all of this side-splittingly funny reveals rare talent indeed!



3. Intrigued by the excellent art design on the cover of this book, I recently enjoyed stepping into the mind of author Traig as a young girl struggling with a mental disorder amongst other pains of growing up. She writes with a very sardonic tone, which suits the serious subject quite well, making it a fun read instead of a potentially dreary one. The only aspect that seemed slightly out of place was how she didn't really wrap the memoir up with any sense of finality. There was hardly any sense of the author in the present tense, aside from a few mentions of her religious life currently. Perhaps the intent was to create a snapshot of her as an adolescent, but it seems like an abrupt ending to the book regardless. Would definitely recommend to anyone interested in reading a sharply written memoir.



4. Jennifer Traig uses a distinctive comic voice throughout this book that makes it very easy to read. The author describes the trials and tribulations of growing up with OCD, and her anecdotes are both poignant and funny. She provides a non-clinical point of view, describing the impact of OCD on her everyday life. I would recommend this book and am looking forward to reading more works by Traig.



5. I really liked this book. A good read about growing up, religion, family and OCD. I just saw that the author has another book, and I'm ordering that one right now! Good read!

2 comments about Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activites, and the True Story Behind the List.

1. A good biography, to me, has always been a book where the reader truly gets to know the person he or she is reading about. In that regard, this book tends to fail. Not that isn't a truly informative book, far from it, but instead it reads like a history book...chronologically (mostly) moving from early life to old age, giving out facts, quotes, and stories about Schindler's life so that by the last page you feel as though you know ABOUT his life, but not really WHY he lived it (ironically my greatest "insights" in Schindler come from quoted intelligence files ABOUT him confiscated after the war, not the author's words).
   
   Maybe this problem is endemic more to the man than the other. He (apparently) was a many-faceted man and that could make writing a book to make the reader understand him difficult. Still, just because a historic figure is "difficult" to understand doesn't mean he can't be written about in such a way as the reader can come to understand who this person really was and to be honest I just don't really think I can say I have that idea after having read the book (I personally think, for good or bad, that the movie gave me a better impression than the book).
   
   So...if you want to learn about the man and what he did (and all the tangential characters that he ran across in his life) this is the book for you. If you are looking for a book that gives you the facts of his life AND the understanding of the man, you might do better to look elsewhere.



2. As background reading for my Masters thesis it is a good book. As light reading for one who might have a passing interest in Schindler, the book is protracted and discursive. The edition I read was possibly the worst edited book I have ever read! The historian Sir Ian Kershaw is introduced as Kreshaw!!...........and so the errors persist. Crowe has researched his topic well, using a vast number of sources and quoting the work of others (notably Robin O'Neill - former student of Sir Martin Gilbert - who has researched Schindler too). A particularly interesting facet of this work is the cross-referencing/comparison of Schindler's life and deeds with Spielberg's film. This was most useful and interesting and dispels many of the myths that filmgoers might accept as fact. A good book - spoilt by poor editing - revealing the man behind the myth: warts and all!

5 comments about Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944.

1. I think that you should read this book because it is clear and it gives a good description of what it was like for the Jews as the Holocaust began. The author described how they lived, specifically, how they dressed, slept, and ate. This gives the reader a clear understanding. It is interesting to learn about an actual family that lived during these hard times, especially for the children Piri, Etu, Joli, and Sandor. Piri's family had to make hard decisions in order to survive. The book gives a good description of the Ghetto and how they had to live for those few weeks. For example, the bathroom was smelly and gross with not much privacy. The ground was cold and hard, "What if it rains during the night?" she asked. "We'll all get soaked." They were not allowed to make fires either. They don't even know how long they are going to be there so they don't know what to expect. They build somewhat of a shelter for just their family with a tent inside it for privacy and to help keep the rain out. The author, Aranka Siegal, doesn't just give an overview of what it was like in the Ghetto; she describes every detail about it. Overall, it is a good book and I recommend it to ages 13 an up.



2. Upon the Head of a Goat is a very good book. It gives a lot of back round pre-holocaust. The fact that it is a true story is even better. It teaches and touches upon the home of a Jewish family torn from each other. It describes the obstacles they had to go through to live their everyday life. They had their food, conformability, morals, thoughts, believes, and one another taken from them.
   I liked this book, and I recommend it. There are parts in the book that you will question yourself on the answers that you would provide in certain situations. The ending of the book was a little disappointing because it didn't really touch upon what happened. They led up to all these thoughts and stopped.



3. I like history and the subject of World War II and Nazi Germany, that is why I was surprised how much I did not like this book. I found it boring and uninteresting. I wish the book had more action. I guess it was hard for me to identify with a nine year old girl and what she went through. I also do not like endings that leave you hanging. I wish we knew what happened to them after they got on the train. It was almost like I wish the book started where it ended. This book is probably better for someone younger or for someone who wants to avoid the violence and terror of World War II.



4. This was the first book I read about the Shoah in Hungary, and it was so fascinating that it got me interested in all things Hungarian. It's different from many books about the Shoah in that the majority of it takes place before the Nazi invasion of Hungary on 19 March 1944, when the remaining members of the Davidowitz family are shipped off to a ghetto. Though life is growing increasingly hard for them because of the anti-Jewish regulations and the strain of living during a war in general, and Piri had to stay in the Ukraine with her grandmother and older sister Rozsi longer than she expected to because of a border war, the Davidowitzes still have a pretty normal and decent life before they have to leave for the ghetto. During this time the family also does their part to help other Jewish families and people in need, even with hiding them in safe houses or helping to smuggle them across borders, and Iboya, the next-youngest of Mrs. Davidowitz's children by her first marriage, is very involved in Zionism. And even in the ghetto, Piri's family and her best friend Judi's little family live the best they can, trying to keep their spirits up and to be happy. Piri and Judi both have their first romances in the ghetto, in fact. It's not one of those books that starts out happily and then quickly moves to the ghetto and then the camps. In fact, the book ends as they're leaving the ghetto in the cattlecar, and only a short postscript tells us what happened after that.
   
   The book is also interesting because not all of Piri's siblings are at home, unlike many other Shoah books where all of the family are in the same house. Because her mother didn't want her grandmother to be lonely after she was widowed, she began farming out her five daughters to stay with her to keep her company, but Lilli, the oldest, wasn't her companion very long because she got married at only 16 years old and soon had a baby. Now Rozsi is living with the grandmother, and loves farm life very much, while the other older sister, Etu, is away at university in Budapest. Even after Lilli and her young daugher Manci move back in, there are still only Piri and her sister Iboya left at home along with their halfsiblings Sandor and Joli, and when Lilli's husband Lajos is arrested and Lilli insists on joining him along with Manci, there are still only the youngest four still at home. It makes it interesting because the family are in all different places instead of all suffering the same fates or suffering all together. The only complaint I have about the book is one I acquired in hindsight; it would have been helpful to have told the reader something about the pronunciation of the Hungarian names and that some of the names used, like Ica and Manci, are nicknames and not full given names.



5. It was a very interesting and informing book. It was easy to feel for the characters. I highly recommend it for people who are interested in the lives of young holocaust victims.

5 comments about How to Talk Jewish.

1. Jackie Mason's book "How to Talk Jewish", is the greatest and funniest teaching tool for anyone who wonders why they've wasted words speaking English, when they could have said the same with one word in Jewish.



2. Jackie Mason's observations on Yiddish are hilarious. You don't have to be Jewish to love this book!



3. I wanted to learn some common Yiddish sayings. So I bought Jackie Masons' book titled: "How to Talk Jewish". It is an enjoyable book complete with Yiddish sayings and a taste of Jewish life as only Jackie Mason can tell it.



4. Not as good as I had hoped. He explains a lot of Yiddish phrases that are not commonly used. The commonly used expressions were not defined as well as I could have defined them myself.



5. Quintessential Jackie! Hilarious! A must-have in a Jewish humor library. May I also recommend a nifty, gezunta book I received as a gift and fell in love with? "A Little joy, A Little Oy" -- if Jackie's a main course Joy, Oy is one amazing antipasto.

   Lillian & Joe Moses

2 comments about The Lesser Evil: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1945-59.

1. Victor Klemperer's The Lesser Evil completes his three volume diary as a Jewish college professor in Germany from 1933 to 1959. In this volume, he covers the years from the end of the Second World War until his final illness and to my mind provides the most rewarding literary experience. To be sure, his account of the tightening Nazi noose following Hitler's ascension to power and the horrors and restrictions of the war years as a Jew married to an "Aryan" woman have few equals in Holocaust literature. Only the fire bombing of Dresden on the eve of a scheduled deportation of his city's remaining handful of Jews and their spouses allowed him to survive. But the post-war years provide the fascinating portrait of a genteel intellectual dedicated to the rule of reason (a major scholarly pursuit as a Professor of Romance Languages and Literature involves his work on the French Enlightenment) trying to balance between the resurgent militarism and consumerism of the triumphant western powers and the repression of a socialist German Democratic Republic, the title's "lesser evil" where he chooses to live. Klemperer is keenly aware of his own inconsistencies as a secular humanist with a deep appreciation of traditional spiritual values, often describing his situation as one of falling between the two chairs of the East-West confrontation that became the Cold War. In 1951, the grieving widower remarries within a year, feeling both guilt and gratitude and humbled by two women more talented and generous than himself. Hardly heroic, he manages to seem admirable as he struggles to keep afloat despite terrible times and petty academic politics.



2. I was excited to read the rest of his life and journal : I do like a lot how he writes. I do not like at all, all the editorial cuts and even less when they felt they have to remplace it with a cold short story "what was cut" altering a lot the flow of reading.
   
   Or it was not important, and they could have put (...) like elsewere, or they should have left it there. His journals are so important, I am so sorry that I cannot read German, where they are twice as long. Already, the second wife cut some from his words, now the editors and the translators. Really pity !

4 comments about The Secret of Priest's Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story (Holocaust).

1. This is a very nice book about a little-known story from WWII. It is just incredible what these Jewish families were able to endure to stay alive by hiding in caves, although none of them were experienced cavers. The story of the modern-day cave experts who rediscovered the story is also well done, and the two tales are woven beautifully to create the book. Modern cave photographs and historical images work combine to help tell the story.



2. A book that should be read by all Holocaust-denyers. Had the privelage of meeting the authors and one of the family members written about.



3. Two authors, a cave expert and a photographer, tell this almost unbelievable story of how thirty-eight Jews from a village in the Ukraine survived the Holocaust. They clung tenaciously to life in two different caves for over one year, and somehow managed to come out of the experience physically, mentally, and emotionally intact. We feel admiration and empathy for these determined people who risked everything in order to stay together.
   The story of the caves is interwoven with the story of these people's survival. The authors conducted extensive interviews and consulted the memoir, We Fight to Survive, written in 1960 by Esther Stermer, the matriarch of one of the families. This book reads like an adventure story with a suspense-filled plot and fascinating characters. However, this is brutal fact, not artificial fiction. Generous margins, gorgeous photos of the people and places involved, accurate maps and fascinating sidebars make for a handsome book. The only elements lacking are an index and bibliography. One of the survivors, Shulim Stermer, states: "Everyone has it inside of them to survive." Peter Taylor wondered if he would be capable of the same will to fight for his own family's survival. The Secret of Priest's Grotto brings us face to face with this difficult question. Ages 10-14.



4. I visited the Priest's Grotto in 1990 and found the story local cavers told us fascinating. However it took the amazing detective work of Cris Nicola to uncover the entire story of survival. The book accurately conveys the cave environment and the conditions found there. Cris and Peter are able to put this into language that non caver types can understand. The book had special meaning to me as I am one of few Americans to actually visit the site. To anyone this story is a moving example of a family fighting to survive under horrible conditions. The photo of the present day family on page 61 brought tears to my eyes. I highly reccomend giving this book a read.

2 comments about Holocaust.

1. My daughter loved this book. Once she picked it up she never put it down until she had read the entire thing from cover to cover. If you know anyone with a keen interest in this subject, I highly recommend this book as an addition to their collection on the subject of the Holocaust. It makes a thoughtful gift as well, due to the quality of the binding and the layout of the cover.



2. Really great book for teaching the Holocaust. I bought this book to add to my Holocaust unit that I teach inthe Spring. It has great information, written so intermediate kids can understand. The pictures are also great.

5 comments about I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree: A Memoir of a Schindler's List Survivor.

1. The book I will Plant You A Lilac Tree by Laura Hillman is an excellent book. I would most likely recommend it to girls though. I would recommend it to girls because the book talks about Hannelore getting sexually assaulted and other things like her falling in love with Bernard (Dick) Hillman. I would also recommend this book because it talks about true fact that happened during the Holocaust. This book has been the best book I've ever read. One reason it is would be because she expresses her feelings about the people she loved and lost, but also how she hated what was happening to the Jewish religion. All in all if you're looking for a good read I think you should read the book I will Plant You A Lilac Tree.



2. This is one of the best books I've ever read on any subject. It was compelling reading--I, too, couldn't put it down.
   I love its honesty. Nothing was left out of this book. And yet it is not sensational or graphic. It's an honest, humane, and brave book about a terrifying time.
   I'm so grateful to the author for writing it.



3. This is the first-person account of Hannelore Wolff, a survivor of Nazi death camps and a Jew on Schindler's List. The story chronicles Hannelore's time when she leaves safety to accompany her mother and brothers to first a Jewish ghetto and then to a concentration camp in an effort to keep the family together. Hannelore then spends the next three years living day to day as she survives the disease, death, and horrors of the Holocaust. Her story is by turns one of luck, faith, and perseverance as she ultimately finds herself on Oskar Schindler's famous list and thus brought to the relative safety of his factory. Along the way Hannelore meets and falls in love with her future husband, Dick. Mrs. Hillman gives us a chilling account of a desperate time and helps us all to remember those who should not be forgotten. A tremendous story that will touch you deeply. Highly recommended.



4. This book is great! I have always been interested in this subject and i don't normaly read books! I'm a junior in high school and i enjoyed this book ALOT!!! Great character plot and great ending!! I don't want to return it to the library!! Also i share the same last name!



5. One day I had nothing to read and I decided to get this book because I heard was great. It kept me on the edge of my seat through the whole book! I finished in less than two days and have read it five more times since.