3 comments about No Time to Mourn: The True Story of a Jewish Partisan Fighter.

1. In truth this is quite an obscure topic. Partisans in general do not get the recognition they deserve and even less so do Jewish partisans, who as it will become apparent for those reading this book, did not only have to fight against the Germans but also other partisan and 'bandit' groups around them. In this instance it was the Polish AK that gave the author such trouble and would eventually kill quite a few of his friends and family members. Aside from the Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and others also participated in various ways in working against Jews and helping the Germans in tracking them down.
   
   The author was the only one of his immediate family to escape the Holocaust, his accounts are moving and more than once did I find myself having to reread a paragraph or two to realize that what I'm reading is actually written there. Details of life under German occupation and in a German ghetto, running away from a ghetto and stumbling into the forests in seek of rumored Partisans. Finding them and other groups of entire families as they try to make the best of the situation as they struggle to survive in the forests and wilderness of Eastern Europe while the Germans and their collaborators keep an ever watchful eye out for them. Joining a Partisan group and giving battle to the Germans and those who are helping them by betraying their former friends and neighbors, all of this is recounted with the utmost feeling and, in my opinion, honesty.
   
   What I found extremely interesting were the activities of the author after he had left the Partisans and joined the police force in some local towns around where he had operated as a Partisan. How they hunted down collaborators, what they did with them, what they could and couldn't due according to Soviet rules and regulations, how the NKVD acted toward them, etc. All of this was quite interesting, not surprising on the other hand was the fact that after the war had come to a close Jews were still dying in Poland.
   
   An emotional read to say the least. Highly recommended, the author lead an amazing life and this tragic period of history understandably haunted him for the majority of it. I'm glad he put these words on paper and was strong enough to share his stories and experiences with his children and the world.



2. There have been thousands of books written about the Holocaust but few describe the plight of the Jewish partisans who escaped to the forests bravely defending themselves against their Nazi hunters. Unfortunately, the majority of these Jewish partisans never survived to recount the horrid experiences they endured at the hands of the Germans and their collaborators.
   
   It is estimated that there were approximately twenty-five thousand Jews that escaped to the forests during the Holocaust. One was Leon Kahn, who was born Leibke Kaganowicz and prior to his death on June 8th, 2003 in Vancouver, Canada he recounted his experiences to Marjorie Morris, who for more than two years worked on the manuscript of No Time To Mourn: The True Story of a Jewish Partisan Fighter.
   
   Historian Allan Levine in the introduction to No Time To Mourn: The True Story of a Jewish Partisan Fighter states that many historians dismiss the plight of Jewish partisan resistance as inconsequential due to the fact that there were small numbers who survived as compared to the millions who were murdered in the Holocaust. However, as Levine rightfully states, these historians fail to understand the enormity of their struggle. As he most appropriately asserts: "The question should not be, why did more Jews not resist, but rather, how, under the circumstances, was any resistance possible at all?"
   
   Kahn was born in the shtetl of Eisikes in a part of middle Europe that was passed back and forth between Poland, Lithuania and Russia over many centuries. The Eisikes Jews, although they had lived here since the twelfth century, were continuously subjected to special and discriminatory laws that made their lives very difficult, however, very few believed that one day there would be a massacre on such a grand scale that would practically decimate the entire Jewish population of their shtetl.
   
   At the age of sixteen Kahn was torn with guilt and anguish when he had to choose between escaping to the forest with his father and sister while at the same time leaving behind his mother and grandmother, who chose not follow them. As he quotes Golda Meir, who once said to a group of survivors, "you can get used to anything if you have to, even to feeling perpetually guilty." Kahn relates to his readers that after escaping to the forests he once again felt strong and proud again as a Jew, as he tore the yellow star from his shirt, grinding it into the dirt.
   Moreover, in the place of German oppression, he was revitalized with a new feeling of confidence coupled with an overwhelming desire for revenge for the massacre of his fellow Jews including members of his own family.
   
   No Time To Mourn: The True Story of a Jewish Partisan Fighter succeeds admirably as a captivating and riveting memoir combining historical facts with a personal narrative that will no doubt have a profound effect on its readers. Kahn's passionate chronicle puts a human face to the forgotten Jewish partisans as he vividly captures their fears, perpetual torment and frustrations as they battled against overwhelming odds. This is a book that definitely should be included in the reading list of history courses pertaining to the Holocaust and the Second World War.
   
   Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor Bookpleasures



3. This is an extremely worthwhile personal history of surving the holocaust, fighting back against both the German invaders and the local thugs (both of whom targeted Jews for abuse, torture, and death).
   
   I've reviewed it in detail on my blog here:
   http://www.gilgamesh.ca/index.php/2005/09/08/no-time-to-mourn/

5 comments about The Mezuzah in the Madonna's Foot: Marranos and Other Secret Jews--A Woman Discovers Her Spiritual Heritage.

1. Alexy was a child in Prague, in 1939. When World War II broke out, her father suddenly announced that the family was leaving, and that they would be baptized as Catholics. Up to that point, the author had not even known that her family was Jewish. From Prague, they fled to France, and then to Spain.
   
   Years later, after she was living in America, she learned that many Jews had fled to Spain during the Holocaust, but that most had not converted or hidden their Jewishness.
   
   As she began to trace her roots, she discovered the irony of Jews seeking protection in a country that, centuries before, and persecuted and expelled them.
   
   There are a couple of books here, fighting for supremacy!
   
   The first book is about how and why Spain opened its borders to Jewish refugees from the Holocaust.
   
   "The irrefutable fact remains that, although the presence of Jews placed the whole country at risk of being drawn into another ar or occupied by Hitler's forces, Fascist Spain, both officially and unofficially, accepted thousands of foreign Ashkenazic Jews within its borders and allowed them to remain until they were able to secure residence elsewhere."
   
   Why? The question is probably unanswerable, though Alexy tries her best. Guilt over the expulsions of 1492? Maybe, but this does not account for the welcome to Ashkenazic, as well as Sephardic, Jews. Maybe Franco had Jewish ancestors? There's no proof of that. A political decision in case the Allies won? Perhaps, but in a country devastated economically by the Civil War, Spain gave much. One interesting suggestion is that because of the expulsion, and the concomitant absence of a Jewish population, Spain did not develop the kind of anti-Semitic attitudes seen in other European countries.
   
   Whatever the reason, the fact remains that thousands owe their lives to an official blind eye, and open Spanish arms.
   
   Alexy begins by explaining her quest, her need to understand her own family history that sent her to Spain, and to the New York archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ("the Joint"), the organization that was responsible for helping stateless Jewish refugees in Spain. She interviews several people who found, or whose parents found, a haven across the Pyrenees, and in the section called "The Rescuers" she writes of those, Jews and non-Jews, who provided the means to safety. People such as Lisa Fittko, who acted as a guide, and Renée Reichmann, who from Tangier arranged material support, and Spanish diplomats who told the Gestapo, "these are our Jews" and taught the children a few words of Spanish in case they should be challenged.
   
   The next two parts seemed to me as though they should be in a different book. "The Reformers" writes of present-day liberalization of Spanish laws and attitudes about non-Catholics (not merely Jews). It's interesting but although it touches on some theories as to why Spain helped, it is really more focused on the present and seems out of place.
   
   The same is true of the final section, about contemporary Marranos and other "secret Jews". This is a huge topic about which a whole book could, and should (and probably has, I'll have to look) be written. In fact, the subtitle of this book suggests that that's what it's about. But it isn't.
   
   Either this book should have been much longer, and made into a history of Spain and the Jews (and that would be a seriously long book!), or it should have been shorter, and the last two parts saved to become another book or books.
   
   But those are quibbles. This is a fascinating, and very personal, discussion of an unexpected and little-known part of the Holocaust.



2. Highly-readable account of Spain's indirect role during the Holocaust as many Jews sought escape to the West through Spain. There are interesting portraits of both the rescued and rescuers, with additional chapters on modern Spanish Jews and Marranos or Crypto-Jews of Spanish descent. Alexy did a great service bringing these stories to our attention as very few have thought of Jews in Spain beyond the Inquisition.



3. This is a good book, all the stories gathered and told really paint the picture of what people went through trying to escape the Holocust, and how Spain really did help them.



4. Once you read this book,the title makes sense. The author was a holocust survivor and was so grateful and impressed with Spain that she felt compelled to go back to see if others felt the same. Lot's of interviews in this book regarding that perticular era. What a twist for Spain!

   Excellent Read!




5. I found this book at my Jewish boyfriend's mother's house. She checked it out of the library as part of a Sephardic reading group. I started skimming through it and couldn't put it down, had to buy my own copy here on Amazon! Trudi Alexy and her family fled Czechoslovakia to escape the Germans and were chased through France and finally Spain before they felt safe. Spain, in spite of its history of ultra-conservative Catholicism, Inquisition, expulsion of the Jews, etc., was one of the few safe havens for Jews fleeing the Germans during WWII. I was surpised to find this out, since Franco was a part of the Axis powers, a rigid ultra-Catholic, a dictator, and a Fascist. But I guess he wasn't an anti-Semite, because he basically looked the other way when Jews began pouring into Spain illegally to escape being killed in the concentration camps of Occupied Europe, especially Vichy-controlled France, which practically did all they could to deliver the Jews over to the Germans, nasty anti-Semites that the French are. In contrast, Spain not only looked the other way when Jews came pouring over the border, in many cases Spanish diplomats would demand that arrested Jews in other countries be released to them as Spanish citizens, even in cases where the Jews were Ashkenaz, not even Sephardic! The Spanish Red Cross also made a great effort to get food, clothing and letters shipped to Jews in concentration camps in the rest of Europe, even as the International Red Cross did absolutely nothing to help. There are horrific stories from the survivors themselves, tales of fleeing the Nazis with only the clothes on their backs, of escaping concentration camps and struggling over the Pyrenees in mid-winter without even a proper coat. Tales of getting to Spain and turning themselves in to the police to find warm beds, food and even money provided for them by kind hearted Spaniards from all walks of life. Then there are stories from the people who smuggled them into Spain, the risks they took to save thousands upon thousands of people from certain death. And tales of the Secret Jews, or Marranos, or Crypto-Jews, who were forced to convert during the Inquisition, or who were expelled from Spain, and the constant threats that they faced. Many of them continued practicing their Jewish rituals in absolute secrecy, in most cases not even letting their children know that they were of Jewish blood until age 12, when they were less likely to slip and give the secret away to outsiders. Many Crypto-Jews live in Mexico and New Mexico today, their ancestors having arrived in the 1500's after the expulsion from Spain. The Inquisition follwed them to the New World, however, so they continued practicing the most minimal Jewish traditions, such as ritual prayer, in absolute secrecy. Trudi interviewed some people who only identified as Catholics, but had listened to an NPR show on the Crypto-Jews and identified ancient and distorted Jewish traditions that their own family practiced! These people were utterly shocked to find out that they were of Jewish ancestry. I don't personally see the big deal, but I guess if you're a major Christian, then you might think it's a bad thing. In most cases though, the families were not only aware of their Jewish ancestry, but fostered it in secret while living a public life of Catholicism. They would intermarry only amongst one another and kept to fairly tight-knit communities. I liked the stories of the people who escaped to Spain during WWII best, since they were so full of heroism and drama, but really the whole book was fascinating.

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

No comments about My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for his Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq.

5 comments about Jps Guide to Jewish Women: 600 B.C.E. - 1900 C.E. (JPS Desk Reference).

1. A comprehensive view of Jewish women throughout history. I just completed a somewhat detailed course The History of Islam, and found the chapters - The Jewish Women Under Islam: The Near East, North Africa, and Spain; and A Different Voice: Jewish Women in the Lands of Islam particlarly informative. They covered aspects not covered in my course.
   The entire book is scholarly, yet easy to read. I enjoyed it and would recommend it highly.



2. This wonderful new book fills a gap. It enables readers to put themselves into the many different worlds Jewish women occupied over time and compare our lives today to those lived in times past. I highly recommend it as a good read and a fabulous reference book.



3. This book was expeertly researched and beautifully written. The introduction to each era was especially informative. Though conceived as a reference book, it was so interesting that it was hard to put down.



4. The JPS Guide to Jewish Women is a welcome addition to the study of women in Judaism. It is a well-researched and scholarly book. The information is arranged chronologically and geographically and is easily accessed. This book is very readable and would be an excellent text for senior high-school or university.



5. This book is perfect for anyone curious about how Jewish women lived in the centuries before the 20th century. It would also be wonderful for a Bat Mitzvah gift or a gift for a college student. While it is encyclopedic in format and content, the fascinating letters, memoirs, stories and photographs of famous, as well as unknown, women bring their successes, trials, and religious life to the reader with great impact. The excellent index lets you follow any topic over the centuries, and the copious notes answer the ever-present question: where did the authors discover that gem? It is a fantastic value.

No comments about Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion.

3 comments about Nice Jewish Girls: Growing Up in America.

1. As a jewish girl myself, the title of this book interested me. so many of the themes and ideas in this book were important and relevant to my life. some of the stories and poems are not as good as others, but many show promising talent from the jewish women of america.



2. as a contributor, I am very pleased with this collection. My piece, Desert Song, is part of this very pleasing colletion. I'm very proud to appear here, with Erica Jong, Grace Paley and Letty Cottin Pogrebin.



3. Probably the best and most complete description of what it means to grow up Jewish and female in America during the twentieth century. I especially liked the very personal and well written account of a death in the family written by Jennifer Futernick

4 comments about Luba: The Angel of Bergen-Belsen (Jane Addams Honor Book (Awards)).

1. Truly a rare addition to classic children's literature. McCann's ability to interpret this complex history of human tragedy into a meaningful children's story is unique. Daily the world reminds us of the terrible things that people do to each other. It is more important than ever, that children learn the world needs heroes.



2. I really enjoyed this beautifully illustrated, touching children's book, a great gift for children and adults. Should be part of a any good book shelf, next to the other intelligent and artful children's books.



3. I really enjoyed this beautifully illustrated, touching childrenýs book, a great gift for children and adults. Should be part of a any good book shelf, next to the other intelligent and artful childrenýs books.



4. This beautifully illustrated children's book addresses the strength of human character that can emerge during even the worst of times. The presentation of this story engages it's young reader while effectively educating them about a very important time in history. I was impressed with Luba's ability to elicit empathy in the people she dealt with, allowing them to become more decent and humane. The story of Luba's loving and heroic soul belongs every school library.

2 comments about Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust.

1. On the front cover of "Rescuers" are 12 photographs of some very nice looking people. They are pictures of people that you might meet every day; of friends and family, or someone that you might pass by on the street. They are the faces of very ordinary people, but they are also much more than that. They are the faces of people that risked their lives to save the lives of others during the Holocaust. They are the faces of the rescuers. There are many more photographs inside the book, of rescuers from countries all over Europe. Author Malka Drucker and photographer Gay Block interviewed and photographed the rescuers, seeking the heart of compassion and moral courage. They found that heart in men and women; the young and the old; and in people from all walks of life. Every story told by the rescuers is very moving. Some rescuers saved one person from death; some saved many thousands. All of the rescuers are worthy of the greatest respect and honor. The rescuers were sometimes asked the question of why they helped others to live, when so many other people stood by and did nothing. The rescuers would answer that question by saying that they were only doing what they knew was right. By caring for other people, they were acting the way that everyone should have been acting. One of the most inspiring truths found in the book, is the thought that we all have that same spark of goodness within our hearts, that was shown so nobly by the rescuers. We all have the capacity for doing what is right, even in times of the greatest fear and terror. This is a book that will warm your heart, and it is well worth reading.



2. This book is wonderfully formatted, arranged by geographic area of Europe. Each interview starts with black and white photos a person who helped Jews and other persecuted people during WWII. A personal narrative of that time in their lives follows, and each interview closes with a color photo of that person as they were in 1992 when the interviews were done. A complicated and moving picture of altruism emerges, and one gets a glimpse of how individuals chose to protect others at the risk of threat to themselves and their families.

5 comments about Looking for Lost Bird: A Jewish Woman Discovers Her Navajo Roots.

1. The book came and it was like new--maybe it was new. I thought it took a bit longer to get to me than usual, and, if so, it's no big deal



2. This is an amazing and detailed story - and I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not read it - suffice it to say that 'discovering ones roots' is neither an easy nor a direct path to tread - the brave people who undertake this quest never cease to amaze me .......



3. I look through thousands of books a year as a reseller, but I read about 2 books a year. This one got my attention because I have a son who is 1/2 Navajo. His mother suffered the same sort of fate as Yvette. "voluntarily" seperated from brothers and sisters at the age of 5, sent to Utah, a mom she has not met, alcohol, violence etc etc etc . . .
   
   This book does a very good job of relating what rez life is really like, and gives a good insight into Navajo culture.
   
   I am a classically stoic, but I had tears in my eyes all the way through this book. I encourage anyone who is interested in the journey of the Navajo to spend some time on the reservation. Drive around, meet the people. Western culture has a lot to learn from this society.
   
   Read Ward Churchill's writings too, don't judge him by what the media has said about him.



4. Looking For Lost Bird:
   A Jewish Woman Discovers Her Navajo Roots.
   Yvette Melanson with Claire Safron
   Bard Books. 233 pages. $22.00
   By Elliot Fein

   Looking For Lost Bird is a true story that is disturbing yet compelling. A Native American Navajo Indian woman gives birth on her reservation home in Arizona to twins, a girl and a boy. During their infancy, both children get sick. The mother takes the children to the nearest local hospital for a diagnosis.

   Hospital staff members instruct her that they will need to keep the two children over night for observations. When the mother returns the next day, the children are gone. The hospital has no record that they were ever admitted.

   The kidnapped infant children are each adopted in Florida by two different families. One of the families is a young Jewish couple that lives in a New York City suburb. Looking for Lost Bird is the story of the Navajo girl, Yvette Melanson, who is raised in that Jewish household.

   As an adult, Melanson discovers her Navajo origins and searches for her family roots. She finds her family (minus her mother, who died of a broken heart grieving for two lost children) still living on the Navajo reservation in which she was born. At the age of forty-three, Melanson decides first to visit her birth family in Arizona, then to move there permanently with her husband and two children.

   While adjusting to the reservation, Melanson learns and begins practicing the religion, culture, and way of life of her birth family. In this process, she abandons many of the Jewish cultural practices (but not necessarily Jewish values) in which she was raised.

   Melanson's Jewish parents (particularly her mother) provide a loving and caring environment for their daughter. In Yvette's recollection of how she was raised, their warts do surface, particularly the shortcomings of her father. After her mother becomes ill and eventually dies during her teen years, the father changes into a different, less appealing character.

   Melanson never reveals whether her Jewish parents knew about her Navajo origins. The reader is left to speculate whether the knowledge, if known by her Jewish parents that she was stolen from a Native American Indian family would have impacted their decision to adopt.

   What is surprising in the telling of this life story is the absence of any form of anti-Semitism by the author. When Melanson writes critically about her mother and father, she writes about them as individuals. She does not associate her criticism of them with Judaism as a faith tradition.

   On the reservation, when she begins taking on Native American Indian ways, Melanson naturally compares Navajo culture to Judaism. In this comparison, Melanson writes with respect, affection, and even admiration about the religious tradition in which she was raised.

   Melanson tells her life story (with the help of Claire Safron) with compassion, humor, and eloquence.

   I recently led a book club at my synagogue. A member of the club recommended that I read Looking for Lost Bird. After reading it, we immediately decided to include Looking for Lost Bird one of our featured selections. The book provides a great opportunity to learn about Navajo culture and to see how it compares to Judaism as a religious tradition. The book is also a true gift for adopted individuals, particularly native American Indians, seeking to uncover their past.

   Elliot Fein teaches Jewish Studies in the Tarbut V'Torah School in Irvine.




5. Like many of the readers I couldn't put the book down until I read it from cover to cover. While reading the story I found out these people were my extended family! I know everyone mentioned in the book. As a youngster I remember the crusade of Aunt Desbah, Uncle John and others in finding the twins who were stolen as babies. I wept at the end when Yvette participated in the holy Hozhoji ceremony to be reunited with her birth place, family, culture, and environment. Very moving!

   Aunt Betty, Yvette's biological mother lived a very brave life as she longed and searched everyday of her life wanting to be reunited with her twins. May God bless her soul.