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.

5 comments about Mendel's Daughter: A Memoir.

1. Martin Lemelman, Mendel's Daughter (Free Press, 2006)
   
   I'll admit right up front that my coolness towards this book stems from a misunderstanding on my part. I see a title like Mendel's Daughter and all sorts of implications about the father of genetics and selective breeding run through my head. The story, however, has nothing to do with the more famous Mendel I was thinking of, and my disappointment at that fact never went away as I was reading this.
   
   Mendel's Daughter is an "as-told-to" graphic memoir of the holocaust by someone who lived through it. Thus, you've probably got a pretty good idea of the tone of the book. The first section covers the twenty years between the two world wars, the subject's genesis and early childhood. Then comes 1939, and the Nazi invasion of Poland, and everything blows up. The strength of the book is that Mendel's daughter didn't end up doing the same things everyone else (or so it often seems) did during the war years, and thus we get a new perspective on the lengths some people had to go to in order to survive the Nazi persecution of, well, everyone who wasn't a Nazi. The weakness is that Lemelman, who's an illustrator, doesn't quite have the editorial prowess to revise the prose (which he tells us early on is straight from interviews) into something with pace. I grant that it could have been an attempt to mirror the story, which is, not surprisingly, long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of terror, but I can't quite bring myself to believe Lemelman that much of a stylist (and it's usually a bad move anyway). I think he really did simply transcribe, unedited, the tapes, and draw around them. A bit of editing would have sharpened this book up considerably. Not enough to get me over the disappointment at the lack of the geneticist, but enough. ** ½



2. I liked the book and its content and the drawings but in general I enjoy a book that has more of a story or history in in.



3. Martin Lemelman has created a beautiful memoir, with his mother's voice speaking to the reader (you can hear her adorable accent!) and tender drawings that recreate her life as a young Jewish girl in Ukraine, a life that was torn apart by Nazi invasion.
   
   I almost left this book on the shelf because - sometimes you don't want to hear another story like this. But one look at the pictures and I had to read it. I could see this book would not be like any graphic novel or any holocaust novel that I read before.
   
   Somehow you finish this book, despite the story, feeling unexpectedly happy. Why is that when there is so much sadness, when you expect only grief or rage? Well, on every page you can feel Lemelman's love for his mother and you just feel happy that this beautiful book was made for her, and that her story is shared with us.
   
   By the way, I was reading to see whether I might share this book with young people. If you find yourself beginning to approach the story of the Holocaust, I definitely recommend Mendel's Daughter.



4. Our book club read this wonderful book and everyone agreed (which was a miracle) that it was an amazing experience. From the lovely illustrations to "hearing" Gusta's voice, it was a totally memorable read. The author, Martin Lemelman, accepted our invitation to speak to our book club and he added even so much more to this story. His gentle manner was in direct contrast to the horrors of the stories he told us. Reading the book then having Martin speak to us about researching and writing it, was a definite highlight for all of us.



5. MENDEL'S DAUGHTER details the harrowing story of Martin Lemelman's mother and her family during the Holocaust. It is a story that Lemelman grew up knowing very little of. But in 1989, after his mother, Gusta, dropped a frozen chicken on her foot (causing it to be broken), Lemelman brought her to stay at his house in Pennsylvania. In part to curtail her efforts to do all of the cooking and cleaning at his house with her broken foot, and in part to have a family history that he would be able to pass along to his own children, Lemelman persuaded his mother to finally share her story. He wisely videotaped her. After her death a decade ago, he watched the recording, edited the story Gusta related by reorganizing it chronologically and augmenting her accounts with those of his Uncle Isia, who also survived. He then illustrated it with hundreds of drawings interspersed with actual documents and some little black and white photos his mother had saved from her childhood.
   
   Gusta Mendel grew up in a prosperous and well-regarded Jewish family in a portion of Poland that is now part of the Ukraine. This was a region that during World War II was invaded first by the Communists and then by the Nazis. We know from the outset of this memoir that this is a story of survival, that Gusta made it through the Holocaust. Following the historical and personal events that are depicted in this book, Gusta would eventually come to America and, with her husband, raise Lemelman and his brother in the back of their Brooklyn candy store.
   
   The rest of the Mendel family was murdered by the Nazis, but Gusta, Isia, Yetala, and another sibling, Simon, lived. The four siblings survived in the woods through two winters, digging themselves a series of underground shelters, burying the potatoes and sugarbeets they'd steal from fields in the middle of the night, and getting some help from a few people who were sympathetic to their plight.
   
   "For us, the war ended in March-April 1944.
   "Who could believe that the German army coming back to Germakivka would be the beginning of our liberation? This time, thanks God, they was coming from the East, running away from Russia."
   
   The result of Lemelman's labor of love is the real deal: an illustrated memoir which, while technically published as an adult book, will be incredibly approachable, engaging, and memorable to middle school and high school age readers.

5 comments about Chutzpah.

1. Mr. Chutzpah is a Harvard Law professor. Called on his attributing the Joan Peters' awful neologism "turnspeak" to Orwell Mr. Chutzpah publicly attributed it to Huxley. The less said about the (lack of) erudition of Harvard Law professors the better it seems.
   
   Dean Elena Kagan of Harvard, a tireless defender of Mr. Chutzpah, who seems to have never walked when she could crawl instead, may wish to revise Harvard advertising to put in disclaimers with respect to the law school: that Harvard's general reputation notwithstanding, she makes no assurances as to the quality of present faculty like Mr. Chutzpah.
   
   Mr. Chutzpah, when he is not defending pornographers and the like of O.J. Simpson, works with his lawyers at Cravath, Swain and Moore to suppress books critical of him and his shoddy "scholarship". Such as Norman G. Finkelstein's devastating takedown Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.



2. Norman Finkelstein conclusively demonstrates that Dershowitz is a plagiarizer and that his claims about Israel's "superb" human rights record are complete bunk. All reputable human rights organizations support Finkelstein's arguments and not Dershowitz's. Dershowitz's book merits a minus 10, but the lowest grade one can give it is one star. The fact that one can find copies of this book for sale for 1 cent indicate its scholarly and moral usefulness. Dershowitz is now involved in a concerted campaign to have Finkelstein shut down, pressuring Harvard Bookstore and the Barnes and Noble bookstore at DePaul University in Chicago to cancel speaking engagements by Finkelstein. Harvard cancelled its invitation for fear of "economic retaliation," Barnes and Noble said the book was "too controversial," and invited Dershowitz to speak about his "book" instead.



3. Plenty of Jews exhibit chutzpah (nerve). But there is a flip side to this, the fear of "shanda fur de goyim" (embarrassment in front of the gentiles).
   
   Dershowitz analyzes the discrimination he's seen against Jews. In some places, it is non-existent. In others, it is significant. In yet others, it is striking. He begins with his experiences in trying to find employment as a summer hire in various law firms. Of course, discrimination against people on the basis of race, religion, gender, and (if known) sexual preference is now much less than it used to be. But we see some of the history of it among law firms and at Harvard.
   
   One issue that I found intriguing was that of the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz. Now, I do not see any reason for Jews or anyone else to consider Auschwitz, of all places, holy ground. But I am well aware that many people do consider it as such, and I respect their views on the matter. And it was up to the Catholic authorities whether or not to make a deal with the Jews to not have a Carmelite convent at Auschwitz. But once the Catholics made that deal and a bunch of nuns broke it, a rabbi and six other Jews were totally within their rights to ask the nuns to explain what they were doing there, and even "trespass" on convent grounds to pray. And it was certainly out of line for Polish Cardinal Glemp to make a totally wild and preposterous accusation, namely that these Jews were trying to murder the nuns and destroy the convent. I think Dershowitz was right to take the case against Glemp for defamation here.
   
   There is an good chapter about Zionism. That includes a discussion of Jewish antizionism. Dershowitz explains the pressure on Jews to be antizionist and to oppose Israel as Jews. He thinks they are wrong to do so. I agree. I think everyone ought to support Israel's (or any other nation's) right to exist as a human being, or oppose it as a human being! Or be neutral as a human being.
   
   I recommend this book.



4. I was initially engrossed while reading about the history of the Dershowitz family and their lives in Brooklyn. As the book progressed, it was more like a very long "rant" about anti-Semitism, and the miserable plight of American Jews. As an American Jew living in the rural western US, I cannot relate to the discrimination described and felt by the author. As with any religion outside the mainstream of the popular culture, Jews will always be considered as "different". We set ourselves apart from others by our values, moral beliefs, and our observances.



5. Overall, I am a huge fan of Dershowitz's books. I thoroughly enjoyed the Best Defense, From Genesis to Justice, and even his novel, A Just Revenge. I felt, though, that Dershowitz went a little overboard with his views of Jews in America. In many ways, I am almost embarassed to be viewed in the same light as him (As a Jew) because of his extreme views. He made it seem as if the world was out to get Jews, even in America. He does make many good points about Jewish identity in America, but to me he comes across as whining more than discussing.

   He does use some great arguments and has a pretty clear account of Jewish history in America. His description of his family and neighborhood is nice to read to understand where he grew up and what his background is. I especially liked his description of his own family as I was reminded in many ways of my own.

   I gave the book 2 stars but that is compared with his other books. It is not a bad book or a bad read. In many ways, I found it very informative but I would choose one of his other books rather than this one.

5 comments about Trapped in Hitler's Hell.

1. When I first read "Trapped in Hitler's Hell," it was called "Angels In the Camp." From the miraculous acts that God preformed for this faith filled German-Jewish girl, there certainly were angels watching over Anita Dittman. For example, while in the hospital the Nazi nurse who attended Anita refused to provide her with food. Knowing Anita was Jewsih, the nurse was trying to starve her to death. A Chritian friend in the next bed shared half of the one potato she received for food each day with Anita. They hid under the covers and ate their potato. The nurse was certainly surprised when not only did Anita not die, but actually gained weight and was soon well enough to go back to work. The book is filled with faith building stories such as this one.
   
   Recently I had the priviledge of hearing Anita speak. Her book had really spsoken to my heart. I remebered many of the stories of her experiences during WWII and quoted them every so often. What an inspring lady she is. She concluded her testimony with a saying I shall always remember. Anita told us, "Safety isn't found in the absence of danger, but in the presence of God."
   
   As one reviewer summed it up, there are important lessons we need to learn from Anita's exxperiences. She said, "Just as many of the churches of Nazi Germany fell quickly to the seductive message of the Third Reich, so many of our churches today are falling quickly for the seductions of the Emergent Church's apostate theology and the allure of occult eastern mysticism though so-called "Christian" comtemplative spirituality." Before it's to late, we need to get our lives right with the Savior. We need to let Him show us any sin and pray that He would lead us out of any erroneous doctrine and into His truth.



2. This is an excellent book told from the first-hand account of a holocaust survivor. The account is very well written and edited and you won't be able to put it down.
   
   How Anita Dittman survived is simply a miracle and one can see God's hand in sustaining her existence and planning the extraordinary sequence of events that delivered her from her Nazi captors. God's love for the Jewish people and allowing her to survive to tell her story is a witness for all of us that Jewish people have a remarkable future desiny to play in the prophetic timeline leading up to the return of Jesus Christ.
   
   I have heard Anita Dittman and Jan Markell present this story in lecture format. Talk about having a lump in your throat for an hour.
   
   The sad part of this story is that Anti-Semitism since World Warr II has not really gone away. It's always there and there are disturbing signs all around the world that it could return even worse than the holocaust. We now have world leaders such as Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Palestian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas openly deny the Holocaust and the world's media and United Nations don't call them on the carpet for it.
   
   The Book of Zechariah Chapters 12-14, Jeremiah Ch. 30:7, Revelaton Ch. 12 and many other biblical texts indicate that Israel will go through even worse trial and tribulation immediately preceding the return of Jesus Christ. If those times are worse than what Anita Dittman and her mother experienced, the world truly needs Jesus Christ to return to save the Jewish people from complete annihilation.



3. Anita Dittman's story is a vivid testimony to the sovereignty and faithfulness of Christ in the life of a little German-Jewish girl who finds in her Savior both courage and strength to meet each day in the midst of painful persecution and the terror of war. As Anita grows up, abandoned by her father and rejected by her non-Jewish teachers and schoolmates, her spirit grows more lovely with each passing year as she learns that Jesus will never leave her nor forsake her.
   
   This story is not gloomy or depressing in any way. It is full of faith, hope, and glorious glimpses of the power and the love of God. I could hardly put it down.
   
   There is a compelling immediacy to Miss Dittman's story. I felt almost as if I knew her. My faith in the Lord has been challenged and renewed as I've followed her through her trials and triumphs in the pages of this book.
   
   There is a warning here also, with a striking parallel to the present. Just as many of the churches in Nazi Germany fell quickly to the seductive message of the Third Reich, so many of our churches of today are falling quickly for the seductions of the Emergent Church's apostate theology and the allure of occult eastern mysticism through so-called "christian" contemplative spirituality.
   
   As many have described Hitler as a "type" of Anti-christ, so the apostate German church may be said to pre-figure the apostate worldwide "christian" church which the Bible warns will arise in the last days. Is that what we are seeing unfold?
   
   If you want to be uplifted, forewarned, and encouraged during these "perilous times," read Trapped In Hitler's Hell.
   
   [I'd like to thank Miss Dittman for writing this book. I will never be quite the same. :)]



4. Trapped In Hitler's Hell by Anita Dittman is the epic and personal recollection of the hardships and difficult times during the second world war in Nazi Germany. Dittman righteously describes the anguish she suffered throughout her captivity and solitude. Trapped In Hitler's Hell is an inspirational tale of one young woman's only certainty being that the God above her would protect her, and is highly recommended for all Christian and Judaic practitioners and students, as well as students of history during World War II, as this book is as informative as it is encouraging.



5. This book shows the what it was like to be in Germany at the time of the Nazi occupation. I have met Anita Dittman and she is an incredible lady with an incredible story.

3 comments about Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace.

1. This is a great story of how two women survive the unimaginable horrors of WWII. Both are Jews. Ester is from Bialystok, in Poland, a city which would be turned into a ghetto, and whose Jewish residents were rounded up and deported by the Nazis. Ruzya is Russian, and she endures the terror of Stalin's regime, where she is regarded with suspicion. Both women are separated from their parents, sibilings, and husbands at one point or another, and end up meeting in Moscow at the war's end. Masha Gessen weaves both of their stories into a single stirring memoir. It is not free of bias, these are Gessen's grandmothers, and she obviously views them in certain ways, but she is an exceptional storyteller, and takes what they have told her, and merges it with her own research. It is certainly not the only memoir about WWII, but it does offer some fresh insight, particularly in the way it describes the Soviet Union during the war, with vivid imagery that conveys a stunning sense of panic and confusion, words that aptly describe the Soviet reaction to the German invasion. It also conveys pain, loss, and desperation. Overall, a good, easily readable text recommended for any student of history.



2. A friend lent me her copy of Ester and Ruzya and I liked it so much I bought copies for family members. This book is informative, well written, and deeply honest. Many of us have some knowledge about the Holocaust and what happened to European Jews, but this narrative about the author's family in Russia during WWII and after gives the reader insight about a different Jewish experience. I recommend it highly.



3. It's been said of this memoir/biography that it reads like a novel, but of course that's not quite true. Even the most abundantly lively literary creations are still creations, whereas the heroines of the title here are undeniably real. It's a tribute to their personalities, and to Gessen's skill, that they seem so from the first page.
   
   The story--basically that of the twentieth century itself--is of such unimaginably wide scope that Gessen's tight focus on her family makes perfect sense, and she doesn't need to indulge in literary pyrotechnics or crazy stories to justify it. But when picking the perfect one-paragraph vignette, and particularly in the extended section in which she describes the death of her great-grandfather at the hands of the Nazis--told as three completely different tales, based on the multiple reconstructions she was able to piece togeher from survivors' stories--the craft and creativity that went into shaping this becomes apparent.
   
   It's fascinating from beginning to end, marred only by an oocasional brusqueness, as if the hand that elides so much to keep the focus along has become impatient. These moments are often followed by a few paragraphs of florid embellishment, as if to overcompensate. But Gessen need make no apologies: this is compelling reading, and an important resource for understanding the human reality of history.

2 comments about The Life of Jews in Poland before the Holocaust: A Memoir.

1. This book is a compeling read. It describes in minute detail the religious, social and economic structure of the time. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to have a glimpse of life in Poland before WWII.



2. As the Holocaust recedes further into the past, it becomes increasingly difficult to treat it as more than an abstraction. It becomes defined by numbers: Six million or more dead, numbingly large. Yet, how can one who did not live in that era imagine what it truly meant, and even more so for a goy such as myself?
   
   Ben-Zion Gold's memoir is truly a treasure, because of its portrait of Jewish life before the Holocaust. He describes his boyhood living in an Orthodox household in Radom, Poland in the 1930's. He paints rich pictures of family members and gatherings and a host of unique individuals. He depicts his religious schooling, cut short by the war.
   
   The last few chapters briefly describe how Gold survived the war, and the impact of his ordeal on his faith. His candor and insights are deeply appreciated.
   
   Gold originally wrote his story with his daughters in mind -- to tell them about the family in Poland, all of whom were murdered well before his daughters' birth. Fortunately for us, he has expanded the tale in such a way as to make it accessible, even to those of us with no familiarity with Jewish life or customs. I was particularly grateful for how terms are defined on first use.
   
   The Holocaust becomes so much more meaningful now. With Gold's story, we see the faces of those who perished, their personalities, community and culture. We understand a little better what was lost.
   
   I highly recommend this book.

2 comments about A Brush With Death : An Artist in the Death Camps (Suny Series in Modern Jewish Literature and Culture).

1. This review is hardly unbiased. The author, Morris Wysogrod, a commerical artist by trade, is my cousin and quite truly, a hero of mine. Whenever I visit my Cousin Morris' apartment, I am greeted as soon as I step off the elevator with genuine warmth and enthusiasm. His smile,unbreaking and his conversation,always scintillating, I am amazed at his sincerity and good nature despite what he has witnessed and experienced as a Holocaust survivor.

   His warmth and love for his fellow man is evident throughout his memoir. Morris provides a vivid look at pre-war Poland and the lives that were stolen from our families. And, much as he greets his guests with genuine warmth and affection today, he treats each character in his book with similar respect and reverence.

   His memory is outstanding as he remembers the many personalities and every day people of his Warsaw youth, and later in the death camps. His descriptions are detailed and he suceeds in bringing out the special qualities of each character. This is so important because more often than not, the people he describes with such affection will soon be dead at the hands of the Nazis. Much of Holocaust literature refers to the millions who were massacred. Morris didn't know the millions but he pays beautiful homage to the hundreds who crossed his path.

   From homage to carnage, Morris's story takes us into the Nazi occupation and his incarceration in several death camps. Similar to his skills in painting a picture of his pre-war youth, he is equally and shockingly vivid in his memories of the camps. The brutality, anguish, and sheer inhumanity he witnessed is brought to life as only a man of his artistic talents can do.

   And in the midst of the brutality, there is the friendships, the shared moments, and the appreciation for his fellow prisoners that is necessary for the reader to grasp onto so that he or she may continue with the chilling chronicle of Morris' survival.

   A Brush With Death has warmth, beauty and brutality. It is one of the many stories of the Holocaust experience, and one which I am confident will provide a unique perspective to the most horrific period in recorded history.




2. As a fellow survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Budzyn concentration camp, I can attest the accuracy of the author's harrowing descriptions of his experiences.

   I am amazed at the author's ability to recall so many details. He writes from the heart, without artifice. His spare drawings provide haunting illustrations of what words can't always describe on their own.

   Read this book. You will be moved.

2 comments about Arrogant Beggar.

1. Anzia Yezierska published her one great novel, Bread Givers, in 1925. It's a seemingly autobiographical account of the struggle for assimilation and for independence from a reactionary father of a Jewish immigrant girl in New York City, and it's quite a piece of work, innovative, fiery, and at times funny, the most powerful novel of urban immigration ever written. This novel, Arrogant Beggar, published in 1927, is also a first-person narrative, but the narrator is an American-born orphan, and the story begins when she is already "formed" and seeking a career.
   
   Let's caution everyone posthaste that Arrogant Beggar is not a literary masterpiece. The writing is modest at best, awkward at times, and awful toward the end. The story is effectively ruined by clumsy inprobabilities and coincidences. The chief male character, Arthur Hellman, is implausible and artificial. There's no suspense and little enough humor. Nevertheless, I recommend it highly for its historical and sociological interest. Adele Lindner, the heroine, makes up for the implausibility of all the other characters by her intensely believable presence. Whether "Adele" is a characterological self-portrait of Anzia Yezierska doesn't much matter. Adele is a stunning revelation of lower-class consciousness in America in the early 20th Century, a spokesperson for the pride of the poor in the face of social condescension. The book was received by contemporaries as a devastating work of social criticism, specifically of Progressive and Social Gospel inspired charities such as the "boardinghouse for poor girls who might aspire to be young ladies but had better recognize their destiny as domestics" where Adele resides for the first half of the narrative. Obviously the reception was hostile.
   
   To quote the book jacket, "the second half of the novel takes Adele back to her ghetto origins as she explores an alternate model of philanthropy by opening a restaurant that combines the communitarian traditions of Old World shetl traditions with the contingencies of New World capitalism." Close enough, but the second half is largely utopian fantasy and lacks the biting pertinence of the first half, with Adele's painful thin-skinned love/hate tussle with gentility.
   
   Was class consciousness, in a European sense, ever part of American society? Was class warfare really a likelihood before the New Deal? This book can be considered a primary source for historians, academic or armchair, who want to taste and smell poverty as the poor tasted and smelled it.



2. This book arrived in about a week and was in BETTER condition than advertised. Overall, I was satisfied with the transaction and would purchase from this seller again.

3 comments about Last Days in Babylon: The History of a Family, the Story of a Nation.

1. I really enjoyed this book. I was not only drawn in by her skill as a writer, but the fascinating history of the Jewish people in Iraq. After reading Benjamin's book I also have a greater understanding for what is going on in Iraq today.



2. The book was extremely authentic in detail and provided an extensive and touching history of the babylonian jews who had lived in Iraq for hundreds of years and had proposered and reached a population of 125,000 prior to their dispora that began in the 1940s'.
   
   Not only did the author provide historic detail and events by taking us through the well known street and shopping areas, and discussed many of the customs and practices of that era. She also touched on the remaining Jews in Bagdhad that lived under the constraints of Sadam Husseeinn's regime and refused to leave their homeland. This is a must read book for all descendants who are living all over trhe worlds and want to reach back anf learn of their heritage



3. Marina Benjamin chronicles the life of her grandmother, Regina Sehayek, an Iraqi Jewish woman along with the 20th century history of the Jews of Iraq from a once vibrant community of 140,000 to one that is now extinct. While this factual narrative has been meticulously researched, it reads like a novel and captures the readers attention from the very first page. Aside from chronicling the life of the Jews, Ms. Benjamin details the rise of Arab nationalism from the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein and sheds some light on why the relationship between "cousins", Arabs and Jews, who once lived in relative harmony in what is now Iraq, has so badly deteriorated and why this important Jewish minority community was expelled after more than 2000 years in Babylon.

No comments about Theresienstadt: Hitler's Gift to the Jews.