5 comments about Etty Hillesum: An Interrupted Life the Diaries, 1941-1943 and Letters from Westerbork.

1. This book is an intelligent conversion story. The author, Etty Hillesum, begins writing at a time when her life was repugnant; and yet, she is obviously very intelligent and so reading what she wrote during that period is not a waste of time.
   
   Towards the middle of the book, Etty begins to change, and by the end, she is an admirable person - not just because she is intelligent, but also because she is good. It seems that her will changed, which is the definition of conversion.
   
   I would compare this book favorably with "Surprised by Joy", which is the autobiography of C.S. Lewis. "Surprised by Joy" is a great book for Christians. "Etty Hillesum" is a great book for anyone.
   
   
   Shawn T. Miller



2. This book would be one of the five. Its not about the Holocaust, not really. It is about one of the most soulful women who we all could learn so much from about how to approach our days. I cherish this book with all my heart. It came to me in a very weird way however! My parents were viisting me in Seattle when I lived there and while browsing in Elliott Bay Books, my mom handed me this book and said, "When I die I want this book buried with me!" I know, thats kind of a weird sell but she bought me my own copy (along with a separate one for her future plans) and I read it in one evening. I couldn't put it down. While she lived just a short distance from Anne Frank and was writing her journals at the same time, they are equally moving but worlds apart. Etty was in her late twenties while she wrote and her outlook on life is simply among the most remarkable I have ever encountered. I don't think I need to be buried with it but that doesn't mean I don't recommend it extremely highly for both men and women. Its a privilege to be able to recommend it, to know that even while her life was so tragically cut short at Auschwitz, that her journals survived and that maybe just one person more will come to her journals as a result of this review. You know what? I'd like to be buried with this book too. Also include a cupcake.



3. Etty Hillessum's diaries and her letters from Westerbork serve as an outstanding testament to the human spirit and the ability to find the sacred in the most horrific of situations. Although she was not a saint in the sense that Teresa of Avila or Juan de la Cruz were saints, she could properly be considered a mystic and a good example of a modern who had 'enlightened' insights. I find her diaries at once humane and modern in the sense of a liberated 'bohemian' who explored her sexuality and her psyche. As her diaries progress, her inner life (and oneness with God) deepens as the horrors of the realities of being Jewish in Europe during the Second World War becomes more apparent. I highly recommend this book! It will change your life!



4. This is one of the most profound documents ever written. Etty Hillesum was truly a person who had reached transforming union and had the ability to be able to share her experience through journaling and letters. She was unwaivering in her desire to see the beauty and meaning of life in one of the most difficult situations ever experienced on this planet. There are no words to express how deeply this work has influenced my life, except to say that I go back to her writing over and over again. She is a bright light for anyone seeking spiritual growth.



5. In nearly all of our nation's middle and high schools the Diary of Anne Frank is required reading. This present volume ought to be a required follow-up reading for the older student.
   
   This Owl Books publication includes excellent photographs and commentary to bring alive holistically the full presentation of this intelligent and searching young woman's life and vision, whose eight well-preserved copy books reveal to us her soul, supplemented by personal, surprisingly joyful and hopeful and positive do-not-lose-heart letters from a way station on the road to Auschwitz. Together this corpus of writing presents bright light in the deepest darkness and locus of despair. One cannot read these living words on the way to certain death without weeping, and reflecting, at the unreasonable cruelty and inexorable deadly fruit of any total war. One cannot read this without a cry for the end of all war.
   
   Please read this book in a prayerful way. Consider the promising and peaceful lives which were lost, whose voice rings out truly here in this thick volume of her writings, and resolve to work for peace, that we may never study war, no more. Let us work for peace, and pray with the prophet that our swords may soon be beat into plowshares, that all may live in peace to their fullest promise.
   
   This book brings to us the reality of the horror of hateful war, through Etty's human and hopeful and joyous and beautiful voice, ever encouraging those in the deepest despair until she herself is also placed on the road to Auschwitz, a road from which so very few ever returned.

5 comments about Fear No Evil.

1. In this classic, in the tradition of The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956, Prisoner of Zion, Natan Sharansky, one of the greatest Jewish heroes of our time, tells of his nine years in Soviet prisons and gulags, because of his desire to live in the ancient homeland of the Jewish people.
   Sharansky was first denied an exit visa to Israel in 1973. Seperated from his wife, Avital, a day after thewir marriage, in 1974, Sharansky fought for the rights of Jews in the Soviet Union as well as the rights of other persecuted minorities such as Pentecostals, Catholics, Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars and ethnic Germans, which disproves the repulsive charge by anti-Semites that Zionists only care about their own people.
   He worked as a translator for Soviet dissident and human rights champion Andrei Sakharov, and his spokesman.
   Sakharov never stopped fighting for Sharanky's freedom, for human rights and for the Jews of the Soviet Empire.
   Sharanky describes his life in the preface as a Jews growing up in Russia, and his mental liberation from Soviet thought slavery, by his discovery of his Judaism and Zionism. He then details his 1977 arrest, and his nine years of brutal incarceration.
   He never bowed to his captors and refused to have anything to do with the perfidious KGB.
   A variety of mental and physical tortures were used to try to break Sharansky, but he never flinched.
   Always given courage by the word of the G-D of Israel, and particularly guided by Psalm 23:
   "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
   I will fear no evil
   For though art with me..."
   Indeed he did not fear the evil of the Soviet tyranny.
   His wife Avital tirelessly fought for his release as his cause became known in the free world, and fought for by all freedom-loving people.
   The book ends with Sharansky's release in 1986 and his aliyah to Israel, where he was reunited with his wife.
   The book is a testament to the evils of a one party tyranny.
   It is a testament to the eternal endurability of the Jewish people, and their unbreakable bond wit the Land of Israel.
   Unltimately it is a testament of hope and of freedom of the human spirit.
   Today the same Communist ideology that persecuted Sharansky is waging a jihad of intellectual terrorism against Israel and her people.
   But the courage of people like Sharansky and the people of Israel has shown that Israel can and will prevail.



2. Natan is a hero to the human race. He is wise beyond his years and his wife really proved what true love is. No wonder our Oresident sticks to his convictions. We should all be like Natan



3. "[Saul] put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on [David's]head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around... "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached [Goliath]".
   
   So begins the story of the famous battle between the future King David of Israel and the giant Phillistine during Biblical times. In Natan Shcharansky's "Fear No Evil" (the title taken from one of David's own psalms), the author is less equipped even than young David in battling the ubiquitous and evil KGB, which maintains an illegal presence in the prisons he's held in (again, illegally), accused of spying for western countries. But because of decisions he makes early in his arrest, he is the victor in the struggle waged over his soul by men who would like him to acknowledge he is wrong, who would like him to implicate others in his "crimes" in order for favors from them, or who would simply like him to stop being the delightful fly in the prison ointment he is.
   
   Shcharansky's only weapons during his trial and during his following prison term, consist of his personal integrity, which remains unsullied; his faith and trust in his family and friends; and a tiny book of psalms that he will spare nothing in reminding prison officials he is entitled to. He sometimes has to wage a hunger strike for these things, but always wins. It is true that his wife, who managed to reach Jerusalem before Shcharansky's arrest, is on a worldwide campaign for his release, resulting in no less than two sitting US presidents mentioning him by name in speeches heard by Soviet officials as a political prisoner, as well as global support, but Shcharansky does not learn this until later, and so believes he is virtually alone in the fight.
   
   This gritty autobiography is a lovely example of human survival, and how one can keep his humanity in a horrific place. Shcharansky's relationships with his fellow "zeks" (prisoners) is especially touching, and we're able to get a glimpse of how even the guards in the system have surrendered their souls in this "police state".
   
   A great read for anyone questioning how to survive while it seems suffering and injustice are towering overhead. Very inspiring.



4. Having met Sharansky in Israel (Birthright alumni!), and having had a long time interest in the Soviet Jewry dissident movement - which allowed my own (Jewish) family to emigrate from the Soviet Union in '91 - I had little doubt as to the outcome of Sharansky's imprisonment. As someone who has read a number of books on similar subjects - in particular the Alexander Solzenytsin "Archipelag Gulag" series - I was a bit dissapointed with "Fear no Evil". (Nevermind that Solzenytsin is widely believed to be an anti-semite; I'm speaking of the literary aspect only.)
   
   In contrast to Solzenytsin's breathtakingly vivid literary style and powerful analysis of the core of the Soviet regime and it's criminal code, Sharansky's book read rather like an eagle's eye view of a convoluted social and political order. "Fear no Evil" reads instead like a game of mental swordsmanship, with a self-inflicted narrow focus quite removed from breadth and depth of a much needed analysis on the Soviet system as a whole.
   
   However, Sharansky does not proclaim himself to be a literary guru. This book is a poignant (if dry) portrayal of one man's fight for freedom - both for himself and 2 million of his people. The uncompromising stance taken by the author with the Soviet regime throughout his imprisonment - his life, family and future hanging in the balance - is awe-inspiring in its simplicity and effectiveness.
   
   It has become a cliche in our time that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". Yet the Sharanskys of the world have proven that one need not be a terrorist to be a freedom fighter. Where are such men today?



5. Natan Sharansky's book "Fear No Evil" is a readable account of his time in the Soviet gulag for his dissident activities. The book is detailed and inspirational. Sharansky's courage in facing the KGB is a lesson that we can all learn from.
   
   The book itself reads fast, thanks to Sharansky's ability to make the read interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain insight in what life was like for a political prisioner in the USSR; to anyone who wishes to be inspired by ones courage, or to anyone who wishes to just sit down and read a thoroughly enjoyable book.

5 comments about Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity.

1. This is a wonderfully written book by an amazing author. Anything she writes is worth reading.



2. This book is the reason why books exist. So many books are either light reading with little reward, or too dense with endless little facts that leaves one feeling overwhelmed.
   
   Not so this book. I could tell by reading it what a fantastic philosophy professor this author must be. I learned so much by reading this book. It brought together so much of who I am as well as my interests, such as Judaism, philosophy, psychology, biography, and history. The book explained Spinoza's ideas about as clearly as can be expected for such abstract ideas, doing so in such a thoughtfully compelling manner. Even more fascinating for me was how the most rational of all philosophers, was really motivated by his deeply gentle, sensitive nature. Paradoxically, the man who was ex-communicated by his Jewish people for his heretical views, was ultimately driven to formulate his ideas by a deep love of his Jewish people.
   
   Reading this sympathetic book about Baruch Spinoza, made me wish that he himself had read it. I wish those who ex-communicated him would have read it, too. It would have served to reconcile both himself and his ideas with his Jewish people.



3. Overall, I liked the book. I enjoyed the story Goldstein had to tell, particularly her own experience encountering and teaching Spinoza. However, I think the book fell short of my expectations and was, at times, too superficial of a presentation.
   
   I was expecting more development of the connection between Spinoza's thought and the Marrano/Jewish tradition. Also, I was looking for more development of her argument that Spinoza played a major role in "giving us modernity".
   
   The connections here were tenuous and more guessed at than established. Goldstein didn't go into enough detail in trying to make her case on either count. We get mostly loose connections between Spinoza and Marranoism. And on Spinoza's contribution to modernity we get even less. We get: Spinoza was influential on modernity because lots of freethinkers flocked to Amsterdam. Spinoza may have influenced Locke because he went to Amsterdam and left with stronger views on rational, tolerant, republican government. Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of Spinoza's work.
   
   Nonetheless, Goldstein does make room for the stronger point of Spinoza's influence on modernity; namely that he was the first to systematically formulate the essence of modernity: reason, individualism, and freedom.
   
   A good book with plenty of information to chew on, but too much speculation (and if one doesn't read the footnotes, one doesn't know she is speculating).



4. This is a very nice (sometimes auto-)biographical novel about a philosophical voyage. The traveller is Baruch Spinoza whose influential ideas about God and separation between God and the State is narrated in a very engaging style. Rebecca Goldstein melts autobiographical, historical and philosophical levels of narration in in an enjoyable way. You are entertained and invited to think about a set of observations including Inquisition, diasporas, jews theology, Teens' life in the Big apple during the 60s, logic and qabbala.
   
   However, this is not a philosophical book neither an introduction to philosophical concepts (some of them are presented in a debatable way); do not think you are reading a philosophical book: the best way to approach Goldstein's last work would be as a biographical reconstruction of a philosopher and his times, and how his ideas impacted on modernity.



5. A great introduction to a fascinating man and his philosophy. I want to read more Spinoza now

5 comments about The Works of Philo: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition.

1. Philo: "wisdom a very rare thing among mankind" = *Many are called YET very very few are chosen* quote from Jesus Christ
   
   St Paul says *we speak the mysteries only among the wise*
   
   Paul
   New Orleans
   June 20, 2008



2. Along with Josephus no source is cited more than Philo when it comes historical biblical study. Incredibly literate and actually entertaining.



3. I just received this excellent volume, and I'm already devoting way too much time to reading the text, reading more on line about Philo, and sending emails to others about this particular translation.
   
   My parish priest is currently focusing on some of the Wisdom literature in the Old Testament, and as an adjunct to these lessons, I decided to give Philo a try. Indeed, Philo is keenly interested in Wisdom. He describes the Tabernacle as an image of Wisdom. What is also of interest to me is Philo's adoption of a dualist view of the world. The body is evil to him. One can easily infer that Mani and the successor schools of Christian dualism were clearly sewing on fertile ground in the subsequent centuries.
   
   Philo writes as if he were speaking to a student, and this is only right as he would indeed have been imparting a great body of knowledge, as a true generalist, to students who have attached themselves to this man of learning who is the teacher of his school of philosophy. The reader too now gets to walk with this teacher.
   
   It is no wonder that Patristic writers would find much of Philo to be a great value, and much of what he concludes to be rejected too -- the dualistic view of man and creation being a prime example. Still, to see the imagery and language of the Hellenistic world in Philo's writing gives one insight into the thoughts, the idioms, the common language of the thinkers of the Grecco-Roman world. His use of the Hellenistic imagery, vocabulary, and methods of reasoning will be seen again, and taken to new (transformed)levels by the Church Fathers of Christendom over the next several hundred years. For Patristic scholars, Philo seems like something of a prototype.
   
   Philo speaks the language of Plato, Cicero, Seneca, and Aristotle. His religion is certainly different, but the world in which he lives is the same world, and he interprets, and divines the meanings of his Sacred Texts in the context of this world.
   
   While some translations of philosophical and theological works, especially from antiquity, are so wooden and stilted as to make the text too formidable for non-academicians, not so this translation. Philo is made approachable to this reader in large part due to the translation. Despite the amount of reading, the translation assures that the text is never off-putting. Would that all translations could be this readable.



4. Reviewing Philo is almost like reviewing the Bible. If you want detailed descriptions of Jewish thought and custom in the First Century, this volume of the complete works of Philo will be a great compliment to Josephus. Though he often strays off into personal philosophy and opinion, Philo gives us considerable insight into the customs and attitudes of educated Jews of his time. The information he shares adds greatly to the historical backdrop of the story of early Christianity.



5. This collection of Philo's works, translated by the classicist C.D. Yonge, represents an affordable though dated collection of the Jewish mystic's works.
   
   Philo is extremely important from the point of view of early Christianity, since he is a contemporary of Jesus and St Paul, and his allegorical method of interpreting the Bible had a strong impact on many important Christian Church Fathers, especially Origen, who introduced the allegorical method of reading the Bible into Christianity.
   
   Philo interprets the Bible in an allegorical fashion (that is, he seeks for meanings past the literal sense of the letter of the text) to seek deeper spiritual truths about God and the cosmos. Philo justifies this using the assumption the Bible is the word of God, and because it is inspired it has infinite layers of meaning which delve into the deeper infinite mystery of God himself. In this sense, Philo is completely the opposite of scientific historians like Herodotus, Thucydides or Josephus, who read their sacred texts or cultural documents in terms of scientific history, and were averse to any myth-mongering or allegory. However, valuable historical information is especially to be found in Philo's 'Embassy to Gaius', and also his works on the Essene sect of Judaism, both very valuable sources of historical information for those interested in the time of Jesus and St Paul.
   
   Philo's more mystical works interpret the Bible in terms of Neo-Platonic philosophy, which was flourishing in Alexandria where Philo studied and worked. He interprets key Old Testament texts in terms of the journey of the mind to God, leaving behind the body and the visible creation to the invisible realm of spirit where the incomprehensible God dwells, formless and in mystery. Philo is especially interesting in the way he treats many old testament characters and places in terms of stations on the mystical journey to the ineffable, a method which was taken over brilliantly by Origen and later applied extensively to the Old and New Testaments to read Christ into scripture. Also of interest is Philo's introduction of the Greek and Stoic concept of the logos, an intermediate agent between God and the world which comes from God, which God uses to form and create the world. It is possible the writer of the Gospel of John was influenced at least in part by this idea, when meditating on how Jesus could be both human and also the son of God, as Christian tradition was to believe, and the writer of the Gospel took this concept and adopted it to Christian belief in the appropriate way.
   
   In any case studying Philo's works is essential for understanding the mindset of the world in the time of Christ, the Apostles and St Paul, and this collection represents a readily available and affordable copy of Philo's works.

5 comments about Things We Couldn't Say.

1. I bought this book at the American Book Center in The Hague, Netherlands, a few years ago. As I knew many of the places mentioned in the book, it took on an even deeper meaning for me. I love this book, and I list Diet Eman and Hein Sietsma as heroes. Definitely 5+ stars!



2. The true story of true Christians, and Dutch patriots, Diet Eman and Hein Sietsma, and their courageous risk of everything to resist Nazi tyranny and hide thousands of Dutch Jews.
   True Christians always love the Jewish people and Israel, and true nationalists are opposed to both Communism and Nazism, both the antithesis of national self-determination.
   Diet recounts her own life, and experiences and what she saw and heard, as well as her deep faith in G-D, that guided her in all she did and thought.
   Diet recounts her experiences in Scheveningen prison, where she describes how Jewish families, who were caught in hiding, were hauled into the prison, mothers, fathers and children: 'On the nights the guards brought Jews in, we always heard the children crying all through that place. It was bad enough for us to have to suffer through a place, like Scheveningen, but it was terrible to hear those poor innocent children crying.'
   It is up to true Christians and righteous gentiles to stand by the State of Israel today, in the struggle for her survival and that of her children, against the monstrous Islamic-extreme leftist hate machine.



3. Excellent book. The book is fast paced, exciting and touching.
   
   The risks and sacrifices that the author and her fiance went through for their beliefs and for unkwown people amazed and inspired me. Highly recommended.



4. The account of the author and her experiences fighting the German occupation of Holland during WWII is harrowing. It is hard to imagine that any human being can display so mush courage at such a young age.



5. I have read more than 75 books of this genre depicting this period of history. "What would I have done under the same circumstances?" That is the question I am always asking of myself whilst reading these stories. This is the story of a group of people with the courage of their convictions...Diet's story is inspiring and touching. It illustrates perfectly that the power of prayer is undeniable and when 'all one can do is pray' one has done everything.

5 comments about The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust.

1. While the focus of the story is how one woman survived the holocaust, the title sensationalizes a small part of the story (in fact, her husband wasn't a Nazi Officer until the German's were losing the war and drafting anyone left).
   
   This is a book about one individual's survival, in large part due to some amazing luck and some good people. It is NOT a book of how the author used her fortune or took extraordinary risks to help others. Not that there's anything wrong about that. It was a time where no one should be judged for doing what they had to do to survive...and you have to admire anyone who did. Its jut different than the books on the true heroes of this time. The kindness and the weak moments is the human norm and we see both extremes in many of the principle characters, including both of the men who loved the author was well. So its a different story and any documented history of this horrible time is one we should all remember.
   
   Its not the best writing but it gets better and is easily readable. I wanted to give this 4 stars because any true story from this time is recommended reading; however its far from the best I've read. If you want to read an uplifting story about a woman who risks her luck to help others, I'd highly recommend "In My Hands" but Irena Opdyke.



2. I would give 2 and a half stars. This is a good read in that any account of human experiences is important to remind us of the evils in the world, and human resilience nevertheless. The writing, however, is too rudimentary, and one dimensional.



3. This book wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. This woman was smart, but the tale could have been told better so that there was a bit more profoundness in it.



4. Edith Hahn Beer was a law student in Austria when the Nazis moved in. In this books she relates the abuses she endured in a work camp. This novel focuses on how she spent the whole time in sort of a denial. While her family spent money to help her sisters and family leave Edith and her mother stayed, due to lack of money and the fact that edith didn't want to leave her boyfriend Pepi.
   
   When Edith realized that Pepi wasn't going to marry her or help her and her mother was missing, Edith decides to go underground. She gets a set of papers from a friend and flees to Munich. There she meets a man named Werner who is a nazi party member. He is very insistent that Edith marry him, even after Edith confesses she is jewish.
   
   Edith spends the rest of the war as a robotic nazi wife. You feel sorry for her and wonder how she could have survived the daily fear and anxiety she faced at being found out. She doesn't really talk much about Werner. She mentions his crazy outburst and supposes that his twistedness is what made him marry her. Edith managed to survive the war and got back her identity when the war ended although it lost her her husband Werner.
   
   I applaud Edith's courage and resourcefulness. It is interesting to read about a jewish person who not only lived among the nazi's during the war but actually married one! However the majority of the book does focus on her life before she married Werner. It more of how one Jewish woman survived the war and had married a nazi to do it.



5. This was a great book. For non-fiction it read a lot like a novel and was very interesting. The author is honest in her story and displays her emotions very well. This book shows an in-depth and vivid look at how U-boats survived during the Holocaust and World War Two.

5 comments about The Drowned and the Saved.

1. Just a note to correct the Amazon book description that states that Levi committed suicide. He did not. He fell to his death down a staircase in his apartment house.



2. It is redundant to praise this book or describe its background, which has been done very well by other reviewers. This was Levi's final wrestling with the implications of what he called the Lager (he didn't use the term 'Holocaust'), not only as he experienced it, but more generally.
   
   Just a few points that may be less obvious. Levi never uses the phrase "survivor guilt," and his choice of terms was never without consideration. Rather, he uses the term, "shame." The chapter that goes by that name is an enormously subtle and evolving one. Levi continues to probe the feeling as he recalls it after "liberation," and there are at least five different concepts of what that "shame" entailed, no one of which did Levi think was definitive. By the way, none of Levi's definitions are the same as the popular notion of "survivor" guilt - that one feels guilty simply for having survived while others did not. The closest he comes is to talk about surviving "in place of another," which is a more complex idea. It refers specifically to the nature of the camps themselves, a horrific "laboratory," as Levi put it, in which selections, influence, luck and more did mean that one's survival always came at someone else's cost. This is a sociological point. It would not the case, for example, for the survivor of a tornado or earthquake.
   
   Second, the "grey zone" is very often misinterpreted to suggest that perpetrators and victims met in some "middle ground" somewhere. Levi is definitive about this. The responsibility of the killers and the victims are in no sense, and in no context, equivalent. But in the squalid and horrific world that was the lager, there was an enormous range of types and characters. Levi is arguing mostly against what he calls "stereotypes" - convenient simplifications.
   
   Finally, it may be of interest that "the drowned and the saved" was intended by Levi to be the title of his first book, If This is a Man (known in the U.S. as Survival in Auschwitz). His publisher disagreed, although there is a chapter in If This is a Man called Drowned and Saved. Levi's preoccupation with the role in the camp of differences in power, privilege, luck, and alliances-of-convenience runs throughout his work. It is a topic that still deserves much more attention than it has received.



3. Primo Levi's final memoir about the Nazi Holocaust is among the most provocative and compelling accounts of the Shoah in the entire literature. Indeed, it is one of the great political memoirs of recent years. Levi was an Italian chemist, anti-Nazi activist, and Jew who was sent to Auschwitz and famously documented the atrocities that he experienced in `Survival at Auschwitz,' one of the first memoirs to be widely read in Germany. This book is a profoundly introspective rumination, not on the particular horrors of the camps, but of their philosophical implications for human beings as a whole. In `The Grey Zone,' Levi explores the moral ambiguity of this moment in history, both in terms of the work of the Kapos and the rare but meaningful resistance from the Germans. Levi is open to the possibility of a moral spectrum, yet he remains unequivocally vociferous in his condemnation of National Socialism, and of the German people's complicity with this movement. There are many striking and haunting moments in `The Drowned and the Saved,' such as Levi's discussion of the Musselman, or the experience of palpable shame on the part of the Jewish victims. This book is a special memoir because Levi refuses to draw the reader via an explicit recollection of the litany of horrors that he experienced, but because he is willing to penetrate into the meaning and truth of the holocaust as human abomination. A true masterpiece, both in approach and in execution.



4. This is a book that causes the reader to reconsider, reflect critically one's own views, marvel at the level of depravity to which humans can steep, and is one which I imagine should be a standard text in ethics courses.
   But it also raises questions of memory and the mind"s ability to adjust, amend and retool. Mr Levi must stand as one of that sad century's most astonishing examples of positive human achievement .



5. "The Drowned and the Saved" is the final book of Primo Levi (1919-1987), a Jewish-Italian chemist who survived the death camp of Auschwitz, and turned to authorship in his later years. This book is a group of a half-dozen related essays, each exploring a specific aspect of Levi's view of the Holocaust's causes and effects.

   He begins with the concept of "good faith", wondering whether believing a lie excuses it. He notes that oppressors lie to save themselves from believing they are evil, and victims lie to save themselves from believing they suffer. He explores the moral zone between black and white, noting that anybody can be a tough killer or a foolish victim: we are all tyrants and victims in our own way.

   He examines survivor's guilt, and reflects on the roles of luck versus blessing in life, and discusses the ways humans need communication to survive, including the way victims bend language to disguise their intentions, and tyrants twist it to cause confusion among their victims.

   He tries to distinguish between rationalized evil and collective madness. He believes the spirit and mind can be injured just as the body can, and wonders how a person's perspective plays a role in their survival and psychological health. He describes the various stereotypes people hold when they imagine the stories of those who lived through WWII, e.g., the romantic hero, the evil Nazi, the prisoner who always plots escape, and so on, but explains why they are rough and inaccurate.

   Each chapter is like a conversation with an intelligent and qualified author. It is thoughtful, and a pleasure to read. It reflects on psychological and historical themes which are important not only to our understanding of the Holocaust, but also more generally human nature. (It appears to be a rumination on subjects discussed in his other books, collected and summarized briefly here.) It is for this reason that the book is successful. It considers the Holocaust in particular, but its themes are actually deeper and more universal.

   "Letters from Germans", the penultimate chapter, is the book's most powerful, noticeably demonstrating the tension between his memory of that time period, and the memory of various Germans, in their own words. He especially berates those who believe they are doing the right thing by speaking out in shame and guilt over theit past, perhaps attacking them a bit harshly, but certainly with justification. The last chapter, "Conclusion", is its weakest. In the opinion of this reviewer, it over-generalizes, and tries to apply retrospective analysis to the world's future. It also calls for unwarranted conclusions, unrelated to the preceding chapters, and perhaps contradicts itself. Luckily it is brief, and does not detract from the excellence of the prior explorations.

   (For example, he says war is unecessary, and mankind can settle all conflicts around a table, but only as long as we are in good faith. He then calls Hitler a buffoon, implying he cannot be taken in good faith. He next says we need not have good faith to negotiate if we are all equally in fear of war, but this sounds like he is saying war is necessary after all, even if only to remind us there are punishments for negotiation in bad faith!)

   Despite its conclusion (which many readers will probably enjoy, despite this reviewer's belief it over-reaches), the book is an intelligent and even-handed, but personal assessment of the Holocaust, written in an engaging and intelligent style, with brevity and wit. At 200 pages, it is easy to read. Packed with philosophy and insight, it is worth the investment.

2 comments about Man's Search For Meaning.

1. It has been many years since my original read of this book, and I won't let it happen again. This thought provoking book is a must read for everyone interested in the study of human behavior. Exceptionaly insightful!



2. This is a must read for all those "woe is me" people always complaining about everything. Man's Search for Meaning will enlighten you to what "having a bad day" really means. I applaud Viktor Frankl for his inner strength to survive such an ordeal and come away with such dignity and inner peace.

5 comments about The House of Rothschild: Volume 1: Money's Prophets: 1798-1848.

1. What has Ferguson not told about the Rothschilds in his seemingly exhaustive two volume set?
   
   He all too facilely dismisses Victor Rothschild's being the fifth man in the World War II Soviet spy ring of Blunt, Burgess, et. al. He does not bring up the 1776 Masonic Illuminati order of Adam Weishaupt with alleged connections to Mayer Amschel. And he dosen't discuss the Rothschilds' connection with Freemasonry at the highest level, and their gift to Israel of the Supreme Court building, a New World Order artifact, heavily laden architecturally with Freemasonry symbolism. Likewise, glaringly absent from note are 19th, 20th, and 21st century Illuminati activities, which the family has been widely thought to be involved with. History Professor Ferguson could fill in his blanks on some vital but shady Rothschild history from Henry Makow, a researcher and writer--and a Jew.
   
   According to an article on Ferguson in Harvard Magazine (May/June '07), he is about to take on biographical writing of Henry Kissinger, at Kissinger's request. This should generate caution. Could Kissinger's "papers" be entirely relied on? Kissinger probably saw what sheen Ferguson could put on the Rothschild's archives as raw material, ignoring or minimising important but dark concerns.
   
   Same question on the Warburg's family papers that he is availing himself of. What will Ferguson tell us about Paul Warburg's role in establishing the egregious Federal Reserve, and Max Warburg financing the Bolshevik revolution?
   
   Let's hope that Ferguson can either put this and other allegations to rest once and for all or illuminate them if true--but now that he's shown his colors with the Rothschilds, I doubt that he will, either way.
   
   It seems that sympathetic academic interest in these elitist families and individuals is inevitable in part because that is where the big bucks for research and publishing would be, especially for a scholar who professes to have, as he says in the Harvard Magazine article, "become a thorough philo-Semite".
   
   Is there a whiff of opportunism here at the expense of objectivity?



2. the book had some good pictures, however prof Ferguson not once, but on numerous occasions, claims to refute the story of how Nathan brilliantly deceived the London Stock Exchange players after the battle of Waterloo, earning $40 billion (2007 prices) in one day. A bit jealous I suppose.
   
   Verdict: Ignore the anti-semitic propaganda and the book is worth a look.



3. [Also see: Fritz Springmeier's Bloodlines of the
   Illuminati]. Ferguson, who teaches at a Northea-
   stern University in the US, did yeoman work here
   on at least defusing some of conspiracy talk about
   how fools like Bernard Piper-Collins claim Roths-
   childs alledgedly control ALL things.The Rothschilds
   never ran the bank of England, the gentile Baring
   Bros. did. They are however a very corrupt family.
   Author Ferguson did excellent work here.



4. I have to start out by saying overall I enjoyed the book but I would only rate it as an average book. It is a little too detailed and didn't keep my interest from one chapter to the next. It would have been better if it left out 150 pages or so. I found myself doing a lot of skiming over what I would say was boring filler in the book. You can learn a lot about the type of business that that Rothschilds were in but not a lot of how they went about doing it.
   
   After reading this it seems that the Rothschilds were in the business of making large loans to governments and then packaging these loans as bonds and selling them to the public. They were as much bond and commodity traders as they were bankers, which I found interesting. There are numerous quotes from letters written back and forth between family members that will give you a sense of their personalities. The family history is very detailed so if this is the kind of thing you are interested in then you will probably enjoy the book more then I did.



5. Those who already know Niall Ferguson do not need any praise for the books he writes: a few years ago I chanced to read his excellent "The Cash Nexus" and this led me to "The Pity of War" and finally to "The House of Rothschild".
   
   Ferguson is a scholar who loves challenges: not just challenging arguments, but also challenges in the sheer volume of sources and research, and finally challenges to the reader in presenting controversial theses (I think specially of those advanced brilliantly, and contentiously, in "The Pity of War" - see my review if interested).
   
   This last effort is mainly an attempt to unveil the Rothschild mythology, restoring an historically accurate perspective both of the family saga and of the banking and financial European history from 1798 to 1848.
   
   The book is a masterpiece for many reasons: not just story of a family (circumscribed to the male members), not just story of a great banking institution in the past two centuries, but also comprehensive financial history of the first half of XIX century... "a rich and nuanced portrait" as the book leaflet reads - that reveals and hides, but also creates an appealing and fascinated image of those turbulent years.
   So, it can appeal the history buff, and all those readers interested in financial history (and speculative bubbles) as well as those interested in biography and cultural history.
   
   The essay definitely has also - obviously maybe - a literary dimension: because in describing the five brothers Ferguson uses those same "colors" used by contemporaries, a literary dimension that cannot but appeal and enrich the more serious economic investigation: for Nathan the "meteoric" larger than life Napoleon-like image (passion for risk, high stakes on the table and the ruthlessness of a general), for James that richly colored literary portrait (full of mid-tones) we have been used by writers like Balzac, Zola and Stendhal (the mix of secretiveness and candid frankness, detachment and savoir vivre), for the others three brothers the age-old mythologies of Midas and the wandering Jew (specially in the portrait of the German and Austrian branch: they seem consciously prisoners of the Jewish stereotype in their inability to enjoy life and relax).
   
   Every reader interested in the story of the House of Rothschild want to know the why and how a middle class Jewish family confined in the Frankfurt ghetto was able in just one generation to become the richest family in the world.
   Ferguson's study is very good in the pars destruens, that is in taking down and unveiling the old mythologies (like the Waterloo myth, or the Hesse Kassel myth), less good in the pars construens that is substituting a coherent explanation. The surviving accounts are of course too tiny to cast light, and the accounting techniques used by the family in the early days too backward to be critically useful.
   So the impression is that of an unending race over speed limits, a sheer willingness to accept often uncalculated risks and to play for the highest stakes and at the same time an impressive luck (or God's favor) that stuck contemporaries (always expecting the meteoric rise of Nathan to end like the parallel story of Napoleon).
   So was their preeminence produced only by chance?
   Yes and no. Chance - according to Ferguson - played a striking role in the early stages - the building up, but consolidation and enlargement were due to specific attitudes of the family: solidarity between brothers, their informative network, their ability in cultivating diplomacy and - not least - to the fact that the family systematically reinvested in the business about 96percent of the net income produced (unlike - say - the Barings brothers, that in 1816 had almost the same size)
   
   The book will be also hugely helpful to readers interested in European history, casting a different - unusual to most readers - light in the inner mechanism of the early XIX century European politics.
   As for the nature of the Restoration, often liquidated by historians as a narrow and backward attempt to turn back the clock to pre-revolutionary times, Ferguson shows how different in reality was this period from the Ancien Regime and how the seeds of modernity were well present and working: the sheer preference of the banking institution for financing representative-backed monarchies, the consolidation in Jewish emancipation all over Europe, but also the frailty of arch-conservative governments (not just the case of Spain, but also of the Holy Alliance) compared to more pragmatic approaches.
   A rather under-developed theme is the rise of modern anti-Semitism: Ferguson - unlike most scholars - indicates the first traces in France well before the Affaire Dreyfus and hints how the irresistible rise of the Rothschild family (with their devotion to Judaism) was very instrumental in consolidating anti-Jewish mythologies (out of a sense of envy but also perceived in France especially as a alien "evil" power).
   
   As a reader interested also in financial themes, I was truly fascinated by those chapters dedicated to the bond and stock markets, particularly those regarding the default of Spanish and Portuguese consols.
   The Rothschild were the first bankers to export the financial facilities, long enjoyed in Great Britain, to Continental Europe and were decisive in creating a retail market for bonds and stocks.
   But the most interesting part is the one dealing with financial speculation, bubbles and defaults. Most remarkable is the feeling of a déjà vue: if you substitute Spain and Portugal with Argentina, you will observe striking similarities both in price, negotiations and very likely in the final outcome. Nihil sub sole novi, or at least it seems so.
   
   This is a book I greatly enjoyed.
   I cannot but recommend it to every reader interested in serious history.
   That is not to say that it is perfect: I was - as many other reviewers - incensed by the lack of bibliography (shame on Penguin), but on the average it is an outstanding achievement.
   
   Likewise, if you happen to be interested in the argument, you may be interested in other works I chanced to read about the same themes:
   - Muhlstein, Anhka - "James de Rothschild", this is a book I read long time ago, but it was more a biography in the classical way and as far as I remember, I found it rather inconsequential
   - Chancellor, Edward - "The Devil Takes the Hindmost" - a colorful and well-informed essay focusing specially on the XIX century. There are chapters dedicated to defaulting bonds in the XIX century as well as to the railway stocks bubble in the United Kingdom.
   - Conor Cruise O'Brien - "The Siege: The Saga of Israel and Zionism". I have many works dedicated to Sionism and Judaism, but this is the most concise and clear exposition of the birth of anti-Semitism in Western Europe in late XIX century.
   
   You are most welcome if you can suggest other readings or just share ideas and comments!
   Thanks for reading.

5 comments about Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story.

1. This is a good read but it is not exciting. I could take it or leave it. Its interesting to see how they recall and tell the events of the holocaust that they went through, but its not something that I would run out to get to read. I think Number the Stars, Annie Frank or The Hidding Place are more gripping that this one.



2. This account of the Holocaust doubles as a succinct retelling of the German history that brought it about, making it not only a moving personal account of one family's journey, but a valuable informational source for those wondering how and why the Holocaust happened.
   
   Marion Blumenthal is only 5 when the story begins. Her German Jewish family got caught up in the inexorable tides of history, tried but failed to escape to Palestine or to the US, and ultimately fled to Holland. Unfortunately, Holland was overrun by the Nazis like much of mainland Europe, and the Blumenthals (father Walter, mother Ruth, brother Albert, and Marion) wound up first in Westerbork and later in Bergen-Belsen (yes, back to Germany).
   
   Young readers will get a first-hand account of what life was like as a child in the Nazi internment camps. Not as graphic as, say, Elie Wiesel's NIGHT, this book nonetheless is honest and forthright in its narration of Nazi brutalities. At times, the point of view (shifting between quotes of the mother, Ruth, and the first-person point of view of Marion) is a bit off-putting, but overall, this short, large-font memoir with pictures is a worthy choice for middle-school-aged and high school readers -- especially those new to this dark chapter in history. Recommended.



3. A child's perspective of the Holocaust and her life in the United States after liberation. Excellent reading suggestion for a children's Holocaust book.



4. I had the honor of meeting the author, and no wonder she survived! This lady was as tough as they come! Liked the book, loved the author.



5. Marion Blumenthal was a little girl in Germany when Hitler came to power and began his programs to rid Germany of Jews once and for all. With her family, she experienced the tightening grip of restrictions and humiliations forced on German Jews, including her father, a recipient of the Iron Cross for his bravery in WWI. Finally, they fled to a refugee camp in Holland, waiting for their visa to the United States. It was issued, but their passage on a ship was delayed two months, and in that terrible window of time, Hitler's armies conquered Holland. They ended up in one of the most infamous concentration camps in Germany, then, near the end of the war, were put on a "death train" to nowhere, moving from place to place in cattle cars infested with typhus as prisoners died, until finally being liberated by the advancing Russian army.
   
   
   
   This book is written for youth (I estimate 6-10th graders). It focuses more on the psychological stress of being a prisoner in ones own country, and glosses over the horror associated with Nazi death camps. That atrocities occurred are noted, however, this is a book about a family staying together from a pre-teen's perspective. I don't fault the book for not focusing on the atrocities; there is a haunting photograph of two women preparing dinner with hundreds of dead stacked up behind them. The horror of it all! But how does a child process this experience? That is what is missing from this particular book.
   
   
   
   Easy to read, and well-edited. The Holocaust continues to haunt... and to teach.