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Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland 54 reviews
Christopher R. Browning
Harper Perennial, 1993
Not for the faint of heart, or the weak of stomach!
This book (as described by previous reviewers and the product description) details what the men in the Nazi Reserve Police Battalion 101 went through, specifically during the SS Invasion of Poland.
Browning describes in detail the process of dehumanizing the Jews, and writes at length on the style of execution that the Germans refined and perfected in Poland, prior to the widespread use of gas ...
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The Spies of Warsaw: A Novel 66 reviews
Alan Furst
Random House, 2008
My first but not last Furst
The Spies of Warsaw is a wonderful and entertaining read. It hooked me very quickly, and I finished it in nothing flat. Alan Furst is a craftsman of the highest order. I've been analyzing novels rather seriously for almost two decades and this one is constructed as well as any I've read.
I'm not a great fan of spy stories as they're usually full of tricks to fool the reader or far too ...
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The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale188 reviews
Art Spiegelman
Pantheon, 1996
Masterpiece!
As a Jew Living in Israel, holocaust related books are important to read, but it's hard to do it actually. I can remember several holocaust-era semi-biographic novels which are great but those are the exceptions. Most of the books are a bit bothersome though true.
Maus just captured me.I consider it one of the best books I've ever read in my life. It was just breath-taking, adding to that the ...
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Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History150 reviews
Art Spiegelman
Pantheon, 1986
Masterpiece
i was one of the few among my peers who had never read one of the Maus books. When i finally got around to it, i was blown away by its excellence. This is a masterpiece (and i do not use the term lightly). Do yourself a favor and don't miss it.
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The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story 74 reviews
Diane Ackerman
W. W. Norton, 2008
Poles against Hitler
This book reads like a novel but is the story of the struggle of the Polish people against the German war machine. Centered around a family that runs a zoo and shelters Jews fleeing from the Aryan mania it can be at times very distressing but also very uplifting. I bought this book for my daughter-in-law whose mother is Polish and because she was a Catholic she was swept up by the Nazi machine ...
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Boy in the Striped Pajamas89 reviews
John Boyne
David Fickling Books, 2007
wow.
I literally just finished reading this novel about ten minutes ago. I found myself just staring at the last page, waiting for some grand explanation to pop out and make it all better, but, of course, that did not happen.
This book is deep, and it really makes you think. What would you do in Bruno's situation? Though the vocabulary and style of writing makes it appear as a book for young ...
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Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning325 reviews
Jonah Goldberg
Doubleday, 2008
Finally Someone Has Documented the Link between Wilson's "Progressive" Ideas and Fascism
First of all, allow me to say that I have purchased and read this book -- something I believe few, if any, of the negative reviewers have done.
This is an important work, tracing the intellectual development of the idea that the all-powerful people's State should always trump the individual and be in firm control of all aspects of the population's culture, education, defense or military ...
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All But My Life 96 reviews
Gerda Weissmann Klein
Hill and Wang, 1995
Survial of the Human Spirit~A deeply moving story.
This is one of the first Holocaust survival stories that I read. It is by far one that has stayed with me in the most detail.
What a strong girl Gerda is. she was told to never give up her boots and in the end it is one thing that saved her life after marching in a blizzard half frozen to death. How she survived is nothing short of a miracle.
Reading this when you are in a hard time reminds ...
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Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began (Maus)38 reviews
Art Spiegelman
Pantheon, 1992
Painting in order to Avoid Self-Portraits
At first glance, Maus might seem like yet another attempt to spin the genocide of the Jewish people into something demeaning. I have seen people turn and walk away from the selection because of that, and when I suggested this as required reading in a class it was initially met with hostile responses. Looking into the reading changed the way people saw the thing being constructed here, however, ...
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Survival In Auschwitz70 reviews
Primo Levi
Touchstone, 1996
The Experiences and Reflections of an Italian Jew at Auschwitz
My review of this classic emphasizes matters not raised by previous reviewers, and is based upon the 1986 edition which combines SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ, THE REAWAKENING, and AFTERWORD...
Levi wasn't sent to or near the gas chambers and crematoria. Instead, he was diverted into forced labor in the sub-camp of Monowitz (p. 386), some 7 km east of Auschwitz proper. Poles had to wear a large "P". ...
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Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland 70 reviews
Jan T. Gross
Penguin (Non-Classics), 2002
two-faced people--finks
This book is very informative and depressingly good. I read it twice, doing lots of underlying of important parts during the 2nd reading time.
I sent the book to a friend. Everyone should read this book. A must read
Ben Butler
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The Polish Officer: A Novel47 reviews
Alan Furst
Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2001
In darker times
A good book. The main character is a little cold compared with others by Furst. The book does keep the tension up though.
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Milkweed (Readers Circle)88 reviews
Jerry Spinelli
Laurel Leaf, 2005
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
This is a great book. The way Jerry Spinelli developes the character, Misha Piludski, and makes it so that you really get a feel of what it was like to be Jewish during the Holocaust. This book is one of the best books i have ever read. It leads you through the story of a boy that with a little help will make it a long way. And learn to make with what he has. To be smart. And to care for others. ...
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Push Not the River69 reviews
James Conroyd Martin
St. Martin's Griffin, 2004
A Polish Love Story in the Time of King Stanislaw
This excellent novel, which gets its name from the Polish proverb "Push not the river; it will flow of its own accord", is the story of two cousins, both countesses, who are in love with the same untitled man in a period of eightieth century history, a time when Russia, Prussia and Austria were bent on conquering and dividing Poland.
The characters are well developed, the dialogue is free ...
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The Drowned and the Saved20 reviews
Primo Levi
Vintage, 1989
As important as a book gets
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 ...
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Auschwitz: True Tales From a Grotesque Land17 reviews
Sara Nomberg-Przytyk
The University of North Carolina Press, 1986
A Great Book
This book is an eye opener. It shows what human beings will do just to survive. I always heard about the horrors committed on the prisoners by soldiers but not about the prisoners turning on each other. I was able to see all sides in this book. There were evil SS men and yet there were ones that showed compassion. There were prisoners that would beat and starve other prisoners and ones who stuck ...
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Tappan's Handbook of Healing Massage Techniques: Classic, Holistic and Emerging Methods (4th Edition) ...11 reviews
Patricia J. Benjamin, Frances M. Tappan
Prentice Hall, 2004
absolutely the best introduction to massage available
There is no question that this book is the best introduction to massage. It is written both with heart and with the correct information you need as a beginging student. You can feel the passion of the writers for the subject, and no wonder, Tappan is one of the most famous massage therapists America ever had. The authors write so sympathetically that you are pulled further into the book.This is ...
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Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language23 reviews
Eva Hoffman
Penguin (Non-Classics), 1990
Enlightening description of immigration and languages
I started reading this wonderful book 6 months before I left Brazil towards Israel. After finishing the first Part (Paradise) I just could not keep on reading, and I abandoned the book for a while. After I landed in Israel I re-took the book and was delighted again with the realness of it. A thought occurred to me that the reading was so descriptive of the immigration sentiment that I just could ...
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The Painted Bird (Kosinski, Jerzy)100 reviews
Jerzy Kosinski
Grove Press, 1995
A Sufferor's Tale of Suffering in Fable Fashion [T]
Brothers Grimm meet Soviet novelist. This tale of a childhood adventure has dainty fable-like highlights intermingled with horrific accounts of the savagery of war.
Like Grimm, this tale is not light on death. People are killed the old fashioned way: axes, knives and bludgeoning. Throughout this book, you occasionally have to wince as Kosinski describes such events with incredible detail.
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Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers28 reviews
Filip Muller
Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, 1999
Riviting
Nobody should be critical of the writing "style" of this book. The man who wrote it doesn't claim to be a professional writer. He relates his own eyewitness accounts of the most horrific scenes, worse than any fiction imaginable. The book details the planned and cunning killing of thousands upon thousands of living human beings, and the struggle by the SS to dispose of the mountains of ...
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