Poland Books

This has been one of the few excellent books i have ever read. It is actually real, it really happened, so it makes you feel as if this was happining before your eyes. It was sad, and well written. i actually heard David Faber, the author of this book, speak. He was an incredibly powerful speaker, and his book places you in his position, just as his speech does.

David faber visited our high school last week, and had told us about his horrific ordeal during the holocaust. And I was utmost touched and embraced him. I could see those fear he told us in his eyes. And some of us left the auditorium in tears. I recommend this to anyone, because there is a dark side of humanity we taken for granted, and people had suffered more than anyone who had to go through.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Faber as he spoke at the middle school I attended when I was in 7th grade. He spoke to us about his experiences and encounters during the Holocaust that took part in Europe during WWII. Our history teacher read us "Because of Romek" as it was part of our curriculm. I have not been the same since. This is an incredible account of what he went through in keeping of his promise to his mother to stay alive. I would recommend this to a more mature audience being that it does have some parts that are somewhat rough to handle...or so were for myself but overall is an incredible read...as he takes you through his experiences.

This book explains how David's encounter with the Holocaust and yet his story is sad but a good book to read. This is one of the best holocaust memoir I've read! I highly recommended. When I was starting to read the book, I couldnt but the book down...( I ended up finishing the book in 2 days!). I loved it and highly respect the holocaust survivors and of course, David Faber.

Had I thought it was fiction, I would have thought the author went over the top with this farfetched tale. To know that it is authentic is horrifying and at the same time captivating. If you are into the holocaust, then you will find this book absolutely fascinating; and if you aren't a history buff I recommend this book as enlightenment. My utmost respect to anyone that has been through this nightmare. And David Faber my deepest gratitude for having written this book.

Excellent book. meticulously researched. Easy reading. I wasn't aware some Jewish people were slaves. I recommend this book. It was an honor to Ann Kirschner's mother.

The story of Polish Jews who were lucky enough not to be sent directly to the death camps, yet unlucky enough not to make it onto Schindler's list or find some other long-term refuge. Writing mostly about her mother's family as they lived for six years on the precipice, Kirschner produces something amazing: an important piece of scholarship that never feels like a historical tome. Rather, it stands on its own as a deeply moving, character-based story that will leave you wanting to revisit passages about remarkably brave and beautiful people -- some survivors, some not -- who were nearly forgotten by history. Despite Kirschner's proximity to the story, she never forces herself into the narrative; rather, she weaves personal elements into the story only when they can add a new and critical dimension. The result is a book that deserves to be dog-eared and passed around repeatedly.

Ann Kirschner meticulously weaves the story of her mother's survival with the overwhelming accounts of the Holocaust...a fine balance between biography and history lesson.

This is a very moving tribute written by a daughter about her mother. It is also well-researched and well-written, shedding new light on the movement of mail through work camps and even concentration camps. Sala's story of survival and redemption is remarkable, and the reader can well imagine the emotional roller-coaster the author must have experienced uncovering her mother's story.

I was so moved by this book I will include share my heartfelt comments to the author.
Just want to THANK YOU for such an amazing book! Your decision to share your mothers personal life with readers who benefit so from your investment of labor and emotion is generous and to be admired! When you were complete it must have looked like E=Mc squared did to Einstein! Simple on the surface with the complexity of the universes author within. My highest regards to you and Sala Kirschner.
Glenn from Tampa Fl and sometimes Lake Tahoe Nv

This is an excellent novel with a hugely important and significant historical validity. It's a bit slow to get going, but once into the story, you can't put the book down, and it has an amazing ending. I highly recommend it.

One of those rare occasions when my both my partner and I read this book one after the other - she is a PD James fan, Charles Dickens fan - whereas I tend to read those books less dependent on plot and more on philosophical meanderings, or rich in atmosphere, or completely character driven - Fateless or Old Masters say. In The Memory of the Forest has all the elements and so it appeals equally to us both. One of the great moral questions in the novel of course concerns the old dictum "evil thrives when good men do nothing". As such things as racism will always be latent wherever humans gather, it depends on the rule of law and the vigilance of citizens, to maintain civil life. And the life of a Polish village is at the centre of the story - if the village can survive, maybe humanity will too, but at what cost?
A very well written novel.

I love this book. Period. Fully realized characters, gripping plotline, historically significant and cathartic. Definitely a keeper for life.

The story of a young man coming of age, discovering love and lies, ambition and murder in a town that cannot admit its past or face its present. Set in Poland as communism collapses, the rupture of old foundations reveal the townspeople to be what they would forget.While one of the book's larger themes is what the Nazis, and by complicity, the Polish people, did to the Jewish population during the Second World War, it is not "a Holocaust book." Rather it is an absorbing murder and love story; a murder that begins the novel and whose investigation provides its framework, a love story that will leave the reader in tears, reminded what the world should be but is not. It is a rare book, one that impels its reader onward with a gripping narrative but repeatedly brings the reader to a halt to reflect on the beauty and lyricism of its prose.

Those who like to read books about Poland (there must be a few of us out there) will find that Charles Powers' "In the Memory of the Forest" is a pleasant surprise. This book is a real dark horse. It doesn't appear to be widely known (I found it for sale on the used-book cart at my local library) and it's the only novel that Powers ever wrote. But the lesser known works are sometimes the most satisfying reads.

"In the Memory of the Forest" is a murder-mystery set in the small farming village of Jadowia, somewhere to the northeast of Warsaw. The book is skillfully written, with an interesting plot, a few twists here and there, and an ending that's both disturbing and reassuring. Poland's role in the Holocaust is the dark and provocative background for the novel. What I liked most about the book is that Powers (a former journalist who lived in Warsaw for five years) captures the personality of Poland better than other authors who have attempted this same task, e.g., James Michener, Lily Brett. My only complaint is that many of the characters are too clearly cast as "good guys" or "bad guys," without a chance for them to surprise you with the other sides of their personalities. A Polish murder-mystery is a narrow genre, which most people wouldn't be inclined to read. But if you're daring enough to tackle those tricky Polish pronunciations, you'll probably be glad that you read this book.

Yellow Star is excellent. The book is written in first person, from the authors interviews of her aunt who was one of the only children who survived the Lodzer Ghetto. I was deeply moved by her writing, not only as an avid reader, but as a person who lost an extensive family in Lodz during WW2 .

This book is recommended reading fr anyone who wants to now what happened during those horrific times.

Manny Litwak

This is a must read for children and adults alike. As an adult I have been enjoying reading the books written for children lately. They tell the truth of what really happened but they are not so graphic as to totally terrify a child.

I found this book very encouraging and moving. Please read this book with your children and grandchildren, talk about it and let us never forget so this will never happen again.

Beautifully written.

Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy is about a young Jewish girl named Syvia Perimutter who is forced by the Nazis to live in a ghetto under impossible conditions during the Holocaust.

In 1939 the Germans invaded Lodz, Poland and forced the Jewish population to live in a ghetto. 270,000 people where forced to live in these death threatening ways. At the end of the war, about 800 people survived, 12 being children. One of those 12 was Syvia. This story is about how Syvia Perimutter survived during WWII.

Syvia's personality changes many times during the story. She is sad and lonely when she is told she can never leave the room. Syvia also goes from scared to hopeful and brave to happy as the story goes on.

I like this book because it was exciting and helped me learn more about the conditions that people lived in during World War II.

The author retells her Aunt Syvia's story of surviving in the Lodz Ghetto during WWII. The book is based on Syvia's true story, although the author has fictionalized some events. Told in a series of vignettes that are vivid and poetic, the story begins during the fall of 1939 and ends with the liberation of Lodz in 1945.

Each of the book's five sections starts with a short factual introduction that puts Syvia's story into a historical context. Then, told in first person, each of Syvia's short but vivid memories helps the reader understand the true horror of the Holocaust. Syvia's story is wonderful and terrifying and wise.

Told from a child's perspective, the story uses simple and powerful language. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for children and adults.

I am always trying to educate myself on The Holocaust since I teach a unit over it during the school year. This year I attended an educator conference for teaching The Holocaust and one of the speakers highly recommend this book, so I went home and ordered it. When I received it, I sat on the couch and started to read it. Two hours later I got up feeling like I had just lived through a horrible nightmare. This book is amazing. You are there feeling and seeing everything. If you have any interest in stories about The Holocaust, this is one to add to your library.

This is a great book, all of Kapuscinski`s books are great. It takes you for a journey you don`t expect. Great style and I always regret it`s over, after I finish to read his book.

As stated in most of the reviews of this book, Kapuscinski is a great writer. If you have not read him allready, read this book and understand why. If you allready have read him, you are going to read this book based on what you allready have learned to know.

Having given Kapuscinski the credit he obviously deserves for his writing, I believe there is some points that should be done.

-First Kapuscinski stands on the shoulders of giants. His writing is to a great extent the result of the local people that he meets on his journeys and agrees to open their region and their lifes to him.

-Kapuscinski is a very gifted writer endeed, that have read a lot about the places and peoples that he visits. On one hand this is what always makes his writing so alive, something to go back to and read agian, so informative. On the other hand gret litterature sometimes can serve as a way of getting away with having little or nothing to really report from the battleground when his plan fails or when he does not get what he intended out of a trip. Striking examples of this is his journey at the Trans-siberian railway where he only observes the Soviet Union through the train window or to Nagarno Karabakh where he is stuck inside an airport, a car and a flat. That his stories is as intriguing, even when he hardly experience "what the war looks like on the ground" is a clear sign that his capabilities as dramaturg and writer can make up for a rather thin story. Even when he gets the chance to write the story he intended from a place he visits, the timeframe and the difficulties he worked under limits his insights compared to the writers that have covered the area afer him.

-Some paragraphs in the book makes me a bit uncertain about how good the translation is (my review is based upon the Norwegian translation). In the first chapter - Pinsk '39 the comment of a NKVD officer visiting their house "Muzh kuda?" is traslated "where is your husband" instead of the correct "Where have your husband gone", meaning that the NKVD officer allready knows that he has recently been in the house, meaning someone has infomed the NKVD that Kapuscinski's father (a hunted partisan) has recently been in the house. Things like this is not a big deal, but it makes you start thinking about the quality of the translation in general and if it can be the case that the author underplays the role of ordinary people as informers in the terror.

-In his story about the war in Pinsk 1939, his memory of the events as a child probably is an important expalianation behind the qualities of the stories. In the memory of a child events that would probably be described as horrorful and sad by a grown up, in the eyes of a smal shild gets exciting, intriguing, colorful and down to earth.

All in all, Kapuscinski is good reading and Imperium is a great intruduciton to the former Soviet Republics. To get true insight in the contemporary former Soviet Republics, you will need further reading though.

Perhaps history will never be told better than through the eye of this travelling writer (or is it a writing traveller?). Read and be awed by the staggering proportions of recent history in the vast empire that is no more, the Sovjet Union. And be chilled to the bones by the unimaginable amounts of suffering inflicted by the sovjet leaders on their own people. And be astonished that in the midst of the most utter despair, poverty, and enslavement, Kapuscinski can find optimism, humor, and love of life.

I purchased this book after reading about the author in the Wall Street Journal. He died earlier this year. The author, a journalist, kept two notebooks while on assignments throughout the world, one for his assignment and one for himself. In this book he combined his observations from several trips he took within Russia and its states over a span of many decades. At times his writing style can be quite poetic, and the book is not unlike a travel book, although Soviet Russia was not a friendly place at the times of his visits. I intend to read his other books, and highly recommend this one.

A lyrical masterpiece by this superlative writer! Nowhere have I found a dissection of the Evil Empire done with such fluid verse. He goes from the periphery into the heart of the beast and everywhere he discovers that appearances deceive and what seems to signal change is really a re-hash of old. Kapuczinski's sharp analysis and trenchant comments will be sorely missed!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Auschwitz by Laurence Rees provides a compelling look at one of the darkest deeds in human history. Including first hand accounts from SS and prisoner alike, the book traces the history of the infamous camp from its origin as a work camp through its evolution into one of the most "productive" death camps. Rees delves into the myriad factors that created Auschwitz and how the camp's mission changed as the war progressed. The history of the "Final Solution" is detailed as well and Rees also describes several of the other camps and how they paralleled or were different from Auschwitz.

I had read accounts of the Holocaust before, but this book was incredibly detailed. The personal accounts were often gut-wrenching, especially some of the SS interviews in which there was often no regret expressed, in fact often the opposite. Not only a history of Auschwitz, but of Jewish persecution, the book provided information I hadn't heard before. There were a few accounts the author concluded the book with in which several Jews returned to their homes, only to find them gone or in someone else's possession. This was a side to the Holocaust I hadn't been consciously aware of, but probably should have guessed at The book was well written and quick paced, the material repugnant, but important to remember. Books like this need to be written and read, so that we never allow these events to simply pass into history or their magnitude diluted with time.

I just visited Auschwitz and Birkenhau prison camps and the book "Auschwitz-A New History" placed all this into perspective. The author writes the book purely from a historical researched point of view rather than from personal point of view. The book is very good reading and an excellent historical document.

I expected this to be a detailed presentation on how Auschwitz worked. Instead it was all over the place, with large portions talking about Sobibor; human interest stories; and how Jews were transported from Denmark, Slovakia, and France. This book should have focused on Auschwitz.

Most history books tend to get bogged down in their own data and dry writing style. What makes "Auschwitz" stand out as one of the most important books ever on the infamous concentration and death camp (there were both in many locations in Nazi Germany) is its readability - accurate but poignant and full of the drama that the subject provided.
Rees offers staggering information concerning the camp - the horrifying conditions for those selected to work and die as soon as they were unable to work any more - others "selected" outright for murder, most commonly by gas and guns, and even the occasional breakouts and shows of kindness, sometimes even by the SS troops who ran the camp.
Combined with the horrors of other concentration and death camps like Bergen-Belsen, the first discovered by British troops, Treblinka, Dachau and smaller camps that are not as well known, over six million Jews, gypsies and political "enemies" died at the hands of Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, easily Hitler's equal for depravity and pure hatred.
It is mind boggling how anybody can deny the events here, or the Holocaust in general. Yet Rees doesn't ignore naysayers who still try to deny such atrocities ever took place. Such denials belong in the same category as those who believe the earth is hollow, the moon visits were faked in a Hollywood studio or, believe it or not, that the Earth does not revolve around the sun!! This was opined by a state representative from, I believe, South Carolina just in the last few weeks.
We must remember too that the hate that leads to genocides is present in all of us and still occurs with regularity. We cannot forget Stalin's murder of 25 million Soviets, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, Idi Amin, and Rhodesia and Darfur. We still have troops in Kosovo after the "ethnic cleansing" that took place in the mid '90's.
Understanding what we, as humans are capable of, good and evil, gives us a better perspective on our behavior. We see in "Auschwitz" how "normal" people, placed in horrible situations, could turn murderous, callous and numb to what they were forced to do. We also see how some preferred death to killing others. It's not a fun read, but it should be in every high school classroom.

When considering the history of the Holocaust, Auschwitz and extermination are synonymous, as it should be for the 1.1 million people who were killed by the Nazis at this concentration camp alone. Yet as Laurence Rees sets out to show in "Auschwitz: A New History", the camp's beginnings were a far cry from its final stages. Like other concentration camps within the Nazi's network, Auschwitz evolved as Hitler and the SS found themselves further forced to eliminate their self-imposed "Jewish problem".

Rees begins his history with an examination of the camp's beginnings, built by prisoners of war and meant to serve a myriad of research and industrial purposes. Heinrich Himmler and camp commandant Rudolf Hoss discussed various strategies for using the Auschwitz 'Zone of Interest' - as agricultural research center to coal factory, neither seemingly forseeing the infamous nature it would assume as the war progressed and fortunes turned for the Nazi party. Filled with eye-witness accounts and personal interviews, "Auschwitz: A New History" is a chilling testimony of the Nazi's cold-blooded attempt to exterminate an entire people.

Rees' examination, though compact, is complete. He offers not only the eye-witness accounts and hard facts, but is able to debunk the theories that Holocaust deniers and Nazi sympathizers have seized upon. The greatest power this book holds is the testimony of the SS men themselves, men unabashed in their view of what transpired within the camp, men who cannot (to this day) see their actions as anything but right. They will not just deny their actions away by claiming they were "following orders".

It can often be difficult for someone who did not experience the atrocities firsthand to understand what life in Auschwitz was like: it is rightly difficult to grasp something so incomprehensible. Rees uncovers tender histories along with the harsh, moments of joy and love and the reality of daring escapes. By comparing Auschwitz to the other camps within the Nazi system, he is able to offer a complete picture of the greatest crime in history. Yet while his book has the added title of "How Mankind Committed the Ultimate Infamy at [Auschwitz]", the greater infamy lies in the fact that the majority of those responsible for the mass murder went unpunished, free to live the life they had taken away from so many others. And at the conclusion, Rees points to the very real fear that this may one day become just another piece of ancient history: the survivors and eyewitnesses are growing fewer, and the greatest infamy may be that one day Auschwitz is just another word, just another place in the history books. Lest we forget.

A very powerful story about the Holocaust that is well-written and gives intimate detail. It's marvelous that the mother wrote down her entire story in 1959 and then was able to live to see it published. I also enjoyed the Afterward, written by the daughter, giving her impressions and what she remembered from this utterly tragic period from which almost no Jew escaped. The fact that each town was carefully named, each incident described in detail, made the story come to life for the reader who could well imagine himself/herself there at the time. The copy-editing done on this book was excellent; I only found two tiny errors.

I just finished reading Bitter Memories, and this is a definite for everyone to share with their family. What this family saw and lived through is awe inspiring and will leave you looking at your own lives. It will make you appreciate where we live and gives a new look at what the Holocaust victims went through. There are so many who will deny that the Holocaust ever took place, but Mrs Wallach and her daughter will help you see through their memories just how horrible it truly was.

This is an incredible story which while simply written,
encompasses all of the best and worst of what humans are capable of. The unbelievable love between and mother and her child is the overwhelming power that pervades the narrative. A gift to anyone who needs to understand what that period of history was all about.
Patti Sacher

A very poignant and interesting memoir. You can never imagine what these poor people went through to survive and re-establish their lives. A worthwhile read.

Bitter Freedom
Jafa Wallach
Paperback: 209 pages
Publisher: Hermitage Publishers; First edition (April 25, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1557791570
ISBN-13: 978-1557791573

Although I have read many first-hand account books written by holocaust survivors, I found Bitter Freedom to be the most compelling story of it's kind since The Diaries of Anne Frank. The book moved me like no other.
Bitter Freedom is written in straight-forward prose by a mother survivor (Jafa Wallach) who shortly after the WWll ended, sat down and wrote the personal history of her family's lucky and often miraculous survival of the Holocaust. In letter form to her daughter- (Rena Wallach Bernstein) too young at the time to know the adult horrors of in which they survived, Mrs. Wallach pens an incredibly honest and poignant memoir.
"The years have gone by and yet the memory of how it all began remains vivid, fearfully close, as though it all happened yesterday. We were at home, apartment #3 Jagielonska Street in the town of Sanok Poland, listening to radio bulletins of Hitler's attack. You, my daughter, were just one year old. You looked up at our anxious faces, your father's and mine, but you could not have understood how deeply frightened we were. You repeated after us, in your baby lisp, "war, war"-the ugliest word in human speech. It wasn't long after that German planes began to pay their deadly visits to our little town of Sanok."

The book transports you back in history allowing you a glimpse of what everyday families were seeing, feeling and experiencing during this horrific time of war. The Jews of conquered Europe were taken by surprise never dreaming that civilized man could do to their fellow human beings what was now being done to them. Terror and mayhem swept Europe, and so swiftly had Hitler come east and so complete was his control of the lands he occupied- there was literally no where to run-no where to hide. Those hunted were now trapped in their own villages.

Escaping the terror was made especially difficult because many people of the Nazi controlled villages were deeply and historically ingrained with hate for certain groups of their fellow countrymen. The Nazis used this hate to their advantage by turning neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend. Christian against Jew. Those of the hated lucky enough to survive, did so only with the help of others who chose to put their own lives, and those of their families at risk to save their friends and neighbors. Very few were willing to take that risk.

Fortunately for the Wallach family One Christian man- a mechanic named Jozef "Jozio" Zwonarz did choose to put his own life and family at risk to save five fellow human beings. As he concealed four adults under the very noses of the Gestapo, he desperately schemed to save the life of the fifth family member, a four year old child. (Rena Wallach)
With parents and daughter now separated, the nightmare for this family was complete. There was nothing left for them to do. Their very lives were now in the hands of God and an auto mechanic named Jozio.

Bitter Freedom is a touching memoir, a suspenseful thriller, and an accurate historical novel all in one. Although the story took place more than 60 years ago, Jafa Wallach's messages to the reader are timeless and wonderfully relevant in today's world where war is in the news every day.

I predict that Bitter Freedom will eventually be on the top of every school's reading list. There are lessons here for all of us.
A must read.

You want to know God's love and mercy then read it.... I have not finished the book but i am excited to read the rest....

I love the content of this book.

However, I agree with Don--another reviewer: the print in this book is VERY SMALL. I find it difficult to read such SMALL PRINT.
Unfortunately, I didn't take Don's warning into account when I bought this edition. Avoid making the same mistake.

By the way, the only glasses I use are safety glasses, at work. And my vision is excellent.

It's just a matter of comfort. I dislike struggling reading such small print and feel the need to buy a different edition with larger print (I probably will.)

Other than that, its content is a joy. Plus, due to its smaller print, the size of the book is smaller as well. That is good if you are traveling with it or if you take it with you to read throughout the day, outside your home.

Remember: if you're are going to read it at home solely, you'd be better off buying an edition with larger print.

This is a beautiful & eye-opening book! It changes your way of thinking and your life!! I absolutely love it and can read it over and over. It helps understand God.

The print in this book is quite small making reading difficult. I would recommend searching for a copy with normal size print.

This is my all-time favorite spiritual book. By reading about St. Faustina's growth in holiness, I learn about growing in holiness and above all, God's endless mercy. I've read this book probably a dozen times and I everytime I hear something new and grow more deeply in my relationship with Christ. By this book for yourself and everyone you know! Spread the hope of God's awesome mercy!

Jack or as I called him, Mr. Oran was a big influence when I was young. I worked for him and for a time, dated one of his daughters. I saw this number (80629) on his arm every day when I worked for him. He told me that he had survived the war, in a concentration camp, when I asked one day many years ago. Last week, I was buying a car at a friend's dealership in Dallas and ran into someone that had worked with Mr. Oran at his business. As we reminisced, he mentioned that this book had been written about Mr. Oran's experiences during that time. Details that he shared with me stopped me cold. While I had a sliver of knowledge about what had happened, I had no idea the extent of suffering that Yakov (Jack) and the rest of the prisoners had endured!

I do not have possesion of this book at the moment, but am purchasing it tonight. And, I'll know, as Paul Harvey is want to say, the rest of the story. Pray that these attrocities are never visited on the human race again. And just so the reader knows, I am a Gentile.

The true story of Holocaust survivor Jack Oran, aka Yakoff Skurnik in the days that he passed through the web of concentration camps that marked the baseline of WWII in Nazi Germany. Yakoff's ability to make the best of a bad situation is remarkable in itself as each moral and ethical dilemma raises its head. What allows the human being to survive man's inhumanity to man is a crucial awareness, now more than ever. When concentration camp prisoners were being fed/starved on a scientifically devised diet that actually calculated how long it would take them to starve, the ability to forage for food allowed Yakoff to stand out as a man among men. When he was able to provide warm clothing in trade for other items camp members were in need of, his importance in camp society increased. When the number tatooed on his arm spoke of his ability to outlive many, many others, he even earned the wry respect of the camp guards.

Beyond these factors, written clearly as a labor of love, is the tale of the experiment itself -- whose purpose is never explained, as it is never clearly understood. Yakoff and several others were physically and medically castrated by camp doctors, without effective anesthesia. This is really not the story of the experiment, but one man's story of how he experienced it, lived with it, and overcame it in a world where manhood is defined by what your genitals are capable of. For Yakoff, it is a loss beyond comprehension, as even his own father, beyond compassion, is humiliated in his own ego when he hears of it -- his son is no longer his son. Yakoff's father, himself facing remarkable odds and having to perform incredibly horrendous "chores" as a Kapo preparing fellow Jews for the gas chamber by reassuring them they are "only showers" so there will be no panic, cannot face his son when next their paths cross because of the shame of the castration, a shame that surpasses his own.

What makes the Nazis stand out is far beyond their physical brutality. What makes the Nazis, and others like them, stand out is their morbid focus on playing with peoples minds, hearts and souls and breaking their spirit. In many cases and in many ways they were successful, as in the case of the "musselmen" who simply caved in to death and refused to eat and waited for the inevitable. Those who made difficult choices in the name of survival do not consider themselves to be heroes. Still, they do point to the ability of the human spirit to survive in the face of adversity. Not all of us do -- but many of us can. It is all in the choices we make.

It literally took me several months to get through this book. I study the holocuast from every aspect. Have been to the Museum in D.C. and still can't fix my mind or heart on what these people have endured. This is a heart experience. I was at the signing of this man's book and was confounded to realize after I had read it that in his eyes he looked evil in the face. I will never know how they endure these horrors of man hating man and nations hating nations. I truly believe if I could phathom this I would understand evil to this degree and God knows I don't want to understand this kind of hate. Read the book and study! I pray history never repeats itself but it does. When I looked into this man's face and then read the book my heart broke. I keep it out in the open for those around to see and hopefully they will ask. I will tell them to read it and pray. As the saying goes...For evil to succeed it takes good men to do nothing!

In the last few years I have read many books relating to the Holocaust, but none as detailed and well-written as this one. The book was one of the best I've read in a while, and nicely illustrates most of the aspects of the Holocaust. I would recommend this book for anyone who already knows a lot about the subject, or anyone who knows nothing. 80629: A Mengele Experiment, has made me want to read more books on the subject. This is an excellent book that I encourage you all to read.

`80629' A Mengele Experiment by Gene Church is the story of Yakoff Skurnik's journey through the hell that was known as Auschwitz. The horrors that are described in this book are almost beyond belief, beyond comprehension, beyond the brain's ability to register them, yet they were common place in Skurnik's world. The fact that he was able to survive any portion of this monstrous existence is a testament to his inner strength and to a great deal of luck. The book is extremely well written and the reader will find himself going through life, if one can call it that, with Skurnik as if he or she were there with him. Mr. Church should be commended for telling the story of this remarkable man and `80629' should be mandatory reading for all.