Poland Books

Another wonderfully written account of the atrocitites that Jewish Poles faced during WWII. A must read for ANYONE or ANY color, ANY religion, ANY ethnic background!

Mr. Ungars' nephew, his wife and daughter - happen to be my neighbors and close friends. So when reading this, it becomes a much more personal story to me and my family when reading this.

William Ungar's memoir of survival is the single most moving account of the Holocaust that I have read. With vivd and heart-renching portrayls of his young wife, infant son, other raltives and friends who perished during the Holocaust, Destined to Live brilliantly depicts the devestating emotional toll the Holocaust wrought on those that survived. Without a trace of bitterness, Mr. Ungar describes how he managed to survive the Nazi's occupation of Poland, and went on to create a powerful life that postively impacted the lives of countless others. Destined to Live is not a memoir about survival for survival's sake. It is a gripping tale of how humans, even in the most dire and unjust of circumstances, can use the powers of love and perseverence to create true beauty and greatness. If I were to recommend one book to someone who wanted to learn about the impact of the Holocaust on those that survived, I would recommend Destined to Live.

I have read this book and have learned so much more about my husband's employer. We always knew Mr. Unger had a heart of gold. He has helped our family so much through hard times, when the economy was so low. Never once has he laid his employees off. My husband, Joe Iervolino began working for Mr. Unger when he was 19. He is now 65 and ready to retire and still working for Mr. Unger. Throughout all of the hardship this man endured, he has always shown compassion and loyalty to those he employs. There must be thousands throughout the United States. He came here almost penniless, yet he has made thousands enjoy the best of what being a middle class American has to offer.
His sponsorship of the Holocaust Museums in NY and DC has educated millions of people. His company, National Envelope has given thousands of people well meaningful employment. The next time you throw out an envelope that contains junk mail, a letter from a loved one or a bill, you are probably handling a product made by a National Envelope Employee, such as my Joe.
Read the book. It will touch you in such a way as he has touched our lives and made us thankful that this immigrant made it to our shores.
Destined to Live is one of the best Holocaust survivor books I have ever read. It will open your eyes to how inhumane some men can become. After becoming a victom of such men, William Unger not only survived but, became a great human being. He shows only compassion to others and hates no one. He is the ultimate survivor and an example to all of us who suffered through any sort of inhumanity. I feel this book is a "Must Read" for everyone, young and old, alike.

When the Germans invaded and conquered Poland, a young Polish soldier was in more peril than most. Wilo Ungar was Jewish and badly wounded. Because he wore the Polish uniform he was given the last rites by a priest who thought Ungar was Catholic. For the months after his recovery that he was held prisoner by the Germans he was saved by his captors ignorance of his ethnicity. Finally released he made his way back through war-ravaged Poland on crutches. He was given refuge by Polish families and eventually smuggled himself across the German-Soviet border, was captured by the NKVD and imprisoned as a spy. Ultimately he made his way back to the city of Lvov and reunion with his girl. They married and when Germany turned on Russia, they and their baby Michael managed for a while to evade Nazi roundups but in 1942 they were caught and separated in a time when the Nazi holocaust was being carried out in earnest. Highly recommended for students of the Holocaust, Destined To Live is the riveting story of Wilo's search for his family in a world of love and death, organized violence and the indomitable human spirit.

My review focuses on matters undeveloped by the other reviews.

Ungar's childhood in Krasne (near the Zbrucz River) repudiates the notion of anti-Semitism (and Christian-clergy hostility) being the constant companion of Polish Jews: "Both Father Hankiewicz and Father Leszczynski mainly preached the loving kindness of God. Because of the priests' behavior, the peasants didn't bear a grudge against Jews...The result was that I had the unbelievable good luck of growing up without either hatred or fear. My playmates were Polish and Ukrainian children and no one ever insulted me or tried to beat me up...Of course, they knew I was Jewish...But they considered me one of theirs." (pp. 66-67).

At least some of the sporadic anti-Semitism which Ungar later did experience was clearly related to the entrenchment of Jewish economic hegemony, which worked against Poles. One Pole said: "I don't know about Lvov, but around here they [the Jews] own all the big buildings, they own the stores, they own the banks. They take our money, and you can bet that they make sure Poles can't get into business themselves." (p. 86)

Ungar provides a seldom-heard Jewish viewpoint of service in the Polish Army just prior and during the German invasion of Poland in 1939. He discusses training, tactics, mobilization, and his wounding during a Luftwaffe air raid.

Polish nationalists commonly suppose that even totally assimilated Jews (like Ungar) seldom become Poles at heart. Along these lines, Ungar candidly admitted that: "I would never have called myself a patriotic Pole..." (p. 31).

After Poland's defeat, Ungar made it back to Lviv, in the Soviet-occupied zone. He touched on Jewish-Soviet collaboration: "It also seemed to Wusia [Ungar's first wife] that they [the Soviets] trusted Jews more than Poles or Ukrainians." (p. 120). "Besides that, you began to see Jews in high positions, which would have been unthinkable before. There were Jewish army officers, Jewish party members, and Jewish city officials." (pp. 136-137)

Up to the time of Operation Barbarossa, most local Jews thought of the Germans as a cultured people who wouldn't do especial harm to the Jews (p. 154). After the Lviv Ghetto was formed, some of the Jewish ghetto police acted reasonably towards their fellow Jews. "But many acted more like devoted servants in the hope of ingratiating themselves with the Gestapo. Others were just callous, brutal people, untouched by any of the nobler sentiments when it came to hunting down their fellows. That was how the Germans turned Jew against Jew." (pp. 171-172). "Neither of us knew any [Jewish] policemen, besides which, many of them were cruel and unscrupulous." (p. 277).

While at Janowska Labor Camp, Ungar was denounced to the Gestapo by oberjude (the German-appointed chief of the Jewish workers) Tenenbaum (p. 253, 276).

Contrary to some reports, Ungar never claims to have been at Belzec. He saw some bodies along the railroad tracks, inferring them to have originated from a failed escape from a Belzec-bound train (p. 298, 321).

Unfortunately, Ungar cheapens his work through a sudden outburst of primitive Polonophobic innuendo late in the book. He denigrates the AK after accusing it, without a shred of supporting evidence, of being behind the killing of Rabbi Barfield. (p. 313, 316). Following Yitzhak Shamir, Ungar blanket-slurs the Poles for imbibing anti-Semitism with their mothers' milk. (p. 316)

Ms. Pankowsky was a ten-year-old girl when German troops invaded her native Poland at the start of World War II. Her family immediately experienced the awful reality of being Jewish under the Nazi regime. They fled to the Soviet Union, where they had to hide their family's past from the repressive communist government. The book is a riveting first-person account of her experiences.

It's a very readable account. The majority of the book deals with her family's time in USSR where they endured great hardship due not only to wartime deprivation, but also because their family background had to be hidden. (Her father was a businessman who fled Russia at the time of the Revolution. Had this become known, they would have been considered 'enemies of the state'.)

The book also briefly covers life in Poland before the war; their escape from Russia; their short-lived return to their hometown in Poland, and how they eventually reached and settled in Mexico City.

I highly recommend this book.

What an absolutely brilliant narrative Hanna Pankowsky relates as she explains the years of hardship and perils she and her family experienced trying to escape the dangers of Nazi Germany. This is truly an "action thriller." The sad fact is the events actually happened and the fear, danger, pain and terror were lived by millions of men, women and children. Mrs. Pankowsky paints images in the reader's mind that are so vivid that the reader can place himself/herself in the action (even to the point of being out of breath trying to hop a train or run in the cold snowy forest!). This book is so well written and in a "first person" voice of history that this book should be in every school library as well as on the suggested reading list for history classes. Oprah needs to make this selection one of her book club favorites! Read it. You won't put it down!

I found the book to be well written. The historical details and personal strength of the writer and her family were a combination that made it hard to put the book down. I would recommend this book to family and friends.

In 1939, the idyllic world of 11-year-old Hanna Davidson, born to a family of artists, professionalsand achievers, was irretrievably shattered by the momentous events of the War. What followed was her journey in the hub and later just ahead of the crest of the Holocaust. It is a tale of courage, resourcefulness and frequent depravation. However, it is also an adventure, providing insight into life in Poland, the Soviet Union, and elsewhere,ending in the haven of the United States.

Hanna does an excellent job describing the horror and sacrifice her family endured as a refuge during WWII. Her prose is honest; her story remarkable.

Read this book!

The book tells the story of three Polish Jews struggling for survival during World War II in such a way that one cannot believe it is not a work of fiction. The courage and cunning necessary to overcome the obstacles that these boys faced constantly taxes the reader's imagination. The book is a journey of the spirit that rivals any that can be found in non-fictional literature.

I wanted this book because I was so impressed with "The Nazi Hunter" and it did not disapoint. I have read lots of Holocaust literature and biographies and this tells the story from a different angle; I had not read of the experiences in the gulags during the war and especially tied to the killing camps of the Nazis; well written, flows beautifully, what a combination of good fortune and the will to live under almost insurmountable odds, the family ties and love between the brothers and the cousin beat within most of us; family is how God organized us and it speaks to ties that will never be broken.

I look forward to this authors next book and will keep this one in my permanent library..

Judy Good

Behind the mere mechanics of the story is the realization that this happened just 60 years ago.

The line between life today in Europe and N.America and the Europe of 1939 is all too thin. Technology has changed our lives but people still live these life experiences of the Elsner family in Africa, Asia, and S.America today.

Everyone needs to read this book and take inspiration from it, especially the younger generations who cannot quite believe that this could be "real". Life is not just merely about what you own, it is about what you do and how you respect others. It is about how society allows those with power to treat people also. It is the unheard voices that still cry out uncounted today.

Alan has laboured hard over this book, the Elsner family is sharing a true gift in this recounting of all the details of this darkest time for their family and it deserves to have the widest possible audience. The story may not be market or Hollywood "fashionable" but the message is timeless and essential.

This book is deeply moving and inspirational - I hope that your purchase this book and tell other people about it.

DW

In writing the story of his father, uncle and their cousin during the Second World War, Elsner brings a graphic yet immensely personal dimension to this tragic period of world and Jewish history. The narrative is lean which only serves to enhance the amazing story he tells. I would imagine that most readers like me, will devour this book in one sitting. The story it tells, of three young men being tossed by the diabolic caprices of two of the most evil regimes known to man, was the story of millions during this period. Most of them did not have the "troop of guardian angels" looking after them and perished like just so much excess baggage of humanity.

This book should become a basic educational text along with "Darkness at Noon", "1984" and "Animal Farm". Those immortal works of fiction depict the environment of totalitarian evil. Elsner's book is a true story of those who, by chance, time and time again, were saved and saved themselves. Its value is both in its form, as a well written book by a professional, and in content as a testament of those who went through the valley of the shadow of death and survived to tell the tale. Future generations must learn what was done in the name of ideologies which belittled the basic human need to be different.

Finally, the book demonstrates again the truth of the saying that while the Jews were not the only victims of Hitler, the Nazis and all their myriad helpers, all the Jews were targets and easy ones too. For Jews, my enemy's enemy was not necessarily my friend, but quite often my enemy too.

I was drawn into this book right from its powerful opening lines. This is a gripping and very moving real-life story with wonderful lead characters who reveal the incredible resourcefulness and resilience of the human spirit. Very highly recommended!

Naomi Samson's memoir is aptly titled. Not only does it provide an account of a child survivor of the Holocaust, but the author seems able to reach into the past and describe events as her child-self experienced them, sometimes even assuming a child's voice. The result is a compelling, sometimes excruciating read, from its beginning in medias res three years after the Nazis invasion of Poland in 1939 to its conclusion six years later upon the author's post-war arrival in America. Take, for example, this bit of dialogue, ten pages into the book, in which the nine-year-old Naomi is told by her Mother that she is giving up the attempt to hide from the Nazis in Poland.

"Listen to me, my child," she said. "We can't go on like this. We will either die of starvation and the animals will eat our flesh here in the woods, or someone in these villages will kill us. I have decided we should walk to our hometown, Goray, which is eight or nine miles from here, and give ourselves up at the Jewish cemetery. That way we will be buried with other Jewish people."

"No, no!" I cried. "I will not die this way or any other way! I want to live, Mama. I don't want to feel bullets fired in my head or body! Bullet are hot and they burn a person's insides and it hurts badly until the person is dead!" (10-11)

This example also brings up some concerns I have about Hide. How much can we rely on the veracity of dialogue spoken or heard by a child and then recreated (in a different language, no less) after nearly sixty years? Furthermore, because Mrs. Samson provides little explanatory commentary, the dialogue must bear the burden of providing back story and context. This artifice is effective in that it provides timely information in an unobtrusive way but it tends to further compromise the authenticity of the dialogue. (The mother would not have had to tell her child that Goray was their hometown, and she would probably not have had to explain how far away from it they had wandered.)

These issues can be brushed aside, however, if we consider Hide to be primarily a work of literature, that is, an attempt by an author to express the truth of her life experience through language. Indeed, though the book would have been more historically accurate if it could have contained an exact record of each word spoken, such an account would probably have been less meaningful to us, considering that much of the dialogue conveys the inner feelings of the child Naomi Samson, feelings that were probably never uttered.

As Naomi grows older and the book approaches its conclusion, Mrs. Samson begins expressing her feelings directly, and, once again, the results are powerful, as in the following excerpt in which she describes a train ride through Nuremberg during the time of the post-war trials:

These executioners were given a trial? Why? I felt such anger, such hate, during those moments that if given the chance, I would have smashed their skulls with my bare hands. . . . I tried to compose myself in order to look normal to my sister and my new brother-in-law, Sam. These hateful thoughts inside me bothered me a lot. My father had taught us never to hate. "Hate only hurts the one who carries it inside," he would say. My father was no longer there to guide me. But I was smart enough to realize that one of the ways the enemy could win was by instilling hate inside me so that for the rest of my life I would only dwell in hate and never enjoy my life. Oh, how I hated them for making me feel such hatred! I decided I would force myself to concentrate on pleasant things-good things to make me happy. (162)

Such sections reveal a candor and degree of self-disclosure that one might expect in a therapy session, and, as Mrs. Samspon explains in the twenty-page epilogue that follows, she did undergo years of therapy after the war. That experience may have given her the confidence to present something approaching the raw truth in her memoir rather than crafting a version intended to be more palatable to friends and family. Though it must have been both cathartic and difficult to put such words on paper, Mrs. Samson proved equal to the task, and resisted the temptation to necessarily present herself in a good light.

Ultimately, well-written Holocaust memoirs such as this one cause us to confront the extremes of human life, and attempt to make sense of them. Along with Mrs. Samson we must ask-helplessly, fruitlessly-why did so many innocent people die, and why did so many murderers get away with it? We also have to wonder how any human being could pick up and live a fulfilling life after having endured such horrors as a young child, but Mrs. Samson has shown that such an accomplishment is possible. At first glance, the inclusion of a family photo taken on the occasion of her son's wedding struck me as a Jewish mother's indulgence, but by the time I had reached the end of this slim memoir, the sight of it made me want to cheer. Indeed, the words of the Grammy-winning dinosaur Barney, sung to her by her grandchildren in the concluding scene of the book, have never seemed so touching, nor profound: "I love you. You love me. We're a happy family."

This is one of the most graphic novels I have read regarding children/families hiding in the Holocaust. I did not know such atrocities occurred in the ghettos of Poland. I have always thought they were reserved for the concentration camps. This memoir is amazingly well written. The courage this woman had to tell her excruciating story even after she was repeatedly reprimanded by her friends, family, neighbors, and even practicing members of psychiatry was inspiring. It makes me so angry to hear there was such discrimination against survivors attempting to tell their stories, even within the Jewish community of the US. I commend the author for putting her memories to page and allowing the world to see the horror she survived.

This was the best book about the Holocaust and its survivors and what they went through I have ever read. I could not put it down. I am taking a class on the Holocaust and needed a book for a report. Well I found the best book I could ever have found. It is full of suffering, bravery, love, and happiness. So if you want the real story of the Holocaust as it really happened this is the book. I will soon buy my own copy.

I couldn't stop reading this book. I was crying. I wanted to shout, to yell, to kick, to k.... I couldn't avoid the thought that if I was put in this hell, probably I wouldn't survive it.

Born in Israel, I've learned a lot about the Holocaust but never before I felt the horror so strong. For example, Noami's description of the Nazis humiliating her grandparents shocked me stronger than all the many times I watched pictures of the Nazis cutting a Rabbi's sidecurls (PEYOT) hair and beard.

The part telling how in the US every one refused to hear Noami's story made it even more terrible and hard to comprehand.

I wanted to thank you Noami for telling your story which I promise to tell to my children.

This is one of the best books I have ever read - period. The author is a remarkable writer, and I can't understand why this book isn't number one on the best-seller list. It should be; it is truly that good. I felt like I was there. I got the book from the library, but I'm going to buy one for each of my adult children to read. No book or movie about the holocaust has touched me as much as this one, and I want the author, Naomi Samson, to know that this Irish Catholic and his family will never forget - because of her book. We will never forget.

Superb book.

No really, this may very well be the book I have enjoyed the most, ever (though principally these kind of judgements are bollocks and nothing more, of course).

If you have the slightest acquaintance with psychoanalysis (the Lacanian field, preferably), the book should be read with Zizek's "The Fright of Real Tears". Here Zizek has some really perceptive discussions on Kieslowski the filmmaker and on charachters in the Colour Trilogy - without too many forced obscene jokes, I might add.

He wanted his audience to be interested in his films....and so we are. He wanted to stir people to something...he does. He wanted to inspire us...and that he did. Fans of Krzysztof Kieslowski, film buffs and aspiring filmmakers alike will get as much out of his story told in "Kieslowski on Kieslowski" as through his cinematic works of art.

Although not a very long career, due to his untimely death, it certainly was an illustrious one. And how fortunate we are to have had the filmmaker who brought us the beautiful and moving films "The Double Life of Veronique", the "Three Colours Trilogy" and the unbelievably intuitive "Decalogue", tell us in his own words his views on life and what he was thinking during the filming of these works.

The book, wonderfully edited by Danusia Stok, takes in Kieslowski's early years as a child, his film school years, his early short films and finally the feature films. Kieslowski is open and frank about his life and his work. He didn't see himself as a genius at all(we fans may tend to disagree on that point),quite the contrary he tends to point out what he feels were mistakes and his shortcomings. He talks of working in Poland, having to skirt around the political upheaval around him, films he made that were never shown to the public, and his quest for trying to make the stories as authentic as possible.

He discusses each and every film. He gives much of the credit to the cast and crew and although he touches on what the films meant to him,he usually speaks more of the technical aspects of each than the analytical.He talks of what was going on in the world, his life and his mind during the making of each film. The feature films are given more time and one whole chapter is devoted soley to "Three Colours"(these films were still in the editing stages at the time this book was written).

Included are many still photos of working on the sets, and personel pictures with his family, the actors and his collaborators. There is a section devoted to notes on many of the names and events, and also a complete filmography with a brief summary and list of credits for each film.

"You make films to give people something, to transport them somewhere else and it doesn't matter if you transport them to a world of intuition or a world of the intellect"....Krzysztof Kieslowski

Kieslowski lets us know in this book that we don't have to analyze each scene...just enjoy it for what it is. This book is a must read for fans and filmmakers alike!...So...enjoy...Laurie

Kieslowski is one of my favorite film directors, maybe because I can identify with so much of what he shows in his films... So I was very happy to read "Kieslowski on Kieslowski" and learn about his years in the Film School and the events and memories connected with the making of many of the movies. The autobiography, edited by the director's friend, Danusia Stok, is very good and a must-have for his fans, but it is an autocreation, not a katharsis! It cannot be forgotten that Kieslowski was an artist also in his life so this book is not just a collection of facts.

The book also contains sharp comments and a very good background on the situation in Poland and how difficult it was to push one's own vision. The collection of photos is a valuable addition as well.

In his own words, Krzysztof Kieslowski tells you about the agony and the ecstacy of the independent filmmaking process.

The late Polish filmmaker is up to the challenge, delivering his characteristic frankness nestled within the pages of this short retrospective work, narrated in his own words, and magnificently edited (translated, too?) by Danusia Stok.

The book is tailor-made for "idie" filmmaking buffs, and supplies a glimpse into the enticingly magical personality which was Kieslowski's. Eschewing a typical rote autobiographical style, Kieslowski divulges key details about himself via the device of his extensive filmography -- revealing things about his thinking process and the high value he places upon delicate human emotionality through a step-by-step examination of his long filmography.

Spanning his early years as a prominent documentary filmmaker during the stifling years of Polish Communism and state censorship -- especially during the imposition of Marshal Law in Poland during 1980-1 when Kieslowski couldn't work for half a year -- and ending with his magnificent trilogy "Barwy" (Three Colours: Blue, White, Red), we're subjected to a feast of Kieslowski-isms regarding his thoughts pertaining to such diverse notions as:

** casting for acting talent.
** Kieslowski's penchant for making his ENTIRE crew a part of the idea-generating process for his films.
** the nature of artistic filmmaking in Europe compared to commerical filmmaking in the US.
** the demands of time on a filmmaker's personal life.
** the differing range of skills between Western and Polish filmmaking crews.

A right pity Krzysztof Kieslowski is no longer with us to share to a burgeoning generation of up-and-coming filmmakers what might very well some none-too-optimistic viewpoints on the state of today's "international" filmmaking.

The book is written in Kieslowski's typical unassuming style -- par for the course from the Polish master. The late director doesn't bowl you over with how much he knows about film history, or about the complicated craft of filmmaking. Kieslowski doesn't tell you that he's better than you or me. Rather, through a detailed accounting of his past achievements, Kieslowski's emphasis is always upon that which is most human: the wellspring of all his works, and the central reason why filmmakers must indeed make films, in his esteemed opinion.

Still, I found the book ended suddenly.

Not shockingly so, just that the work might have gone on for much longer than its seemingly scant 227 pages. There's so much to know about this magnificent paragon of the film community, and if anything, it will be a primer for further reading on the man, the legend, and his favourite subject: films.

Five-stars.

-- ADM in Prague

Reading the book was like watching another wonderful Kieslowski film. His casual authentic narrative throughout the book gives it a touch of a documentary almost.

I appreciated every page of his life story, as he tells it so that his personal story as a director - from his childhood through filmschool, his first films right to the Three Colours trilogy - is combined with the situation in Poland, with the Communist times, the censorship, the hopes and the fights with the system, the fears, the communication with the public through hidden messages, and the victories when succeeding to outsmart the censors.

All wrapped up in one, sprinkled with wit and natural story-telling style, the book is all you ever wanted to know about Kieslowski and the background of his life and filmmaking.

In the interviews throughout the book, he not only talks about the films, he also explains why he had to do them the way he did - both, the story and the style - about his personal beliefs, about his life and work in the Communist Poland (in which I could see similarities with the former Czechoslovakia, where I was born, as well), and about how it shaped his views.

Real reading pleasure, educational and entertaining, this book is one of the best I have read lately! And, I believe it gives another dimension in understanding of his films as well.

This book is an important document. There are moments in which it is very painful to read. The number of Holocaust survivors is diminishing, I thank Mr. Gordon for writing down his memories so vividly. Mr. Gordon also says something very important: in spite of everything he suffered he does not hate the German people. Hatred is not part of his philosophy nor his approach to life. I believe this is the most important lesson from this book.

This is one of the best books I've ever read. I'm not religious or Jewish, but this book tells it all about how humankind can succumb to the worst of circumstances and yet still find meaning in life to go on. This book is about how a Regime can take control of a continent overnight and about how war can create enemies of us all. I'm a 42 year old white female American who finally has an understanding of hatred in a way that I never did before. Everyone should read this book. I cried through the last chapters recognizing a young boy's freedom at last. It's a must read for all.

The cover of this book shows a child holding a wooden bowl and spoon, watching the sunrise over a concentration camp. The perspective of a child enduring and surviving the unfathomable degradation and killing of these camps is one of the many remarkable aspects of this book. Excerpts from his book can be viewed at: http://www.remember.org/harold/books.html

...
This has been one of the most inspirational books I've ever read...
I woke up..., seeing the sunrise and feeling very thankful for my life.
This story follows the true events of a horrific time in our world, when our fellow mankind were treated so inhumanly, during the World War 2. This book is about a young boy's personal experiences and views of staying in the Nazi Concentration Camps. That young boy grew up to be; the author of this book! The true story told in this book was horrifying and yet wonderful. I'll never forget the story of Harold's life and I want to share it with others. I can't express the sorrow, joy and hope I felt for this author and all who unwillingly had to take part in those devastating times. Thank God, he survived and shared his purpose with us. Mr. Gordon you have inspired me beyond words. Forgiveness, is such an easy word to say but not so easy to do. I wonder what justifiable, excuse I could ever come up with to not forgive those who've hurt me. I'm so happy that you have triumphed and have received such wonderful blessings in your life!
I still hadn't decided when my kids should read this book, but after reading some other reviews, I'll definitely have my teenager read it now and my other children when they are just a bit older.
I guess I was trying to protect them from reading a firsthand account of such atrocious acts. My youngest and oldest sons are the age span that Mr. Gordon was during his experience. As a mother I couldn't imagine my children going through that. I think they should read it and we'll all pray that this History will never repeat itself! Once again, this is a book I'll recommend and never forget!
I read on one of the reviews that Mr. Gordon is a speaker, does he still have speaking engagements? I live in the same area he lives, if he's still here. I would be very interested and appreciate any information about him.

I first read this book when I was in the fourth grade and was very surprised that it was my grandpa that went through all of the trials described. I could not put the book down until I had finished it. When I finally did, my whole perception of this horrible war had changed. It was hard to grasp that these horrible circumstances had surrounded my grandpa's childhood. This book and his wise teachings have taught me forgiveness, hope, and faith. This book is an alternate for The Diary of Anne Franke. You get a different view, not one of growing up in hiding but one of growing up in concentration camps.

I'd wonder how much time and frustration it would take finding out all this in depth information about the country and it's attractions myself. Especially since we didn't know much about Poland in the first place. It was a true blessing having this book around, especially since many Poles at places you need it most often don't speak English or German. Only price information should need some adjustment (which might have something to do with EU membership related inflation?). I used the print which was updated in Jan 2005, but some prices already doubled!

I recently went to Poland for the first time and found this book to be an absoutely wonderful guide to Warsaw, Krakow, and the Auschwitz concentration camps. All too often guide books that cover an entire country lack the kind of detail a traveler needs, but this book did not suffer that problem at all. The section on Warsaw was actually better organized and contained more detailed factual information than the DK book dedicated solely to that city. This was the only book I needed to help me get around Krakow and Auschwitz as well. I can't speak for the hotel and restaurant recommendations in the book because I never used any of them, but as far as information about historical sites and points of interest this is an outstanding book.

Update: In planning for my second trip to Poland, I recently purchased the Rough Guide to Poland, and I have to say it is even better than the Lonely Planet book because it includes quite a lot more detail. If you only buy one book, get the Rough Guide. But if you buy two, the Lonely Planet book is also very good.

My wife's maternal grandparents hail from Poland, so when planing a Eurpoean vacation for this summer, Poland it was. As independent travelers, we have always favored Lonely Planet travel books in the past. Once again Lonely Planet delivered the goods. Detailed descriptions of things to see & do, places to stay, and various methods of transportation. Additional internet rescources for finding more hotels than the ones reviewed. I would recommend this series of travel books to all from young backpackers to mature (myself) travelers.

Lonely Planet has been known for covering EVERYTHING in it's books. Thie one really does have a big flaw. Sites are quite OK and hotels are good too - though sometimes choices may be strange. However shopping is done dreadfully - at least in Warsaw. If your happy with the souvenirs you bought using this book, then you are quite lucky. Many shops with fine hand craft, genuine Polish hand-made are unlisted. Also shops with Jewish memorabilia, getting more popular after turbulent history tend to be missing. And when you come to normal shopping its a complete disaster! You wanna hang out in a mall or buy clothes a lot cheaper then in western Europe? Sure... Tourists and Ex-pats do it. But for sure NOT using Lonely Planet. The ever popular Arkadia Mall (biggest in this part of Europe), a place where English, German, French, Spanish and other languages are often heard as often as Polish is missing. So is the not much smaller and also popular with expats Galeria Mokotów. And what mall do tehy list? The dull out-skirt Sadyba Best Mall with a few stores, the usual fast-food joints and a few crappy stores. And it's lonely planets best tip on shopping? Come on! Almost no one goes there, except primary school trips (it's only attraction is the IMAX cinema).

I am puzzled by teh Warsaw shopping chapter. You can't come to the city and not here of Arkadia or Galeria Mokotów. If you see them, you can't recommend the crappy Sadyba Best Mall. So either someone didn't reaserch shopping at all (and just went to SBM) or Lonely Planets standards are dropping and the choice was made in some different dark ways. I just hope the ownership was not an issue. SBM is the only American mall. Arkadia is European, Galeria Mokotów - Jewish and most others French... What other thing could have provoked such a choice?

As a Pole living abroad (but frequently visiting) I have the dual perspective of "a local" but also that of a tourist. This book is easily the best source of background information on all sites and places in modern Poland, from the well-known tourist attractions to the small villages off the beaten track. I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of historical, ethnographic and cultural information about many of those places.
Thanks to this book I managed to discover some interesting places in Poland that I should have known about, if not visited before. Once I got there, I found that relying on the information in the book (especially on "how to get there" or "where to stay") proved more reliable than the information available to the visitor "on the ground". My short trip to the Jura National Park, north of Cracow, was a perfect example of a trip I would not have done if it was not for this guidebook.
Thoroughly recommended to anybody planning to spend an extensive holiday in Poland, or for repeat trips; if your travel is limited to the main cities like Warsaw, Cracow or Gdansk you may find other guidebooks, specific to those locations, sufficient.

Throughout a dozen or so stories the reader is confronted with an evolution of sorts. Pirx, initially a cadet in some sort of a space pilot school, later becomes a full fledged 'space-man' with experience that others can safely and often rely on. Not much of his personal life is shown since the stories concern itself more with a particular plot of the moment. Because of that, Pirx sometimes appears to be a bit alien and emotionless and although what he does can be considered heroic by many standards the book underplays this aspect very well

Pirx is confronted with different problems (on earth and in different locales in the solar system), which he has to resolve or help to resolve. Some of them very mundane, some comical, the others quite heavy with ethical meanings.

Although the setting can be assumed to be far in the future, when space travel has become almost as common as a ride on a bus, the technology often seems like it's on a level of a steam-powered locomotive. The ship computers are mentioned, on-board nuclear reactors abound but all that somehow seems so amazingly ordinary and `everydayish' as an old car or a kitchen gas oven. It gives the stories quite a transcendent feeling

The ending of this sequence of vignettes hit me like a sledgehammer. Pirx strikes me as a typical guy working in the space service. Several years ago I met a former cosmonaut and I had a much deeper understanding of whom I had met upon reading this book this year. The banality of evil is one theme in Lem's 1970's work, in Communist Poland with its official worship of technological progress as the justification for that now defunct regime. The ending of the book (which I won't give away) screamed at me that being dumb and numb is no excuse, even for a space jockey with "the right stuff." A couple decades ago, my Polish language teacher mentioned that in his opinion, Lem was the best writer in contemporary Polish fiction. Lem addresses the dark side of humanity as a constant in society with an ever-increasing level of technological complexity. More technology simply gives us more opportunities to confront who we are along with the responsibility to be prepared to think about what we are doing and what choices we will make.

Tales of Pirx the Pilot, and More Tales of Pirx the pilot are two excellent sci-fi books! What is unique is that there is such a strong psychological edge to them. And the fact that Pirx is such an everyman - kind of unsure of himself, and from the outside, unassuming and apparently not especially competent. But Lem does something amazing with Pirx - with each story, he gains experience, confidence, cynicism, and most importantly, judgement and wisdom. Make sure to read the Pirx books, as well as The Invincible, and Solaris.

Lem's Pirx is compelling and cool. The science is barely fictional and always thought provoking. The plots, however, are a little more predictable than the sequel. If you're going to read one of these, I'd recommend "More".

This collection of stories by Lem is based around a chubby cadet by the name of Pirx. The character is plucky and gets into all sorts of fixes. I found the first short story the most surprising and fun to read. It's most vivid antagonist are two insects, and it's wildly creative. Another very good story is this one about a robot re-living over and over the last few hours before the death of an entire ship (this was before Pirx's time). A very haunting tale. Overall, a great collection!

I am thoroughly enjoying this whole series by the Thoene's. It keeps me interested and I can't put the book down until I have finished it - usually over a period of days. I enjoy historical novels especially with a Christian background. The suspense of what the Nazi's will do next, the close escape of the heroes and heroines keep me glued to the pages. The authors catchy theme of their books is "Truth Through Fiction" - it's very true.

I just finished reading "Warsaw Requiem", the last book in the "Zion Covenant" series. It was wonderful, as are all the books in that series. The characters in the book will always be a part of my life.

I totally got absorbed in this book....trying to imagine what it would have been like living in the Jewish sector of Warsaw, waking up to bombs dropping and fighter planes zeroing in on children going to school!

This is one book in a series of 9, called the Zion Covenant. I am on Book #8 and my husband is a book behind me. We cannot quit reading them! A wonderful series on Jews, many Christians, trying to get away from Hitler in WW2. Your faith in the power of prayer is totally reinforced in these books. You see God's hand throughout....

Well, I'm a 16 years old girl from Norway. The reson why I read this book is because in my class we had to read a book and afterwords we had to write a review of it. So, I went down to the school library, there I took the first book I could find... But I have to say that this book was great! It shows how the jews lived and felt it during the second world war, and I have learnd so much from it! I highly recomand this book for all ages, but it requires that you know something about 2. wordwar...

This book - the whole series, in fact, are so filled with power it is amazing. It convicted me, inspired me, and moved me. I read a lot of books, and I mean a lot, but very few are in the calibre this book is in. The characters are very real and the way in which they relate to one another makes you feel as though you are a part of the action. I became so involved that at the end of the book I felt as though I had lost many friends. The writing style itself flows smoothly, never feeling stilted or cheap. The story-line was exciting, and the historical detail is so wound up in the story it becomes difficult to separate the two. All in all, I'd recommend this book to anyone, and I am sure that I will read it again and again and again.

This is the original hardbound edition of the extraordinary account of Selim Sznycer (who later took the name Shalom Yoran), of his family's flight from the Nazi invasion of western Poland to the eastern, Soviet-occupied town of Kurzeniec, where they remained until the Germans bombed there too, killing his parents.

Rather than surrender to a certain death, Selim and his brother Musio fled to a deeply forested swampy area, at whose center they constructed a hidden bunker with some friends. There, they struggled merely to stay clothed, warm and fed. They had little to trade and no money with which to buy, and were reduced to infrequent forays into villages several miles distant, where they could steal enough rags and potatoes to survive. Lighting fires was difficult; the smell or sight of smoke could attract attention.

At one point, Yoran left the hovel to search for food only to return and find several comrades dead. He and his brother then fled further east, and ultimately joined the Soviet and Polish partisans. This was not only an act of extraordinary defiance, it was itself fraught with danger, as both the Polish peasants and Russian partisans with whom they fought were themselves highly distrusting, and hateful, of Jews. At first, Selim was not trusted with guns. He was left to fight with sticks, a fake rifle, and in one case, a pitchfork. But gradually, a few comrades developed trust and respect for him, as he became an expert at bombing the railroad tracks carrying German supply trains. He derailed several trains; the sabotage stopped German war materiel transports--and required extensive new track construction, significantly slowing Germany's war machine in the region.

Ultimately, the author survived and fled Europe for Israel, where he broke through the British blockade, joined the Israeli air force and built a successful Israeli business. Although Yoran necessarily survived only by fighting, success (as I have written before) is the best revenge. And for Yoran, that came through building a new life, business and family in Israel.

This is a terrific book, for young and old alike.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

I very much enjoyed reading such a fascinating book. I never realized the work of the Jewish partisans nor the anti-smitism that also existed on the part of even the resistance fighters.
Just a great book that really emphasizes the terrors of the Nazi regime. It also goes to show what happens to a people who are disarmed and in many cases have only sticks and pitchforks to fight back w/.

I loved this book. This is very different than "Bravest Battle" or "Hiding Place". There are a half dozen points I would have never learned: - This was a 14yr old from an upper middle class family. He was able to constuct a dirt house & survive a brutally cold winter with NO supplies or knowlege. - Everyone hated them. The Russians, the Polish farmers, everyone. - At one point he lived rather free, but under Russian Rule. Even though the consequences were death or life in prison, every person under Socialism cheated and were capitalist. From kids to grannies. Rather powerful! I'm making each of my kids read this book. It was great & I read it straight through.

Shalom Yoran is a long time frind of my grandparents. I visited him at his hous a few months ago. There i got a signed copy of this book. It is the gretest book i have ever read. This is one book every person in the world should read to learn what the jewish people went through. Find out the truth about the holocaust and what we could have prevented

The Defiant is the story of Shalom Yoran (born Selim Sznycer)
, and his time spent with the partisans fighting the Nazis in Poland. After three years on the run , with his family , from Nazi mobile killing units , the Nazi terror finally caught up with them and in the little town of Kurzeniec , 1 040 Jewish men , women and children where dragged from their homes and hiding places , murdered and burned. Included among those slaughtered where Selim's parents.

Selim and his brother escaped into the woods and joined the partisans , and heeded the last words of their mother to survive and take vengeance for them.

This is the story of the partisan guerilla warfare against Nazi terror.
Although Selim fought among non-Jews , he always fought first and foremost as a Jew - with them but not as one of them. He dreamed of having his own country , of fighting for it and even dying for it-that is what kept him alive. The dream of surviving and living in the Land of Israel as a free Jew and building it.
After the war , his dream was fulfilled , and having escaped the Soviet Army that tried to draft him , and the British blockade that tried to keep Jews out of Palestine , he settled in Israel and joined the airforce , becoming a prominent businessman in Israel.
The Zionists in Europe where always the backbone of Jewish resistance to Nazism.