Poland Books

I got this book from a family member, and wasn't quite sure if it was something good or bad, mainly due to the title, "The Hidden Pope". It kind of has a bad connotation to it, as if there's some dark secret. "A Personal Journey" might have been better as the title rather than the sub title. -2 points for a bad title that could send a conflicting message.

I bought this book a few years ago. The recent death of Pope John Paul II inspired me to take it off the bookshelf and start reading one night. If you are a gentile and think you know the meaning and impact of anti-semitism, think again and read this book. This is the history of 20th century Europe told through the lives and experiences of Lolek and Jerzy, two precocious small town Polish friends whose friendship helped change the course Catholic-Jewish relations after twenty centuries of misunderstanding and mistrust. It was providential that both ended up residing in Rome and worked together to change the perceptions of many people who have adopted anti-semetic attitudes based upon false assumptions and lies. Through their eyes see the horrors of Nazism and Communism as their friends and families are slaughtered by these inhumane political systems. By the end of the book you will feel like you know these two men (Pope John Paul II and Jerzey Kluger) as very very special human beings. It may be profane but they remind me of Pat O'Brien and James Cagney combination in the movie, "Angels with Dirty Faces." One, the saintly but very world wise priest and the other, a wise cracking but trouble prone friend. These two men teach us that at a personal level Jews and Christians are cousins in faith and these ancient misunderstandings should be resolved once and forever. The Hidden Pope would make a wonderful movie about two mensches for the ages!

I am an Irish Catholic that married a Jewish girl with roots in Poland, so this book took on special meaning for me. I was very proud of our pontiff for making extraordinary strides in Catholic-Jewish relations. His message still hasn't made it down to all levels of the church, but I hope that it will. Many Catholics still feel that Jews are doomed and must be converted/baptized in order to be saved, but the Pope clearly states that this is WRONG. We are all sons of Abraham, and the Jews are our older brothers.

I would like to write to Jurek Kluger and tell him so. If anyone knows his address or email, please forward it to me. Thank you!!

This book was so touching that I beg both Catholics and Jews to read it and meditate on the message. I laughed and cried. It is a great book.

This is a fabulous book. I am neither Catholic nor Jewish, but I was fascinated by the depth of the man we all call Pope. I had no idea of his personal journey, and the breadth of his goodness. Too many times, we don't look beyond the title and the robes. This is truly a saintly man.

In "The Slave", Singer presents us with a pious Jewish man (Jacob) who, despite the fact that he has lost his wife and children in a massacre in 1648 Poland, still retains his religious beliefs.

Jacob, after losing his entire family in a slaughter, is sold as a virtual slave to a Polish farmer, where he lives years of his life in a barn. Part of this time he is tended to by the farmers' daughter Wanda, with whom he eventually falls in love. Jacob is a slave to the Polish farmer, and his love for Sarah (name changed from Wanda because of societal pressures) make him a sort of slave also, forcing him to forgo religious convictions which do not permit the marriage of Jews and Gentiles. And for the rest of his life, he and Wanda also must live as virtual slaves to the mores and arbitrary rationales which permeates the country and do not allow the two to live simply as husband and wife. Their love which is one which is not permitted by any of the cultural backgrounds of the time. And because of this, a surreptitious love must take place, making the two of them slaves to societal norms of the times.

In the end, The Slave is a simple story of love, of acknowledging what actions and beliefs of man go against God's will, and of shedding the yoke of slavery and of these societal norms, and in doing what indeed is the will of Providence.

Another masterpiece by Singer.

Although it was written originally in Yiddish and not Polish, the book is about Poland in XVI century, seen with the eyes of a Jewish person right after World War II. The book itself is very meaningful: it shows every single community in a rather pessimistic light but it is quite accurate. Polish people, Ukrainian people, Jewish people: nobody escapes harsh commmentary. The story is very beautiful and it made me cry at the end. The author definetelly is trying to find answers to what happened to Jewish people during the World War II. The book is set in the times of Khmelnytsky Uprising against Polish-Lithuanian Common Wealth and not a Polish Revolution. Uprising was a rebellion of present day Ukrainians and included armies of Cossacks and Tatars. During the uprising Polish noblemen, Catholic priests and Jewish people were commonly eradicated.

Much like his predecessor Henryk Sienkiewicz, Warsaw-born Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) likewise won the Noble Prize in Literature. 'The Slave' is the first of his writings I have had the pleasure of reading and much like the other reviews reflect, I found it immensly enjoyable. I have read a great deal of Slavic fiction and I found this piece reminding me of other great works, in particular, Eliza Orzeszkowa's 'Meir Ezofowicz'. Similarly, it has the same romance and adventure you would find in Sienkiewicz's epic Triology and it's historically related. Sienkiewicz's 'Z Ogniem i Mieczem' (With Fire and Sword) is historically set around the 17th century Cossack uprising in the Polish Commonwealth.

In 'The Slave', the protaganist Jacob is a Jew that has found himself quite literally a slave to a Polish family as a consequent of the anti-Semitic rage that the Cossack uprising brought about. Jacob not only finds himself fortunate to be alive, but is in love with his master Jan Bzik's daughter, the beautiful Wanda. The romance develops throughout the story, along with Jacob the Jew's inner struggle to give into his feelings for Wanda the Gentile.

If you are a fan of slavic literature in general, you certainly won't be disappointed by this story.

I could not put this story down. The writing is vivid and engrossing in this compelling story set during an almost barbaric time in Polish history.

The Jewish, Christian, pagan undertones shape the story. The quest for love and happiness send the reader through many years of trials.

Highly recommended.

This is a beautiful, spare book about a great, forbidden passion, in which two cultures clash with tragic and yet strangely uplifting results. The Slave is Jacob, a survivor of unspeakable horrors in the 1648 Polish revolution - having lost his entire family and become enslaved in desperate and degrading circumstances, he strives to keep his religion and his inner self intact. What he discovers is an unexpected love in a Polish peasant, Wanda, who though simple is in fact intelligent and deep. There is an air of destiny to them.

The book largely takes the form of Jacob's inner dialogue, which is religious and scholarly, a natural outsider who strives to be good in terms that make sense to himself. This is an alien world of unpredictable dangers, race hatred, and bizarre superstitions that overturn his views of the universe as a good and just place - enough to enable his to cross the barriers he faces as he struggles to create a life for himself and then with Wanda. I found this deeply moving, masterfully translated into terms that I could comprehend and empathize with.

In addition, there is much to learn in this about the history of the Jews in Poland. Singer romanticises nothing and is hard on everyone concerned, with perhaps the exception of the lovers and their constant dread. It adds up to a truly vivid portrait of a time, yet played out with universal philosophical dilemmas. Jacob's is an extraordinary journey, believable and moving.

Warmly recommended. I will never forget this life.

Kapuscinski was the only journalist in Angola during that time. He arrived there in september, I left that country (my country) in august. Besides being the only witness of a "word's forgotten war" he was able to accurately catch what was going on there at the time.

Nothing more need be said. It probably isn't as compelling as Shadow of the Sun, or Shah of Shah's, but it certainly is a fine book.

Anything goes when it comes to the raw greed and clan warfare that characterizes human behavior. Kapuscinsky's reportage is brilliant, relentless and focused. He describes the roots of the human condition in Angola at eye level. You can draw your own moral conclusions - and in case you are left wondering, this scenario is applicable wherever Western and/or European cultures operate in Africa...it's cynical exploitation in the name of Mamon all the way to the bank. Read this and ponder about the future of mankind. Thank you Ryszard, you deserve a Pulitzer prize for your reportage!

This is a fine, fine piece of tightly written war reportage. From the first page the heat, tension, cruelty and fear of the Angola civil war following Portugese decolonisation is brought to life by Kapuscinski's biscuit dry prose. He was not one of these sit back and learn of events from a distance whilst sipping fine malt whisky journalists. He bore right into the heart of the action, frequently risking his life. Some of the stories in here are highly strung in terms of tension, wit and emotion. Take the encounter with the security post, where you have a choice of two greetings to shout to the guards, the wrong one will result in death, and garbling a half sounding equivocation doesn't cut it. Also the heartbreaking sacrifice by a Mulatto girl who stays behind and is killed after Kapuscinski's truck leaves.

Kapuscinski died very recently, he was one of those rare and brave Europeans who finds the intellectual life of Western Europe (though he was actually Polish) lax, self satisfied and bland, and sought to find places where life really was lived with every emotional and sensory dial turned up high. Another Day of Life is a very apt title.

This fast paced book taught me so much about Angola's history and
> current dispute. It made me want to learn more about this country's history and
> its people. I enjoyed the book because it was more than just a history and an
> account of war. It was an in-depth look at the people and their culture. It is
> the story of struggle for a whole civilization after gaining their independence
> from the ruthless European nation of Portugal. Kapuscinski didn't try to confuse
> you with numerous names, groups, and organizations. He gave you the basic and
> made the past easy to understand. Characters were brought to life through his
> detail, which made you feel for them when they left or were even killed. In the
> front of the book, a map of Angola is provided allowing you to flip back many
> times while reading this book. You know at all times what part of the country
> you are in and what is going on. A detailed history of the events leading up to
> independence and civil war is also provided in the back of the book. It explains
> what occurred during the war also.
Excerpt of A.K. winning book review! Good Job A.K. Mrs. Arthur

When Marek discovers a shocking secret about himself, he decides that he must help the captured Jews fight the Germans. While the Nazis are imprisoning Jews in the Ghetto, Marek is helping one Jew avoid capture. Will Marek be able to help the Jews in their fight against the Nazis? During World War II, a teenage boy named Marek lived in Warsaw with his mother and stepfather, Antony. Although Marek witnessed Nazis imprisoning Jews, he joined his friends in robbing an escaping Jew. Marek discovered he was partly Jewish and his guilt caused him to use the stolen money to help another Jew, Pan Jozek, hideout. When the Jews rose up against the Germans, Marek and Pan Jozek snuck into the ghetto to help the Jews. Pan Jozek was killed before Marek and several other Jews were rescued by Antony. After escaping from the ghetto and the Germans, Antony, Marek, and Marek's mother left Warsaw to live with Antony's sister in the country. Antony risked his life to save Marek and as repayment Marek agreed to let Antony legally adopt him. I recommend that everyone read this book about a young boy and his struggles during World War II.
The situations the characters in this book go through seem incredibly realistic. Marek had to cope with the fact that his father died and his mom had remarried. Pan Jozek narrowly escaped the Germans and had to prevent being imprisoned or killed. Marek and his parents left the busy, chaotic city of Warsaw and moved to the quieter, more peaceful countryside.
The characters are described in great detail. Marek is a fourteen-year-boy who is partly Jewish. Pan Jozek was a Jewish man who was studying to be a doctor before the war; he had gentle eyes, high cheekbones, and an amiable expression. Marek's grandmother dressed in large skirts with multiple pockets and his grandfather's old jacket.
The setting is also described in detail. Theater Square was a small area in town similar to a strip mall and park combined. The Jewish ghetto was a small area filled with many people; it was destroyed when the Jews started an uprising against the Germans. Marek's apartment was just the right size for their family of three.
I recommend this book to everyone. It is a wonderful story about the struggles of daily life during World War II. The characters, places, and events in this book are described in such detail that you can actually picture the story taking place in your mind.
~V. Newberry

The Man from the other side is about a 14 yr old boy who helps his stepfather smuggle food for the Jews. This book has Jews, polish, and Germans during the war. I like the book because it has adventure for a young boy who lost one of his friends because of a German who killed him by a pistol. His stepfather wants to adopt him though. I disliked the book because it talks about smuggling food which has none thing to do with World War II.

This book is really getting good so far.
Im on the 9th chapter and what I read is so far good.
Im sure it will be good at the end.

The Man From the Other Side, by URI Orlev is a great and amazing novel. It is about a fourteen-year-old boy, Marek, who lives in Warsaw, Poland. He lived in a ghetto or an enclosed area where Jews were kept and told to stay. The nazi's would torture and kill them to rule their lives. Lucky for Marek, he was catholic, so hid not feel the pain the Jews did. You as the reader follow the life of Marek throughout the story.
I think this book is really great and fascinating. The characters are really well brought in the story. It is almost like you are actually there in Warsaw, when all of this is taking place. I think that if you read this book you will be very impressed. I think this book has a very valuable moral to life. It is that always help those in need and to not single anybody out because of their backround. It is basically saying do not discriminate anybody.

The Man From the Other Side is a well written by the author he explains the story and other details really well, I could basically see the people in my head when I read the book. This book is placed in the 1940's in Poland were a fourteen year old boy named Marek, and his step-father smuggle goods through a sewer into the jewish community. Marek finds during the book that he is half jew and decides to help another jew he meets to escape from Poland and away from the Nazi.

I would highly recommend this book to people that like or are interested in WWI because it talks about the enivorenment the jews lived in which, was really detailed by the author. Also the author painted a perfect description of the jews and the way they lived. If you want to find out more for yourself take a risk and READ THE BOOK!!!

We purchased this book because my daughter is doing a history project about bialys. This is a well-written book on a unique subject--a resource I certainly did not expect to find when we started searching for information. I enjoyed Sheraton's journey in search of the history of the bialy, as well as the "perfect" bialy.

Mimi Sheraton's work about a special bread and the people who made it echoes her subject matter. The Bialy eaters is itself moist, crusty, sensual, and characterized by a depressed hole in its centers. The hole is not due to any shoddiness in Ms. Sheraton's craft; it is the loss of some 60,000 beautiful soles and their rich culture that is the underpainting of her fine portrait of a special bread.

Her doomed but dogged pilgrimage back to Bialystok, the source of the Bialy, is commendable for its integrity. Reading true, it involves a tale sadly too familiar for many of her readers, myself included. But it was her descriptions of bialies and pletzels, which I remember from my childhood in Baltimore, still warm from the baker's oven, that were the source of my lost night's sleep. I salivated and ruminated over the tastes and smells of my past. Sheraton shows shows how food is more than calories and carbs and taste and smell; it is also culture and history, art and, at its very best, a poetic expression of love. I can't wait to try the recipe.

There were a few things I really enjoyed about this book, as I found it both educational and enlightening when it discussed the various Jewish communities around the world, particularly in France and Argentina, as well as how completely devoid of Jews Bialystok has become. Her discussions about food and how they can trigger such powerful childhood memories were also insightful and thought provoking. However, the real jewels of this book were the conversations and letters with ex-Bialystokers, some of which could bring you to tears. Their memories of what once was bring home just how much was lost by the destruction of Jewish Eastern Europe by the Nazis and completed by the Communists, on a very personal, individual basis.

Now for the problems. As someone else mentioned, Sheraton did not visit any overseas locations until an expenses paid business trip provided her with the opportunity. I didn't find this so unusual, as traveling the world can be quite expensive. However, I found her not traveling to Australia since no one would pay for it to be more than a little strange, considering she was doing research for a book like this. However, it made for a better read in the end, as she spared us what I found were her often times tedious descriptions and asides of the places she visited and people she met. There were also paragraphs where she would be talking about one thing one minute, such as quoting one of her respondents and then abruptly change the subject, which oftentimes made for a jarring read. While her style of writing may work in magazine articles, it often failed to keep my attention and it was often marred by some awkward sentence structure, especially in her attempts at flowery prose.

Lastly, since the decision was made to include pictures in the book, I could have done with less description and more visuals, especially when it came to taking pictures of modern day Bialystok, as well as other cities and people she met and visited. And the pictures she did take, such as that of Bialys, were poorly taken, with no actual close-ups of the food itself, which there really should have been more of.

So while The Bialy Eaters may be an interesting and often educational personal exploration of a wonderful food (I'm particularly obsessed with Kossars' bialys) and a world that no longer exists, I expected so much more. But what is there is certainly worth reading, especially if you've ever eaten and loved a bialy.

I grew up on Grand Street near Kossar's bialy bakery, and Ms. Sheraton comes close to making me taste those delicious breads once again. Her language is descriptive about food in much the same way that a good novelist makes you see something common differently through deft imagery. Unless you are a major nitpicker, you'll enjoy this gentle, respectful, and fun book. And if you haven't tasted a genuine bialy, on your next trip to NYC please do take a sidetrip to Grand and Essex and pick up a bag--onion, not garlic, for reasons the author addresses--fresh and warm out of the oven. In a world of mass-produced blandness, I can see why Ms. Sheraton wrote this book, seeking the secret behind something unique.

Sheraton comes out with two statements that are on the surface contradictory: the best bialys (and the customs used to eat them) were from Bialystok, but the bialys she most enjoys are from the places she is most familiar (ie, Kossar's). For instance, even though every Bialystoker she encounters states that you absolutely do not split the roll open, she states that she still continues to do this because she finds it awkward not to. Fair enough. However, other variations of the bialy, such as the amount of onion used and the generosity of poppy seeds on top, she seems to feel are intolerable. And that's fine, too, because what she is really saying- and what just about everyone she interviews is saying- is that the bialy you love best is the bialy you grew up with. When all is said and done, it isn't about the specific recipe or food as much as it is about the past. The food you grew up with is one of the strongest links to your past. This is what Sheraton is really writing about; when the Bialystokers talk about how much they miss the bialy they grew up with and how inferior the modern versions are, what they are really mourning is the loss of the home they lived in. That the exact method of producing the bialy has been lost is just one more testament to the world that was destroyed in the Holocaust.

My mother went to visit my sister in New York recently, and I asked her to bring back some bialys. Surely the bialys in New York would be better than the bialys I eat here in Boston. Not even close. My bialy has definite merits over its New York counterpart (abundant onions and poppyseeds, huge and fat, not flat), but it wasn't simply that. My bialys are the ones I've grown accustomed to eating and remind me of the neighborhood I buy them in and the people I eat them with. I cannot imagine losing all of that, and every passage of this book that spoke about those losses brought tears to my eyes.

Read this book and fall in love with an old bread and a lost world.

Anything to do with Poland and the Balkans is a story of hate going back so far that all truth is buried in myth. Perhaps the only way to find a reasonable view is to read several books from different sides and then (perhaps best from your own notes) try to sift through for some reality. However, the past and 20th century anti-Semitism of Poland (and Russia--and Germany and France and the U.S.A, etc.) is clear from the personal memories of many of us who saw F.D.R. force a boat loaded with Jews back to Germany to perish to appease the massive hatred of his supporters for Jews.
Then look at the lies Ambrose told to keep the money line open to the Eisenhower family. "Ike" had seen ample evidence of the camps, but refused to bomb the railroad bridges, and became a willing hand in the murder of thousands (with F.D.R's support). Then look at the books showing his "rage" when he came to a camp with Patton, acting as though he hadn't seen untold pictures of what was happening

If you are looking for a comprehensive overview of the atrocities committed on Polish territory during the 1939 to 1945 period you could not do too much better than Piotrowski's book. Those that don't like it (see above) are not interested in the facts coming out. The German's were not the only group committing atrocities and this book meticulously sets out the full narrative. My mother and father both lived through these times and were witness to many of these events. My mother was deported to Kazakhstan by the Russians and her father was taken away and murdered. This is one of the few books that tackles this crime. Much like the murder of Polish officers at Katyn woods which the Russians recently ackowledged, the Soviet "ethnic cleansing" of eastern Poland is a story that is slowly emerging from unneath the fog of Communist lies and deception. For those researching this topic Allen Paul's 1991 book, "Katyn-Stalin's Massacre and the Seeds of Polish Resurrection" is also a "must have".

More historical facts and less bias would have made this a better book!

Excellent book. Shows Pre-ww2 Poland for what it really was an imperiaist warmonger. Kievian -Rus lands stolen by Poland in the middle ages always created strife. Polish nobility forced Ukrainians to be serfs while Poles remained the Aristocrates. This is interesting because Hitler had these same plans for Poland. Poland instigated the Polish-Soviet war, which in fact most Poles hate to admit. He should have also metioned how Lenin appointed many Poles to his secret police the Cheka and these Poles such as Dzerzhinskii slaughtered millions of Russians.

The following review is based on the original (1998) edition. There is so much content in this book that it is hard to decide what to discuss!

One soon learns that members of ALL nationalities engaged in unsavory conduct in the face of the Nazi and Soviet oppressors. There are entire chapters on Jewish, Polish, Belorussian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian collaboration. Prewar Polish-Jewish prejudices had been fully reciprocal (pp. 39-40).

Piotrowski provides considerable detail on the Poles deported by the Soviets into the interior of the USSR. He presents evidence for the large-scale nature of the Zydokomuna (Jewish-Communist collaboration against Poles) before (pp. 36-38), during (pp. 48-58), and immediately after WWII (pp. 58-65).

He addresses accusations, directed against the AK and NSZ, of having killed fugitive Jews. In some cases, it can be shown that these units weren't even in the areas at the time (p. 102). Other accusations aren't even nominally corroborated by knowledgeable Jews who were in the area at the time (p. 335). Piotrowski (p. 324) refutes Krakowski's argument that Bor-Komorowski's "anti-bandit" order had been a veiled order to kill fugitive Jews (p. 324). Finally, there were Jews serving openly in the ranks of the AK (including its elite; p. 335) and the NSZ (pp. 96-97).

Significantly, Piotrowski shows that many Jewish recollections were written decades after the events. They have a tendency of mixing up their personal experiences with what they heard or read about the Holocaust (p. 328).

Piotrowski includes TIME Magazine's 1994 "retraction" of its false Polonophobic statement that there had been many Poles in the SS (p. 321). He also presents intriguing evidence that the so-called Kielce Pogrom had been a Soviet-staged provocation (p. 141).

This book requires much in-depth study to appreciate fully!

I read this book when I was an undergraduate, and now I have read it again, along with books on eyewitness accounts by Alfred Wexler and Rudolph Vrba. Martin Gilbert's book makes an ineffable case regarding the intentional lassitude of Great Britain's leaders, excluding Churchill for whom he has written a biography of, in ignoring the facts when it came to saving the Jews of Europe. The Americans were no less dismissive of Jewish requests. The seminal question is if it was allied war prisoners or British subjects that were the target of Hitler's killing machine would the allies have bomber Auschwitz?

Martin Gilbert, who writes "Auschwitz and the Allies" illustrates a very colorful picture of what the mindset of the German leader Adolf Hitler and his military leaders in the period of World War One, all the way to the end of World War Two. Gilbert uses references to many primary sources, (mostly newspaper articles) to show his point. He uses these excerpts to show that his points can be backed with historical data. Gilbert also shows how the Allies played an important role in this process at Auschwitz.The rest of the book seems to show the lack of support from the Allies to the Jews. The book takes a look as to why the allies gave the cold shoulder to a horrific time in our past. Gilbert seems to think that the mass murder of the Jewish people took place before the Allies had enough information to steam ahead on a stop to this. He does, however, carry a very sarcastic tone in this book. He claims that many of the allied leaders looked at these stories of the horrific killing of the Jews as "customary Jewish exaggeration." Gilbert claims that the extermination of the Jews was well known in Europe. He says that the knowledge of where the people where headed was the information that kept people from stopping anything. Gilbert counters the "customary Jewish exaggeration" with "typical Nazi deception". The Nazi's deceived more people than the Jews exaggerated to. Gilbert ends his book with a summary. He says that there were two major victories in the war, and many failures. He throws the blame of ignorance on the allies, and gives the victories to the Nazi's, for their ability to nearly annihilate the Jews, and for deceiving the rest of the world. (please excuse the jumping around, this is a summary of a five page paper)

In this comprehensive work , Martin Gilbert analyses how the Allied governments during World War II reacted to news about the Nazi holocaust of Europe's Jewry , especially after the truth became known about the massive death factory known as Auschwitz.

He poses the questions as to why the Allies never bombed Auschwitz , and analyses Allied lack of reaction , despite ample news of the holocaust - revealing how the allies could have - but did not- act to save millions of Jews.

The prelude to the book deals with Hitler's pledge to completely anihilate the Jews of Europe , on January 20 1942.

By 1941 , the reality of the Nazi massacre of Jews had certainly reached allied governments. On 3 May 1941 the Polish Government-in-Exile sent a formal note to the governments of allied and neutral powers describing how 'tens of thousands' had been interned in concentration camps and it went on to mention four such camps: Oswiecim (Auschwitz) , Oranieburg , , Mauthausen and Dachau as camps whose names will 'mark the most horrible pages of the annals of German bestiality.' The Polish note contained more than 200 accounts of the tortures and murders commited in the camps.

But the persecution of Jews was still not thought of as a specifically important issue. On 25 July 1941 , a Ministry of Information document "had warned British policy makers that to make the Nazi danger 'credible' to the British people it should 'not be too extreme as concentration camp stories 'repel the normal mind'"...while a certain amount of horror was needed "it must deal always with the treatment of indisputably innocent people , Not with violent political opponents and not with Jews".

In 1939 the British issued their infamous White Paper severely restricting the entry of Jews into Palestine , barring their only root of escape from Nazi terror , largely in order to appease Arab opinion .
About 500 000 Jews actually attempted to enter "Palestine" after the Shoah had begun in 1942, but were brutally turned back by the British even after news of the death camps and gas chambers had filtered back to the British. Sir Harold McMichael , British High Commisioner in Palestine telegraphed to the colonial office: " The fate of these people was tragic , but the fact remains that they where national of a country at war with Britain , proceeeding directly from enemy territory. Palestine was under no obligation towards them."
In 1942 Anthony Eden , British Foreign Secretary , refused once again to relax the restriction of Jewish immigration into Palestine claiming that turning back the ships would 'in the end be more merciful.'

British MP Eleanor Rathbone hit the nail on the head when she said: "If it had not been for the restrictions placed on immigration to Palestine in pre-war years , even before the Palestinian White Paper , imposed partly for economic reasons , and partly to please the Arabs , tens of thousands of men , women and children who now lie in bloody graves would have been among their kindred in Palestine..."
Others like Lord Cherwell also urged a Jewish homeland in Palestine as a refuge for Europe's persecuted Jews pointing out that "After the last war Arabia (as big as Western Europe) was conquered by us from the Turks and handed over to the Arabs ; it seems strange that one corner of it , the size of Wales is grudged to the Jews"
This information makes it particularly sickening to see much of the British establishment, including the British media (epitomized by the hate speech of the likes of Robert Fisk, and the BBC), politicians , academics like Tom Paulin and others, leading the international campaign to vilify and harm Israel.
They are showing the same callousness in regard to Jewish men, women and children being murdered today, as they did during the British Mandate.

Aside from the British refusal to let Jews escape to Palestine , the allies rejected taking in Jews into their own countries , claiming that they did not want to be inundated with a 'flood of refugees'.
The book documents the unceasing efforts by Zionist leaders , such as Richard Lichtheim and Chaim Weizmann , to alert the allied governments of the enormity of what was going on and to try to urge them to act to save the Jews , but they constantly fell on deaf ears.

Throughout the war the allied governments where inundated with reports of the atrocities taking place against Jews , throughout Europe but reacted with characteristic calousness such as the remark of a leading British Foreign Office official in September 1944 : "In my opinion a disproportionate amount of time of the Office is wasted on dealing with these wailing Jews..."

Eventually the report of two young Jews who had escaped Auschwitz landed on Churchill's desk and the possibility of bombing the railway lines leading to Auschwitz , and the gas chambers themselves was indeed examined . But why was the plan never carried out?

In the wake of this callous inaction , a section of the world's Jews realized that never again could their safety and survival be left up to the nations of the world alone , and that is the meaning of the State of Israel.
The survival of Israel means the prevention of any such holocaust ever happening again to the Jews.
Will the world stand by as Israel's existence is threatened by Islamic terrorists and Moslem and far-left bigots across the globe?

Looking into history is one of the areas that we can almost always fell we have found an absolute truth. Even if some of the facts remain hidden or just plain unknown, major events have so many other markers and road maps that historians can find the truth, even if it is narrow in scope. The truth presented in this book is that the Allies knew that Hitler's Germany was engaged in mass killings of different ethnic groups with Jews being number one on the hit list. The author spends a good deal of time detailing out his research that shows that this fact was even in the public press. What is not detailed to any great degree was what decisions lead the leaders of the Allies to prosecute the war in the manner they did. Why were these atrocities ignored or not acted on?

The author did not fully investigate this question, and to be fair it would probably be difficult given the decisions made here were by a very few people and not verbalized. The book is interesting and details a good number of facts on the topic. I did seem to pick up on a seemingly anti non Jewish bias in the book. The author examines the Allies ignoring of the mass killings, but does not try to explain what could have actually been done to stop them. Looking at the full picture of the war, there was not an easy fix for this problem if one at all. Even if air power resources would have been diverted to camps, there were many that the overall war effort would have been negatively effected. How much longer would have the overall war gone on and how many more people would have died? Even if the Allies had stopped the camps, there were still killing squads that were activity in the country side that killed almost two million people. Nothing short of a full victory would have stopped this activity.

Overall I found the book interesting but limited. If you are just coming to this discussion, this book gives the reader a nice overview of the "Allies Knew" field of study, but what it does not do is present the story with all the facts about the Allies position in the war. It also seems a bit self severing that the author seems to only care about this one section of the European population that was dieing when countless millions more died at the hands of Hitler and Stalin. This was a horrific period in our collective history and I hope that the end effect of this and other books like it, help to keep in focus our responsibility on stopping these atrocities in the future regardless of if they are Europeans, Africans or Asians that are being killed.

This thoroughly documented and deeply disturbing book is divided into three parts. The Final Solution includes the chapters Hitler's Pledge, Warnings And Forebodings, Britain's Dilemma, Evidence And Omissions, Rescue and Refuge, Eyewitness and This Bestial Policy. Part Two: Hope And Hopelessness includes Warsaw And Bermuda, The Spread Of Nazi Power and The German Occupation Of Hungary. Part Three: Auschwitz revealed, includes inter alia, Escape From Auschwitz, Zionism At Bay, The Deportations From Hungary, The End Of Auschwitz and the Epilogue.

The book is painful to read as it chronicles the history of the Shoah from the earliest warnings of Hitler's intentions through the war, the doomed attempts of many individuals and organisations to rescue the Jews, the indifference and the excuses given by certain officials on the Allied side, and the actions, good and bad, of occupied and neutral countries. Although the book does not focus on personal experiences in the holocaust, there are some examples of unspeakable horror that the sensitive reader had best avoid.

The author ascribes the extent of the tragedy and the failure to do more as failures of imagination, of response, of intelligence, co-ordination and of sympathy. To me the most shocking revelations are those where policymakers used the excuse that they were afraid of flooding Palestine and the UK with Jewish refugees. Or maybe even worse, those who claimed that the reports coming out of Europe were exaggerated. Another incredible show of indifference was the refusal of the Allies to bomb Auschwitz, while their planes were overflying the accursed place to drop supplies on Warsaw for the Polish uprising.

Here and there one finds some glimpses of right action, for example Bulgaria, an Axis ally that nevertheless managed to protect its Jews from the worst. But overall, one is left with a feeling of utter despair at the way the events unfolded and the frustration that Zionist leaders must have endured in trying to help their doomed people. It is chilling to read how countries like Switzerland refused to accommodate refugees and how every obstacle was placed in the way of orphaned children trying to reach Israel. The world looked on and it still does. Since then, we have witnessed Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Darfur.

The book contains 16 pages of black and white plates and 20 maps. It concludes with biographical notes and a thorough index. For more information and background on the horror and the indifference, I recommend A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson and The Contract of Mutual Indifference: Political Philosophy After the Holocaust by Norman Geras. For a glimpse of the future, consult Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left by David Horowitz and The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel, and Liberal Opinion by Bernard Harrison.

Unfortunately, because of their difficult Polish names, the main characters did not stick in my mind. I cannot remember who was who and who did what. Having said that, the young poeople who started the rebellion were brave and tough. How commendable for dying fighting, rather than just letting the Nazis lead them to the slaughter! Also, I was disgusted by the absence of help from the Polish underground and from the Allies. The Jews fought and died alone, with minimal help from the outside. I find the anti-Semitism of the Polish people to be cruel, barbarous and un-Christian: to dislike the Jews is one thing, but to turn them over to the Ghestapo and SS is another! Damn them!!!

In this volume Dan Kurzman produces a comprehensive step-by-step, detailed, stirring, engaging and heartrending account of the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprisings.
When the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began on April 19, 1943, more than 300 000 ghetto inhabitants had already perished in the gas chambers of Treblinka.
As the author describes the 28 day battle of the ZOB and Betarist ZZW ended 2 000 years of Jewish submission to brutal persecution, pogroms and finally genocide, an iron will to survive that five years later would find expression in the reborn State of Israel.
65 years after the valour of the doomed fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto echoed across Warsaw, the determination of the Jews to fight back against their murderers, against those who would destroy them, echoes in the Middle East.
Kurzman provides a day by day account of the 28 day struggle for survival.

The book focuses on the sadistic SS-Gruppenführer Jurgen Stroop, who led the attack of the Nazi forces on the Warsaw Ghetto, and on Mordechai Anielewicz, a leader of the Zionist-socialist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair and and Commander in Chief of the Jewish fighting Organization (ZOB).
Other heroes of the uprising included Captain Henryk Iwanski, the Polish Home Officer who gave all to help the Jews, and lost a son during the fighting.
He supported the ¯ydowski Zwi¹zek Wojskowy (¯ZW), the Jewish Military Union, led by such great men as Pawel Frankel and David Appelbaum.
The book details how the ZOB and ZZW fought valiantly to avenge those who had been murdered, and their many surprise attacks on the Nazi forces.

We also learn how the British and American governments refused to help the besieged Jews of the Ghetto in any way.
' Breckinridge Long , the US assistant secretary of state in charge of refugee issues wrote in his diary...reflecting on American Jewish leaders who were trying to pressure their governments to save the Jews: "One danger in it all is that their activities may lend color to the charges of Hitler that this war is being fought on account of and at the instigation and direction of the Jewish leaders who were trying to pressure their governments to save the Jews".
A chilling statement that finds expression today in the anti-Jewish slogan of the violently anti-Israel "Anti War Movement" : "No War for Israel!"
Also of the reluctance of the USA and NATO forces to stop Iran's plans to build nuclear weapons for the express purposes of the genocide of Israel's Jews.
This inaction simply in order to avoid the wrath of world Moslems and the International Left.

Stories of heroism abound such as that of the twelve year old Jewish girl who died shielding her injured ten year old brother from the fires of the burning ghetto. No account of the heroism of the uprising could be complete without the harrowing details of the horrific Nazi atrocities. These include the SS, on the orders of Stroop, taking Jewish infants by the legs and smashing their heads against the wall, or machine gunning masses of Jewish children.
Even the suffering and cruel death of children could not move the hearts that were hardened by hate.

Photographs in the volume include a heartbreaking photo of Jewish children crying for food in the ghetto, as they starved to death, the humiliation and defeat on the face of a young Jewish woman being stripped by Nazi soldiers ,Jewish men, women and children being rounded up the Nazis, and the piles of Jewish corpses.

Moist of those Jews who survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, including some of the key resistance leaders, moved to Israel, were their descendants still live today.
Let that be a reminder to those sick and evil people who try to equate the Israeli Jews with the Nazis.
The 16 year old ZW fighter Jurek Plonski, immigrated to Israel, where at the time of the writing of this book, he lived on a kibbutz. His son was killed in the Yom Kippur War.
Other surviving fighters founded the Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot (Ghetto Fighters Kibbutz) in Western Galilee.

I found this to be a great book about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It was well written, so I found it easy to get through the book.
I have read many books about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and one of the things I really liked about this one, was that the author writes about both the two Jewish fighting organizations. Since all the leaders of ZZW died before the war was over, there were few people left to tell their story and there a therefore very little about its members in most books. (Marian Apfelbaum has written a book about ZZW, where he tries to put the record straight. His book is called 'Retour sur le Ghetto de Varsovie')
Dan Kurzman has interviewed two ZZW fighters and some others that knew them. All in all, Dan Kurzman has spoken to many witnesses and he has read many documents and books about the topic. He has also made use of German sources.
Yes, it is very obvious who he prefers, but when you are dealing with a story like this, who else than the Jewish fighters would you side with?

Dan Kurzman is one of the best authors I have read on many subjects. The Bravest Battle is the only work that clearly outlines the historical struggle of the Warsaw Ghetto. The book clearly shows this struggle was NOT a revolution, and NOT a fight for freedom. The fight was to send a message to the world that Jews will fight for their dignity. Kurzman spent much time with the few survivors of the battle. He obtained first-hand accounts from the participants. If you enjoy this you will also enjoy his book Gensis 1948. This book will cure the amnesia that plagues the world in recent times about why Israel exists.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising has long fascinated me. It has long stood as a symbol of what hope can do "when all hope is lost." In all my years of reading holocaust literature, no other single event has embraced the totality of the Jewish struggle from denial to capitulation to indignation, from the depths of which rose the courage to actually fight back! In many ways, it echoes the struggle that continues today.

Dan Kurzman regails this saga in unbelievable depth, citing the most impecable sources, the survivors! His narrative breaks down each individual day and succeeds in putting the reader into each and every "sub-set" of the saga throughout the ghetto and within the nazi regime out to destroy them.

I have read many different accounts of this parcel of history, and, to date, I have not yet found a more extensive account of the events of those 28 days! From top to bottom, front to back, this is one of the greatest books I have ever read! I actually happened upon writing this review as I was purchasing it for the second time, as my first copy was not returned to me.

This emotional roller coaster will leave you breathless...I left it with bittersweet feelings of joy and pain, triumph and tragedy, resolve and fear. For I, too, live in a fascist nation, and fear the violation of my rights may become extreme. However, reflection on these 28 days of heroes among ordinary men gives me the strength to believe I could be a hero too!

The power lies within each of us! Read and learn...see ya in November!

All of us have locked closets where family secrets lay untouched and buried under long forgotten or never known memories of family structure. An event may happen that springs open the door spilling contents in the light of day.
Some will be horrified and try to make desperate attempts to shovel it all back inside and lock the door forever. Diana Raab,a brave woman, had the courage to take contents from her grandmother's closet to explore each piece and look for a connection and a meaning of her own life. Regina's Closet is
a moving story of human devastation where the horrors of war separate and destroy families and scatter them all over the world. While so many die, some are able to survive. Regina Klein, Diana's grandmother,was a survivor. Diana finds Regina's journal in a closet and because of it, she is able to begin to understand her grandmother's life and her own as well.

Nothing prepares us in life to experience what Diana's grandmother, Regina,experienced as a young girl.but her secret journal gives us glimpses of times we hope will never come again. This book held my attention from the first page. Although at times, there were voids of space because either Regina had not recorded or pages were lost. Diana
does a great job of moving us along in sprite of the time loss.Diana has a wonderful connection to her grandmother and through her brave explorations has brought meaning to Regina's life. This book is one to read because all of come from others whose lives remain in shadows. Finding and exploring the shadows help to shed light unto ourselves.
Linda Branch, Ph.D.

There are many words that can be used to describe this book: beautiful, sad, sweet, wonderful...but all will pale in comparison once you sit down and read Regina's vivid journal.

The Author, Diana Raab's, grandmother was her caretaker until she was ten years old. They had the most amazing relationship, making it all the more horrible when you find out at the beginning of this book that Regina took her own life when Diana was just a little girl. Young Diana had been left with so many questions that plagued her own life as she grew into adulthood that she truly couldn't believe her good fortune when her mother passed along her beloved grandmother's journal.

The author was going through her own horrifying illness as she opened the pages and sought solace and warmth - as well as a way to reconnect - with her grandmother. As the story unfolds, we learn of Regina's amazing strength, dealing with a mother who treated her coldly, at best, and a father who made choices after it was already too late.

We are told of the real life events as World War I started spreading through Regina's small hometown of Kalush. We see the anger on the streets and the blood flow as Regina's family, friends and neighbors watched their world disappear. We go through illness, war, pain, and travel into Vienna, as Regina tries to save her own life and the life of her sister. As we continue, the German soldiers begin knocking on the door as the atrocities of World War II come into being.

But, I must say, even though the historical pictures and tales are amazing to read about, the true color, flavor, and heart comes from Regina, herself. This author's grandmother was a true heroine when they were in incredibly short supply. She pulled her way through nightmarish times with her strength and her smarts. I found this woman beyond incredible, and I am so sorry that her ending came in sadness.

I applaud the author and thank her for letting the world see what a truly wonderful woman her grandmother was. I also long for everyone to leave journals behind for their children and grandchildren. Think of all the wisdom...all the incredible stories that have been lost over time. I would savor every moment that I could get with my grandparents and I would have loved for them to leave their stories behind so that I could understand the power of their time on this Earth.

Reviewed by Connie Anderson

Subtitled: Finding My Grandmother's Secret Journal

Diana Raab's grandmother Regina took her own life in 1964 when Diana was about 10. Diana lost someone who loved her dearly--and gave her unconditional love.

In the 1990s Diana's mother was cleaning out a closet and found her mother journal, sheaves of paper in a folder. When she came to America, Regina wrote about her life in retrospect, growing up in Poland and Vienna during WWI--about war as seen through the eyes of a child.

The Reinharz family was parents, two older brothers, Regina and younger sister Beronia. Diana was shocked to read what her dear grandmother had gone through as a child of war. Mother had died from cholera, brothers left to start their own lives, and separated from their sick father, Beronia and Regina were left to fend for themselves as adolescents. A powerful and driven young girl, Regina knew if they were going to survive, she would have to make it happen.

Although about war, the story has such power of survival, of second effort at every turn. This young girl was never loved by her own mother, who resented her being born, and treated her horribly at every opportunity. Regina found that often she encountered women who didn't like her, and said "apparently she was not good a making women happy." What scars are left when you are not loved by a parent? How long do those scars stay, and how to they show themselves?

Regina knocked on doors asking for food, a place to live, a job, schooling, etc. She was in charge of herself and her sister--and she was not yet a teenager.

In addition to the journal, Raab intersperses some geography and history to give perspective. For example, WW1 started in 1914, lasted four years, and 9 million lives were lost.

Additionally, Diana Raab teaches others how to write their own memoir, and believes everyone "has a story to tell," if just encouraged.

Most war stories are not told from a child's point of view--but don't let that scare you off from reading this wonderful account of one brave young girl's life.

Armchair Interview says: This is a page-turner--a story so unbelievable that is hard to realize it is real.

Wow! What an incredible story. It's rare for me to "rave" or to liter my opinions with complimentary adjectives and yet, I have been exposed to a book that absolutely demands both...Regina's Closet: finding my grandmother's secret journal is hauntingly beautiful and filled with the kind of raw emotion that reaches out from the pages and touches the reader in a very tangible way.

Author, Diana Raab shares her grandmother's journal, which follows her difficult and frightening experiences in war torn Poland, events of World War I, witnessing the atrocities committed by soldiers, losing all the possessions, the Nazi invasion, the cramped trains evacuees spent weeks riding only to arrive in cities where the natives did not want them and had no reservations about expressing such in the most hurtful of ways. Even as a child, Regina was not sparred this degrading hostility. Over and over again she is forced to make adult decisions and each time her incredible strength and unusual ability to understand the ways of the world shines through the darkness that surrounded her. The family eventually immigrated to the United States and settled in Brooklyn, New York, where things remained tense between her grandparents, but Diana wouldn't realize until years later, while reading the journal the extent of her grandmother's marital unhappiness.

Meticulously and masterfully, Diana has woven her feelings, fears and experiences throughout this extraordinary narrative and the result is this once-in-a-lifetime novel.
Diana found strength and grace in those handwritten, time worn and yellowing pages. She began to see her grandmother in a new light, as she read about the horrific things she had witnessed and the hardships she had endured as a child, she couldn't help but wonder if these things had played a part in her grandmother's decision to take her own life. Growing up, Diana was always closer to her grandmother...she spent a great deal of time with Regina and had fond memories of things her grandmother shared with her. At ten years old, Diana was home alone with her grandmother when Regina took an overdose of sleeping medication. Years later, Diana would have an exceptional opportunity to reconnect with her grandmother, through the secret journal.

Regina (grandmother) was a true hero..wise beyond her years, with a quiet strength that crossed the generations via the words of her journal and influenced her darling grand-daughter, giving her courage and providing solace and sanctuary. She could not have known that years after penning the diary and many years after her death, her reflections would reach millions of readers. I applaud Diana Raab for recognizing the significance and beauty of her grandmother's words and for taking the initiative to share this intimate journey with us. The author has definitely inherited her grandmother's way with words and allowed her heart to flow freely within the pen strokes that created this literary masterpiece.

I recommend "Regina's Closet: finding my grandmother's secret journal" to all readers, everywhere...don't miss this heart warming, inspiring and life-affirming book-- this is one you will want to share with everyone!

Regina's Closet is the story of two women: Diana Raab and her grandmother, Regina Klein. "I was ten years old the morning I found my grandmother dead," Raab writes of the horrifying discovery. Regina Klein killed herself. Why? That was the question that haunted Diana's young life. It wasn't until she was 42, when her mother gave her the 50-page "retrospective journal" her grandmother had written, that Diana began to piece together Regina Klein's life.

Regina's Closet is largely made up of the story of a brave, independent young girl born in the Ukraine in 1903. Eleven at the beginning of World War I, she lived through the terrible days of Russian invasion and occupation, the nightmarish scourge of cholera, and the looming threat of starvation. By 1916, Regina's mother was dead of cholera and her father and brothers had abandoned Regina and her younger sister. The two children managed to get to Vienna, where they were taken into an orphanage. Regina graduated from high school, worked in a bank, and was accepted into medical school. When she ran out of money, she married Samuel Klein and had a child (Eva, Diana's mother). Displaced by the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938, the family fled to Paris and finally to New York, where Samuel Klein opened a store. Eva grew up and married, Diana was born, and the two families lived together in apparent contentment--until that cataclysmic day in 1964 when ten-year-old Diana finds her grandmother dead.

The narrative of Regina Klein's life--richly detailed and told in her own voice through the pages of her journal--seems to be the story of a strong, resourceful, self-confident, self-determined woman. But why did she kill herself? After studying her grandmother's journal and assembling other documents and facts about her life, Raab finally concludes that there was a family history of manic-depressive behavior, in her grandmother, her mother, and also in herself. "After arriving at the end of my grandmother's journal," Raab writes, "I understand how a slow accumulation of a history filled with hardships and horror could result in sudden actions, seemingly inexplicable yet somehow logical, such as suicide."

Throughout Regina's Closet, Raab brackets her grandmother's riveting first-hand account with elements of her own: the story of Diana's childhood adoration of her beautiful grandmother, the young Diana's delight in her first job (a banking job, like that of her grandmother), the adult Diana's own depression when she's diagnosed with breast cancer. She also includes important elements of the chaotic events that shaped Regina's childhood and adult life, so that we have an understanding not just of the personal history but of the social and political history of the times.

This is not an elegant book, for Regina's journal entries are neither lyrical nor stylishly embellished. But Regina's plain, bone-dry prose lays bare the horrific details of war in a way that a more self-consciously artful style could not. And for me, it is the duplex story, the counterpointing of grandmother's and granddaughter's narratives, that makes Regina's Closet an interesting read. "The journey has helped me realize," Raab writes, "that those who have survived severe childhood traumas continue to live with the pain until the day they die. It is with this new understanding that I will hold Regina's soul close to my heart."

The book was like new. It arrived in a timely manner. The price was excellent, about half as much as a new book. I will not hesitate to order again. Thank you for such excellent service.

Just buy the book. It may tend to make you want to fall asleep in it for the first chapter but it has great information they most likely dont teach you in school that will be on your boards.

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 an amazing accomplishment in a college level textbook. I am in love with this book! It integrates Eastern and Western styles beautifully. A beautiful labor of love. This book is also on the recommended study list by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Body Work. Not many books made that cut. To get started all you need in addition to this book is a great anatomy and physiology book like my favorite by Tortora and Grabowski.

This is a thoroughly user friendly book for the student of massage, and the best general reference book on massage that I've found. The book attempts to cover it all and does a fairly good job. Particularly good is its section on Western Massage Techniques, especially those demonstrated in the video. The chapter and section in the video on trigger points and their release are particularly helpful for athletes.

This is a great book showing strokes and techniques!! Highly recommended for all massage.