Editorial Review

Daniel Mendelsohn's Read more

Reviews (8)

A Letter To My Children
I am about to be 60 and am reading a book that fills me with regret, THE LOST, by Daniel Mendelsohn, the story of how he tracked down the final days of his grandfather's brother and that man's four beautiful daughters. I have finished the first fifth of the book and am convinced that it is the greatest literary work that I have read since my youthful exposure to Proust and the early novels of Saul Bellow. Mendelsohn combines a personal memoir of growing up in a "modern" Jewish family in America with historical detective work based on old photographs, recovered letters, interviews, trips, internet sites devoted to the little towns of Eastern Europe and Jewish genealogy, and couches it in the most beautiful and evocative and thoughtful sentences, often based on the style of Proust (to whom he has given the opening epigraph of the book), organizing his discussion around an analysis of the first book of the Torah (even mentioning my Haftorah passage, Lech lecha) and Homer's Iliad. He brings to life long lost people, places, philosophical issues, with drama and mystery. He has assembled a complete genealogy of his family and has testified to the power of memory, language (Yiddish, Hebrew, German), family love, pride and humor. He is unfailingly generous in his descriptions and conclusions. The book is illustrated with photographs taken by his younger brother. The parallels with our own family history, our life in New York and in Florida, the impact of parents on the intellectual growth of their children, the impact of religious stories and scholarship, the diaspora to America and Israel, are incredibly resonant and moving, and all this in the first 70 pages. I am writing to urge each of you to read this great book and learn how you came to be, how your own grandfather and I came to be, the people that we are. I am sorry that I never accomplished a similar work on the history of our own family. I can only hope that one or all of you will take on this important task and assemble a similarly amazing chronicle before the people who can help you are gone, the Magdas and Pop Pops, the grandma Lillys and "Uncles" from all the remaining branches of our living candelabra. On page 41 he lists the major sources by which he accomplished the feat and by which you, like Proust, can recapture the past and recapture Time.I will never have the time to do it, my life wrapped up in other kinds of scholarly pursuits and my nature so bent to the seductions of poetry. But you have a chance to do it, to accomplish something of great value for yourselves and for others. In the meantime you will have the consolation of reading sentences sculpted by a master and it will fill your hearts with unimaginable pleasure.
Wide-Ranging Journey, Brilliant Synthesis
Mendelsohn has brought together the disparate elements of his five year worldwide search for the fate of six family members in the Holocaust in a masterful act of synthesis and distillation. This book combines a detective's doggedness, a Biblical scholar's critical exegesis and a Yiddishist's love of an Eastern European shtetl whose remaining Jewish inhabitants are scattered over the globe, a "remainder of those who fled". That Mendelsohn pulls this off, combines his disparate goals into a moment of Biblical clarity and discovery, leaves me frankly, amazed. Because close to the end of the book, I had doubted he would be able to learn anything that could be counted on, and he would be forced to resort to a book about his search rather than real conclusions. But at that penultimate moment, Daniel found an ancient survivor who brought him to the very spot, the terrible moment, he had been searching for. The author obviously has a wonderful rapport with elderly people which made his many interviews possible. He is meticulous and brings order to a mass of material. An insistent humanity pervades his writing. While not a Biblical scholar himself, he has perception, essential insight into human nature, so his Biblical research finds fertile ground. While his realization that many people will present many different versions of the same story is not exactly news, the manner of his telling of the story beguiles and ultimately, inspires.

I couldn't put it down
An amazing journey into the past of Daniel Mendelsohn's perished family members - the family of Shmiel Jager, Mr. Mendelsohn's great-uncle.Mr. Jager's siblings (one of whom is Daniel's grandfather), fled Poland before the Holocaust and had no clear idea of how Shmiel's family died, only that they did die. All that they have are tiny, often conflicting, pieces of the story about what happend to the Shmiel Jagers. Daniel begins a 5+ year journey to talk to the few Jewish survivors who lived in the same small Polish town in which the Jagers lived and died. The survivors were now living all over the world, and Daniel travels extensively to meet and interview them, to try to find out, not only how the Jagers died, but how they *lived* and who they were. As the years continue in the search, you feel Daniel's angst at having so little time to track down and speak to the few survivors from that town. They are all in their 80s and 90s and some of them would prefer to not think about that time at all. And yet, an amazing story emerges, a story of strength and sorrow. A story of wanting to know "what happened?". ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anecdotes    2. Biography    3. Bolekhiv    4. General    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: World    8. Holocaust    9. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    10. Jewish Holocaust Personal Narratives    11. Jews    12. Personal Memoirs    13. Ukraine    14. United States    15. History / General   

Editorial Review

In Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's memoir Read more

Reviews (461)

A powerful read !! A personal saga of survival against all odds
Elie Wiesel's book, "Night" was one of the first books I had read on the Holocaust when I was in high school back in the mid 1970s. His painful and searing account of the unspeakable horror, known as the Holocaust is the single most defining event of the 20th century.
Never again
'Night' is the heart-wrenching true story of a young Jewish boy who is rounded up by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz. The young boy is none other than the author, Eliezer Wiesel. He recounts his horrific experiences as an inmate of the Nazi concentration camp system and his struggle for survival. Amid the death and desperation, young Elie struggles only to remain near his father, without which, he would have no will to live. 'Night' is also a story about lost faith, as the once devout, young Elie defiantly rebukes the God that did nothing to stop these indescribable horrors. I found myself thinking that I would have never submitted to this inhuman treatment. That I would have preferred to die on my feet than to live on my knees, and would have somehow fought back. But this is all too easy to say in hindsight, from the comfort of my warm, safe home. I put this book down with a heavy heart. I was angered and saddened, and I can honestly say that this is one of the most moving books that I have ever read.

storm of storms
Though the word 'Holocaust' has become the most common cipher for one of mankind's greatest crimes, many Jews and other rememberers of 1939-1945 object to the borrowing of this biblical term to name Hitler's mass murder.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography & Autobiography - Historical    4. Historical - Holocaust    5. Holocaust    6. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    7. Personal narratives   

Reviews (8)

Fake memoir
This story was probably constructed from a number of real memoirs, other sources like films, and Jung's and the author's imagination.Helmut Jung may have been a soldier on the Eastern Front but what he claims to have seen there owes more to imagination - perhaps the author's - than reality.Units composed of seven foot Mongols? (p. 297).Really. In the fifty or so books I have read about the German-Russian war nobody else noticed such units. In the same chapter, a description of the capture of a group of female Russian soldiers appears to have been lifted from the film version of 'Cross of Iron'.There are numerous other elements traceable to other sources throughout ths ridiculous book. Avoid wasting money on this 'memoir'.You will learn nothing about the real experience of combatants on the Eastern Front that you haven't already read elsewhere.

A Work of Fiction
I agree with some of the other reviewers that this is most likely a work of fiction.There is no real information given about the supposed author, Helmut Jung, other than his "incredible" wartime exploits. There are too many mistakes in the book about Jung's training and service to believe this is anything more than a piece of fiction put together by the American writer...it doesn't read or feel right.Save your money and buy "Black Edelweiss" for a real biography of a German soldier.

The Jekyll and Hyde of german wwii memoirs
First of all, this book is 464 pages long, apart from a small paragraph about Mr. Jung at the end there is nothing else, you get what you pay for, 464 pages of reading material. There are also no photos. Now, this memoir is a rollercoaster of emotions, paradoxes, anomalities, irregularities and some simply senseless and hard to believe asseverations by Mr. Jung and the author, who should have at least researched a little bit more, edited a bit better and should have gotten himself a good grammar dictionary, unless that is, he chose to leave the book as it is to keep the element of reality present. At times Mr. Jung sounds so real and truthful you can't help but pity him at others you could swear he is a jew posing as a german soldier. Now I don't blame Mr. Jung for his mental lapses (most people don't remember what they did 2 weeks ago) so after so many years one can understand his memory lapses. However mistaking the 6th army for the 10th at Stalingrad is preposterous to say the least. His asseveration that the SS went around shooting wounded german soldiers from penal batallions is simply hard to believe. During the actions of our Blue division in Russia we had a squad of men assigned to follow up behind the main body of troops checking the russian dead behind us and making sure they stayed very dead, for these vermin were treacherous and they would fake death in order to shoot us in the back. The Waffen SS had a similar way of dealing with russians (read Blood Red Snow). Also we were forbidden from building fires at night no matter how cold it might be (this was a sure way to have snipers pick everyone off one by one, have our positions identified by artillery spotters), yet he claims they would build this huge fires and huddle around at night! The war in the east was a metaphysical encounter of extreme ideoligies, the far right on our side and the far left on theirs. We alone had the sole opportunity of stoppping the spread of communism within our grasp and were betrayed by the very western civilization we sought to safeguard and preserve for the new generations. One look at the map of Europe after wwii will tell you who really won and for what purpose the western powers really fought and shed so much young blood. Mr. Jung was as caught up in this hell as the rest of us were and like us he did what he had to do to survive, however a man should have convictions and a sense of belonging to his nation and while he did his share, he did it for himself... we did it for our people, our nation and for western civilization. To those of you who might find this offensive I remind you of the words Julius Streicher spoke to the hangman at Nuremberg in 1946, "someday the russians will do this very same thing to all of you". Time proved him right.
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Subjects:  1. 1926-    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Campaigns    6. Eastern Front    7. Europe - Germany    8. Germany    9. Heer    10. Historical - General    11. Jung, Helmut,    12. Military    13. Military - World War II    14. Panzer-Division, 7    15. Personal narratives, German    16. World War, 1939-1945    17. Biography: general    18. European history (ie other than Britain & Ireland)   

Reviews (4)

They ain't Heavy!
A compelling view of German history told from a personal perspective.A valuable lesson reinforced, for me, was the connection from one generation to the next.Some will read this book and see five Germanys, others will see one universal truth: "Power does not concede, without a demand."
A Unique View of German History
Fritz Stern, emeritus professor of European history at Columbia, has produced quite a distinctive book on German history: it is at once an autobiography as well as an examination of Germany during its five most recent identities: Wilhelmine; Weimar; Third Reich; Divided Germany; and finally unified Germany.This dual focus serves Stern rather well--since he was born in 1926, forced to flee Silesia (now part of Poland) for the United States in 1936, and has had extensive involvement with Germany and things German since at least the early 1950's, his personal perspective and activities are quite valuable. Particularly his discussion of the German Democratic Republic (aka East Germany) is full of insights, as is the book's discussion of the Federal Republic (West Germany) and the reunification process.I found it helpful to have a copy of Stern's "Dreams and Delusions: The Drama of German History", a collection of his essays, handy for reference. At over 500 pages, this is a long book, which has a large cast of characters (such as Haber, Kohl, Schmidt, and a whole slew of academics, diplomats, journalists, and others) about whom Stern offers some perceptive insights.To be sure, Stern on Stern sometimes resembles one of those Christmas letters, but after all it is his life he is recounting.An unusual way to learn a good deal about Germany from one who has sought over the last 50 years or so to explain it to the rest of us.

The historian as celebrity
Occasionally an historian becomes famous -- usually posthumously.There are Thucydides, Herodotus, Edward Gibbon, a couple of American historians ending recently perhaps with Arthur Schlesinger.But for the most part historians are archival and campus moles who influence people in small and indirect ways.Here a Columbia historian, Fritz Stern, because of his trans-atlantic life, his brilliant insight into the mind and heart of the Germans who forced his emigration in the Third Reich, his ability to connect sympathetically with many people of influence and enlightenment --here is a man who is an historian and truly an intellectual celebrity.He has lived through a flight from the Nazis, campus upheaval over the Vietnam War, the reunification of a Germany unable to define itself or its history, and the probable end of American hegemony in the world.He has taken all this in and written about it with brilliance and insight.He is the model of an historian of European and world history on the American scene.
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Subjects:  1. 1926-    2. 20th century    3. Europe - Germany    4. Germany    5. Germany - History    6. Historians    7. History    8. History - General History    9. History: World    10. Modern - 20th Century    11. Stern, Fritz Richard,    12. History / Germany   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (252)

One of the best you will ever read
This is an easy to read book, which managed to make profound points about life, pain, and fate.I enjoyed reading the first part of the book and learning about what it was like to be in such a hellish place (a concentration camp), and yet still being able to be positive about life.What more can I say than its an excellent book?

I learned: All the Auschwitz survivors, including the author, had something significant yet to do with their lives!
MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING
fascinating!
this is simply a must read for those interested in the human experience.Some of the positions concluded in this book may not be the only way to think on the issues involved, but still, this book is a great psychological workout with deep insights. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Austria    2. Biography    3. General    4. Holocaust    5. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    6. Personal narratives    7. Psychological aspects    8. Psychologists    9. Psychology    10. Psychology of Religion    11. Philosophy    12. Philosophy / General    13. Psychoanalysis & psychoanalytical theory   

Reviews (1)

An interesting thesis
Clark has wriiten an interesting book about the history of Prussia in which he argues that Prussia has been misunderstood as a reactionary militaristic state when in reality it was the most progressive of the German states. Throughout the eighteenth century the Prussian government would protect small farmers from abusive aristocratic landowners and also educate the Prussian peasantry. This legacy of reforms would continue throughout the nineteenth century with a nationalized health insurance program and a state pension system. Moreover the Prussian state was tolerant to various ethnic groups such as Poles and Jews since there was no such thing as Prussian identity because Prussia included Catholics from the Rhineland and Protestant Poles in East Prussia. Clark contends that the Prussian idea of an enlightened cosomopolitan Prussian state dissapated after the German wars of Unification and the nationalist idea that stressed a racial notion of the nation took over. In the closing chapters of the book Clark seems to blame Nazism on the southern Germans and the Austrians since they formed most of the Nazi leadership and the fact that Prussiawas the last German state to keep a democratic majority of mainly the SPD until the collaspse of the Weimer Republic. The only weakness of Clark's book is that he seems to ignore the fact that the origins of German nationalism originated in the writings of Herder and Hamman, who were both Prussians,despised the enlightenment and wanted a nation based on exclusively linguistic ties and not a cosmopolitan Prussian state. Nevertheless this book gives an interesting and new view of German history. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Europe - Germany    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Military - General    6. Prussia (Germany)    7. Western Europe - General    8. History / Germany   

Editorial Review

The angry ranting of an obscure, small-party politician, the first volume of Read more

Reviews (138)

hitlers book
the reason ichose to recomend this book is because i belive it is the only one which tells the truth about nazi germany.its really not "racist propaganda" as the school systems would have you belive but an account of a man who loved his country so much,he tried to perfect it.its basicly just a philosophy book.remember ,hitlers allies in ww2 were a half black man ,mussolini and the japanese leader.so,if you want truth,read this book.if you want a bunch of tree huggin hippie bs,read any other book on the matter.this book was the most widely owned book in the world in its day.if you cant handle the truth,steer clear.if you want the german equivelant ofthomas paines's"common sense",then read it.

A Terrible Beginning Indeed
This is a very difficult book to read, not only because it is the product of the hateful and ignorant mind of a man that seized control of Germany and plunged the world into one of history's most devastating wars, resulting in the ethnic genocide of millions of Jews, Slavs, gypsies, homosexuals and others.
Putrid, but Important to Take a Look at
During the Nazi Era, this book was the most un-read bestseller in Europe.Lots of people purchased the volume, but very few took the time to read it.
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Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Dictators    4. Europe - Germany    5. Fascism    6. Germany    7. Germany - History - Third Reich (1933-1945)    8. Historical - General    9. History    10. History & Theory - General    11. History: World    12. National socialism    13. Nationalsozialistische deutsch    14. Political    15. Politics and government    16. Biography & Autobiography / Historical   

Reviews (2)

Enlightens and Entertains
Every once in a long while we delight and surprise ourselves when we pick up a book that enlightens and entertains. It's the pinnacle of excellence reached by but a few non-fiction writers. Miller is one of those writers. His book, the story of the Eighth Air Force, is one of equal parts bravery, terror, and glamour, with some of its men becoming the most celebrated personalities the war. Miller chronicles the heroic feats of Robert Morgan, pilot of the legendary Memphis Belle; of Paul Tibbets, who later would fly the Enola Gay on the A-bomb mission to Hiroshima; of Curtis LeMay, the most celebrated combat leader of the bomber war; and--one of the key figures of the book--of Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal, leader of the Bloody Hundredth, who flew 52 combat missions, was shot down three times, and later became a member of the team of prosecuting attorneys at the Nuremberg Trials.
Disclaimer --Am Still Reading this Book.It's Great!
This is a 521-page account of the Eighth Air Force that I never intended to buy for myself.To me, car repair manuals are usually more interesting than dry WWII books filled with numbers and dates. World War II is truly my father's domain.He has had a 50-year fascination with WWII and could probably teach a college course on the subject.
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Subjects:  1. Aerial operations, American    2. Biography    3. Bomber pilots    4. Campaigns    5. History    6. History - Military / War    7. Military    8. Military - Aviation    9. Military - United States    10. Military - World War II    11. United States    12. Western Front    13. World War, 1939-1945    14. History / Military / World War II   

Reviews (164)

Heart-Warming, Moving Account of the Holocaust
The story of Corrie ten Boom and her family and their work in the Dutch underground during World War II has been around 35 years but this is the first time I've sat down to read this amazing story.I am so glad I did!Built on the premise that love will conquer all, the story shows what relatively normal people can accomplish in extraordinary times.
A Tale Of Love, Courage, And Compassion
In Corrie Ten Boom's book "The Hiding Place", she gives an exciting account of how during the terrifying years of the Holocaust and World War 11 her entire family strove to hide as many Jews as they could from Nazi forces.
A Moving Tale
This is a beautiful, beautiful book. I could read it over and over, and feel touched, inspired, and renewed again. I first tried to read it when I was about twelve years old, but it was two heavy for me. Then I read it a few months ago, and it came alive. This is one book I would definately want to add to my library soon. I love the Ten Boom family - especially Betsy. I am looking forward to meeting them all in heaven someday. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. Historical - Holocaust    4. Personal narratives, Dutch    5. Ravensbruck (Germany : concentration camp)    6. Religious    7. Ten Boom, Corrie    8. Women    9. World War, 1939-1945    10. Biography: general    11. History / Holocaust   

Features

• Box set

Reviews (151)

vgmani
I dont know how to rate this!! The book... I am yet to read! But I received collectorS edition within a collector edition! The book is printed upside down while the cover page is printed straight!

The Life of Vladek
The combination of volume one and volume two of Maus instills emotion, unfelt by any Holocaust story.Spiegelman (hey that's me; so of coarse it's a must read) implements humor, details, and characters that allow for a stunning plot of the life of his father Vladek. The relationship between Mala and Vladek, is humorous and tragic at the same time. I don't want to reveal too much plot, but would like to end writing the animals characterizations of personalities is ingenious.

Excellent Book
I am ordinarily very uninterested in graphic novels. Just seems like a stupid format to me. BUT, this was a great book. It is just the right story and right presentation for someone like me to enjoy. I highly recommend it and will probably give other graphic novels a chance ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Children of Holocaust survivors    6. Comic books, strips, etc    7. General    8. Historical - General    9. Holocaust    10. Holocaust survivors    11. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    12. Poland    13. United States    14. Biography & Autobiography / Literary    15. Biography: general    16. Jewish studies    17. The Holocaust   

Editorial Review

A beloved classic since its initial publication in 1947, this vivid, insightful journal is a fitting memorial to the gifted Jewish teenager who died at Bergen-Belsen, Germany, in 1945. Born in 1929, Anne Frank received a blank diary on her 13th birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Her marvelously detailed, engagingly personal entries chronicle 25 trying months of claustrophobic, quarrelsome intimacy with her parents, sister, a second family, and a middle-aged dentist who has little tolerance for Anne's vivacity. The diary's universal appeal stems from its riveting blend of the grubby particulars of life during wartime (scant, bad food; shabby, outgrown clothes that can't be replaced; constant fear of discovery) and candid discussion of emotions familiar to every adolescent (everyone criticizes me, no one sees my real nature, when will I be loved?). Yet Frank was no ordinary teen: the later entries reveal a sense of compassion and a spiritual depth remarkable in a girl barely 15. Her death epitomizes the madness of the Holocaust, but for the millions who meet Anne through her diary, it is also a very individual loss. Read more

Reviews (560)

'Anne Frank, better than ever'
'The Diary Of A Young Girl: The Definitive edition' is more or less the un-cut version of the book that was originally published in the late 1940's. it contains approx. 30% more material, and in my opinion makes Anne more relatable than ever, particularly to adolescents.
Diary of Anne Frank
Anne Frank "The Diary of Anne Frank"
Unbelivable story
I have just finished the Diary Of a Young Girl and i have the strong feeling that i was moved back in time, as if it was 1944.
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Historical - General    5. Historical - Holocaust    6. Holocaust    7. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    8. Jews    9. Women    10. World War, 1939-1945    11. History / Holocaust   

Reviews (1)

National-socialism
I always wanted to know what Hitler tells to masses. I have big interest in his speeches, in his style of talking. It is a great book for me because it unclude the most important Adolf's public speeches. I enjoied reading it! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1933-1945    2. Europe - Germany    3. Germany    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Holocaust    7. Politics and government    8. Sources    9. European history: Second World War    10. Fascism & Nazism    11. Second World War, 1939-1945   

Subjects:  1. Ancient - Rome    2. Empire, 284-476    3. Germanic Invasions, 3rd-6th centuries    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History: World    7. Medieval    8. Rome    9. Western Europe - General    10. History / Ancient / Rome    11. History, World | Ancient | Roman   

Reviews (2)

Vive La Marthe
On October 7 and 8, 2006, C-SPAN 2 featured this book and author on Book TV. The author, now in her mid 90s, spoke in impeccable English for about one hour without notes. Because she used the active voice, her adventures were easy to follow. It was a tour de force.
A tale of courage and hope
This is a story of great personal courage in the midst of horrible tragedy. It is the story of Marthe Cohn who was born in the city of Metz, raised in a devout German- speaking Jewish religious household. Circumstances including the loss of her fiance led her to become a fighter in the French Resistance. Courageously she worked behind enemy lines to provide vital intelligence for the Allies.
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Holocaust    5. Political    6. Biography & Autobiography / Political   

Reviews (1)

BOOK REVIEW:`Bad Faith' Reminds Us How Anti-Semitic Many French Were in 1930s, WW II; Catholic Hierarchy Force Behind Jew Hatr
By David M. Kinchen