Reviews (145)

Deeply compelling
This book was greatly written and very emotional. It was recommended to me by a former American History teacher and I was grateful.

A thousand years
Livia Bitton-Jackson's I Have Lived a Thousand Years is her story of life during WWII and the holocaust. Livia, known as Elli, was 13 years old when her family was forced out of their home and sent to Auschwitz. Her brother and father were sent to the male side of the camp, and Livia and her mother were sent to the female side. Because Livia was 13 years old, and still a child, she would have been sent to the gas chambers. But an officer took a liking to Elli's blonde hair, told her to lie and say she was 16, and led her to the path towards the camp, and away from the gas chambers.
Great Book - Ruth Williams
I have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson is a disturbingly honest memoir of a thirteen year old Jewish girl living in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. The experience of living in the death camp Auschwitz is graphically shocking and distressing, but also miraculous because she actually survives. The story is told in the voice of Elli, in a direct present tense and, although a bit simple, the words and thoughts do seem to come from the mouth of a teenage girl.
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography - General    2. Biography & Autobiography - Historical    3. Children's 12-Up - Biography / Autobiography    4. Children's Books/Young Adult Biography    5. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    6. History - Holocaust    7. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    8. Hungary    9. Jews    10. Juvenile Nonfiction    11. Juvenile literature    12. Persecutions    13. Personal narratives    14. Biography: general    15. Juvenile Fiction / Historical / Holocaust    16. The Holocaust    17. World history: Second World War   

Reviews (3)

well-crafted tribute
Australian philosopher Peter Singer, now a professor of bioethics at Princeton University, has written a thoughtful, well-researched portrait of his grandfather, David Oppenheim, who perished in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943. "We all know that six million Jews died," writes Singer in the Prologue, "but that is a mind-numbing statistic. I have a chance to portray one of them as an individual." The Missing Element
An excellent and important story that needs to be told over and over again.But for those of us who use non-fiction books such as this for research as well, this book lacks a crucial element--an index.I could not recommend this book to someone researching information on the Holocaust because there is no way for someone to retrieve important information without laboriously searching page by page through the book.When will publishers learn what researchers and librarians know, a non-fiction book without an index is not complete?

Compelling and moving memoir
This is a compelling and frequently moving account of the author's grandparents' lives from the turn of the century in Vienna to the middle years of the twentieth century. The grandparents, David and Amalie Oppenheim, had both the good and bad fortune to live through some of the most interesting and tragic times of the last century. As young, educated, middle-class Jews living in Vienna at the beginning of the twentieth century, they experienced the last days of the Hapsburg empire, the intellectual currents of the time and place (including being part of Freud's circle), the first world war, the depression, anti-semitism, Nazism and the Holocaust, as well as the great intellectual achievements of Austro-German culture.Read more

Subjects:  1. (David Ernst),    2. 1881-1943    3. Austria    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. Historical - General    9. Historical - Holocaust    10. Holocaust    11. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    12. Jews    13. Oppenheim, D. E    14. Psychoanalysts    15. Social Scientists & Psychologists    16. Vienna    17. Biography & Autobiography / General   

Reviews (21)

What?!?
OK, 72 pages of cliff notes for a 144 page book?That is absurd!Night is a classic work, filled with vivid metaphor and intensely emotional characters.You could get a third of the way through it in the time it would take to BUY the cliff notes.

Aced the exam
Glad I didn't have to read the book. I hate having to think. I mean, on the topic of "night", imagine looking at the stars and having to imagine all those shapes for yourself? But then you can just get a book of the constellations and all the dots are connected. That's good. But who cares anyway? I'd rather stay inside. And the same with books. But then you have to pass your courses. So this was worth the money.
OY!
Forget this Cliff Notes crap! Just read Night. It's a great book and it won't even take you long to read. I wish I could give this Cliff Note book zero stars. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Book Notes    2. Cliff's/ Monarch / Barron's Book Notes    3. France    4. General    5. Holocaust    6. Holocaust, 1933-1945 in literature    7. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature    8. Judaism and literature    9. Study Aids    10. Study Guides    11. Fiction    12. Literary Criticism & Collections / Jewish    13. Study guides, home study & revision notes   

Reviews (7)

An Important and Entertaining Memoir
The Reawakening opens in January 1945, when author Primo Levi is released from a Nazi concnetration camp by Russian troops.His health almost ruined, suffering from unbearable knowledge of the crimes committed in the camps,Levi re-enters the world to find that it has been turned upside down by the war.Improbably - he explains in an afterword that it is not in his nature to hate - he finds in himself a capacity to see the world afresh, almost as a child would. A Great Work
This is just one of the many brilliant writings of Primo Levi but it tells a tale of Holocaust survival that is often overlooked. Most narratives seem to end at liberation and this one gives us a detailed view of what happened afterwards. This is the book that the movie "The Truce" (which is also the title of this book in Italy)is loosely based on. I don't think the movie did the book justice at all and so I would especially recommend this book to anyone that has seen the movie. Like all of Levi's works it is written in a sparse yet fantastic style and it really is a great follow up to "Survival In Auschwitz".

Carnival World
Like Survival in Auschwitz and The Periodic Table, The Reawakening is populated with Levi's brilliant language and fascination with character.In Survival, Table and Reawakening, Levi is careful not to force facts into a satisfyingly explanatory story.The Reawakening is a picaresque without the moral center.Levi travels home through a carnival world, a Europe simultaneously stunned and ecstatic, a landscape of displaced characters, Greek villagers in Polish refugee camps, complicit Germans sitting down to the first course of horrific recent history and guilt, cadaverous lager inmates staggering into a world forever altered.It is a world populated with impresarios, rakes, opportunists, suicides, daredevils and rubes.But, more than anything else, The Reawakening is brimming with life; Levi makes his way home eyes forward.Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Artists, Architects, Photographers    3. Authors, Italian    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. History - General History    8. Holocaust    9. Holocaust survivors    10. Italy    11. Jews    12. Judaism - General    13. Levi, Primo    14. Biography: general    15. Religion / Judaism / General   

Reviews (6)

Excellent revision of the Eichmann story
The problem with all books dealing with evil people is that they begin with the assumption of exceptionalism: that the mass murderer is an exception. The 20th Century, if not all recorded history, should have taught us that this is not so. The Mongols Ghengis Khan led in their slaughters were no more inherently evil than Eichmann or the Soviet executioner who won an award for shooting several thousand people in a few days.
Excellent balanced review of a 'genocidaire'
Studying the motivations of those who actively participated in the Holocaust and trying to understand them is no easy task.There have been many attempts to do so ranging from a simplistic 'they must have been monsters' view to 'they were victims of their circumstances'.But neither captures the true complexity of interacting causes of any one person's behaviour nor the slippery-slope aspect of increasing brutalisation through participation.Sadly for humanity's peace of mind, there is probably no simple explanation for why anyone actively participates in genocide - if there were we should have been able to prevent its regular reccurence since 1945.However, David Cesarani goes a long way to reaching the most balanced view I've yet read to date.
It's mainly an attack on Hannah Arendt
David Cesarini, a British historian, has given us 368 detailed pages of Eichmanniana in "Becoming Eichmann: Camridge, Mass. 2006, DaCapo Press). Every little detail of his life, his escape to Argentina, his kidnapping by the Mossad, and his trial are here, complete with copious footnotes and a full bibliography.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Germany    4. Historical - General    5. History    6. Holocaust    7. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    8. Military    9. Military - World War II    10. Nazis    11. Biography: historical    12. European history: Second World War   

Reviews (18)

We Are Witnesses
I am not a big fan of non-fiction history books. I find them hard to concentrate on because there are so many facts that they become overwhelming. But We Are Witnesses is a non-fiction history book that I liked. First, I liked it because it was set during WWII, which is something I am interested in. Secondly, this book is about five teenagers, which I can relate to because I am in the same age group. Each of their diaries was found. They all were Jewish, they all died.
Keeping history alive!
This set of stories helps keep history alive for teenagers that have no concept of the depth horror that intolerance can achieve. All teens should read it!

Ok I guess
This book was OK. I had to read it for school but I agree that it had way too many narrations in it and the only thing that captured the teens' feelings and thoughts were the scant entries from their diaries. This book didn't move me at all. If the author had put more of the kids' entries in it, it might be more effective. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography - Historical    3. Children    4. Children's 12-Up - Biography / Autobiography    5. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    6. Europe, Eastern    7. History - Holocaust    8. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    9. Jewish teenagers    10. Juvenile Nonfiction    11. Juvenile literature    12. Personal narratives    13. World War, 1939-1945    14. Biography: general    15. Germany    16. Juvenile Nonfiction / History / General    17. The Holocaust   

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Antisemitism    3. Europe - General    4. Germany    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: World    8. Holocaust    9. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    10. Jews    11. Military - World War II    12. Modern - 20th Century    13. Persecutions    14. Sources    15. Europe    16. History / Modern / 20th Century    17. Jewish studies    18. Second World War, 1939-1945    19. The Holocaust   

Reviews (1)

Memory as monuments
After having read this book for my historical anthropology class, I was completely taken by its broad-based approach to analyzing monuments and the histories they possess.To fully appreciate this book, the difference between 'history' and 'the past' must be understood.'The past' is everything that has already happened.As soon as a second passes, the past has been constructed simulatenously the world over.History, on the other hand, is how people, cultures, governments, etc. choose to present sections of the past.History is a section of the past that is magnified and often made to represent the entire past despite its fragmented recounting.Young does an excellent job of showing how four different countries recall the same events (the holocaust, the Warsaw ghetto uprising, among others) with different and unique results, demonstrating how 'history' differs from 'the past'; each history is a different retelling of a country's perception of 'the past'.He analyzes these methods of remembrance through monuments and the outcome is an excellent analysis of how memory is constructed and interpreted and how personal experience shapes and influences one's perspective on the past, thus influencing their perception of history.The book is well written with many pictures and historical tidbits to place monuments in their proper context (although, after reading the book, you come to realize that monuments have no true proper context).I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the holocaust, theory of history, art history, or cultural studies.Excellent book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Architecture    2. General    3. Holocaust    4. Military - World War II    5. Religion    6. Europe    7. European history: Second World War    8. History / Military / World War II    9. Israel    10. Jewish studies    11. Museums & Museology    12. The Holocaust    13. USA   

Reviews (15)

Intriguing Look At The Meaning of The Nuremberg Trials
As a person who has read a number of books relating to tghis subject, nothing so defines the striking differences between the nature of the Third Reich from the constitutional democracies that largely comprised the Allies as the way in which the defendants of the trials at Nuremberg were handled. With painstaking precision and at extraordinary cost in terms of international arm-twisting and back-door deals, the proponents of a judicial proceeding designed to illustrate the manifest individual guilt of the various Nazi officials forged a result that still stands today as a model of a non-retributive effort in the face of extraordinary pressure. While one can hardly describe the Nuremberg trials as unflawed or perfect, they did prove to the world that the Allies were willing to subscribe to the existing canon of law to judge the actions of the Nazis. Monsters of the Dritte Reich, or just a mirror?
Ever have the urge to get into the mind of a monster just to see how he thinks? Sound like another serial killer book? Well, in a sense, Nuremberg Diary is that, but it is so much more as well. A Chilling Look at Evil and Justice
'Nuremberg Diary' is Gustav Gilbert's narrative of the time he spent with the defendants of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial after WWII. As the prison psychiatrist, Gilbert was given access to all the prisoners and the resulting conversations form the basis of this book. From the unrepentant, pompus bravado of Hermann Goering to the disgusting anti-semitism of Julius Streicher to the absent minded Joachim von Ribbentrop to the humbled Albert Speer, this work proves a keen insight into the men who at one time controlled an empire, but who now faced the world's final justice. Thought-provoking, chilling, and at times even moving, Gilbert's 'Nuremberg Diary' will stand forever as an important witness against Nazi barbarism. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1911-    2. Diaries    3. Germany    4. Gilbert, G. M.,    5. History - General History    6. History: World    7. International    8. Military - World War II    9. Nuremberg War Crime Trials, Nu    10. Nuremberg War Crime Trials, Nuremberg, Germany, 1946-1949    11. Prison psychologists    12. Psychology    13. United States    14. War criminals    15. Biography: general    16. International humanitarian law    17. The Holocaust   

Editorial Review

As the old saying goes, hindsight is always 20-20; people looking back on the Holocaust and the events leading up to it often wonder why the Jews didn't flee Nazi Germany or why they put up with the prejudice and degradation inflicted upon them by the Nazis. From our perspective, 50 years later, it seems almost incredible that the victims of genocide didn't see it coming and made little effort to escape. But as Marion Kaplan makes clear in her powerful book, Read more

Reviews (5)

"Social Death"
Marion Kaplan's, Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) is an in-depth study into the lives of Jewish people in Nazi Germany beginning with the takeover by Adolf Hitler in 1933. She concludes that not only were the physical lives of the Jewish people tormented and taken from them, the pervasiveness of the German government into everyday life led to emotional and physiological death of the Jews. Accurate Portrayal of the results of hatred
Missing in many Holocaust works are the experiences of common German Jews and what daily life for them became like after Hitler's rise to power in the early 1930s. One can read about the Nuremberg Laws or the November Pogrom but one can't get a real feel for how those laws impacted daily life except through memoirs and the testimony of common people. Marion Kaplan's book wonderfully fills the gap between history from the "top down" and history from the "bottom up."

Subjects:  1. 1939-1945    2. Germany    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: American    6. Holocaust    7. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    8. Jewish - General    9. Jews    10. Social conditions    11. European history: Second World War    12. History / Holocaust    13. History of specific racial & ethnic groups    14. History, World | European | Germany    15. Jewish studies   

Reviews (7)

One of the most important books written about the Holocaust
This work is still considered by many to be one of the best books written about the 'Holocaust.' It goes into great detail explaining the roots of the Nazi, and specifically Hitler's determination to destroy the Jewish people. It shows how the program to destroy the Jews went hand-in- hand with the Third Reich''s overall effort to conquer Europe.
Important History
Hitler. The very name seems to invoke black and white images of a charasmatic madman pushing his country to global domination. But the story goes much deeper than that. His intense hatred of the Jews pushed him to implement his "Final Solution". To exploit and then kill every Jew in Europe before they, in his twisted mind, did the same to every one else. The Holocaust book by which others are measured
Although an ocean of material has been written about the Holocaust, this book stands alone.The author has chosen the best way to present the material; by simple factual recitation.No amount of pejoratives would suffice, and even one would cheapen the book. Salut!!!!!!!!Read more

Subjects:  1. Antisemitism    2. Germany    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Holocaust    7. Holocaust, Jewish (1933-1945)    8. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    9. Jewish - General    10. Military - World War II    11. History / Holocaust   

Subjects:  1. 1933-1945    2. Chronology    3. Germany    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History: World    7. Holocaust    8. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    9. Jewish Holocaust    10. Jews    11. United States - 20th Century    12. World War, 1939-1945    13. History / United States / 20th Century   

Reviews (3)

an important book on the study of gender and the Holocaust
This book is an excellent contribution to the study of women and the Holocaust.Many books concentrate primarily on men and the Holocaust.This book provides various perspectives and is a valuable book for scholars and students of the Holocaust.

EXCELLENT RESOURCE
I used this book when I was writing the memoir RENA'S PROMISE: A STORY OF SISTERS IN AUSCHWITZ, which is the story of a woman on the first transport of women into Auschwitz.Aside from the Auschwitz Chronicles, this was the only text I could find that spoke of this transport, which was also the very first transport into Auschwitz. crucial for feminist studies, the holocaust, minority lit.
This anthology is fascinating, moving, sad, horrifying and inspiring.It revises our notion of what Holocaust literature is, and shows us how very differently women experienced and wrote about it.The book's secondsection contains excellent essays about women and the Holocaust.In short,a must for feminist readers and anyone interested in Holocaust studies,genocide studies, and the literature of witness. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. General    4. History - General History    5. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    6. Jewish women in the Holocaust    7. Literary collections    8. Personal narratives    9. Europe    10. European history: Second World War    11. The Holocaust    12. Women's studies   

Editorial Review

The long-awaited memoirs of Wiesel, winner of the 1986 Nobel PeacePrize, tell the story of his happy childhood in the Carpathian Mountains, his subsequent years of hell in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and his post-warlife in France, where he discovered his voice as a writer.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

The Hoaxer strikes again
Once again Wiesel completes another masterly, tear-jerking hoax.
disagree with "mediocre" label
I found this a very compelling read, lasting over several readings. It's true the author did not stick tightly to chronological order, but anyone who has read his fiction knows his style tends to be very esoteric and rather free-floating (I personally do not care for his fiction, which I admit I do find to go over my head). However, as a reader, I certainly got a feel for emotions he felt throughout different experiences in his life. I found the last scene describing his emotions before and during his wedding to be really profound. It's true that there is a lot of Jewish content in this book, which may cause some of his analogies etc. to be less accessible to someone from a different background. However, for someone who wants to read a first-hand Holocaust experience without very strong graphic details, I do recommend it. (As a side note, just last week I actually attended a speech by Mr. Wiesel, and he is really a personable, funny, self-effacing and sweet man, not the really sad and somber person you might expect from his writings. I was surprised by this, pleasantly so!)

My own small word
I would strongly recommend that all readers on Amazon read the review whose title caption is ' Remember'. It is far more extensive and far better than the small remarks I am about to post.
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Subjects:  1. 1928-    2. 20th century    3. Authors, French    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. Ethnic Cultures - General    9. General    10. Historical - Holocaust    11. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    12. Jewish authors    13. Literary    14. Personal narratives    15. Wiesel, Elie,    16. Biography & Autobiography / Medical    17. Biography: general    18. The Holocaust    19. Wiesel, Elie   

Editorial Review

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Subjects:  1. Art    2. Europe - Germany    3. General    4. History - General History    5. Holocaust    6. Jewish - General    7. Germany    8. History / Holocaust    9. History of art & design styles: from c 1900 -    10. Iconography, subjects depicted in art    11. Memorials, monuments    12. The Holocaust   

Reviews (6)

out of the frying pan into the fire
Rebeccasreads highly recommends IZZY'S FIRE as a compelling account of how a Lithuanian Jewish couple & their son survived the Nazi occupation, & hide for 3 years in a Catholic farmer's root cellar. & then surviving the Communist "liberation" of their homeland.
The triumphant true story of a holocaust survivor and members of her family
Izzy's Fire: Finding Humanity In The Holocaust is the triumphant true story of a holocaust survivor and members of her family escaped the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania, survived trials and successfully hid until the war's end in a hiding places granted them by a Catholic farmer. She, her husband, and other refugees dug a hole between two potato cellars, and with the unselfish aid of that selfless, risk taking Catholic family, miraculously survived the Holocaust. Afterward she and her husband emigrated to America and encountered a joyful reunion decades later. Izzy's Fire gives voice to those who survived the Holocaust in hiding, and is a welcome addition to Holocaust studies shelves.
Required reading for all high school students.
There are many people today that feel "entitled" due to race, relegion or the condition of the home in which they were born. This is a story about a family who's life was turned upside down by war; who lived in barns, potato holes and lived in fear of being murdered as was the fate of many of their family members. Through perserverance and a strong faith in God, they were able to get to America and lived the "american story" of pulling themselves up from poverty to owning a successful business. All young people need to read this story. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. General    4. History    5. History: World    6. Holocaust    7. Holocaust survivors    8. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    9. Ipson family    10. Jewish - General    11. Jewish Studies    12. Jews    13. Kaunas    14. Lithuania    15. Personal narratives    16. Richmond    17. Virginia    18. World - General