The story, the author tells us, is loosely based on tale he heard from a Holocaust survivor he met while working on his previous book while doing research across Europe and at Yad-Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Museum.
This is a two part story, the first one, as the name of the book suggests, is the story of the Nazis trying to control people’s beliefs via literature, punishment and spectacles of burning books symbolizing “wrong” ideology. The second part is the painstaking cataloging of millions of books, returning what can be returned (through notes, plates and other identifying marks).
This is not an uplifting book, but it is a very interesting story and about a young boy, in his formative years living in the Warsaw Ghetto
Yitzhak Goldah survived a Nazi concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, he moved to Savannah, GA to live with his relatives Pearl and Abe Jesler. The Jeslers are part of a vivacious Jewish community in Georgia which has been there since the founding of the state (colony at the time).
I truly enjoyed this book and the linked stories that go along with it.
The Angles of Zin by Clifford Irving was a nice surprise when I read it. The book is well done and well written. The author doesn’t try to tackle on too much, but shows a slice of life and characters who tackle incredibly difficult moral dilemmas.
The strength of the book is the written descriptions of the way immigrants had to live in Paris during World War II and what it took to survive, or even eat once a day. The descriptions of the harsh life of immigrants, especially Jewish immigrants, during that time are heartbreaking and show how easily a boy could turn assassin.
About: Escape from Sobibor by Richard Rashke is a non-fiction book which details the biggest escape from a Nazi concentration camp in Poland during World War II. The book was first published in 1982 and won acclaim world wide. 416 pages Publisher: […]
Bernie Karp, a 15 year old couch potato, son to a successful businessman in Memphis, TN accidentally stumbles upon a froze rabbi in the basement’s freezer. When asked, Bernie’s father explains that: “. “Some people got taxidermied pets in the attic, we got a frozen rabbi in the basement. It’s a family tradition.”
Mr. Harding wrote a strong, thought provoking, fascinating book which, most important of all, is a family heirloom and an homage to a relative who has passed away. I found the book to be well researched, an easy read and a window into a time where the ideal of right and wrong was clearly defined.