Book Review: Benghazi-Bergen-Belsen: The Lost Story of the Holocaust of North African Jews by Yossi Sucary

About:

Benghazi-Bergen-Belsen: The Lost Story of the Holocaust of North African Jews (בנגאזי–ברגן־בלזן ) by Yossi Sucary (יוסי סוכרי ) tells of the plight of North African Jews during World War II. Mr. Sucari is an award-winning Israeli author and educator.

• 304 pages
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Am Oved Books
  
• Language ‏ : ‎ Hebrew
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 965132418X

My rat­ing for Benghazi-Bergen-Belsen — 4
Buy Benghazi-Bergen-Belsen from Amazon.com in (English or Hebrew)*
More Books by Yossi Sucary *

Thoughts:

I have never read about the plight of North African Jews during the Holocaust, so I was looking forward to reading this book and learning a bit about it. The first part, which takes place in Benghazi is very interesting as it tells of the way the lives of prominent, successful Libyan citizens changed overnight.

The Italians manage to convince the Germans of the importance of Jews to the local economy, and many get back to their lives, shrouded in a cloud of fear. As the war continues, the Jews are taken from their homes to Tripoli, Italy, and end up in Bergen-Belsen in Germany. On the way, Silvana, the protagonist, takes over as the head of the family since her father can no longer cope.

The descriptions in Benghazi-Bergen-Belsen by Yossi Sucary are well done. Both the journey as well as the time in the concentration camp are horrific. The narrative weaves sentences in German, Italian, and Arabic which adds authenticity to the story, but certainly slows down the reading. Each one, however, is translated with a footnote at the bottom of the page.

The author put a lot of effort into the writing, attempting to write this horrific story, his efforts, however, did not bear fruit as the flowery language not only did not add anything but actually deterred me from the story. The relationship between Silvana and Rebecca in Bergen-Belsen was very strange, I had no idea where the author was going with it, or what he wanted to convey, except that it certainly was an important part of the story for him.

This is, however, an important story that is both interesting and complex. The characters are flushed out, complex, and realistic enough that I actually believed they existed and forgot, for a few moments, that this was a historical novel.

Synopsis:

Silvana Haggiag is a beautiful twenty-year-old Jewess living in Benghazi, Libya.  When the Nazis take over the country, the family’s life is about to dramatically change.

Silvana and her community travel through the Sahara Desert to Germany, where they are placed in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Every day is a fight for survival, navigation through horrors, foreign language, and random cruelty.

Buy Benghazi-Bergen-Belsen from Amazon.com in (English or Hebrew)*
More Books by Yossi Sucary *

Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I bought this book.
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books