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Nominated for a 1998 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War is Anita Lobel's gripping memoir of surviving the Holocaust. A Caldecott-winning illustrator of such delightful picture books as OnMarket Street, it is difficult to believe Lobel endured the horrific childhood she did. From age 5 to age 10, Lobel spent what are supposed to be carefree years hiding from the Nazis, protecting her younger brother, being captured and marched from camp to camp, and surviving completely dehumanizing conditions. A terrifying story by any measure, Lobel's memoir is all the more haunting as told from the first-person, child's-eye view. Her girlhood voice tells it like it is, without irony or even complete understanding, but with matter-of-fact honesty and astonishing attention to detail. She carves vivid, enduring images into readers' minds. On hiding in the attic of the ghetto: "We were always told to be very quiet. The whispers of the trapped grown-ups sounded like the noise of insects rubbing their legs together." On being discovered while hiding in a convent: "They lined us up facing the wall. I looked at the dark red bricks in front of me and waited for the shots. When the shouting continued and the shots didn't come, I noticed my breath hanging in thin puffs in the air." On trying not to draw the attention of the Nazis: "I wanted to shrink away. To fold into a small invisible thing that had no detectable smell. No breath. No flesh. No sound."

It is a miracle that Lobel and her brother survived on their own in this world that any adult would find unbearable. Indeed, and appropriately, there are no pretty pictures here, and adults choosing to share this story with younger readers should make themselves readily available for explanations and comforting words. (The camps are full of excrement and death, all faithfully recorded in direct, unsparing language.) But this is a story that must be told, from the shocking beginning when a young girl watches the Nazis march into Krakow, to the final words of Lobel's epilogue: "My life has been good. I want more." (Ages 10 to 16)--Brangien Davis ... Read more

Reviews (27)

A Child's View of the Holocaust
When Anita Lobel wrote this memoir, she did not try to write in a sopisticated "literary" style. She didn't try to "doctor" the events with years of hindsight and thinking. Instead, she wrote "No Pretty Pictures" with the clarity and simplicity and paradoxical depth of a child's mind. Anita's story begins in Krakow, Poland, where she is born into a middle class home and the future looks to be filled with ease, pleasure, and a good education. However, the Nazis change all that. With their invasion of the city and eventually, all of Poland, Anita and her brother must flee. At first they manange to escape to the Polish countryside with their nanny, and when that fails, they go to the ghetto with Anita's mother. But the inevitable finally happens, and Anita and her brother find themselves confronted with the ultimate evil...a concentration camp. "No Pretty Pictures" doesn't end there, and goes even further to chronicle the challenges and differences of the war's aftermath. This book is a valuable addition to a Holocaust collection-memoirs really are the best books written about a subject, and Anita's is wonderful. The thing that makes this one stand out from the others is the way experiences are captured with a child's sense of fear and safety, comfort and pain, and good and evil.

The author's memoir of growing up during World War 2.
This book was very sad, but it is a book that needs to be read. The author, Anita Lobel, was barely five when the Nazis invaded her home in Poland. As a young Jewish girl, she grew up persecuted. As the Nazis created more regulations, Anita and her little brother went into hiding, posing as the children of their Catholic nanny. Yet they were caught and sent to a concentration camp. All the odds were against them, yet the two children - just ten and eight years old - managed to survive three concentrations camps and a forced march. Anita grew up to illustrate children's books. One would never guess she had such a horrifying childhood - until reading this book.

No Pretty Pictures, A child At War By Cassandra
No Pretty Pictures, A Child At War

No Pretty Pictures is about a young girl who has to find her way back to her religion while she tries to understand the meaning of life. She starts out as a normal girl but with one difference. She was a Jew at a wrong time. Her name is Hannah. She has a little brother, a mom, dad, and a nanny. (The nanny is Christian.) Her dad left her and her family when she was five to go and fight in Russia; that is when things go wrong.
People know about the holocaust but few of us have lived through it. Well, this story is about a girl that does. When she was five years old she had to leave to go to a concentration camp. She leaves with her brother, and soon realizes that her life will never be the same. Her mom has papers that say she is a Christian so she doesn't have to go to the camp, but Hannah and her brother don't.
She goes through many hard times, and wonders if she will ever see her parents again. She was in the camps and away from her family for about six years, but she was away from her father the longest. Her father left and was not heard of until six years later when Hannah was in the hospital because she and her brother were diagnosed with tuberculosis. She was put in a hospital for more than three years but she was able to go to a real city. There, she learned the true meaning of life with a little surprise.
I really enjoyed this book. Many books have been written about World War II, but I feel like this one gives a better understanding about what really happened during the holocaust. I think that this book did have its strengths and it weaknesses. One strength is that it gave a good look at what happens to the kids that were in the holocaust, let alone everyone else. It made me feel like I was actually in the book, and it gave great detail about what happened to them and how they felt about the Nazis. One weakness was that it didn't give a clear description about how her family was reacting to the holocaust. Also, her dad left, but then he shows up in the end, but we don't really know what happened to him.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes learning about a new religion, and for someone who enjoys getting into a good book. I would not recommend this book to someone who was younger than nine because it is a harder book to read. I had many "favorite" parts in the book. Most of my favorite parts were the action parts. Many times they would talk about how the Nazis would treat Jews, and it made me feel like I was in the book, and I was one of the Jews who were being tortured.
This book made me think of a lot of questions. Some of them were, how would she react to the new change? How does her mom feel about her family being in the camps, and not her? Did Hannah ever lose hope? How would her brother feel about the experience? And to my surprise, all of them were answered.
I would definitely read this book again because it was so good, and I would still be surprised at some parts. I think this is the best book I have ever read about the holocaust. I hope that the author will try to make a book as good as this one once again.

A great read!
Summary:
In 1939, when Anita Lobel was five, German soldiers marched into Krakow. Anita's father, the owner of a chocolate factory and a Jew, runs away in the middle of the night. As a child, Anita Lobel spent years hiding from the Nazis and trying to protect her little brother. The two children have to work through assumed identities, a dangerous stay in the Krakow ghetto, hiding in a convent, and much more! They were captured and marched from camp to camp. Finally, in 1945, they were reunited with their parents and they had to learn to live all over again.

My thoughts:
This book touches your heart in a way few books do. Told from a child's point of view, using a very child-like voice, the story leaps out of the pages and into your mind. This book is written by an illustrator of beautiful picture books like Potatoes, Potatoes, and On Market Street. The title, No Pretty Pictures, seems to reflect her drawing career. In one example, when she first was allowed to enter school after the war, she was sent to an art class. There, she was given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and a set of new watercolors. She painted a wonderful blue chair, to the delight of her art teacher and the other students. She hasn't stopped painting since.

One moral that simply explodes out of this book is to never give up. No matter what life throws at you - starvation, imprisonment, hiding, or whatever - you can persevere. Anita overcame all of the obstacles placed in front of her, either by herself or with the help of others, and has created a spectacular life for herself. If she can succeed despite such odds, so can everybody else.

I think children would love to read this book when they are old enough to get all the way through it. At almost 200 pages, it is not a quick book to read. But it is a gripping, page-turning story - one of those kind that you can't put down. I think children will be drawn to the child-like voice of the story, the innocence the author manages to use. Anita Lobel is one of those truly gifted authors that can tell a horrible story about a child, for a child, without sounding condescending or self-pitying.

I give No Pretty Pictures an A-
No Pretty Pictures is probably by far the best book I have ever read. It is filled with true life tragedies and it gave me such a feeling where I was happy to be alive at this day in time and in such a place as America. About 50 years ago, it was a horrible time where in which Anita Lobel was at the wrong place at the wrong time! Her autobiography uses such imagery and imaginative language, it's as if i were in that period of time walking side by side with her! At times it came to a point where she used too much detail to describe certain aspects of her life as a young Jewish and Polish girl. I feel this book should be read by someone who wants to learn a bit about history, someone is lost in their own lives or someone who just wants to read a good book and shed a tear or two. The reason I mostly enjoyed this book so much was because I come from Poland and it gave me a sense of what my people including my grandparetns and other relatives went through! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

read this!
one of the best books i hav ever read.touching and easy to relait to.very good.

The Only Book of Its Kind
This is a most unique subject matter - I know no other book on it - about a former member of the inner circle of the JDL (Jewish Defense League). On that note, HaLevi offers invaluable information about why he (and others) joined, and their activities. Most poignant is their work on behalf of the Jews in (what was then) the Soviet Union; Halevi and his "friends" not only pulled guerilla theatre-type stunts on traditional Jewish organizations here in the U.S., "commanding" them to help these forgotten Jews, but the JDL also travelled to the Soviet Union to try to "free" the Soviet Jews (it didn't work, however). The other most compelling piece in his book is his writing about being a child of Holocaust Survivors - his father, a Hungarian Jew, hid in the woods for years during WWII and was saved by a kind non-Jew. As my parents are also Holocaust Survivors, I can attest that HaLevi writes incredibly well on his background. He explains his own personal story, how he came to hate Gentiles, and felt that another Holocaust was inevitable. However, when he fell in love with a non-Jewish woman, this part of his life was drastically altered. A remarkable book; you won't find another one like it. ... Read more

Book Description

While it would not be correct to say that Philo's works have been "lost"—scholars have always known and used Philo—they have essentially been "misplaced" as far as the average student of the Bible is concerned. Now the translation of the eminent classicist C. D. Yonge is available in an affordable, easy-to-read edition, with a new foreword and newly translated passages, and containing supposed fragments of Philo's writings from ancient authors such as John of Damascus. The title and arrangement of the writings have been standardized according to scholarly conventions.

A contemporary of Paul and Jesus, Philo Judaeus, of Alexandria, Egypt, is unquestionably among the most important writers for historians and students of Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity. Although Philo does not explicitly mention Jesus, or Paul, or any of the followers of Jesus, Philo lived in their world. It is from Philo, for example, that we learn about how, like the Gospel of John, Jews (and Greeks) in the Greco-Roman world spoke of the creative force of God as God's Logos. Philo, too, employs interpretive strategies that parallel those of the author of Hebrews. Most scholars would agree that Philo and the author of Hebrews are drawing from the same, or at least similar, traditions of Hellenistic Judaism. With these kind of connections to the world of Judaism and early Christianity, Philo cannot be ignored. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Surprizingly Readable, Insightful and Enjoyable
As tantalized and delighted as I was by the Classics of Western Spirituality anthology of Philo selections, I avoided buying this Hendrickson edition of the C.D. Yonge translation of the complete works of Philo of Alexandria until I could stand it no longer. Because Yonge worked in the 19th century, I thought his work would be as stilted as Hendrickson's Josephus by Whiston. I was wrong. Yonge's translation has been updated here by David Scholer to accord with a text discovered after Yonge wrote, keyed to Loeb Library numbers, with passages unavailable to Yonge newly translated. The text occasionally creaks, but it generally very readable, and actually enjoyable (not something that can be said of most ancient philosophical/theological texts!). The more modern Winston selections from the texts and their superior notes in the CWS edition are still excellent to have, but you really need to read more complete treatises to get into Philo's remarkable, even amusing, mind.

A window in time.
The writings of Philo Judaeus (Philo of Alexandria, c20 BC - c50 AD) are important to the historical examination of late Second Temple Judaism, the religious 'world' into which Christ came. A prominent scholar and exegete, Philo's writings are considered the most thorough and most representative documents illuminating Hellenistic Judaism. Philo is interesting to Christians because, like Saul of Tarsus (Paul the Apostle), he was a Pharisee, a student and interpreter of Hebrew Scripture. (The Pharisees were a rabbinical sect particularly known for their studies of Moses. Their exegetic work was esteemed such that they were held to be the spiritual "rulers" of Judaism. They are generally criticized by Christians but it should be noted that they shared some important beliefs with Christianity, namely the promise of the Messiah and of the Divine gift of eternal existence for those who enter a right relationship with God.) Not only a Hebrew scholar but a noted scholar within Alexandrian academe, Philo is an interesting expositor of Greek philosophy and mathematics of the period, showing a great fondness for Euclidean geometry and number theory. However, the exegesis of the scriptural Creation account and of the special laws and the Decalogue is the author's central focus. This complete and unabridged volume is no trivial work, perhaps only approached by the most serious-minded student.
From Philo's examination of the Creation account we learn that [two millennia ago] leading scholarship did not hold Genesis 1 to be a literal (i.e., scientific) accounting. Philo expresses certainty that Genesis 1 can only be rightly understood as spiritual allegory. "Literal" interpretations of Moses' language [within Genesis 1] must produce a god with a localized body, nostrils, mouth, hands, etc., wholly incompatible with the incorporeal God revealed in scripture (and required by reason, what kind of matter could the Maker of matter be made of?). The Creation account is rather understood as describing the relationship of Creator and creation -- God's intimacy ("hovering", Gen 1:2) and God's ultimacy ("above" the abyss, Gen 1:2). Philo's rejection of literal interpretations is often strongly worded: "let us take care that we are never filled with such absurdity..." and "let not such fabulous nonsense ever enter our minds."
We note that the ideas contained in language today are not the concepts which were understood in earlier ages. For example, the phrase "heaven and earth" was understood to mean three-dimensional space itself plus time -- as "heaven", and the constituents of all matter contained within space and time -- as "earth". Thus Genesis 1:1 speaks of creation ex nihilo, everything from nothing [interestingly, as does the inflationary big bang theory]. The creation of light, the "separation" of light and darkness; God's "breath", "image", "likeness", speech, sight -- all of these expressions are understood as spiritual revelations into the nature of God's relationship to his creation (and not as a science text). The modern fundamentalist "literal" interpretation of Genesis 1 tends to overlook significant theological and linguistic issues and ignores expositors like Philo, Augustine, and Aquinas, disingenuously [or ignorantly] claiming that interpretations other than the "obvious" one are modern inventions. Philo examines several allegorical interpretations in depth. Of comparisons of man to God, Philo states: "Moses says that man was made in the image and likeness of God. And he says well; for nothing that is born on earth is more resembling God than man. And let no one think that he is able to judge of this likeness from the characters of the body: for neither is God a being with the form of a man, nor is the human body like the form of God; but the resemblance is spoken of with reference to the most important part of the soul, namely the mind: for the mind which exists in each individual has been created after the likeness of that one mind which is in the universe as its primitive model, being in some sort the god of that body which carries it about and bears its image within it."

"Hellenistic Monotheism at its Apogee"
Philo of Alexandria was a contemporary of both Paul and Christ. Though he did not know them, it cannot be doubted that the Jewish philosopher made a significant impact on the early Christian world. He has been styled the first theologian on account of his hellenized Judaism, and for the fact that he espoused the concept of God's creating force - the Logos - as found in the Gospel of John, which was written nearly a half-century later. Philo's works may be divided into two groups: works that deal directly with the biblical texts, and those that do not. In the former works Philo links philosophy to the Pentateuch by the use of allegory, which uncovers how the Stoic concept of the Logos, and the Platonistic World of Forms are already present in the Old Testament; and in the later he describes the monastic order of the Therapeutae - mystics who claimed they saw the vision of God - the Essenes, and also defends the Jews against anti-Jewish acts by Gaius Caligula in an apologetic work "Embassy to Gaius." These works are a culmination of many divergent areas of thought; and to discover these works will be to discover the general milieu of Hellenistic ideas so pervasive in the Mediterranean world of the 1st century.

An insightful and thorough commentary on the Pentateuch
Philo Judaeus, the great Jewish exegete and philosopher, was a contemporary of Josephus and the Apostles Paul and Peter during the 1st century A.D. This volume of his complete works must be one of the most, if not the most, exhaustive commentaries on the five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch) in existence.

In true rabbinic fashion, Philo discourses on the letter and spirit of the Pentateuch, from all the major characters of the five books of the Old Testament to the creation of the world. His prose style is a combination of stream-of-consciousness, meditation, and textual exposition. Philo's works are not merely a collection of essays on the Pentateuch, but a window into rich allegorical and contemplative mind of a great rabbi--the Pentateuch interpreted by a rabbi within the context of first century Hellenism buttressed by nearly 2000 years of a tradition personally handed down from God. Philo addresses the reader in 2nd person; it is almost as if the reader was a student sitting and listening at the feet of the rabbi.

It is, however, easy to lose one's place in the text. Philo divides his essays topically: e.g., The Creation of the World, Abel, Cain, Noah's Drunkenness, Abraham's Exodus from Ur, The Tower of Babel, Moses, etc. Within each essay, however, Philo waxes upon the topic and upon anything tangentially related to it in a great stream-of-consciousness. Moreover, the text is invariably printed in two columns, justified, separated with a line in 10 point font on every page, front and back. If it were not for the consecutive paragraph numbering, the text would seem like a great jumbled mass of impenetrable rabbinic commentary.

But Philo writes some true gems, and it is worth culling the dense text for them. His first essay alone, "On the Creation of the World", justifies purchasing the entire volume. Philo's exposition of Genesis chapter 1 is second to none. Not even St. Augustine's commentary of Genesis in "City of God" raises you to such heights. One of Philo's many insights into the purpose behind the order of creation is his answer to why God created vegetation before He created the sun. Philo's final essays, "Questions and Answers," offers his interpretation into every conceivable question concerning the Book of Genesis. In between "On the Creation of the World" and "Questions and Answers" are fascinating commentaries on all major characters in the first five books of the Old Testament and on the laws, the Ten Commandments and the 613 laws in the Pentateuch.

Philo's works are still relatively obscure. But they rank with the works of Josephus. Josephus gives us history; Philo, interpretation. It is as if Philo was a Jewish Augustine who mixed "Confessions" and "City of God" into one volume. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Historical Perspective on the Ghetto
This book presents a factual chronological statement on the conditions, daily tribulations, and perils of the Warsaw Ghetto. It is written in a documentary style rather than an emotional diary, thus providing a basis to compare and contrast against other "diaries". THIS SAID, it is a moving statement on Warsaw Jewry and their ability to overcome impossible odds, eventhough the overwhelming majority perished. The plethora of historical revisionists that now claim the Holocaust was a hoax must FIRST contend with "Notes"( aginst which they will lose). A truly powerful work.

Holocaust Horror
As we each sit in our little world each day perhaps having pity on ourselves. This book should be a guideline to keep us from self-pity. The author fairly reports from diaries gathered throughout the Holocaust Horror. He does not only blame Nazi Germans but Jewish Police. This is a bold, honest reflection into the eyes of children, adolescents, parents, as they were waiting for their fate. This book made me smile about humanitarism even when they truly did not have alot to share. This book made me scared for what the power of humans can do to weaken spirits. It made me cry to realize the horror they felt. I cheered hoping the author would go unharmed. I wept when I realized a man and his family perish because of a cause they firmly defended. True heroism.

Unquestionably, this is one of the best written books I have read pertaining to the tragic historic event. It is an easy reading book however, it is hard to put down once you start.

I will cherish my book always.

A must read for anyone interested in the subject
I "never" give a ten. But out of respect, this gets a ten. The author was executed by the Nazis after the Ghetto Uprising. The Notes were hidden, later found, and were assembled into a book.

Not only is this book invaluable as a source of historic perspective, it is a spellbinding book to read. I especially recommend this book to those non-Jews, like myself, whose understanding and respect for what happened needed some growth.

All the more erie, I read this book while walking the streets where it happened. You cannot help but be deeply moved by this book, its story, and its people.

I urge anyone with the slightest interest to push Amazon to get it for you. I have bought two copies, it takes time, but they can do it. It is worth the effort. ... Read more

Book Description

This Companion of specially-commissioned essays offers a comprehensive account of his life and work, providing a rounded contemporary appraisal of Central Europe's most distinctive Modernist. Contributions cover all the key texts, and discuss Kafka's writing in a variety of critical contexts such as feminism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, Marxism, and Jewish studies. The essays are enhanced by supplementary material including a chronology of the period and detailed guides to further reading. They will be of interest to students of German, European and Comparative Literature, and Jewish Studies. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Solid introductions, thoughtful elaborations
With no table of contents on the Amazon site, it's difficult to guess at what's inside. I've read Kafka's work with nearly no critical assistance, so finding this collection afterwards only stimulated me towards re-readings of his texts. Like the Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad (and unlike much within the Companions to Joyce or Beckett, for instance), this volume in the series guides both newcomer and veteran reader of an author whose symbolic, portentous themes may discourage first-timers.

The editor clearly introduces Kafka within his wider European context; David Constantine shows how we can read Kafka more open-endedly as opposed to the straightjacketed interpretations of scholars, and emphasizes a recurrent theme: K's search for truth demonstrates how his work must slip out of any closed meaning anyone can attempt to lasso around a slippery critter like Kafka.

Anne Fuchs tries, anyway, with a psychoanalytic take on "The Man Who Disappeared" [aka "Amerika"]; Rolf Goebel's exploration of the flaneur in the modern city of The Trial (I too prefer German connotations of the "Process" better as its title) works better to show off an element overlooked to many for a fresher interpretation than Fuchs' for her chosen text. Elizabeth Boa's examination of matriarchal household vs. patriarchal "Castle" provides a convincing look at Heimat, myth, and quest in that novel; Ruth Gross inevitably must cram too much in too little space for her dash past the short fiction, but her focus on the divided self of Kafka who must write to survive despite a job shows an author many of us can understand as truly one of us.

Stanley Corngold (whose translation of the Metamorphosis should be studied by all readers to compare against the Muirs' version)
offers a complex examination of the metaphysical division in the later prose and aphorisms; Bill Dodd revives the political aspects of Kafka to counterbalance the common religious-mystical readings, and places Kafka within the nationalist, Zionist, labor, and technological issues of his time, usefully reminding us of his occupation in the new field of worker's accident insurance and the clashes between the company's interests and those of the everyday claimant.

Iris Bruce for Jewish folkloric elements and Dagmar Lorenz for gender issues both explain well the relevance of these themes in accessible essays; Anthony Northey's examination of biographical myths vs. realities usefully suggests to non-specialists how we should revise the ideas that Kafka was some working man's crusader within the limits of his job, and how the Castle's women illuminate the place of the real women in K's life.

Osman Durrani's chapter on editions, translations, [stage] adaptations compresses fascinating issues arising from these three elements; Helen Hughes and Martin Brady's Kafka and film adaptations, however, suffers from its self-consciously clever style at the expense of detailed analysis (Welles' "The Trial" gets the best critique, but deserves more in-depth treatment); Iris Bruce's chapter on Kafka and popular culture likewise gives far too little detail and focus mainly on "The Fly" and "Naked Lunch"-type homages while barely noticing, say, the whole effect of K. on the tourist industry in Prague or the impact on a wider audience beyond these two movies and a R. Crumb comic biography.

All in all, worth a read; the jargon of these specialists should not detract from the insights which open up new depths for readers outside the classroom and the seminar as well. ... Read more

Book Description

Reprint of a classic novel that makes the reader political boundaries and cultural assumptions. Excellent on history,Egyptian and Indian culture. by the author of Shadow lines and Glass Palace. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Nexus of the earlier worlds
A stupifying experience to read about the experience of one ofthe most prolific, original, fantasy writers from India. This bookdeals with the delicate norms of the life led in the rural Egypt. The book catches the knowledge even though little, of the people about India in Egypt. And to compare the lifestyles which existed between the two countries in two different periods of history has been done to the delight of the aged historian. The subtle existence of similarity in two proclaimed dis-similar cultures is definitely a forte for the mastercraftsman called Amitav. Surely, a delight for all the readers who want to have an alternate view of travelogues and who love to read about cultures which exists in the deepest parts of the world. A well-written book in general. Let us expect some more interesting writings from the author in the area of travel literature!!!

Incredible
This is a must read book. Ghosh somehow weaves together the history of Cairo, a traveling Jewish merchant, marginalization, the fate of 2nd world countries, and a diary of his time in Egypt-- and makes it really, lively, and relavant to anyone's life. and it is written in a lovely, lyrical style

Brilliant mix of travelogue, biography and history
The narrative weaves between Ghosh's account of a year spent living in modern-day Egypt; and the second storyline, his reconstruction of the fascinating life of a medieval Jewish Arab merchant who travelled to India, married a local woman and settled there.

If those sound like distant and obscure tales, it's a tribute to Ghosh's prose that he makes the reader quite attached to both yarns, and keeps you wondering how they will turn out. Great stuff!

Unveiling the anecdotal history of the past
Amitav Ghosh's In An Antique Land is a hidden history of India and Egypt during the 12th century in the disguise of a traveler's tale. Amitav accidentally stumbled upon some letters of correspondence between Abraham Ben Yiju, a Jewish merchant living in India, and Khalaf ibn Ishaq from Egypt in 1132. In the margins of these letters Ben Yiju's slave Bomma was often mentioned in passing with a special note of affection. No sooner had Amitav discovered about Bomma than he, out of volition, ventured out to Egypt, sifted through fact and conjecture, through a large number of letters and manuscripts referring to the trade between the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, piecing together Bomma's journey from India to Egypt.

In 1980, Amitav arrived in Egypt and over a span of five years he stayed in the villages of Lataifa and Nashawy. While Amitav diligently tried to fill in the details of the slave's life, whose record in medieval history was completely out of the ordinary, he befriended with enthusiastic Muslims who found him fascinating but incomprehensible. Amitav's landlord, Abu-Ali, was an obese, inimical, petulant man who was diligent in exploiting all moneymaking possibilities of his strategically located house. Shaikh Musa, who referred Abu-Ali obliquely to his avarice and acrimony, always watched out for Amitav and cautioned him to evade certain people in the village. Ustaz Sabry, a well-read history scholar who taught in Nashawy, and his students Nabeel, who aspired to work in the government but left stranded in Baghdad, Iraq at the outset of the Gulf War, cultivated with Amitav a friendship that later proven to be indomitable.

Amitav did not always meet the usual hospitality. To the eyes of Muslims for whom the world outside was still replete with wonders, a Hindu was uncivilized for the practice of "burning the dead". Villagers often stigmatized Hindus and admonished Amitav to civilize his country and people. Others attempted to convert him into the study of Quran. Even the children jeered at his lack of perspicacity in politics, religion, and sex. In one occasion, at the house of Imam Ibrahim, the healer and prayer leader of Nashawy, Amitav unwarily trespassed on some deeply personal grief that haunted the Imam and his family for years. The unfortunate and unintentional solecism incurred in the Imam an enmity toward Amitav.

In An Antique Land unveiled the mystery of Bomma whom Ben Yiju adopted into his service as business agent and later incorporated into his household. In unraveling the life of this Indian slave across some 800 years, Amitav deftly sheds light on the life of his master Ben Yiju and nature of patron-client, master-apprentice relationship in disguise of a master-slave one during the 12th century. The relics about Bomma was limited but the unexpected outcome of the search manifested a compendious picture of his master, Ben Yiju, who as a junior associate, partnered with a merchant Madmum. The letters between these two were full of instructions and certain peremptoriness prevailed beneath the usual courteous language. Madmum's warm and occasionally irascible tone suggested that Madmum regarded Ben Yiju with an almost paternal affection.

In An Antique Land delivers a tale of a quest that moves between the present and the past, between Amitav Ghosh's own life and the slave's. The narrative is rich in layers, cultural overtones, historical relics, and anecdotes. Readers will find arresting images of India and Egypt hidden under a deceptively plain surface of prose. 4.0 stars.

Matthew Yau (10Q_boi)

entertaining and educating
I loved this book, it is a great book, very well written, very entertaining; you'll learn about the egyptians (villagers) their colorful lives, culture, traditions, religious and cultural ceremonies. You will also learn about India, the old trade,and culture. Jews in the arab world, old synagogues and much more. ... Read more

Book Description

The first full-scale historical treatment of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the leading figure in twentieth-century American Jewish Orthodoxy. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

John 15:13
I cannot emphasize, underline, or highlight ENOUGH how much you need to read this must-read of must-reads! This is the best story I've ever read and, hence, the best book I've encountered in my 22 years. To grasp true commitment to Christ and, therefore, to mankind is to read Hein and Diet's sacrificial walk of love. I would daresay that, granted the wish to meet one deceased person, Hein might very well be the one. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (Jn 15:13). Hein and Diet captured this verse's message and fearlessly followed...inspiration epitomized.

Making the Right Choices
This is the most encouraging book I have ever read about the holocaust. It beckons the reader to stand up and do the right thing in the midst of an overpowering adversary. It is Diet Eman's story of love, adventure, and courage. It is a book written with a disarming openness that is founded in her faith in God. After reading this book, you can't help but admire and love this wonderful Christian woman and her fiance', Hein Sietsma.

Hein Sietsma died in Dachau on January 20, 1945.

Things she did say
Diet Eman's book won me over more than any book I've read in the past few years. At only 23, she helped organize a Dutch resistance movement that hid hundreds of Jews and supplied them with fake ration cards throughout World War II. She suffered incredibly to see justice done, even being thrown into a concentration camp for a year. Yet through her tragedies, through the death of her fiance, and the suffering she experienced knowing that her friends were being tortured and killed, her faith in God rarely wavered. Her miraculous answers to prayer are inspiring and moving. She says she was reluctant to write the book because she didn't want to bring up the memories of the horror she lived through in war-torn Holland. I am so glad that James Schaap offered to organize her story into this book. It has strengthened my own faith in God enormously.

I had the chance to meet her personally.
I was a missionary in Honduras in 1988, helping Doctors translate in Spanish. We were some 60 miles north of the capital city, sitting around a fire. Diet's story lasted about 2.5 hours long for us. We were engrossed with her story.

Afterwards, I pulled her aside and told her that she needed to write this down before she was physically unable to do so. She started to give me excuses why this couldn't happen from not being a good writer to other writers (ghost writers) not conveying her sentiment.

I Praise God that she finally took the time to get her story down! Thank you DIET!

Things We Couldn't Say by Diet Eman
Focus on the Family radio station featured Diet Eman April 2001, during one of my drives to work. I heard a portion of the most gripping account of how Diet was arrested (with undiscovered stolen ration cards for hidden Jews and false ID cards for downed allied piolots). There she sat in a train station surrounded by six German soldiers, praying very hard for the grace of God to help her to get rid of those papers hidden in her bra, a sure death sentence. To distract one guard, or perhaps two, would be possible, but how would all six be distracted at the same time so that she could get rid of that envelope? I couldn't tune in to the radio the following day. I was left with the most exciting alternative, to read the book. Diet's story will dwarf anyone's troubles and serves to inspire how faith and reliance on God can manage the seemingly impossible while sculpting one's heart with a strong dose of humility. ... Read more

Book Description submitted by the publisher, John Sack

The Book They Can't Suppress

Not for sixty years has a book been so brutally (and, in the end, unsuccessfully) suppressed as An Eye for an Eye.One major newspaper, one major magazine, and three major publishers paid $40,000 for it but were scared off.One printed 6,000 books, then pulped them.

Two dozen publishers read An Eye for an Eye and praised it. "Shocking, "Startling," "Astonishing," "Mesmerizing," "Extraordinary," they wrote to Author John Sack."I was rivited," "I was bowled over," "I love it," they wrote, but all two dozen rejected it.

Finally, BasicBooks published An Eye for an Eye.It "sparked a furious controversy," said Newsweek.It became a best-seller in Europe but was so shunned in America that it also became, in the words of New York Magazine, "The Book They Dare Not Review."

Since then, both 60 Minutes and The New York Times have corroborated what Sack wrote: that at the end of World War II, thousands of Jews sought revenge for the Holocaust.They set up 1,255 concentration camps for German civilians -- German men, women, children and babies. There they beat, whipped, tortured and murdered the Germans.

Long unavailable, An Eye for an Eye is back in a new, revised, updated and illustrated edition. Submitted by the publisher, John Sack ... Read more

Reviews (29)

Shocking truth about communist war criminals in our midst.
A telling account of the men and women who worked for the Office of State Security during and just after the Second World War and who were responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, directed primarily against innocent Poles, Germans and Ukrainians. Many of these killers subsequently escaped to the USA, Canada, Israel and western Europe, and they remain in our midst, unpunished for their evil. Just recently one of the most infamous of their number, Shlomo Morel, a communist concentration camp Commandant, was discovered in Israel, but that state won't extradite him to stand trial in Poland for his crimes, rationalizing this by saying that the statute of limitations has expired! Just as no democracy should ever harbour Nazi war criminals in its midst, so too we must root out and punish those guilty of war crimes committed under Soviet tutelage. To refuse to do so, or to turn a blind eye on these mass murderers' deeds, would be to utterly invalidate any pretence of justice. This book belongs in the library of everyone interested in bringing all war criminals to justice, regardless of who their victims were, or who they are. A book that must be reprinted!

GUTS AND COMPASSION
It takes guts to research and write a book like this. From a personal perpective, it is a fascinating journey into the dark side of the human condition that recalls Rosseau's perception about "homo homini lupus". A gruesome and detailed account of an individual's motivations (Lola Potok) to participate in the ethnic cleansing of the Eastern Germans in Poland at the end of WWII. From a historical stand point, a revelation about a long hidden and obscured fact. The revenge jews took upon innocent German civilians, women and children in that context explains fully why there is and there will be not one Holocaust, the Nazi's, but many as long as people is moved by fanatism and hatred. The propaganda exploitation of "the Holocaust" by the Zionists to further the establishment of the State of Israel has called for the silencing of this and other incidences of atrocities and violations of human rigths by fanatical or fundamentalists. A must in order to put in historic perspective the treatment that the Hassidic movement's doctrine reserves for the palestinians, gentiles and other categories that interfere with the achievement of their totalitarian theocratic vision of the State of Israel. This book is also a tribute to the courage of its author, and the integrity of a man that by an act of compassion seeks to break the circle of violence putting forward historical facts, notwithstanding persecution by fanatical zionists and the efforts to silence his work by the publishing establishment. A MUST BUY !!!

So why were Germans punished after WW2?
Great book...what I want to know is why can't the facist-loser whiners writing reviews on this site realize that anti-German atrocities were a direct result of GERMAN-PERPETRATED ATROCITIES? Do they think this happened in some kind of vacuum?Place responsibility where responsibility lies. One caused the other. Also, German atrocities were perpetrated by Germans wearing the uniform of Germany, these Jews who worked the Soviets weren't representing the Jewish people...they were only representing their individual grudges (i.e. seeing their whole family murdered). The Commies knew to use individual Jews because they knew Holocaust survivors would make great anti-Germans--duh!

Nice try
A sneaky attempt to whitewash history. When Germans commit atrocities against Jews, they're the epitomy of evil; when Jews commit atrocities against Germans, it's an "eye for an eye". The message: Jews can do no harm.

accuracy? to bad its not all true
THis book probably serves only two types of people. The anti-semite will enjoy this book so that he can say "see I knew those jews would have done the same to the germans, the germans were just pre-empting them". And it serves those thirsting for revenge(like Abba Kovner who wanted to poison the Germans waiting in the detention camps). Unfortunatly this book is of dubious accuracy. it claims that the russians used Jews to guard the millions of German prisoners they capture din Poland and used Jews to round up the Germans indigenous to Poland.

What is true is that many German prisoners disappeared. it is true the russians killed as many Nazis as they could. it is true the Russians crushed the German community of Poland, uprooting many of them for slave labor and other things.

Its dubious that the few jews still alive in Poland could have been enlisted in this effort. Most of the Jews left in Poland were immediatly subjected to progroms by the Poles and many fled to israel or fled west.

The books account while sparcely accurate by no means constitute a Jewish holocaust against the germans, which is what the author tries to show. An interesting read. Maybe a forgotten part of history but probably just a creation of a vivid imagination, probably no one will ever know what happaned to the Germans of POland and the German POWs. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Excellent Continuation!
This second volume of Meier's proposed trilogy follows Jesus from young adulthood into the early days of his ministry as an itinerant evangelist and wonder-worker in rural, first-century Palestine. Using historical and literary criticism, Meier reveals a Jesus who, after his encounter with the apocalyptic activities of John the Baptist, develops his own message about a coming kingdom of God and then reveals it through a variety of miracles from healings to exorcisms. The Jesus of Nazareth who emerges from this study is neither the cosmic Christ of Matthew Fox nor the sanitized Savior of the New Age. He's an eschatological preacher and miracle worker. Meier's brilliant scholarship sparkles on every page of this book. Indeed, because of its narrative power and its deep insight, Meier's trilogy is likely to become the standard against which other lives of Jesus are to be measured.

The Best Book in The Marginal Jew Series So Far
In this second volume of John Meier's "A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus" series Meier gets down to the meat of his subject. Here Meier tells us about Jesus relationship to John the Baptist (Mentor), his enunciation of the "kingdom of God" (Message) and his great deeds (Miracles).

The first two parts here I regard as solid stuff, building a picture of Jesus as an eschatologically minded individual following after John the Baptist who talks about God's domain on earth. This is a very (exclusively) Jewish Jesus. But then with the miracles Meier gets a bit silly. Apparently "what happened" with the miracles is, for Meier, an "unhistorical" question to ask; it is beyond history's bounds to investigate. Faith, of course, may have its opinions but that is not history and history is what Meier repeats that his study is about.

I think Meier cops out here. Its precisely the historian's business to say what they think happened and why. Meier, in effect, has his faith considerations which he intends to keep but not talk about. Maybe he finds caution a virtue. Funny, though, that Meier can write several hundred pages about things he claims not to be able to expedite! This is one place in this book where I sense that Meier is being too uptight about what "history" is. Meier seems to me to be at his best when he's doing history rather than talking about it.

However, that is but a little fault in a largely professional and standard volume on the historical Jesus.

A must own
This book studies John the Baptist, Jesus' message, and Jesus' miracles. Meier goes through every passage and extracts history from them. He manages to go through every miracle story and determine whether the passage is historcal or not. You just can't find such an in-depth study in too many places. For this reason I think anyone interested in the historical Jesus should own this book (and probably the rest of the series).

Excellent Continuation
Excellent continuation - my sole criticism is he seems intent on bringing in EVERY bit of scholarship (rather like German theology professors) that has ever been written, which can sometimes cause him to loose the flow of his argument, and diminish the force of his explication.

Profound scholarship made accessible
Meier takes you as far as you can go into historical Jesus research without knowing Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. The book summarizes and evaluates the current state of research using a well-defined methodology and comes to its own conclusions. It's not easy to read: footnotes are about equal to text, and the print is uncomfortably small, but if you really want to know as much as you can about Jesus, you need this book. ... Read more

Book Description

The epic rise and spectacular fall of the devoutly religious and secretive family that was one of the ten richest of the world. The Reichmanns is filled with fascinating characters, epic scope, and an illuminating look at the world of the ultra-orthodox. 16 pp. of photos. 608 pp. Author tour. Targeted ads. Online promotion. 35,000 print. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Details of a lost culture and a lost business empire
The book discusses in great detail the Reichmann family's role both in Jewish culture over the last couple hundred years and in the real estate developement business over the last 40 or so years.

The part I liked the best was the descriptions of 18th and 19th century Jewish life in the "oberland"(sp?) of Hungary. A lost culture, thanks not only to the Nazis but also to Jewish Emancipation.

In a way, it is inspirational, as it shows how one family managed to integrate a healthy, traditional religious expression with philanthropy and business acumen. It also shows that you cannot understand what makes that family "tick" without understanding the rich culture and religion of orthodox jewishness.

The greatest strength of this book, in my opinion, is that it is a _history_ of the family and its business, religious, philanthropic, and cultural dealings. It isnt the hagiography that so many business biographies in the popular press tend to be.

Paul at the helm
As the Reichmanns anticipate another rush to the top of the heap we shall watch with amazed eyes as this family woos our imagination, yet again! As renowned as the Reichmanns have been there are still followers of scrappy success stories that do not know much about what this family, with brother and son Paul at the helm, contributed to New York City's skyline. The World Financial Center was a creation of their delicately named Olympia & York. Read this from beginning to end so that you can grasp the rise and fall and now, again, rise of this amazing family. As is usually indicative of most business minds through time, the children are not as capable as the original "originators" themselves.

Better than a soap opera
For those interested in real estate development, I recommend skipping through the first half of the book and starting at page 256. From there on it is fascinating reading on the possibilities of development for those with seemingly infinite capital on hand. Paul Reichmann's passion, drive and high tolerance for risk makes for better reading than most novels.

Inacurate and Unfair!
Though well researched and well written, the author accepts rumour as facts, and thus published reports of personal misconduct which are totally false. It does not do justice to the tragic story of the collapse of the fortunes of a family that was world reknowed for their kindness and generosity. For those that were acquainted with the true facts, and recognize the Reichmans as the great men that they truly are, this book is a travesty.

Great reading over 2 centuries and 3 continents
A great, excellent book, that one should not start reading at 8 pm - he or she might finish it only at 8 am the next morning. It is not so much a book about any single person, rather about what difficulties one can stand if one truly believes in future success, as this family's members alwazs did.

The only question the reader might ask is, why do we start a story about a company that became big in the late 60s with the founder's ancestors of the early 19 century ? The reason becomes clear at the end, at the time this empire crumbles under the weight of a speculation gone sour; the power of this family lies in its strong, sometimes self-negating values of family and faith, a red line that turns through the book and evolves at points where you would least expect them.

If this was a fiction book, one should put it aside as too fancy, characters too good and too brave to be true etc. But this is real, and I was very please to learn that this last great speculation has turned fine again in the meantime and Mr Paul Reichmann into one of the big players in British real estate again.

The book is really great reading, in a language that combines both the right terms and enough sense for personal emotions the members of the family felt during their sometimes brutal voyage through this century. I was especially glad to see that this book is a fine farewell to the libel suit the Reichmanns had to fight in order to get away from the hilarious blame that they were money launderer, drug trafficers etc. It is quite clear after reading the book that these men and women just had more power through their faith and more ability in money matters in their finger-tips than any other person can ever aquire in Harvard or through the full experience of a lifetime. They are just excellent speculators and investors and never had any doubt to fail.

You should read this book to understand that everything is possible, that nothing will stand in your way if you truly believe - no matter if you are jewish or christian. Put this book after reading right next to your bible, that is the best place and the most honorable you can give it. I have given this book to 3 friends as a christmas gift, and all of them loved it as I do it.

Dr. Rudolf C. King CEO, princeandprince.com Ltd Owner of HouseOfCommerce, Indonesia ... Read more

Book Description

Now in paperback, this European bestseller won huge -acclaim from U.S. critics, Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post Book World declared this memoir of a Holocaust girlhood and a life reclaimed "one of the best books of 2001 . . . a book of surpassing, and at times brutal, honesty. . . . Among the many reasons that Still Alive is such an important book is its insistence that the full texture of women's existence in the Holocaust be acknowledged."

Ruth Kluger's story of her years in several concentration camps, and her struggle to establish a life after the war as a refugee survivor in New York, has emerged as one of the most powerful accounts of the Holocaust. Still Alive is a memoir of the pursuit of selfhood against all odds, a fiercely bittersweet coming-of-age story in which the protagonist must learn never to rely on comforting assumptions, but always to seek her own truth.

"A deeply moving and significant work . . . compared by European critics to the work of Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel." -- Publishers Weekly

"A stunning contemplation of human relationships, power and the creation of history. . . . A work of such nuance, intelligence and force that it leaps the bounds of genre." -- Kirkus Reviews

Ruth Kluger is professor emerita of German at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of five books about German literature and the recipient of Austria's National Prize for Literary Criticism. Her widely translated memoir has won eight European Literary awards. Lore Segal's writings include the novels Other People's Houses and Her First American.

Reviews (9)

Outstanding Read
The author doesn't simply recount fact and opinion, she has truly analyzed her childhood growing up in Vienna and then through the Holocaust and concentration camp. What a treasure we have in this book to document one girl's life, living through a horrific time in history. It is a bonus that the author is such an outstanding writer. Kluger allows the reader to relate to her life through their own life experiences. She is certainly someone I'd like to know better. Highly recommend.

Review of Still Alive
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was written in a way that went through Ruth's life during the Holocaust years. It starts at the very beginning and just talks about her whole experience. I like how Ruth mixed in experiences and comments from the future. This showed how the Holocaust still impacts her life and what she thinks about her surroundings. No one will ever be able to understand what Ruth had to suffer while in the concentration camps. But I feel that by reading her life story it makes it seem more of a reality and brings to life aspects of how the Jews were treated during this time period in American history. All the hardship and discrimination that Ruth had to endure shows the power and willingness she had to live. I liked how she never said it was strength that le ther live rather it was mostly luck. I thought that reading this book made me feel greatful for everything that I have. I would recommend reading this book if you want to realize what life during the Holocaust was like.

Thought provoking and original Holocaust memoir
I chose Kluger's book for a book club selection and was not disappointed. This arresting memoir documents, unflinchingly, a childhood of brutality and hope. It does so in an unapologetic manner. Kluger does not want sympathy; she merely wants to be able to tell her personal history and a different point of view. Many of her anecdotes are downright controversial, a plus for book club discussions. For example, she challenges the notion that Nazi women were as cruel as their male counterparts, and she questions whether the bond between she and her mother would have survived if forced to choose between their lives. My only reservation is it gets off to a slow start, but Still Alive is brilliant in the end.

fresh air
I'm really impressed with Dr. Kluger, and this book has affected me greatly. I first heard Dr. Kluger on NPR (Terry Gross' "Fresh Air," I believe it was), and I was struck by her honesty and unpretentiousness (just like how Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered is). Even though she is a Jewish woman who was a child during WWII and I am a Korean American born a few generations later, we have a lot in common. Dr. Kluger mentioned on the show that she is an atheist who believes in spirits; I was happy to finally find someone who has the same beliefs! That made me want to read this book.

Although I didn't have to go through anything as devastating as the Nazi concentration/labor/death camps, I could almost empathize with what Dr. Kluger was able to survive. Her book does not sentimentalize in the way that Schindler's List or even The Diary of Anne Frank seem to do. Although those two works were very well-done to say the least, I still didn't have a good idea of the individual's Holocaust experience until I read this memoir. I thank Dr. Kluger so much for sharing her life in such a straightforward, candid, and unique way. I really like the way she writes; as she did in her life, her prose seems to defy convention.

This book will survive
There have been many, many memoirs about the Holocaust. So why read another one? Because it's one of the best, that's why. This author absolutely refuses to indulge in cliches. With her, you do not get anything that is familiar or comfortable. Nor do you get the dramatic emotion and catharsis that she rightly says belongs to the theater, not the concentration camps.

Because she observes life sharply, and comments on it rationally, in fact is a rational voice in a profoundly irrational world, she forces the reader to view her as a person, and not the generic persecution-victim symbol, a view she detests...

There are many times when her use of language is so striking that it's really worth rereading this, maybe several times. For example, when she discusses the opposing myths that the camps weren't all that bad vs. they were so terrible that the survivors were no longer human (p. 151). Then she says, "...". That really is how it goes and the perceptive reader will find many shocks of recognition here, and admire the person brave enough to drop the approved cliches and be honest. ... Read more

Book Description

"An eye-opening, myth-shattering, stereotype-breaking work of originality, elegance, and wisdom. A must-read for Civil War buffs, Jewish history fans, and all Americans interested in learning—and you will learn much—about Jewish southerners who placed loyalty to their adopted states above the moral teachings of their tradition (at least as we now interpret them). You may not agree with these Jewish Confederates, but you will surely understand them better."—Alan M. Dershowitz

Rosen N. Rosen's JEWISH CONFEDERATES shows that the breadth and strength of Southern Jews’ commitment to the Confederate cause is undeniable. Focusing on the Jewish communities throughout the South, Rosen explains each city's reasons for supporting the cause of Southern independence. Those motivations were as complex as their positions and roles in Southern society.

Profiling the prominent and humble, who volunteered for service, Rosen shows a Confederate army and government remarkably free of anti-Semitism and a Southern leadership, especially Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, without prejudice against the Jews (as opposed to Union generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman who issued anti-Semitic edicts).

The text is supplemented with 160 photographs and illustrations-- many previously unpublished and recently discovered images contributed by the descendants of Jewish Confederates. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

The Jewish Confederates
The world is full of people who just don't get it, thanks to the ultra-leftist American media. They consider South "the land of bigotry" and portray the War Between the States, as some sort of referendum on slavery and bigotry. In their minds, the thought a Jew in a Confederate uniform is an oxymoron.

Of course, the historical record is as clear as a bell-the so-called "Civil War" was a result of high tariffs and the average Southerner's fear of a new political party that sought even more "tax and spend" polices.

During the antebellum times, Jews were an integral part of the South. A substantial amount of their contribution to the region is still part of the Southern landscape.

When a Jewish friend of mine from the north side of Chicago recently had an opportunity to travel in the South, he was amazed to learn that the South was not the land of anti-Semitism, as the media-dominated northern urban culture had led him to believe. He was also surprised to discover how much evidence of early Jewish influence in the South still remains.

Of course, I recommended that he read The Jewish Confederates to help him put it all into perspective. It really shows that many Jewish men and women were proud citizens of the Confederacy.

Some of the details presented make it clear that many of these brave soldiers of the Confederacy were very serious about their faith and culture. A portion of the book that detail the way the Jewish soldiers were allowed the opportunity to celebrate their holidays was especially enlightening.

It took a lot of courage on the part of Robert N. Rosen to write such a book. In a day and age when many people arrogantly display their ignorance by equating the Confederate flag with racism, Rosen should be considered national hero for having the guts to bring the world the truth.

If it were up to me, Rosen's The Jewish Confederates would be required reading for any program on "multiculturalism." It would also be required reading for every liberal history professor who teaches the era of the War Between the States.

Seven Score and Three Years Ago
First, I commend Robert Rosen for his dedication to this subject and for publishing this work. I am sure that it ought to be as controversial as recent books (and film) showing dedication of Blacks to the Southern Cause for Independence. I recall as a child watching the march on Montgomery, the seat of the first Confederate Capitol, before it was moved to Richmond. And had it remained in Montgomery, what then?

Mr. Rosen, an attorney, is clear with his research. Anyone who might wonder why Jews would fight for the Confederacy, or Blacks for that matter, will find this fascinating. Jews from South Carolina, from Louisiana, many of German or Spanish (Sephardic) heritage, were there. I hope that more books, and personal accounts, will follow, from groups whose support for the rights of the States to determine their destinies will be forthcoming. We must learn from history.

Anyone who would hope to understand what it means to be an American should have this book on the shelf, and read it. To paraphrase Shelby Foote, before this war, the United States could only be conceived of as a plurality, after, a singularity. Yet today, we are no doubt in danger of falling into an abyss of pluralism that threatens any kind of national identity. Yet Irishmen fought one another--at Fredericksburg, and elsewhere--as did Jews, and Blacks, and Hispanics--across stone walls at point-blank range, leaving a legacy of maiming of soul and flesh. We have only to look back 3 score years to the bloodbath of Europe to see we are not yet free.

Jews fought for home and hearth, "Pro Aris et Pro Focis"--a common Latin phrase embroidered on flags North and South. In the American South, many Jews found that was worth fighting for against an invasion from afar. That experience unites them with us, today.

Most highly recommended for scholarship and readability!

It's About Time
Wonderful! I'm a Southern Jewish man who's very proud of his heritage, and I used this book when I was doing research for a paper I presented in October. First, the word needs to be spread that there was a Jewish Confederacy. (When I presented, my audience seemed amazed about this. And I might add that the paper was well-received.) Second, overall, Southern Jews were not that much different from other Rebels. No, they weren't all rich boys who could buy their way out of fighting. Third, it's too bad that certain Southern Jews have been omitted in U.S. history classes. I can't remember reading about or hearing about Judah Benjamin in high school or in college. This is a fascinating work for both Jews and non-Jews, and it's a beautiful book as well.

A Cornerstone Book for Future Studies in this Area
This outstanding work is highly recommended. It shatters previous myths and misunderstandings about Jewish life in the old South and during the War for Southern Independence commonly called the "Civil War" by northern historians. Rosen has exhaustively covered the source material and brought to light information and facts that have been buried with the passage of time. This book will be the foundation starting point for any legitimate historical inquiry into this area for decades to come. The book is well printed, well illustrated, and a pleasure to behold and would make an outstanding addition to any library.

An illuminating book
Robert Rosen has put together a masterfully written book about a generally unknown element of Jewish and Southern history. He provides and indepth account of the contributions of Jewish soldiers and citizens to the Conferedate war effort, as well as a look into the life of Judah P. Benjamin, a Jewish senetor from Lousianna who went on to become Jefferson Davis' right hand man. Rosen also provides a description of Jewish settlement and life in the Old South, as well as a look into the relationship between Jewish and Christian Southerners. A must read for those who are interested in Jewish or Southern history. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Acclaimed in Germany and England, this tragic and remarkable real-life love story won a Lambda Literary Award when it was first published in America in 1995. Lilly Wust ("Aimée") was a conventional middle-class mother of four, estranged from her philandering husband, when she met Felice Schragenheim ("Jaguar") in 1941. Their passionate affair unfolded against the backdrop of the deportation of Jews from Berlin, but several months passed before Felice could even bring herself to tell Lilly that she was Jewish and living illegally on the streets. "I knew, of course, what it meant," Lilly recalled in old age. "Not for a moment did I think that I too could be in danger. On the contrary, all I wanted to do now was to save her." Lilly's heroic efforts to conceal and protect Felice through the next two years make for painful and inspiring reading. Felice was arrested in August 1944 and sent her last letter to Lilly four months later. In 1981 Lilly was awarded the German Federal Service Cross, though no one could read this as a happy ending. --Regina Marler ... Read more

Reviews (17)

not what I anticipated, still worth the time
I came to the book after seeing the film a few times since it's release. Erica Fischer is not a lesbian and indeed her angle on the book is more historical. There is a distance the author keeps in reporting their feelings for one another. I got the feeling from reading the book that to focus more on the passion would perhaps trivialize the plight of Jews for Erica Fischer. The letters and quotes held great interest for me. And after adjusting to the fact that the narrative would feel a little cold and dry, I also found the backround information quite interesting. I did feel that there was a lack of objectivity on the authors part. But then we all have our particular perspective through which we see the world. Hers is as a Berlin heterosexual Jew. If you are a lesbian who has assumed the author is a lesbian and came to the book looking for a full bodied love story, there is an adjustment to make. You might want to skip the epilouge or at least brace yourself. This is the part of the book that I felt was inappropriate. Erica Fischer told me that more information has come forward since this English translation, and can be found in the later German version. This information helps further explain some of the obvious distaste she still holds for Lili. All said, this is a thought provoking book, though not a scintillating love story. I am thankful to the author for the enormous amount of research that went into this book and do recommend it.

Recommended but with reservations
I'm not entirely sure what the author's purpose was in writing this book, because it certainly wasn't approache