Another holocaust story from a different angle/perspective. I read through the book quickly. The names were difficult to pronounce. Thank goodness for the genealogy in the back of the book. How difficult to be caught in a world in a time where whichever way you try to go you are treated as the enemy, and to stay still is to be caught in the crosshairs. It made me aware of the determination, the will to live, the hard work it took for the people of Europe to pull themselves, their homelands, their faiths, out of the destruction that the war created. I have to wonder if I would have survived under those conditions. So many hundreds of thousands of innocent people didn't. In the midst of it all their were people who held on and people who helped those who held on. I visited Germany twice, once in the winter and once in the summer. There was little if any trace of the destruction from the war in the areas I visited. But buildings are not everything. There are surely deep scars on the hearts and souls of the people. Part of my heritage is German, on my grandfather's side. I would hope that my ancestors were part of the good ones.
Because I am teaching a class that is partially on the Holocaust, I've been doing a lot of Holocaust reading lately- especially memoirs and biographies of survivors. This book was a nice edition, though not nearly as well written as some of the others. I found it to be unduly repetitive at times (especially the inserted notes) and to lack depth. On the other hand, that is understandable, since it is told from the perspective of a child for much of it. Conversely, a good editor should have done better to reduce at least the repetition.
I always struggled with the names. Not with the pronunciation, so much, as with the changed names of towns and even of people. It was hard to follow. I think this was, in large part, due to the number of languages the journals were written in. Can you imagine speaking that many languages at that age? And most Americans shudder to learn just one other language.
I agree with much of what you said about the survivors. It is hard to imagine living in that situation.
I also saw little evidence of the devastation in Germany. I saw more in Poland, where there are still areas that have not been built up and buildings that are scarred from the war.
One of the concepts we talk about in my class is cumulative heroism. In Germany, while there is widespread recognition and acknowledgement of the devastation brought by Nazi Germans (and Austrians), most people believe that their grandparents were "the good ones". In fact, one study showed that even when the grandparents tell their grandchildren what they did, the grandchildren have a tendency to whitewash it and remember only the good things (or less bad things) that their grandparents did. Understandable, but not very realistic.
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Another holocaust story from a different angle/perspective. I read through the book quickly. The names were difficult to pronounce. Thank goodness for the genealogy in the back of the book. How difficult to be caught in a world in a time where whichever way you try to go you are treated as the enemy, and to stay still is to be caught in the crosshairs. It made me aware of the determination, the will to live, the hard work it took for the people of Europe to pull themselves, their homelands, their faiths, out of the destruction that the war created. I have to wonder if I would have survived under those conditions. So many hundreds of thousands of innocent people didn't. In the midst of it all their were people who held on and people who helped those who held on. I visited Germany twice, once in the winter and once in the summer. There was little if any trace of the destruction from the war in the areas I visited. But buildings are not everything. There are surely deep scars on the hearts and souls of the people. Part of my heritage is German, on my grandfather's side. I would hope that my ancestors were part of the good ones.
Because I am teaching a class that is partially on the Holocaust, I've been doing a lot of Holocaust reading lately- especially memoirs and biographies of survivors. This book was a nice edition, though not nearly as well written as some of the others. I found it to be unduly repetitive at times (especially the inserted notes) and to lack depth. On the other hand, that is understandable, since it is told from the perspective of a child for much of it. Conversely, a good editor should have done better to reduce at least the repetition.
I always struggled with the names. Not with the pronunciation, so much, as with the changed names of towns and even of people. It was hard to follow. I think this was, in large part, due to the number of languages the journals were written in. Can you imagine speaking that many languages at that age? And most Americans shudder to learn just one other language.
I agree with much of what you said about the survivors. It is hard to imagine living in that situation.
I also saw little evidence of the devastation in Germany. I saw more in Poland, where there are still areas that have not been built up and buildings that are scarred from the war.
One of the concepts we talk about in my class is cumulative heroism. In Germany, while there is widespread recognition and acknowledgement of the devastation brought by Nazi Germans (and Austrians), most people believe that their grandparents were "the good ones". In fact, one study showed that even when the grandparents tell their grandchildren what they did, the grandchildren have a tendency to whitewash it and remember only the good things (or less bad things) that their grandparents did. Understandable, but not very realistic.
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