Warrior’s Song
by Thomas Hill
Warrior’s Song, the first in a four-part fictional series by Thomas Hill, studies the life of twenty year-old Parker Shaw. Shaw is a descendent of the famous Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who commanded the first black regiment of the U.S. Army in the Civil War (made famous in the Edward Zwick film, Glory). This novel explores Shaw’s coming-of-age struggle with identity, family, purpose and career goals. The novel begins on the campus of The University of Virginia in April 2001 and it ends with the airplane hijackings and bombings of September 11, 2001.
In a strangely vivid dream, Shaw finds himself a Native American warrior pursued and murdered by a group of white men. Like a splinter in his mind, the dream drives Shaw to discover his connection with the murdered Native American. With a friend, he travels to the American Southwest in search of the dream’s meaning. In this quest, he encounters a man who provides some perspective and direction. Shaw seeks a powerful revelation of the person he is supposed to be. In return, he is served nuggets of insight and enigma, bound together by a common thread of purpose.
Like so many college students, Shaw is torn between his father’s dream for his future and his own uncertainty. Shaw’s intellectual self-exploration provides the foundation of this novel. Hill sprinkles the novel’s dialog with references to the fundamentals of a liberal arts education, including American history, science, psychology, sociology and philosophy. At first, these references seem unrelated. However, Hill winds them together in an increasingly pertinent existential rationale. Elemental to this exploration are concepts of the human soul, reincarnation and the integration of purpose, fulfilled as a result of Hill’s use of nuance and association.
Shaw finds within ephemeral out-of body experiences a fleeting but poignant insight. He has grown psychologically, as the boundaries of time and purpose become increasingly clear. He comes to the conclusion that by understanding his past (including a past life) and by deriving insight from the contrasting parts of his personality, he will become a more fulfilled adult. No doubt this insight will serve Shaw well in the next three segments of the series.
Hill is a cogent and descriptive writer. In this initial portion of the series, he provides a clear and descriptive foundation for the rest of Shaw’s journey. Hill brings to life the eternal coming-of-age struggle for self concept and purpose. If this novel is lacking in any aspect it would be in the fleeting perspectives of secondary personalities. Of course, brevity of purpose pushes the novelist to be concise and Hill will have the opportunity to explore more profound character development in the succeeding chapters of this fascinating series.
Charles S. Weinblatt
Author, Jacob’s Courage
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Rasputin and the Jews
By Delin Colon
Publisher – CreateSpace
Web site: www.createspace.com/3584659
www.amazon.com/gp/product/1461027756
Publication: April, 2011
ISBN 1461027756
ISBN-13: 978-1461027751
110 Pages – Paperback
Genre: Non-fiction
Sub-Genres: History, Jewish History
Reviewed by: Charles S. Weinblatt
Grigory Rasputin was a spiritual advisor to the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia and their family. In the tumultuous months and years after the fall of the Great Russian Empire, many versions of history were written. Yet all of them include, in one way or another, the tale of the great “Rasputin.” Even his enemies categorized Rasputin as a powerful historical figure of Russia in the early twentieth century. And while vilified by some historians, many other more academic and empirical examples of historical research reveal Rasputin’s role as a contemporary activist for equal rights. It was popular more than a hundred years ago in Russia to mistrust and hate Jews. Therefore, much of the writing that we find from that time places Rasputin in disrepute, since he pushed the Tsar to help Jews, but his opponents, who hated Jews, wrote the history books of the time. But not all of history is eventually written by the victorious or powerfully possessed element of that society. And certainly not all of what they wrote is an accurate characterization of figures foundational to those times.
This exposition explores the insidious foundations of prejudice against Jews in Russia at the turn of the twentieth century and Rasputin’s prodigious efforts to combat it. Although not a Jew himself, Rasputin fought for the rights of Jews with all of his faculties and abilities. In this book, we are treated to examples of Rasputin’s unyielding relationship with the Tsar and perhaps in greater depth with the Tsar’s wife. As a highly spiritual man, Rasputin despised all forms of prejudice and bigotry. During the period of his adult life, the single greatest violation of human rights in Russia was delivered against Jews. The popular trend at that time would have been to decry Jews. Instead, Rasputin defended them.
Rasputin and the Jews contains examples, stories, references, pictures and illustrations that bring the heartbreaking existence of early twentieth century Russian Jews to life in a powerful way not recently experienced. It delivers the magnitude of anti-Jewish prejudice throughout Russia, offering well-researched examples of why so many people throughout that time found it convenient to hate Jews.
Colon carefully examined the state of anti-Semitism in an age when Russian Jews were forced to be second-class citizens. Jews in early twentieth century Russia lived in the shadow of their ancestor’s extermination; from the Crusades to the Spanish Inquisition, from The Reformation and the English Expulsion, to the rise of Russian pogroms against innocent Jewish families, the Jews defended by Rasputin had for centuries been battered, beaten, enslaved, deprived, made despicable and forced into a life of subservience. Centuries of intolerance produced the Diaspora, in which Jews fled from extermination. In Russia, Jews were arbitrarily charged with ritual murder and blood libel and the Talmud was universally attacked by Christians, as well as leading political figures. Jews were almost universally oppressed and degraded. Violent pogroms against Jewish towns and villages were increasingly common, as my 102-year-old mother can still recall. Only Rasputin, and a few other brave souls, fought for the rights of innocent Jews. The examples of this are carefully delineated by Colon in Rasputin and the Jews.
Rasputin and the Jews is a powerful illustration of Russian prejudice – a tool for students of Russian history, Jewish history and the psychology of oppression and bigotry. Colon’s cogent examination of the relationship between Russian anti-Semitism and Rasputin’s forceful defense of Jews explains with eloquence the magnitude of illogical hatred of Russian Jews and the powerful influence of Russian anti-Semitism, much of which remains today – more than a hundred years later. Had we wished for any improvement in this book’s goal, it would have been to broaden the breadth and depth of research citations. Colon relies heavily upon the surviving notes of Rasputin’s Jewish secretary, Aron Simanovitch. A jeweler by trade, Simanovitch left copious notes behind for his progeny and for contemporary researchers. This constitutes the bulk of Colon’s research foundation. While many other Russian figures were cited, Simanovitch remains the person central to this book’s allegations. The book would have benefitted from a greater profundity of empirical and anecdotal references. At the same time, we understand that few contemporary individuals have provided a lucid analysis of these events, having had a first person relationship to them.
That being said, Colon’s dissertation remains a cogent analysis of virulent Russian anti-Semitism of the early twentieth century and of Rasputin’s obdurate effort to combat this prejudice with the Tsar, his family and with various levels of Russian military and political leadership. It is a brief but well-written exposition on Rasputin.
Charles S. Weinblatt
Author, Jacob’s Courage
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A Convenient Hatred: The History of Anti-Semitism
By Phyllis Goldstein
Publisher – Facing History and Ourselves
November 10, 2011
ISBN 10: 0981954383
ISBN-13: 978-0981954387
432 Pages
Genre: Non-fiction
Sub-Genres: History, Historical Study, Social History
Reviewed by: Charles S. Weinblatt
A Convenient Hatred, with forward by Sir Harold Evans, chronicles the evolution of anti-Semitism, from the time of Alexander through the Holocaust and modern Israel. This powerful treatise explores with exquisite detail the pernicious foundations of bigotry against Jews, from ancient times through the dark ages, the enlightenment and into contemporary examples. This book could just as easily been called “A Convenient History,” as it illustrates the magnitude of anti-Jewish vitriol, loathing and detestation over the ages, leading to a unique and mendacious version of history that blames Jews for impossibly disparate and disconnected unfortunate events and catastrophes.
Goldstein has produced a masterful exposition of the vulnerability of Jews throughout history, how malicious pagan and Christian leaders exploited the Jewish people and she addresses the unending value of education within Jewish culture, a trait that has served them well for dozens of centuries. That Jews have been able to survive at all seem miraculous, considering the fact that until recently, Jews were largely forbidden from owning land and property, from most skilled occupations, including crafts and guilds, and were forced to take up the most distasteful occupation among Christians – money lending.
A Convenient Hatred is a profoundly authoritative resource for educators. Its examples, stories, references, maps, pictures and illustrations bring the history of the Jews to life in a powerful way not experienced since James Michener’s The Source – a work of fiction. It communicates the magnitude of anti-Jewish prejudice throughout the centuries, offering well-researched examples of why so many people throughout time have found it convenient to hate Jews. A Convenient Hatred belongs in every high school history classroom globally. With impeccable references and well-researched examples, Goldstein has created a tour de force.
Goldstein carefully examines the origins of anti-Semitism, in an age when Jews were forced from their ancestral homes and temples in ancient Israel to Europe and Asia. She methodically details the separation of Jews from Christians, leading to centuries of Jewish slavery, incarceration and extermination during the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, The Reformation and the English Expulsion. The rise of the Islamic empire and holy wars are also carefully explored. Centuries of intolerance produced the Diaspora, in which Jews fled to safe haven in places far and wide, but were again faced with extermination when blamed for the Black Death (plague) across Europe. This marked a period in which Jews were charged with ritual murder and blood libel and the Talmud was universally attacked by Christians and Muslims. Jews were almost universally oppressed during the dark ages. They sought reprieve in places as disparate as Poland and the Ottoman Empire. But for hundreds of years, Jews remained ostracized, antagonized, isolated and murdered.
The ages of enlightenment and nationalism are painstakingly explored by Goldstein. She proffers “the power of publicity” as a tool used by anti-Semites to attack and condemn Jews in a prolific manner.
The same level of discriminating detail continues in an examination of anti-Semitism in Renaissance France and Russia, continuing into the age of nationalism and World War I. Goldstein carefully describes the consistent deleterious effect of anti-Jewish propaganda in incongruent Renaissance societies, France being democratic and Russia communist. The age of written communication via printing presses almost immediately delivered anti-Semitic books, such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, one of the most significant attacks upon Jews. She describes Hitler’s rise to power largely upon the backs of Jews, through propaganda and putsches by the proletariat against Germany’s Jewish population. She describes the “turning point” in 1941, with the Nazi establishment of the “final solution to the Jewish question.”
Finally, Goldstein adroitly illustrates anti-Semitism after the Holocaust, throughout the Cold War and into contemporary society, which she calls, “a convenient hatred.” Here, nationalism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism collide in a perfect storm of bigotry and persecution. The result of this collision is a brainwashing of impoverished youth, the economically and socially oppressed and the politically disadvantaged, resulting in a unified hatred of all things Jewish, especially Israel. Goldstein calls to mind a speech by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, in which he states that we cannot judge contemporary Germans for the genocide perpetrated by their ancestors. At the same time, all Germans can be held accountable for preserving the memory of the Holocaust – for its link from past to future holds in the balance the potential for all humanity, for the survival of the human spirit and the destiny of the Jewish people.
A Convenient Hatred is a powerful contemporary masterpiece of history and a superb illustration of prejudice – a groundbreaking educational tool and an indispensable textbook for students of history, anthropology, psychology and sociology. Goldstein’s lucid and cogent examination of the history of anti-Semitism is a seminal work, explaining with lucidity the magnitude of illogical hatred and its influence against Jews over the centuries.
Charles S. Weinblatt
Author, Jacob’s Courage
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THE ARROGANT YEARS
By Lucette Lagnano
HarperCollins Publishers
September 6, 2011
ISBN-10: 0061803677
ISBN-13: 978-0061803673
385 Pages
Genre: Fiction
Sub-Genre: Memoir
The Arrogant Years is the poignant and touching story of a Jewish family’s strength against a myriad of obstacles, from prominence in Egypt to obscurity in America, from wealthy to working class, from illness to heath, from Brooklyn to Vassar and beyond. Lagnano proffers a tale of how her mother was accepted into the highest echelon of Egyptian society, and later lowered to the status of the unwanted. This memoir is a vivid and evocative portrait of a family’s struggle against discrimination. The author’s dramatic personal account presents the experience of growing up as a minority in a majority Muslim land. Later, as a young liberal Jewish woman in 1960’s America, Lagnano battles against cancer and against bias from within her own religious community.
Lagnano gave us The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, an expansive portrait of her father in a struggle against massive prejudice in Egypt and his effort to rebuild the family in America. In this new memoir, she delivers the powerful story of her mother, Edith, in a magical Egyptian carpet ride of audacity and faith. A beautiful, bright and sensitive woman, Edith must deal with a host of pitfalls and travails. This is a tale of pashas and princesses, of Jews dining with Egyptian royalty; and it is a tale of sadness and frustration as the former life is wiped away by circumstance and an inappropriate marriage. Later, it becomes the story of a young American daughter who resists the traditional tenants of Orthodox Judaism in favor of women’s liberation and a burning need to assimilate into contemporary American culture.
Through Edith, Lagano introduces us to a stunning Golden Age of Cairo, when Egyptian Jews can hold prestigious positions within the royal Egyptian family. Befriending the Pasha’s wife, Edith becomes loyal teacher and librarian to the first family. Here, Lagnado delivers a touching and tender examination of Edith’s powerful reach in an Egypt long bereft of equality and egalitarianism.
It is also the story of young Lagnano in America, who rebels against the strict paternal statutes of Orthodox Judaism. Here we find a young woman of the American 1960’s bursting with passion for equality and human rights. In violating the orthodox synagogue section designated only for men, Lagnado publicly expresses her courage and commitment to gender equity.
Locked together by the author, past and present radiate in this fervent tale of achievement, abandonment, influence and rejection. Edith falls from grace and from a desperate and unrewarding marriage. The family falls from bumping heads with aristocracy to searching for safety and security. From the palace halls of Cairo to the tenement halls of Brooklyn, this is a saga of constant striving, eternal love and adoration and a restless pursuit for social equality. In the end, after assimilating into American culture, after fighting for her mother’s care in a nursing home, Lagnano reaches into her past to find a sense of security and warmth lacking in her contemporary life.
Lagnado is a dazzling and expressive writer. We are enveloped by a family’s yearning for success and its fall from grace, by its love and endearment and by a complex and changing world. Lagnado’s tender reflection upon her mother’s life in Egypt, as well as her own maturity in Brooklyn, makes The Arrogant Years breathtaking and gripping.
Charles S. Weinblatt
Author, Jacob’s Courage
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By Alex Kershaw
The Envoy is Alex Kershaw’s testimonial to Raul Wallenberg and his campaign to save the Jews of Hungary from extermination by Nazi Germany in 1944.
Bestselling author Kershaw dramatically pulls the reader into the diabolical campaign of Adolf Eichmann to send more than 250,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. With the nail-biting suspense of a winning novelist, Kershaw uses solid research and anecdotal data to show how it felt to be just one step ahead of the SS and their cruel Hungarian proxies, the Arrow Cross.
Based on the latest information from survivors, international archives, personal interviews, and multiple records, The Envoy is a brilliant examination of the rescue of Hungarian Jews near the end of the Holocaust, led by the brave Swiss diplomat, Raul Wallenberg. Kershaw gives the reader a fiery collection of facts as explained in detail by survivors and records, woven into a thrilling and detailed account of Wallenberg’s courageous efforts to save thousands Jewish families from certain death.
Kershaw’s meticulous research opens a comprehensive analysis of Adolph Eichmann and his desperate need to fulfill Hitler’s command to make Europe Judenrien. We learn that the chain-smoking Nazi leader was compelled to do anything that would endear himself to The Fuehrer. In this case, it was the destruction of the Jews of Hungary. Kershaw describes how Eichmann poured himself into the task with gusto.
By 1944, most of the Jews of Europe had already been shot and buried or gassed to death in Nazi death camps. Only the Jewish families of Hungary remained alive. Eichmann’s job was to send them as quickly as possible to Auschwitz, for Special Treatment. In April and May, Eichmann increased the evacuation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz to an estimated rate of 12,000 per day. When trains and trucks had been commandeered to the front lines, Eichmann forced innocent Jewish men, women and children onto a terrifying death march. Kershaw deftly employs interviews and recorded data, bringing to life some of the most tormenting and frightening moments of this march.
At that time, the world had begun to discover the vast persecution and genocide of European Jews by Nazi Germany. Upon learning that the Jews of Hungary were about to be exterminated, President Roosevelt ordered diplomat Iver Olson to Stockholm, to intervene. Because Sweden was officially neutral in WWII, only their diplomats could go to Hungary to provide protection for Jews.
Olson named a tall, 32-year-old Swedish diplomat named Raul Wallenberg for the position. The affluent Wallenberg, whose academic credentials came from The University of Michigan, was fluent in German, Hungarian and Russian. His mission was to save as many of Hungary’s Jews as possible by providing them with Swedish protection papers, called a “Shutzpass.” He also financed the purchase of 32 safe houses, protected as Swedish property. He put up signs such as “The Swedish Library” and “The Swedish Research Institute” on their doors and hung oversize Swedish flags on the front of the buildings to bolster the deception. Into these safe houses poured the lifeblood of Hungarian Jewish families. Most Jews caught outside of a safe house were sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Others were shot by the Hungarian Arrow Cross, their bodies dumped into the Danube.
Together with Swedish diplomat Per Anger, Wallenberg distributed thousands of protective passports and bribed hundreds Hungarian officials. In doing so, at the danger of his own life, Wallenberg defied Eichmann and the brutal Hungarian Arrow Cross. Tens of thousands of Shutzpass papers were created; the lucky recipients were boarded in Wallenberg’s Budapest safe houses. There was little food, heat or water. Most buildings had been deprived of electricity through massive Allied bombings. Survivors hid in scorching attics, froze in damp, cramped basements and at every moment faced arrest and deportation to Auschwitz, or summary execution. Parents watched in horror as their children caught outside a safe house were shot. But thousands of Wallenberg Jews remained alive through his courage and determination.
Two days before the Russian Army occupied Budapest, Wallenberg negotiated with Eichmann to cancel a final effort to organize a death march of the remaining Jews in Budapest by threatening to have him prosecuted for war crimes once the war was over. Then, as Budapest was liberated by Russia, Wallenberg traveled to meet with the leading Russian general, in order to negotiate fair treatment of his Jews. Wallenberg was arrested by Russian authorities and sent to Moscow. He then disappeared completely.
If there is a portion of The Envoy that leaves the reader disappointed it is the lack of data about Wallenberg after he was detained by Russia. Could Kershaw have dug a little deeper? Perhaps this will be the subject of a future work. The photographs at the end of the book enhance the depth of the story. Yet we are left to wonder what really happened to this wonderful, courageous man after his arrest by Soviet Russia.
As many as 100,000 Wallenberg Jews survived and perhaps one million of their progeny are alive today because of his resolve and courage. Kershaw’s brilliant effort is one that should be read by everyone who values freedom, tolerance and liberty. Named a “Righteous Person” by Israel, generations will live on because of Wallenberg’s courage. Alex Kershaw has delivered a masterpiece about Raul Wallenberg, as witnessed from every perspective.
Reviewer Charles Weinblatt is the author of the young adult novel, Jacob’s Courage: A Holocaust Love Story (Mazo Publishers).
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THE WARSAW ANAGRAMS BY RICHARD ZIMLER
By Richard Zimler
The Warsaw Anagrams is a fast-moving, powerful and intellectual murder mystery set within wartime Warsaw Poland during World War II.
Author Richard Zimler carries the reader deep into the daily life of Jews trapped within the horrific Nazi genocide. His striking portrayal of diverse characters is poignant and touching. Mr. Zimler proffers a salient and tender examination of the courage and fortitude exhibited by imprisoned Jews seeking only to survive one day at a time, layered upon a striking murder mystery filled with deception and intrigue. His knowledge of history is surpassed only by his clarity of literary purpose.
In 1940, Nazi Germany forced 400,000 Polish Jews into a dilapidated ghetto in Warsaw. Living in squalor, the Warsaw ghetto Jews began to die. In 1941, Dr. Erik Cohen, an elderly Jewish psychiatrist returns to Warsaw after being interned in a Nazi concentration camp. He befriends a man named Heniek Corben. Erik unfurls a murder mystery both heinous and complex. Jewish children in the ghetto had been murdered. Worse yet, someone removed a portion of the murdered children’s bodies. Erik confides that the ritualistic murder of Jewish children that took place several months earlier included his beloved great-nephew, Adam.
Corben gradually realizes that he is the only person able to see Erik. Portions of the psychiatrist’s story do not add up. Erik used anagrams for the names of his friends and family. He also portrayed himself as a secular Jew. Yet portions of his tale resemble ritualistic Judaism, including Kabbalah.
Through Erik’s eyes, we learn the abject terror of living as a Jew in a Nazi-controlled ghetto. A sordid tale of murder and mystery gradually appears. Erik lived with his niece and her bright, sensitive and loving son, Adam. The bond between boy and great-uncle intensifies. Erik loves Adam like a son. When the boy’s murdered body turns up with a missing portion, Erik transforms from a mild-mannered psychiatrist to an aggressive investigator. He interviews one person after another, following a trail of deceit and surreptitious behavior.
Erik is joined by his lifelong friend, Izzy. Relying upon each others’ strengths, they follow the trail of intrigue, coming ever closer to knowing the identity of the murderer. As life in the Warsaw ghetto deteriorates, Erik and Izzy close in on the murderers. Woven into the story are well-developed characters, playing their part in the grand deception.
Mr. Zimler, an accomplished novelist, brings to life evocative characters via controlled and convincing prose. His protagonists and the other primary characters are intense and expressive. They provoke profundity and passion. Erik is commanding and persuasive. The reader never seems to lose hold upon reality, despite Corben’s casual observation that the psychiatrist might be an angel.
The pace of this novel is steady and intense. The reader gradually observes signs and symbols pointing to the horrific perpetrators of this ritualistic murder of Jewish children. Mr. Zimler provides layer after layer of intrigue and excitement. This is not simply a novel about the Holocaust. It is a murder mystery that will challenge the reader to uncover a frightening truth within a world turned upside down by war and genocide.
Other Reviews by Charles Weinblatt include
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By Andrea Alban
Anya’s War is a tender coming-of-age tale of a Jewish girl whose family escaped to Shanghai from the impending Nazi takeover of their home in Russia.
Fourteen year-old Anya Rosen’s father believed that China would be a safe reprieve for Jews escaping from Hitler’s vow to punish the Jewish people. Although the characters are fictional, the story is real and based upon the author’s ancestors.
Ms. Alban’s compelling characters elucidate the very real terror of Jews living in China during the early years of the Holocaust. Anya’s War is rich with metaphor and reality, a powerful combination during an explosive era of world war and genocide. Ms. Alban delivers a persuasive dose of a dichotomous society where timeless class structure results in domination of the wealthy over the poor. Anya was raised in a moderately wealthy family in Odessa, which was transformed into an upper-class family in China. She soon became immersed within a culture that included suffering, yet devoted servants and the condescending wealthy.
Anya arrives as a typical adolescent, filled with curiosity, plans within plans and a burgeoning interest in boys. Like many adolescent girls of the time, Anya has natural heroes. She greatly admires Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt. She also plans to live in The United States and become a physician, like her aunt. Like all teenagers, Anya fights with her parents. She is especially defiant with her dominating mother, who has other plans for Anya’s career. At the same time, Anya explores deepening feelings for a boy in her class at school.
Woven into Anya’s life are her doting parents, grandparents, brother, friends, and servants. Except for her parents, these characters possess rudimentary depth. Yet, the events and circumstances surrounding Anya are described with delightful depth. Ms. Alban’s descriptions of life in China are terrific, and she pulls the reader along with vibrant flow and intensity.
Because she lives in relative wealth and attends the Jewish school in Shanghai, the morass of subjugation, starvation, and hopelessness prevalent among Chinese remains just below Anya’s radar. Anya races around Shanghai in her bicycle, visiting friends and running errands. She has a new camera which she uses to take pictures along her way. Anya takes advantage of her newly-acquired ability to bargain with sellers in the market.
One day, Anya discovers a discarded newborn girl in a basket. She brings the baby home, to the horror of the entire household. Anya immediately loves and cares for the abandoned child. She is determined to keep the baby and proffers the child a name. At the same time, her father brings home a new Jewish family in Shanghai, including a boy who sweeps Anya off her feet.
One day, Anya’s younger brother follows her on an unapproved trip into Shanghai, during which a Chinese bomber accidentally drops bombs upon the city. The resulting disaster leaves Anya’s brother seriously injured. Alone and deeply frightened, Anya must find a way to save her brother’s life.
Ms. Alban brings to light that mystifying, confusing time of life in which Anya is neither child nor adult, but some stage in between. This story becomes an exploration of adolescent desire and passion, a newfound freedom chained with responsibility, underpinned by the desire to remain a part of a nurturing, loving family.
Alban’s writing style is structured, cogent and evocative. Her protagonist and the primary characters are entertaining, well developed and delivered with expressive dialogue. They induce depth and fervor. Anya’s character is powerful and seductive. One can feel her empathy, defiance, curiosity and passion. However, the secondary characters are less well developed, leaving the reader with a somewhat murky sense of their personality features. The family’s Jewish identity is carefully elucidated through the manner in which they honor the Sabbath, observe holidays, recall the past and enjoy valued traditions. Interspersed in the dialogue are Yiddish words used to convey more expressive meaning.
Anya’s War is a powerful novel of cultures, adolescent emotions, aspiration, passion, fear and anticipation. Within it, we glimpse wartime China, its deep-seated traditions, structures, classes and beauty. Ms. Alban also delivers the devastation, anxiety and terror of war. Here we find a bright, expressive teenager named Anya, who is struggling to become an independent young adult, learning valuable life lessons from venerable servants, friends and family. The pace of this novel increases exponentially, with an explosive conclusion.
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By Paul Dowsdell
“The Auslander is a powerful piece of young adult fiction that appeals just as comfortably to adult readers.”
Paul Dowswell proffers an intriguing young adult novel of a Polish boy’s experiences in the Hitler Youth program, his gradual recognition of the inherent evil in Nazi philosophy, and his brave actions to deter it. Mr. Dowswell provides a wonderful character study of an average Polish boy searching for the resolve to fight Nazi propaganda and help victims of persecution.
As the story begins, Piotr’s parents are killed in their car when it is destroyed by a German tank. Piotr is sent to an orphanage in Warsaw. Suddenly removed from his parents’ love and their comfortable family farm, Piotr is a destitute orphan, left to fend for himself just as his adolescent years begin. Author Dowswell offers a wealth of colorful images and allegory, as the reader begins to experience Piotr’s desperation and sadness.
Feeling abandoned and forlorn, Piotr grows deeply frightened and morose. Upon examination by Nazis, it is determined that Piotr’s blond hair and blue eyes make him emblematic of the pure Aryan boy envisioned by Nazi propagandists. With this in mind, a prominent German family decides to adopt the young Pole. His “new” father is a high level operative in the Nazi Race & Resettlement Bureau.
The entire family is enveloped within the strict culture of Nazi Germany and Aryan superiority. They despise Jews and other “lesser species of humanity.” They merrily hang swastikas on their Christmas tree while millions of innocent people face brutality, starvation, forced labor, and murder in Nazi concentration camps.
Piotr has fallen into a family of rabid Nazis. They change his name from Piotr to “Peter.” He has no choice about it. Peter obeys their austere commands and joins the iconic Hitler Youth, the Hitler Jugend. There, he is taught to detest Jews, Poles, Russians, Communists, and all manner of people proclaimed lower forms of humanity. At first, the propaganda works. But over time, Peter begins to wonder why Nazis are required to hate and incarcerate Jews and other innocents.
Peter gradually begins to question the strict Nazi culture from the viewpoint of an “Auslander,” a foreigner. Mr. Dowswell explores the escalating feelings of a young boy on the verge of being accepted into the bold, new society of Nazi Germany. Here is a story of deep penetrating desire to be accepted by his new family conflicting with the constant feeling that something is not right about the Nazi edicts and its frightening consequences.
In a turning point, Peter falls in love with Anna, a lovely girl whose father is a high-ranking Wehrmacht officer. At first it seems impossible that Peter, whose attitude toward Nazi culture is changing so drastically, could find common ground with such a staunchly Nazi family. But beneath the slick veneer of Anna’s family presence lies an amazing truth: Anna and her parents despise the Nazis. They are helping Jewish families in hiding, doing whatever they can to stop them.
Together, they engage in helping to conceal and feed Jews. Eventually they are discovered. Missing in this portion of the story is any clear definition of the burgeoning physical attraction between Peter and Anna. The reader is left to guess whether their relationship is platonic, sexual or both.
The Auslander will be remembered long after its covers are closed.
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New York Journal of Books Reviews by Charles S. Weinblatt
By Gretel Wachtel and Claudia Strachan
Gretel’s Story is the tale of a young woman living in Hamburg, Germany, during WWII. This memoir of Gretel Wachtel reveals her feelings and thoughts about parts of the devastation of WWII, and about how she experiences the destruction of her beloved city and the beginning of the vast genocide against the Jews in Europe.
Through Ms. Wachtel’s eyes, we feel the devastating results of the constant bombing of Hamburg by the Allies, a stark reminder of the collateral damage and devastation of modern warfare. While we rightfully think of Hitler’s primary civilian victims (Jews, Roma, mentally retarded, homosexuals, political prisoners, etc.) as the real victims of WWII, hundreds of thousands of innocent German citizens also succumbed to the devastation of contemporary warfare, particularly the carpet-bombing of German cities such as Dresden and Hamburg. This perspective forms the central focus of Gretel’s Story.
Ms. Wachtel is a liberal, free thinking young woman who has no fear of speaking her mind—even when it is against Germany’s military conquest over Europe. She makes no bones about abhorring Hitler, Germany’s subjugation mentality, its bigotry, and its hostility toward Jews and other minorities. A careless anti-Nazi comment results in Ms. Wachtel’s forced labor in an ammunition factory; however, she never loses her desire to fight the totalitarian regime. This is the story of a strong young woman who fights hard against social injustice. Ms. Wachtel is open minded in many ways—including her sexual behavior. Eventually, she marries a resistance fighter, although she does not love him. Ms. Wachtel helps a Hamburg priest protect innocent people persecuted by the Gestapo. She begins a series of dangerous humanitarian tasks by hiding her Jewish doctor in her own home. While working for the Wehrmacht, she passes military secrets to the resistance. Her primary motivation in all of her endeavors is to help innocent people placed at peril in Nazi Germany.
Perhaps Ms. Wachtel’s most successful method of survival is to sell blackmarket goods. During the war years, she connects with important figures inside the Third Reich, in her own community of Hamburg, and within the resistance—all of whom are committed to fighting the tyranny of Nazi Germany’s annexation of Europe and the growing genocide. At one point she is supervised by members of the Stauffenberg Hitler assassination plot. In one of the book’s most poignant moments, Ms. Wachtel cares for her family’s Jewish physician who has become a fugitive under Nazi rule. Near the end of the war, in 1945, Ms. Wachtel is sent to an internment camp.
Gretel’s Story is well written, succinct, and concise. Several individuals might have deserved more powerful character development, especially her mother, the Hamburg priest, and the Jewish doctor that she saves (at least temporarily). But the personality of the protagonist is clearly explored. And the circumstances surrounding the devastation of Hamburg by Allied bombing are very clearly established. The reader comes away with some sympathy for the average citizen of Hamburg who saw his or her beloved city flattened by bombing.
However, this book does not address the massive genocide that occurred in Nazi death camps. We hear about, but fail to see evidence of, the murder of European Jews, Roma, the mentally retarded, political prisoners, and others who were remanded to Nazi death camps. One can sense a desire for justice in the author and her colleagues, but the sheer magnitude of genocide in the telling of this story is only hinted at.
Gretel Wachtel, like so many other righteous people, was catapulted into heroic behavior because of extraordinary circumstances. Her strength of character and purpose helped her to defy Nazi dictates that not only led Germany down a path into darkness, but also helped her to save innocent victims of war. Her defiance of the Gestapo and her willingness to serve time in a concentration camp gives Ms. Wachtel special status, similar to others like Oskar Schindler: those who are considered “Righteous among Nations.”
Read the entire review here.
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By Richard MacLeod
Richard MacLeod’s novel of family and love is brimming with well-developed characters, a stirring plot and a thrilling
ending. MacLeod is a gifted writer. The panorama of feelings and experiences in Faces in the Sand reads as an epic novel
– filled with charisma and beauty. Here, we find inviting characters and vivid descriptions. There is nothing dry or sluggish about this novel.
We are quickly immersed within the mind of Portia, a therapist who searches desperately for the true memory of her dying father. MacLeod deftly reveals the warm longing and devotion of a loving daughter and her desperate search for experiences lost and found. Her father, like so many others, was a victim of World War II. After twenty-five years
of absence, Portia searches for meaning in their missing relationship. They had become strangers, absent in a life
of warm wishes. She felt deserted, betrayed and unloved; yet on his deathbed, Portia gently strokes his head, as
she would a dearly-loved child. As she reflects upon her childhood and beyond, MacLeod showers readers with a rich
tapestry of descriptions, layering vivid imagery and metaphor adroitly.
MacLeod’s comprehension of psychology is revealed through Portia as she ruminates over the people parading through her life. It is a tapestry of conceptions; thoughts leading to new ideas, leading to new understanding. Through the eyes of her patients, Portia, a skilled therapist, explores the same vivid feelings of abandonment, fear and desire that she so desperately desires to work out in her own life. Through her father’s old friends and a myriad of letters, her father’s idyllic and heroic life pours out to her. Portia grows through the experience, as do all abandoned children who seek to understand life, love and opportunities lost.
Revealed through letters from Portia’s father in Faces in the Sand is the agony and abject fear of battle via soldiers in World War II. MacLeod explores the terror of battle in North Africa and beyond. But memories became reality and reality fade into conjecture. The ending is shocking and thrilling. No one is who they appeared to be. Reality turns fantasy upside down.
MacLeod explores the feelings of children whose parents are not who they appear to be. In this case, the protagonist has a father who becomes larger than life. Portia’s father is a hero, who deeply loves her, yet fails as a father because of circumstances well beyond his control. Here is a story of lost love, the terror of war and one child who wishes to pull all of the pieces together. The ending is shocking and penetrating.
Faces in the Sand is a powerful piece of fiction that appeals to everyone who has had a mysterious or lost parent or spouse. Life is often far from our expectations or understanding. MacLeod proffers a depth of character penetration within a believable story of war, family, love and lost relationships. This is a book that will remain with the reader for an eternity.
Charles S. Weinblatt
Author, Jacob’s Courage
OTHER BOOKS BY
CHARLES S. WEINBLATT:
http://tiny.cc/kvioa
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