NetGalley ARC | Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is perhaps the most clinically detailed, unflinching, unemotional account of life inside Auschwitz that I have ever read. This likely has to do with the fact that the author was a journalist in his life before being sent to the death camp. I've read countless books over the years, many from survivors, but this one was on a whole different level. I knew so many things on a surface level - the prisoner hierarchy, the German corporations making big money off slave labor, Kanada and Mexico, and so on - but there are so many more details as Debreczeni moved from place to place, job to job, and managed to make it out alive when so many others did not.

After twelve horrifying months in multiple camps doing back-breaking work with very little food, Debreczeni ended up in what was referred to as the "Cold Crematorium" - the "hospital" at his final camp. There, prisoner who could no longer work waited to be executed. As the war was coming to its close in Europe Nazi camp commanders evacuated, leaving the prisoners to die.

The book was published in 1950, but not translated from its original Hungarian until now - nearly lost for all time. This would have been an utter travesty. There can never be too many accounts of the horrors that millions suffered at the hands of the Nazis. Sometimes there is the possibility of something being "lost in translation", but there is no issue here. The author's vivid descriptions of the brutality, the harsh reality of the day-to-day struggle to survive, it all comes through clearly.

All works pertaining to the Holocaust are important, but I feel like this one stands out in its detail. From the moment the author is loaded into the rail car to his liberation twelve months later, every excruciating moment is here. One of the many things I keep coming back to over and over is the many corporations who benefitted from the slave labor of the hundreds of thousands who were deemed useful enough to be worked to death. I knew that this happened, but the sheer number of companies that were involved, and the fact that so many still exist today, is beyond comprehension. I started looking into this independently once I finished the book and found some interesting sites, if you are interested in more information:

https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/bibliographies/labor-camps.html - dozens of books about the topic

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/german-firms-that-used-slave-labor-during-nazi-era - extensive list of company names then and now, location, and slave labor numbers used from which camps

https://listverse.com/2024/09/15/top-10-still-existing-companies-that-supported-the-nazis/ - the ten most recognizable companies still in existence today

I guess I should not be surprised, because there is nothing corporations love more than saving money. Not to mention the fact that after the war, they got to use the excuse that they were forced to by the Nazis and didn't have a choice.

This is a much-needed addition to the plethora of survivor stories we already have. It is a testament to the will to survive against all odds, in the most brutal of conditions.

Highly recommended.

Book Review | Hitler's Last Secretary: A Firsthand Account of Life with Hitler

Rating ⭐⭐

Nope. Nope nope nope.

No on can be that naive. Nope.

I don't give a fuck what Hitler ate for dinner. I give a fuck that millions of men, women, and children were murdered on his orders. I don't care if it was naivety or being caught up in the atmosphere of the world at that time or both. Fuck all the way off.

Book Review | The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is a harrowing, beautiful survival story and one I could not put down. I have read more than my fair share of such stories, but they have typically focused on those who survived the death camps, the death marches, all the cruelty Nazi Germany had to offer. That does not mean there was not cruelty in Edith Hahn's life; she was still surrounded by it every single day.

Hahn grew up in Vienna and was forced to live in a ghetto when the Nazis arrived. From there she was sent to a labor camp for many months. Her sisters had escaped the Nazis, but barely. Yet Edith stayed for her mother and her love, Pepi. He insisted it could not really be that bad. Pepi was Jewish, but his mother had him baptized as a Christian. It made no difference in the end, because he was still Jewish and the baptism was not applicable 'retroactively'. He had to hide for most of the war no matter what - as a Jew, he would be deported to a camp; as a gentile, he would be shot on-sight as a deserter from the army. His mother was also awful and hated Edith because she was Jewish and said the most awful things to her all the time, begging her to 'let Pepi go' so he wouldn't be seen with a Jewish person. I am a little disappointed that his mother survived the war, not going to lie.

But I digress.

While Hahn was held in the labor camp in Germany, her mother sent whatever little comforts she could. Hahn remarked that her mother always sent whatever she herself needed - gloves, cakes, etc. While Edith was away, the ghetto was cleared and her mother was sent off to Poland. Hahn always kept the idea in her head and heart that she would find her mother again, and the family would be reunited. It was never to be however, as her mother was murdered within a week of arrival in Poland. Though Hahn does not find this out until after the war has ended. It is absolutely gut-wrenching because logically you know elderly women were not kept alive to work, but you hold out hope nonetheless.

Hahn's survival eventually came to depend on the very monsters who were hunting her people down. After returning from the labor camp, Hahn was supposed to report to a deportation site. She never did, and spent the remaining years of the war under an assumed name of a Christian friend in a plot that would have seen them both tortured and executed on the spot had either been discovered.

Hahn takes the name of her friend in order to get the necessary papers, and lives as Grete Denner. She lived in Munich after she escaped Vienna and eventually meets a man named Werner Vetter. He is a Nazi and pursues her at all costs. He is in the midst of divorcing his wife he later reveals, and in turn Hahn confesses to being Jewish. Despite his inclination to be in the party of mass murderers, Vetter continues to insist they get married. Hahn worries about the identification papers she does not have, those which prove her family's lineage as "pure Aryan", but in the end they are allowed to wed.

Side note: One of my favorite parts of the book occurs when the war is over and Hahn returns to the office where her papers were accepted so she and Vetter could marry. She needed to do so in order to get identification with her real name this time, finally safe from the Nazis. The same officiant is working in the office and he is shocked and angry to find out she lied, that she is actually Jewish. It was a beautiful little snippet.

I can not imagine living in a state of constant, paralyzing fear. Yet Hahn performs in her role so well, never giving in to that fear. She knows what to do in order to survive, and plays the part of the dutiful German wife. For a long time Vetter resisted the idea of having a child, and his terrible temper worried me for Hahn quite a bit, but she eventually becomes pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl. Of course he is pissed because he wanted a boy. Hahn speaks of refusing any pain meds during Angela's birth, out of fear of what she might say when under their influence.

As the war rolls on and Germany's defeat becomes a foregone conclusion, Vetter is drafted. He had previously escaped this due to the fact that he was legally blind in one eye. He is captured by the Russians in battle and a prisoner for ages, though Hahn uses every professional and political connection she has to free him. You see, before the Nazis came to Vienna, Hahn was studying to become a judge. She'd completed all her classes and only had to take the final exam. Yet the day she showed up to do so, she was turned away (with glee, I might add). After the war she was able to fulfill her goal and become a judge.

It was through these connections she was finally able to get Vetter home, though it did not last long. He still went on and on about her Jewish blood infecting their daughter, which confused me. If the Germans were so superior, shouldn't their blood have been "stronger"? GTFO of here, you Nazi scum, is all I have to say about that.

Hahn eventually leaves Germany for good when the Stasi is growing, and she is repeatedly asked to spy on her friends and acquaintances. Under the guise of visiting her sister in England, Hahn escapes for good. The heartbreaking turn of events means she will never practice law, never sit as a judge again. But she survives, as does her daughter.

Hahn was urged by her daughter to tell her story, and for that I am grateful. here we have a complete record of how one woman was able to do the unthinkable - live opening among the very people who hated her and would have wanted her dead had they known her true identity. I worried throughout the book whenever Vetter was angry, that he would turn her in, but that never happened. They divorced eventually when he went back to his first wife. That didn't last long however, and soon he was divorced again. He'd marry four more times before passing away in 2002.

Hahn kept every single piece of paper she was issued over her years in hiding, and when her daughter discovered these, she convinced her mother to give the photos and documents to the world. They are now part of the permanent collection at the Holocaust Museum in DC.

As memoirs from this period often do, this felt like much more of a conversation between Hahn and myself. I was there only to listen to her incredible tale of survival, to be in awe of a courageous woman who kept going, day after day, never knowing if that dreaded knock at the door in the middle of the night would come.

My only slight issue is the title - it is a bit misleading. Vetter worked for most of the war as a supervisor in a paint factory. He was only sent to fight near the end of the war, something he had avoided previously due to his blindness in one eye. But truly, it doesn't even matter all that much, because Hahn's story is so remarkable. She survived.

Highly recommended.

NetGalley ARC | The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Absolute must-read, right off the bat. I could not put this one down.

The Nine is a book about doing what is right, no matter the cost; about resilience and survival and the bonds of friendship. I would like to think we could all be this brave, but I also hope we never have to find out.

Here the author tells the story of her great aunt Helene's life during World War II and her fellow resistance fighters who would escape the clutches of the Nazis and make an incredibly painful and miraculous journey across Germany and finally return home to Paris.

Prior to their individual captures by the Gestapo, the women did not know one another. All were Resistance fighters who did what needed to be done, because they knew what was happening to the Jewish people was not right. These women did it all - hiding Jewish children, smuggling weapons, sheltering Ally agents who parachuted in behind enemy lines, and more. Anything and everything they could do to fight the Nazis, they did. As they were rounded up and interrogated, tortured, nearly killed, still they did not do anything to endanger the lives of fellow fighters.

After the Gestapo was through with them, the women were sent to various prisons in France where they began to find one another and forge friendships that would ensure their survival - even when things were at their bleakest. The women came to know one another in prison, or in transit from one to another,  then in RavensbrÜck, and finally in Leipzig (a sub-camp of Buchenwald). As the war came to an end and the Nazis were determined to hide their crimes, they marched their prisoners farther into German territory. It would be during that death march that Helene and her friends made their escape.

I could not put this book down. I was captivated from start to finish by this incredible story and the beauty of powerful friendships that came from horrifying events. To not only survive themselves, but to hold one another up at various points when one or another was ready to give up, is astounding. These young women, ranging in ages from 20-29, were determined to make it home and did so due to quick-thinking, courage bordering on insanity at times, and a bit of luck. 

Oh, and it was on foot the entire time.

The author does not shy away from accounts of the torture the women were subjected to and I admit to skimming those parts. However, I don't feel they were gratuitous - I am just a baby with a weak stomach/gag reflex. Yet even within these scenes, the author is careful, treating the subjects with the utmost respect. I think this is important. The farther we get away from The Holocaust, the easier it is for many to put away the images of the horrors that were inflicted on so many.

An aspect of the story from after the war that sparked my interest relates to the idea of the trauma that afflicted the next generation - the children of those who survived. So many survivors remained silent about what they had seen and heard. The author discusses transmission studies done in the 70s on these second-generation survivors and how intergenerational trauma came to be, and how it impacted the children of survivors.. I will definitely be seeking out more information on that topic.

Books like this are so important. There are so many women who took huge risks to do what they knew was right, and we will never know all of their names and faces. While I would love to know more details about their work, that is already all but lost to history. Women especially need to be recognized for all that they did to impact the outcome of the war.

Upon returning to their homes, the women find that France has already moved on. By the time they do make it back across the front, Paris has been liberated for nearly a year. These women become the reminder of something terrible that everyone else would rather forget.

Helene

Zaza

Nicole

Lon

Guigui

Zinka

Josee

Jacky

Mena

We will never forget you.

Highly, highly recommended.

Publisher Gift (via NetGalley) | Prisoners of War: What Monuments to World War II Tell Us about Our History and Ourselves

 

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. (In this case, the publisher contacted me by email, and directed me to NetGalley if I was interested.)

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The importance of this book cannot be overstated. it is a timely look at our relationship with statues dedicated to history. One only has to look at the arguments made against removing confederate statues from public spaces to see the relevance. (Side note: pull all that bullshit down and stick it in a museum, with context, where it belongs. There are no heroes of the confederacy and not a single one of those men should be honored for their actions. They fought to keep slaves and no amount of supposed 'good' they ever did can make up for that fact. Fuck THAT bullshit narrative.)

Anyway.

Addressing this issue of accepting statues at face-value of being accurate representations of a moment in time in our history of war is done quite well within these pages. The author not only looks at how these monuments are written about, talked about, and viewed in the US, but looks at various monuments to the very same war and how they are viewed in countries around the world. In total he discusses 25 different monuments, from the US, to Italy, to Jerusalem, China, and many in between.

The photographs are stunning and for once I was glad to have received the file for my laptop only instead of my Kindle. Even though I hate sitting at my laptop to read, the photos alone were nearly enough to make it worth it. This truly is a book to have a physical copy of to peruse at your leisure. I don't feel it is a book meant to be read quickly or in just a couple of sittings. It will definitely give anyone pause who has visited these sites, and perhaps grapple with how one originally interpreted the monument, compared to its original and intended purpose.

One of the biggest take-aways from this book is the vast difference in how World War II is memorialized. Here in the US, our statues are to honor the heroes and our triumph over true and despicable evil. Yet around the world, monuments are most often dedicated to the victims - such as Italy's Shrine to the Fallen or The A Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. I think this again confirms the fact that the US often equates winning and patriotism - though it must also be remembered that aside from Pearl Harbor, World War II was not fought here. The monuments to the victims and the fallen are most often literally on the site of the atrocities they represent.

Lowe provides much context for the various events being commemorated by each statue. The research is thorough and he writes in an engaging way. He certainly gives the reader a lot to think about - both regarding those he is writing about, and the specific issue in the US regarding confederate monuments still standing.

When we come upon these monuments, either because we've specifically taken a trip to see them or we stumble upon them by accident, we must not stop asking ourselves to look beyond the scenery as it being another pretty picture for photo ops. We have to consider the original intended purpose of the statue, what aspect of history is being told, and whether or not it is actually accurate in its depiction.

Highly recommended.

Book Review | My Survival: A Girl on Schindler's List

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Preface: I have probably watched Schindler's List more times than most people, and it's not because I just loved it so much, I watched it for fun over and over again. No, the actual reason is because when I was a senior in high school, I was taking a class called 21st Century Writing. We have four major papers to complete over the trimester and for one paper, we were supposed to select a movie from AFI's Top 100 and analyze the various components of the film - lighting, sound, color, etc. I am the giant moron who chose Schindler's List, then proceeded to have to watch it repeatedly as I took notes, wrote, revised, rewrote, etc. I have not watched it since. I can't. Ten+ times was enough and I may well only watch it once more in my lifetime - with Eleanor when she is old enough.

If you are unfamiliar with Schindler's List (and really, this should be no one), it tells the story of a German businessman who ended up saving approximately 1,200 Jews from certain death. He does this by employing workers from Krakow's Ghetto, keeping them safe and healthy and fed. To be fair, his intent was not so noble in the beginning. A businessman to the core and a member of the Nazi party because it benefited him businesswise, he wanted cheap labor to keep his factories running, thereby growing more and more wealthy each day. However, he came to be protective of 'his Jews' and fought to keep them together, bribing whoever he had to in order to keep those destined for the camps safe within his factory. The scene near the end when he must leave because the camps are being liberated, and he in tears, sobbing as it comes to him that perhaps there was more he could have done, more he could have saved, even one more. If you doubt that Liam Neesen is one of the top five greatest actors of all time, then watching that scene alone will change your mind.

Rena Finder was born in Krakow and at age eleven the Nazis arrived in full force. She and her family, along with every Jew in the city, were moved to the Ghetto. From there they are sent to Plaszow, outside of Krakow and Rena and her mother begin working in a factory owned by Schindler. Plaszow is eventually closed and Rena, her mother, and hundreds of Schindler's other employees are sent to Auschwitz. Schindler is determined to save them, so he completely up and moves his factory. He has it reassembled near Auschwitz and was able to get his workers back. They survived the Holocaust because of his actions.

It was truly a thing of horrific beauty to get a story of the Holocaust from a child who survived it. Even younger than Anne Frank, and living through the trauma of life in the Ghetto, then the camps. To have the reprieve, then it all taken away with the mix-up that sent them to Auschwitz, that feeling of lose and despair. But then to be found once more, to be saved. She recalls these events in great detail, with a kind of clarity only a child can express. When that moment of liberation finally comes, it is almost hard to believe. After the years of uncertainty, not knowing if they would again be shipped off from the safety of Schindler's factory, to finally knowing they were free once more.

This is a must for any upper elementary/lower middle school classroom library, and especially important for teaching on the subject of the Holocaust. It would also make a great small-group book for study. Highly recommended.

NetGalley ARC | The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book is a must-read for everyone, which I know is a tall and impossible order, but I stand by my statement.

I almost did not read this one at all. My family is very German. My last name is basically the US equivalent of 'Smith' or 'Johnson', though we dropped the umlauts quickly. As a result of this ancestry, I have long been a receptacle for any and all WWII and Holocaust knowledge I could get my hands on. Most of our family left Germany in the early 1900s, but some stayed behind. I wanted so desperately to know their experiences, and to understand on a broader scale how such horrific crimes against humanity could happen. Every project in school that could possibly relate to the Holocaust or WWII, that was my topic.

But then I became a mother in 2013 and could no longer stomach reading of these terrible atrocities, especially when children were involved. I would sob uncontrollably and not be able to finish the book.

I approached this one with some trepidation; seven years on and I still struggle reading anything having to do with crimes against children, but I am so, so glad that I read this book and I can not stop recommending it to others.

The story centers on the Kleinmann family from Vienna and reads like a novel, though it is a true story. Gustav Kleinmann, the family patriarch, and the oldest son Fritz, are arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Buchenwald. They learn to survive, relying on one another as best they can through terrible conditions. They develop a keen sense of survival, what other choice do they have?

Then the day comes when Gustav finds he is being sent to Auschwitz. They know what this means; everyone knows about Auschwitz. In that moment, Fritz knows he can not let his father go and makes the decision to go too. Fritz insists he must go with his father and the Nazis allow it, which honestly kind of surprised me. You'd think that would have been some kind of red flag, or that they would have refused in order to inflict more cruelty on their prisoners. But I guess to them one death camp is the same as another - no one was ever expected to survive Auschwitz or any of the dozens of camps and sub-camps throughout Germany and Poland.

Despite enduring such terrible treatment and atrocious living conditions, theirs is a story of love, hope, and faith in one another. The youngest child of the Kleinmann family, Kurt, had been sent to the US to escape the war. Gustav and Fritz had no idea what had become of the rest of their family; for all they knew, they were the only two left besides Kurt. They kept one another going even when giving up would have been the easiest and even expected thing to do. We find out that Tini, Gustav's wife and Fritz's mother and Herta, one daughter/sister, did not survive. Edith, the oldest daughter, was able to get to England on a work visa.

Throughout six years of absolute horror and trauma, Gustav and Fritz weather it all. They become invaluable workers in helping construct Buchenwald - Fritz learns quickly on the job, knowing that being a skilled worker at least ensures he be kept around longer than others. Gustav had been an upholsterer before their lives were completely upended and used his skills as well to become valuable to those in charge of the camp.

It is throughout this time that Gustav manages to conceal one of the small comforts that keeps him sane - scraps of paper squirreled away that become his secret journal. Had it ever been discovered, he would have been killed on the spot. Most of what we know comes from that secret journal, as well as interviews with family members - including Kurt,  and thorough research by the author.

This is a truly stunning work of art, and a testament to the love and bond of a father and son. There can never be 'too many' memoirs of this horrific time in our world's history. Each person and experience was unique. All are worthy of being known.

Highly, highly recommended.

Children of Nazis: The Sons and Daughters of Himmler, Göring, Höss, Mengele, and Others - Living with a Father's Monstrous Legacy

Rating: 4 Stars

Aside from being absolute monsters and garbage excuses for human beings, what do Josef Mengele, Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer, Hans Frank, Martin Bormann, and Rudolf Höss have in common?

They were all fathers.

I can not imagine a worse legacy to carry than to be the child of a Nazi. What a burden placed on those who know and accept the truth of what their fathers and mothers did during the war. They are victims, no one asks to be the child of monsters.

More horrific still are those who also know and accept what their parents did, and are proud of it. Those who continue to believe in the Nazi ideals and propaganda. I have zero sympathy for them, and they deserve to have their lives made difficult on a daily basis. I also believe we should never stop until every last Nazi is rounded up, put on trial, and given an appropriate sentence - life in prison. I don't care that these men are old or "unfit for trial" as some judges have deemed. They should be held accountable for their actions and prosecuted for those crimes against humanity.

I really became interested in the subject of these children (now, of course, adults - or even deceased themselves since the war) a couple years ago when I saw a documentary on Netflix. It was an aspect of the war I had not really considered before. My family is super German (Seriously. Our last name is the equivalent of Smith in the US) and so World War II and the Holocaust have always been something I wanted to know everything about, and that interest was sparked early on in my life, as early as middle school. And even so, it was not until just a few years ago that I gave much thought to the fact that these horrible men and women had children, who had children, and that they live among us today. Some denounce everything their parents believed in, and some embrace it without batting an eye.

There were many great things about this book, so many that I actually did not take very many notes because I could not stop reading long enough to do so. As the author seeks answers, it seemed to me to constantly repeat that whatever kind of relationship the child had with his or her father, determined how they felt about him later on. "Nevertheless, Rolf never turned Josef in. The reason he gives: it was impossible for him to betray his father. Unlike Niklas Frank, who detested his father, Rolf's feeling was that he never knew his father well enough to hate him" (75%). I know, right? Surely the fact that Rolf's father was not just any Josef, but THE Josef, as in Josef Mengele, would have been reason enough? This man tortured so many - especially, children, especially twins, and his son can't 'betray' him?

Here we truly get a remarkable look at some of the more intimate parts of the lives of these absolute monsters. Is it not a thought that just makes your skin crawl, when thinking of the men going home at night, kissing their wives, having a family dinner, then reading books by the fire or something else completely ordinary? And that's what really makes this all the more terrifying - good people do nothing, or look the other way entirely, and evil wins.

Though it disgusts me, I do suppose I can at least view from the perspective of those who still idolize their fathers, what kind of trauma this must have been, even though they chose to embrace that trauma instead of denounce it. Most of the children were young, and were raised in perfectly posh surrounds befitting the families of high-ranking Nazi officials. They were raised unaware of what was really going on across Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and scores of other places. Their childhoods were just as innocent and carefree as the offspring of any non-murderous monsters. Yet the moment it became clear that Germany would lose, that the Nazi would lose, that whole little world completed shattered, shattering their lives in the process.

The author does a considerable amount of work to bring this all out into the light, but she does not do so in a malicious or spiteful way. She has clearly done extensive amounts of research, and thus we are privy to so many details of these childhoods spent far from the camps and battlefields. She looks at each child, their relationship with their father or parents, depending on how involved their mothers might have been, and presents the information without bias. She does remarkably well in not allowing any emotion to get the better of her as she examines how eight specific children grew up struggling with the burden, or wearing it as a badge of honor.

Each child has their own section, and not only are we given an incredibly detail portrait of their lives and relationship, but the author gives much text to who exactly their fathers were (and sometimes mothers also), and what their jobs within the party entailed. Sometimes to was difficult to reconcile that two-sides-to-the-coin thing, how some could be seemingly wonderful fathers, but then turn around and be absolute destroyers of human life. Not all of the fathers depicted fit that mold though, some appeared as detached from their children as they were from those who they murdered, or ordered the murders of. It was a very enlightening look at family life within the party.

I suppose I should not have been, but I was truly surprised at how many of the children felt that their fathers had not been judged fairly. More than one - even more than two - were not only proud of their fathers, proud to be children of these former high-ranking officials, but at one time or another were trying to actively promote the work their fathers had begun. Others used the old "just following orders" garbage, which just made me roll my eyes. There were those, however, that fell far to the other end of the spectrum, one going so far as to undergo sterilization, as he feared passing on his genes to the future generation.

My only real complaint is...I wish this book would have been written sooner. It first came out in 2016 and by then, some of the children were no longer living. Still others have health problems, and all around most seem to just want to be left alone. The author was able to meet one of the children but no, I am not going to spoil that. it certainly made for a more intense experience, when getting the words directly from the descendant. In all the other cases it shows how much research the author truly completed, compiling information from previous interviews, the person's own writing, or even perspectives of others who knew the child. Unfortunately this did not always make for the best way to determine the lasting impact on the child based on the crimes of the father. Projects like these are so important. One day there will not be one single person who has a firsthand account of the atrocities committed in Hitler's reign of terror. Then, I fear, we will be in big trouble. As memories fade, so does the horror. We must never let that happen.

I highly recommend this one, whether you have a lot of knowledge about these men already, or not. It is an interesting perspective to take on a subject that has hundreds and thousands of books already dedicated to it.

A Roll of the Dice: A Memoir of a Hungarian Survivor

Tonight I had the profound honor of hearing a talk by Agnes Schwartz, who survived the horrors of war and the Holocaust as a young Jewish girl in Budapest. Her message was simple and consistent: Never forget. This can never happen again. She spoke of the deniers, and how when the last survivors are gone, it will up to future generations to know and teach those that come after them about this terrible crime against humanity; this way there will be no opportunity for the deniers to gain a foothold.

Many times I was in tears. She spoke of her happy childhood, growing up in a well-to-do family. Her parents owned their own business and Agnes went to school, excelled in academics and earned a place at a college prep gymnasium. She spoke lovingly of her family, her mother and father. Of her grandparents and spending summers with them in the country. And of Julia, her family's housekeeper, who had known Agnes since birth. But when the Nazis marched into Hungary - and Mrs Schwartz was very specific about this word, as Hungary was one of Germany's allies, and in a deep depression at the time - those happy days came to a sudden end. The deportations started in the countryside, and luckily Agnes' parents had moved her grandparents to Budapest at the time, so the family was together. They were moved from their comfortable apartment into a two-bedroom, cramped apartment a few blocks away. Agnes, her parents, and grandparents shared one bedroom, the other occupied by others Jewish people of no relation to Schwartz and her family. Not long after this move, Agnes' grandfather became ill. So ill, he was taken to a "hospital". Her last memory of her grandfather is him lying on a cot, in a long row of cots. Despite trying to find out what happened to him, she does not know if he died of his illness, or was murdered by the Nazis.

When deportations started in the city, men ages 18-45 were taken first. Agnes had to tell her father good bye. A few days later the Nazis came back, this time for the women in that same age range. Agnes recalled with perfect clarity saying good bye to her mother, her mother telling her to be a good girl. She would never see her mother again, as she died at Bergen-Belsen of 'natural causes', likely starvation and typhus. Agnes would not learn this until after the war. So for a time it was Agnes and her grandmother, in a tiny, shared apartment with little food and lots of bed bugs. One day a knock at the door brought a great surprise - her father. He'd escaped en route to Germany and when two Nazi officers were seeking directions to Budapest. Her father was fluent in German and as a result of him assisting the officers, he was not deported. When he learned that his wife had been taken away, he wanted to go after her, but both Agnes and her grandmother begged him to stay. He did.

A final knock at the door opened up an escape for Agnes. Her family's former housekeeper, Julia, was going to take Agnes with her and keep her from deportation. Agnes had blond hair, and so was passed off as Julia's niece from eastern Hungary. Her story was that her parents had sent her to Budapest to stay with her Aunt Julia as the Russians invaded. The plan worked and not a single person ever questioned the story.

I can not imagine living through the things that Agnes Schwartz survived. She ended up losing her grandmother as well as her aunt and uncle, all three having been moved into the ghetto. Even as the war was on its last legs and everyone knew the end was near, the Nazis were determined to kill as many Jews as possible. Agnes learned that her remaining family members had been taken to the Danube River, shot and left to die in the freezing water. She also spoke of how, as ammunition was running short, the Nazis would tie ten people together at a time with wire, shoot one, and they all would fall into the river together killing ten people with one bullet. Schwartz spoke of how whenever she hears someone talk of the 'Blue Danube', she thinks of it as the 'Red Danube', filled with the blood of innocent Jews, murdered for their only crime of being born Jewish. When the bombings of Budapest finally stopped as the Russians liberated the city, Mrs Schwartz recalled those first moments coming up from the basement of Julia's apartment building, having lived in almost total darkness for nearly two months as bombs were dropped day and night and they had little light inside except for candles. She spoke of first going outside, how bright it was and the stench that even now she says has never left her nose, the smell of death with bodies strewn about the streets. 

Easy to see why I was in tears much of the night, no?

After Mrs Schwartz spoke about her experiences surviving the war, her immigration to the US and her life up to this point, she took some questions from the audience, then signed copies of her memoir.

I waited in line with my friends, and when it was my turn, I asked if I could hold her hand. I clasped her hand between my own, and she patted the top of mine. I did not know what else to say, but "Thank you." I told her thank you, for sharing your story, for passing this on to those who have come after you. I must have said thank you five times. We chatted briefly, and she asked my name before signing my book.

This interaction, these experiences with living history, people who have survived these greatly traumatic events, must continue to happen. Hearing a survivor tell their own story is so much more powerful than reading a chapter from a text book. Every day there are fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors left in the world. We must hear their stories before they are gone, and continue to pass them on.

100 Documents That Changed the World: From the Magna Carta to WikiLeaks

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Review:

I really love books like this, the '50 Objects..." or "12 Maps..." that 'changed the world' type books. This book is no exception, as it covered several documents that truly did change the world, for better or worse. While I disagree somewhat with some of the items included ('War and Peace' and '1984' - I do not consider books to be documents per se), the majority really do help the book live up to its name. How can you go wrong when writing about Magna Carta, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Apollo 11 Flight Plan, and Anne Frank's diary in one volume?

Turns out, you can. Or, at least not 'go wrong', but you can be lacking in detail and description at times. I understand this is not meant to be exhaustive, seeing as how it is quite slim to begin with, so I will get my complaints out of the way before I delve further in to discuss some of the specific documents addressed that I felt were among the most important. There is only one actual page of textual information devoted to each document, though that page often included a small picture of those who signed, witnessed, wrote, etc. the document. The opposite page was usually a picture of the document itself. Additionally, for a good portion of the beginning, nearly all of the documents were from Western Europe. Not all, but a good majority. Surely there were other important documents that could have been included from around the world and not just those few.

Now, to the documents I found most fascinating - it is also kind of embarrassing to admit that I did not know some of the facts I learned from this text. In my defense perhaps we were not taught those aspects in school? So many of these documents today exist now in the National Archives and I wish desperately to see them - namely the Fort Sumter Telegram announcing they were surrendering, and the Emancipation Proclamation. These were two hugely important documents that exist as a testament to the resolve of our young country - we were willing to go to war with ourselves to achieve the ends we wanted. The telegram began the war and the proclamation set us on the road to ending it. As an aside, I never knew that the E.P. ONLY freed slaves who were living in the states that had succeeded from the Union - AND applied only to those held by the Confederacy. So, apparently it was a shrug and a 'sorry' to the slaves living in areas recaptured by the Union, or the nearly 500,000 living in those border states who had not succeeded.

I am curious about the exclusion of the Gettysburg Address as an important document and thought perhaps it was excluded due to the inclusion of the Emancipation Proclamation. But both Martin Luther's 95 Theses were included, followed directly by the Edict of Worms. Those documents were separated by only four years, but concerned the same topic, so not sure why Lincoln's famous speech was not considered important enough?

Fun Fact: Apparently our Founding Fathers were not terribly responsible. The original copy of the Constitution had vanished at some point after its signing and no one knew where it was until 1846! Also, it has only been on display since 1952; I didn't realize it was such a short amount of time when I visited in 8th grade on a class trip.

A little dirty laundry gets aired here in the form of which states ratified the 19th Amendment and when - you keep it classy Mississippi, not ratifying until 1984. I am not surprised that many southern states were among the last to ratify it.

The 15 year old girl in me who will forever love Titanic could not help but be wistfully glad to see the inclusion of Titanic telegrams included as important documents that changed the world. Movie references aside, it really was a wake-up call to these shipping companies that safety measures needed to change and improve to avoid another tragedy on such a scale.

There were several documents relating to World War I and II, which should come as no surprise. The Treaty of Versailles is always troubling to me, as it basically assured that there would be another war - how could there not be? Germany was forced to take all the responsible for the Great War, only for the fact that they were the last ones standing when the war came to an end. It should shock no one that the Nazis were able to rise and grab power so swiftly; the treaty was crushing and the reparations were impossible.

When I think of a document, I think of something of the non-fiction, factual variety. This is why I struggle with the inclusion of books - manuscripts - in this text. However, I feel that Anne Frank's diary certainly deserves its place. The importance of this diary can not be overstated and if you do not believe me, try standing in the Annex and imagining living in this cramped space with seven other people, the majority of whom you struggle regularly to even get along with. It is one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had in my life and could not imagine spending two years in that place. Anne's diary gave a voice to the millions who had theirs cruelly and violently taken away. I did NOT like, however, that Miep Gies was simply referred to as the 'family friend' who later saved Anne's diary after the family had been taken away. Even with the focus being on the document itself, surely Miep deserves much more credit than that.

There were so many documents that I found interesting, I could keep writing for a while. I will finish this up with reference to a certain CIA document, dated August 6th, 2001, that stated very clearly an attack on the US by bin Laden was imminent. Unfortunately, this memo was handed to one of the most incompetent presidents in the history of our country, while he was staying at his ranch in Texas. You know, one of his 406 vacation days taken in his presidency, or some absurd number that the GOP conveniently likes to forget whenever they complain about Obama playing a round of golf. As a follow-up, the Iraq War Resolution was included but I couldn't even bother to read such garbage.

So, overall, this really is 3.5 stars. There were so many documents that belonged here, but at times their importance almost felt diminished simply because often only the bare facts were included. It is by no means a be-all, end-all for any of these documents and while I can recommend reading this one, I would also suggest further reading on any of the documents that interest you.

The Pope's Jews: The Vatican's Secret Plan to Save the Jews from the Nazis

Rating: 3 Stars

Review:

I read less and less about the Holocaust these days, I just can't - it's seems to be that way about anything heartbreaking since I became a mom. It's impossible to not imagine it being your family, your child.

That being said, this was a complete 180 of anything I thought I knew of Pius XII. Granted, all I really knew if him was that he was 'Hitler's Pope' - yet that always seems strange to be, as Catholics were among the many groups rounded up by this murderous regime and sent to their deaths. Yet I never really questioned the moniker because it's been the loudest and really, only, viewpoint offered of him in my lifetime. This book will offer something quite different, and works to bring to light the plans and networks used by the Vatican to save as many Jews as possible.

Could he have done more? Of course. Many people could have and should have done more. But here we finally have an account of what was actually done - far more than 'nothing', as previously proclaimed.

As for the text itself, it's a bit slow in some places, and the sheer number of names can be overwhelming. A list of important players is offered at the beginning, but even that is useless at times if you go to look someone up and can't remember what their affiliation is, so you're still forced the read through every band until you find who you're looking for.

Certainly recommended for those interested in the Holocaust. While I can't say I'm 100% on board with this yet, and I may have to do further reading myself, it certainly portrays Pius XII far differently than what we've been taught.

Nazi Women: The Attraction of Evil

Rating: 2 Stars

Review:

As I have stated in previous reviews of works of similar nature, I simply don't have the ability to read anymore about the Holocaust and WWII after having a child of my own. It is so hard to not imagine it could be your own child, and it makes me want to vomit.

That being said, I began this with some trepidation, not wanting to read about the specific atrocities these monstrous women committed, but more so looking for a kind of study on the type of women who were enthralled by Hitler and his Thousand Year Reich. Unfortunately, it seems that there was no type; it was about empowerment after what were honestly unfair reparations from WWI, a war Germany didn't even start. And these women apparently did not read the fine print, as Hitler and his cronies had no intention of truly empowering them to do anything more than cook, clean, and have perfect little Aryan babies.

Now, I am typically not one to support the notion of an eye for an eye, but I cannot express enough how disgusted and angry I am that so many of the women who worked in the camps especially were able to assimilate back into normal civilian life. They were murderers who escaped justice and I can only hope the rest of their lives were miserable.

The book itself reads kind of strangely. It is more like a collection of mini biographies of various women and their involvement in the Reich. There are sections devoted to Hitler's relationship to them, most fleeting, none actually important to him. I just can't understand how this pathetic, ugly (meant both inside and out) little man could have inspired such frenzies.

This is a very short volume and really is nothing more than a general look. For that I am grateful. I don't want to know any more about these women then I already do, specifically their cruelty and the acts they perpetrated on their youngest, smallest victims. However, for someone who may be able to handle this better than I without wanting to cry, it will be lacking.

One of the biggest distractions while reading were random snippets of text in bigger, bolded font throughout. It literally added nothing to the text, as it was not additional info or quotes or facts. It was simply a sentence taken from a regular paragraph and made bigger. It was not even always the most important idea from a particular page, and very early on I just quit reading them.

The pictures were interesting, but sometimes odd choices. I realize there may not be photos of some of the women anymore, but it would have been helpful perhaps if the photos were included in the section the woman was written about.

Overall, it is not a terrible work, though it is written about some of the worst people to ever live. These women were part of a regime that brutalized, tortured, and murdered millions of innocent men, women, and children. If anyone could ever be classified as sub-human, it is this group, along with their male counterparts, and most certainly not the people against whom they committed these crimes. But the work is also by no means authoritative. Additionally, there were sections at the end I just could not read due to their content regarding the camps. This would not be a terrible supplemental reading, but not one I would look to first on this topic.

Anne Frank Remembered

Author: Miep Gies

Rating: 5 Stars

Review:

I had not done a review of this book on Goodreads, much like Anne's diary, because I find it hard to do that and not feel like I am reviewing someones life and actions for them. But this is an important book, as important as Anne's diary, because it shows that what Anne felt was really still true - that there were still good people, willing to risk their own lives, because what the Nazis were doing was wrong. Mrs. Gies said time and again after the story came to light that she and her husband were not heroes, but they were doing what was right, because it was right. But they are heroes, just like the thousands of others across Europe who acted in the same manner, helping hide their friends and neighbors, doing whatever they could to help. Highly, highly recommended.

Auschwitz: A New History

Author: Laurence Rees

Rating: 4 Stars

Review:

Very well-researched and well-written, this would be a quick read if the subject matter itself wasn't so heartbreaking. WWII and the Holocaust have always interested me, and while I didn't learn anything new in general about the time, I did learn a lot more about Auschwitz, which of course is the intended purpose. There is a lot of additional information of what occurred outside the death camp, but that info is important in helping to see how Auschwitz evolved into what it became. I also find myself angry all over again, as I have been in the past when finishing other texts about the Holocaust, when reading how few perpetrators were ever punished for their crimes against humanity. While I'm not normally an advocate of 'an eye for an eye', this is one case where I'm more than willing to support just that.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Rating: 5 Stars

With my first review I am already breaking my code that I outline in a previous post, 5 stars, meaning I would read it again. I have read this book exactly one time in my life and can not ever read it again. It is too heartbreaking.

Review:

Having been to the Annex myself, seeing the bookcase, the stairs to the attic, the wall where Anne pasted her photos, I can't even fathom writing a real 'review' of this diary. Because that's what it is, the diary of a child who recorded her thoughts and feelings as any other child might, who faced a horrible situation and ultimately did not survive. Her legacy, however, will live on - as long as people are willing to listen to the message. 

"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again."

Additionally:

I first read this book in middle school. I was obsessed with all things related to the Holocaust and World War II, and read anything and everything I could (age-appropriate, usually). My family is largely of German heritage and I just could not wrap my head around how these atrocities were allowed to happen. Perhaps I knew more than I should have at an early age, but that's neither here nor there now. I often imagined what it would be like to be Anne, to live in the Annex and to have such an internal struggle in regards to her relationship with her mother, especially. Once I got the opportunity on a visit to Amsterdam a few years ago with my mom and cousin, it was almost too much to handle and I cried my way through the rooms until we reached the end of the tour.

In many ways Anne was wise beyond her years, and in others she was very much still a child, living a horror that she would never escape. But still her words echo, long after her death: "In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."