The Wall

by John Hersey

Riveting and compelling, The Wall tells the inspiring story of forty men and women who escape the dehumanizing horror of the Warsaw ghetto. John Hersey's novel documents the Warsaw ghetto both as an emblem of Nazi persecution and as a personal confrontation with torture, starvation, humiliation, and cruelty—a gripping, visceral story, impossible to put down.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Holocaust, World War II, War, Classics, Novels

640 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

John Richard Hersey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer, earliest practiced the "new journalism," which fuses storytelling devices of the novel with nonfiction reportage. A 36-member panel under the aegis of journalism department of New York University adjudged account of Hersey of the aftermath of the atomic bomb, dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, as the finest piece of journalism of the 20th century.

Reviews

[Violet wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Warsaw Ghetto there was an underground group of archivists known as the Oyneg Shabbes. Their function was to chronicle the Nazi atrocities for posterity. These journals were famously buried in parts of the ghetto. Some were later discovered; others weren't. John Hersey writes this novel in the form of one of these fictitious journals. He reports the conversations he has with a group of disparate characters, including a Jewish Policeman, members of the Jewish council, smugglers, Gestapo informers and fighters. It's a form that allows him to load the book with information, cram in as much of his research as possible - in other words it gives him the overview scope of a non-fiction book. What's lost in this process is dramatic tension. The individual characters are dwarfed by all the historical information. Also, various genuine journals have survived so why write or read a fictitious one? If historical novels are to provide us with an experience that eludes non-fiction books, it's critical they press us up much more closely to the events described through an empathy with the central characters. In many ways The Wall is the novelist playing safe - he is admitting his own limitations by cocooning himself in a bunker and relying on other voices to tell him what happened. For me he could have been imaginatively braver; he could have embraced the spirit of fiction more daringly instead of submitting so conscientiously to chronicling facts. Fiction at its best transcends fact. (Lauren Binet playfully examined the fact vs fiction conflict so brilliantly in his novel HHhH.)

I recently read a real journal of the Ghetto which got me interested in the subject and one of the fascinating things about it was the profusion of untrue rumour or, in modern parlance, fake news. Fake news abounded in the ghetto where virtually all contact with the outside world was cut off. The populace was made all the more insecure by not having a clue what to believe and what to disbelieve. Intelligence deteriorated into ignorance and ignorance is the first step to mindlessness, to dehumanisation. Hersey has the hindsight to correct all the fake news. So, most of what he writes is uncannily true - except, conversely, it wasn't true in spirit because often he was giving his archivist his own hindsight. What this means, is this novel occupies a kind of hinterland between fiction and non-fiction - but again without the irony Binet masters in HHhH.

As I said, the form of the novel, reported conversations with his cast of characters, might allow him to load the novel with information from different perspectives but it doesn't favour dramatic tension. Never is this more apparent than during the uprising itself, perhaps the most difficult of all ghetto events to imagine, and this is the weakest part of the novel - probably because it's also the hardest part of the true story to research. Most participants died, survivors only experienced the fight against the Nazis in a piecemeal fashion. The most baffling aspect of the uprising was how so few individuals completely untrained in handling weapons managed to hold out longer against the Germans than the entire Polish nation. You can't help wondering why the Nazis fled so easily. It's hard to believe many were killed by individuals firing a loaded weapon with so little ammunition for the first time in their lives from great distances. Without wanting to belittle the achievements of the Jewish fighters in any way you have to assume that the SS regiments engaged in the ghetto fighting, unlike the Wehrmacht, were a cowardly bunch. Typical bullies in other words. They didn't like being shot at.

There's a lot of wisdom in this novel and, despite its flaws, it does give a comprehensive picture of what life in the Warsaw Ghetto entailed so I'd recommend it if you're interested in the subject matter. I'd also recommend it to lovers of dystopian fiction as the Warsaw Ghetto might serve as the archetypal end of time experience for anyone who lived there.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not surprised if you have not heard of this book, but please, please read it. It's one of the most incredible pieces of literature I have ever picked up. It is the archives of a man named Noach Levinson who lived through the Warsaw ghetto and chronicled in minute detail his experiences and the lives of those around him. It is both fascinating and terribly heartbreaking to see the way in which the Jews in Warsaw were systematically destroyed through the eyes of one of their own. I have never read a book on the subject that even comes close to the depth of knowledge and feeling in The Wall.

[Lewis Weinstein]

Brilliantly written ... the part I've read so far forces the reader to feel the relentless closing of the ghetto

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author John Hersey was a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, best known for his small first person account of the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima, called Hiroshima.

And when he writes historical fiction, as he does in The Wall, it is very close to actual events. Based on the real documents found buried inside the destroyed Jewish ghetto of Warsaw after WWII ended, it tells the story of the Jews who were trapped there by the Nazis who took over Poland in 1939, and the escalating determination to wipe out these people by their oppressors.

But The Wall also is about, not just destruction, but a determination to survive under the most harrowing of conditions. Hersey writes this novel as if it were the journals of one of the characters. He observes and reports on the events of the community...from the trivial to the momentous. He also documents the noose tightening around the community as the years of the war go by, and the Nazi determination to destroy all Jews grew ever stronger.

At times the book is utterly heart-breaking. Tears were in my eyes as the underground fighters had to kill a baby to keep its cries from leading the Nazis to their hiding place, which would have been death for all of them. And yet...somehow Hersey is able to write into this always an underlying hope...a ray of life...a value that while there is life, there is still hope.

Many of the events that Hersey fictionalizes here actually happened, or events very close to them did. That he able to humanize these horrible atrocities, that he is able to individualize this mass destruction, is a gift of a master storyteller and journalist.

The Wall is a devastating work...because of the reality right behind the fiction. It is also an uplifting work, because of the hope that is in life.

[Old Man JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not an easy read, not just because of the subject matter, but also because of the disjointed way it is written. In spite of this it is an extraordinary book. The book is written from daily entries that were entered into journals kept by Noach Levinson for several years while living in a Warsaw ghetto during the Nazi occupation. The story begins with the rounding up of Jews and forcing them to live in the overcrowded ghetto. Much of the story then details the daily lives of the people but, as the story goes on, it begins to talk of harsher and harsher treatment by the Nazi. The Nazi had begun deporting Jews, supposedly, to be resettled in the Eastern Russian front. This went on for quite some time until the Jews noticed that the railroad boxcars that were being used for the transport were the same ones from the day before. The transport to the Russian front should take weeks but the same cars were back the next day. This set off the realization that something more ominous was happening and they finally discovered the truth. This began a resistance that eventually led to armed conflict. It's an extraordinary story that does not read as smoothly as most novels would, because it is taken from journal entries, but is absolutely riveting, nevertheless.

[Dwayne Roberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

The terrible, horrific life these men and women were forced to live!

Told in a journal format.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my ever increasing interest in the Warsaw ghetto uprising, I've been gathering books from various libraries to try and wrap my brain around the perilous and courageous act of the Jews of Warsaw during 1943. One of the books in my pile was The Wall by John Hersey, a 640 page novel that I honestly wasn't sure I'd get around to any time soon. But then I read the first few pages and I was hooked. It was a lot to take in. I feel like I need to read it a few more times to fully understand everything.


The story opens with four survivors of the Warsaw ghetto finding the buried Levinson Archives. Noach Levinson is a Jewish historian who documents life in the ghetto from 1939-1943. Levinson—a recluse—is forced to move in with strangers when the ghetto is formed. But they become like family to him as the story progresses. The cast of characters are diverse and entertaining. Levinson finds, to his great surprise, that he rather enjoys being apart of a family. He writes of the day to day struggles of living in filth, poverty, and persecution. You see the hard and sometimes horrible choices people had to make in order to survive. When the Nazis start to deport the Jews to Treblinka, the Jews make the choice to fight back. They begin smuggling in weapons and the Z.O.B. (Jewish Fighting Organization) is formed. The family is broken up by the "relocation" but those who are left take up arms, build bunkers, and prepare to fight back.

It's all fictional, but the archives are so believable that at first I thought they were real. The historical accuracy is amazing, and although Hersey changed the names of actual historical people, I was able to recognize some of them from previous research. Noach resembles Emmanuel Ringelblum, Jewish writer whose archives were discovered buried in an underground bunker. Rachel Apt's leadership is very similar to Zivia Lubetkin. Yitzhok, I believe, is intended to represent Mordechai Anielewicz. The head of the Judenrat is most definitely based on Adam Czerniaków.

The writing is beautiful. It's one of the books you feel enriched by every time you pick it up. It's full of pain and bravery, horror, and determination. It's a hidden gem of a book that I'm very glad that I found.

“You're not impatient any more. Then you were in a hurry, because you thought you could encompass everything in your life. You wanted to learn everything and experience everything and be everybody. In a way, that was charming and delightful in you: I used to write in my notebooks that you were zestful. But it also made you seem confused. You did things in fits and starts. You learned as a stammerer talks ... Today, you are not in such a hurry. I think you have decided that you can do only a few things at all well, and they are more than enough.” —John Hersey

[Stephen Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far, the best novel I have ever read. The strength of the book lies in its character development, which is deep and has a very authentic feeling. Some reviewers were critical because the story is slow, but that is because the author is willing to take the time to let the reader really get to know the characters. When they go through the horrific events of the story, the reader will feel compelled to stay with them, and when the book ends, some readers will feel like they had to say goodbye to several good friends. The diary style of the story is an approach that Hersey used in some other books. Here, it is most effective. Rarely does a novel offer the chance to view the unfolding events from the perspective of so many characters, but the account in each chapter is told by a changing group of characters who contribute to the record of Levinson's history of these events. By the way, there was a real-life history of these events too. It was recorded by Emmanuel Ringelblum, and it is, of course, even more horrific than this novel. Hersey makes the story much more bearable. He did his homework, too. Some characters here have real-life equivalents, and not just Noach Levinson as Emmanuel Ringelblum. Rachel Apt clearly matches Zivia Lubetkin, and there are others.

[Lacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book as a 16 year old almost 40 years ago. Although I have read literally thousands of books since then, this one I remember to this day. It was the book that personalized the Holocaust for me as much as, or even more than Flowers in the Attic, much as Schindlers List has done for so many more recently, and sparked a life long interest in the Jewish culture as well. I have added it to my read again list, something I rarely do.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendous. Hard to read, as any novel set in the Warsaw ghetto should be. And yet I could not put it down.

[aubreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very hard read emotionally, and it was also stunningly beautiful. I'll write more on my blog soon.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author’s intent in The Wall is to relate in fictional form the martyrdom of the Jews who lived in Warsaw during World War II, and the text of the novel is purported to consist of selections from a very extensive diary originally written in Yiddish that was kept by a historian named Noach Levinson. Even though the diary and the historian are equally fictive, the novel reads very much like an authentic historical chronicle.

As published under the title of The Wall, the diary begins with the German occupation of the Polish capital in the fall of 1939 and concludes with the razing of the entire ghetto by SS troops as part of the suppression of the revolt that occurred there in the spring of 1943. So assiduous was Levinson in his role of chronicler that the almost daily entries recorded over this period of three and one-half years reached a total of more than four million words. This diary, as well as a vast quantity of other documents assembled by Levinson, allegedly was buried within the confines of the Warsaw ghetto for safety’s sake. Even though Levinson is supposed to have died of pneumonia nearly a year after the destruction of the ghetto while hiding out in the “Aryan” sector of Warsaw, he reportedly left detailed directions pertaining to the location of the archive with several trusted individuals who duly recovered it at the war’s end.

The fictive archivist Levinson, it should be noted, had a historical counterpart in the person of Emanuel Ringelblum. As founder of the ghetto archives, this heroic scholar struggled to find and preserve Jewish documents for posterity. While his own writings are far less extensive than those attributed to Levinson by Hersey, the content of Ringelblum’s wartime journal, titled Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto (1974), closely parallels the historical events fictionalized in The Wall. At the time of the German conquest of Poland, the area of Warsaw that was to become the site of the ghetto was inhabited by 240,000 Jews and 80,000 Gentiles. In the fall of 1940, the Nazis ordered the Gentiles to leave the area; at the same time, some 140,000 Jews from other sectors of Warsaw were compelled to move in. The ghetto was then sealed off by an eight-foot wall, and the death penalty was decreed for any Jew who ventured outside as well as for any Gentile who dared to harbor or assist a person of Jewish ancestry. The number of Jews residing within the ghetto eventually grew to 430,000 as an influx of deportees from different regions of Poland and from other European countries more than replaced those who died from hunger and disease.

Although the mass extermination of European Jewry actually got under way shortly after the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, it was not until approximately a year later that the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto began in earnest. The ghetto’s inhabitants were told that they were to be resettled in the East, but the journey turned out to be a short one: a trip of some fifty miles to the gas chambers set up in the death camp of Treblinka. As soon as the true nature of the transfer action became known, the disparate political and religious factions within the ghetto banded together and agreed to the formation of a military unit to be known as the Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB). The climax of the unit’s armed resistance came when the ZOB opened fire on the Germans and their Ukrainian and Lithuanian auxiliaries as they entered the ghetto on the morning of April 19, 1943. By that time, the total number of inhabitants had dwindled to 60,000, but the poorly armed members of the ZOB still managed to thwart the enemy for nearly a month. There was never any hope of victory, except for the spiritual triumph that comes from dying with honor. The last part of The Wall itself is devoted to the details of the planning and execution of this act of insurrection and constitutes an eloquent tribute to its heroic grandeur.

In the prologue to The Wall, the anonymous editor of Levinson’s diary states that the version he has prepared for current publication consists of only one-twentieth of the more than four million words to be found in the original notebooks. In order to achieve such a drastic reduction in length, he decided to concentrate on those entries that pertain to the fortunes of a group of individuals belonging to three families, whose respective surnames are Berson, Apt, and Mazur. These families are eventually compelled to live together in a single apartment, owing to the lack of housing within the ghetto. They also take in three other persons as roomers—a rabbi, a former social worker, and Levinson himself. It is ironic that Levinson experiences the joys of family life for the first time as an adult by virtue of this arrangement, and he develops genuine affection for all members of this extended family. For this privilege, Levinson comes close to feeling gratitude toward the Nazis, who have made it all possible.

Because of this newly acquired vantage point, Levinson becomes privy to much intimate information concerning other members of the...

[Steve Shilstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lesson in how to build an historical fiction and make it seem to be non-fiction.

[Kathie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is genius! The characters are so interesting and well characterized and the story so gripping, I felt I could start reading again when I finished it. I have read many books about WW2 and liked many of them, but this is one of the best.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though it was a long and arduous book, it was so worth the read. Based on the actual archives of Emmanuel Ringelblum, the fictionalized Noach Levinson archives are a phenomenal account of life in the Warsaw Ghetto. The hidden cache of documents served to record every aspect of living behind the ghetto walls from personal relationships and deportations, to deteriorating conditions and the formations of the resistance. Noach’s keen sense of observation and meticulous chronicling didn’t miss a thing.

Beginning with the formation of the ghetto, Noach remarks, “They are putting us to one side and they will be glad to remove from their minds such an unpleasant subject as we are of them.” At first, the tone is optimistic, but as the Jews within the walls learn the existence of Treblinka and their ultimate fate, things become more fatalistic. As their living conditions become more restrictive, Noach and his closest friends rally together, forming a “family.” Eventually fractious groups of Jews develop a forced camaraderie against the Germans. Despite their differences and the ever-increasing danger, they form a somewhat cohesive resistance.

The characters are the heart of this novel. Besides Noach, we see people like Rachel Apt and Dolek Berson evolve in strength and integrity. Rachel becomes a highly respected resistance leader, while Dolek’s transformation makes him one of the most valuable and admirable Jews of the bunch. There’s no place better than a ghetto to hone resourcefulness and clever strategy.

Hersey is masterful and reminiscent of Uris (though he preceded Leon). It’s a terribly heartbreaking subject, but he so skillfully takes his reader inside the ghetto walls and we experience every iota of love, every individual loss, and every moment of terror along with these incredibly well-written characters. Having spent over 600 pages with these Rachel, Noach and all the others, I felt deeply connected with the all (especially Dolek!).

[Susan Lerner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is written in an unusual style, as if a historian was keeping a diary of the events he witnessed in the Warsaw Ghetto, along with interviews of the inhabitants. The preface refers to the Levinson Archives, discovered after that war. Of course, that's just part of the fiction, but it was so believable, I didn't realize it at first.
Despite the terrifying situation, most of the book is about relationships and personalities. Levinson, a recluse, finds a spirit of camaraderie and a "family" as people are forced to move into ever-closer quarters and to rely on one another for survival. The story gets more harrowing as the end draws near, and the ingenuity, bravery and breaking points of the various characters are tested.
It's an unique look at the Warsaw Ghetto and I liked the diarist style. It's long , 640 pages, but it is riveting. I would love to be in a book group to discuss it. Sometimes I wonder why we need all these new books, when there isn't time to read the old ones. And most of those can be read more than once.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book difficult, at first, to read due to many characters/honorifics/streets/locations/ in Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew. After fighting my way past this hurdle, this book is riveting. I've read many accounts of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, but the way that Hersey presents as a day by day account adds to the realism.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was led to this author through Orson Scott Card who called him one of his favorite writers. Hersey's book is a powerful study of human nature and a literary depiction of the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. One of the best WWII books I ever read.

[Nichole · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got about 100 pages into this 700+ page book, and gave up. The writing style (translated) is interesting, but it's a very detailed and slow-moving account. Great to have for historical posterity, but not an entertaining read.

[Jimo15 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Very similar to Mila 18 but this is based upon actual historic notes from people in the ghetto. Uris' book is brilliant but this book is based on real life recording of events.

[Rick Slane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not finish but read Mila 18 instead.

[Kristopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easily the most immersive Holocaust book I’ve ever experienced. So much life to this. The structure is straightforward but brilliant; the narration is the real ingenuous stroke, particularly the layer of Editor’s notes. Absolutely electric shit when the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising starts — you keep waiting for it but the restraint is great, you only get it about 70% of the way through the book.

I got pretty bogged down for stretches — there’s no economy here — but it always worked in service of the story, further steeping the reader in that enveloping atmosphere. I swoon to think how thoroughly this must have been researched.

“It came to me that extreme nationalism can be as frightful in a Jew as in a German…I should not like to survive the ghetto and go to Palestine, only to fall into the hands of Jewish Nazis.”

“Our heritage is that movement of the muscles of your face.”

“The time element: I have the feelings of a man who has just learned that he has cancer — only, somehow, everybody has this sickness, we all suffer from a contagion that operates far more quickly than mere cancer. How can I write a factual summary of such occurrences? And yet it is my duty. I am supposed to be the Archivist.”

“I fear that I will only be able to catch a glimpse here, a wink there. My record will be a stammering and a muttering, not a clear recital.”

“…around her heart the wordless warmth and pain…”

“The voices of the cold chisels spoke a desire for compatibility.”

“Mere patience, like this weather we are having, is a comfort.”

“It’s very exhausting reading history…you keep thinking what might have been.”

“It is hard to say what moral sanctions we respect any more. We expect death at any moment. We love life very much. We want to cram as much as possible into our remaining hours. Appetites are exaggerated. Flirtation is hurried. Courtship is telescoped. In conversation, even, we come quickly to the point. We live as if by telegraphy.”

“I have the wisdom and experience, now, to understand what is worth fearing and what is not worth fearing. In the small situations, I shall be iron; in order that in the great ones I may, some day, be steel.”

“He wanted to go but he did not seem to want to go; and he saw in the eyes of the others the same ambiguous heroism.”

“I remember everything she and the others said as clearly as if my mind were a copper plate on which the slightest hairlines and the tiniest shadow-hatchings had been fixed forever by acid.”

“What subterfuges were behind the foreheads of those faces, in the attic minds, what plans and early-morning stirrings in the recesses just back of the cornice-hairlines?”

“Why is it that whenever men are in danger and have a clear-cut, dreadful adversary, they turn on each other in hatred?”

“How much time are we going to devote to absurd petty disagreements, while our world crumbles about our heads?”

“Now, in the last few days, the texture of the rumors has somehow changed. It seems to me that even the crowd that circle over the ghetto understand that: have you heard them lately? Their cries are not such buffoonery as before. They are serious, they are trying to raise an alarm. You listen to them: Caw! Caw! Caw!”

“A discovery that changes everything. That changes nothing, really. Except that it kills hope, and that is nearly everything.”

“The numbers, staggering as they are, do not depress me nearly so much as the sight of a single face of a deportee.”

“The indiscriminate totalitarian: diluting purity with foulness: like goosestepping to Mozart.”

“I felt unworlded. This was some other planet.”

“I suppose that living is not the important thing. The question of life and death should be significant to us, after what we have seen.”

“Now, there is but one question. In what manner will we go? Proudly? Or cravenly?”

“The only course is to die with honor.”

[Gary C · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the better novels I have read. The diary format can be a little annoying at times; as when an entry is interrupted by a reference to another entry. It does help make the pre-revolt portion of the novel easier to take. It might have been hard to finish if written to create the maximum emotional response.

For me the greatest strength of the novel is that the characters are presented as ordinary people confronted by an impossible situation. A baker, a housewife, a store-owner, a rabbi, etc. Some (especially Berson and Rachel) grow, discovering talents they never knew they had. Others can not deal with their position. I read Mila 18 years ago and recall that one of the main characters was an ex Polish cavalry officer. There was a martial side to that novel, that I don't believe most of the people inside the wall would have understood. Most would never have picked up a gun in their life; let alone have a mindset that would have considered trying to fight one of the world's strongest armies as an option.

That said, I think Hersey might have strengthened the novel by introducing as a major character one of the young, politically active people who deliberately smuggled themselves into the ghetto to help organize a resistance. They had the youth and political contacts that might have enabled them to escape Europe altogether. Instead they put themselves in a near hopeless position to help the Jews in the ghetto try to mount a defense against the Germans. I wonder if any revolt would have been possible without them? (A previous reviewers comparison of Rachel Apt to Zivia Lubetkin brought this to mind.)

It is difficult for me to find other flaws. Maybe the number of times Hersey describes Rachel's face. I know, he was aiming to show how her unattractiveness helped give her inner resources others did not possess. But he does mention it a lot. Also Noach Levinson's looking to Dolek Berson as a type of savior late in the novel may have been unjustified. However talented, the resistance must have depended on many people.

I highly recommend this novel to anyone interested in understanding the Holocaust. The intensity of the depiction of the revolt once it started made it nearly impossible for me to put the book down. There is a lovely (perhaps) unexpected romance as well as other emotional scenes and moments.

[Riley Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is presented as the journals of Noach Levinson being dug up after the war in Warsaw. I was gripped until I realized this was a fictional story. I've read other historical counts of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising so I enjoyed a more personal narrative presentation despite the fact it was historical fiction. Levinson acts as narrator and transcriber of everything. There are a lot of characters so it can be hard to track all the individuals. It starts in 1939 with the invasion and start of mistreatment of the Jews. The creation of the ghetto and the creation of this rag tag family in a courtyard. They are led by the "Little Mother" Rachel Apt who starts and illegal school in the courtyard. The story follows the worsening of conditions through 1942 while crews build the walls, smuggling and the underground starts to flourish and the "selections" start happening.

One of the most compelling chapters is when one of the smugglers goes on a mission to find out if the trains are really taking people to work in the East. Some Jews believe the selections might be better. He smuggles himself into the country only to find Treblinka. In the story he is numb but decides to go back and tell the Judenrat council what they are helping with.

Slowly the disparate communists, zionists and other split factions finally come together in a rag tag group. There is also a compelling chapter where Berson who plays a concertina messes with the Germans running through the underground popping up and playing a few bars, then dropping away before they can catch him.

Rachel's sister has a baby and he becomes the mascot for the bunker, but in a critical moment when the germans are close the boy is killed to avoid giving away the group. In the end a few of the Jews are able to escape to the woods, but in reality almost all the Jews died in the Ghetto in 1943.

I like the way that Hersey presents the uprising. The Jews knew they weren't going to win the war but they weren't going to roll over and die without a fight. Great read.

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best and most important novels I've read.
The story follows the lives (if you can call it life) of a dozen of the half million Jews trapped in the Warsaw ghetto during the war, their struggles to cope, to live life, to survive, as the wall is built, conditions steadily worsen in the face of hunger, disease, and Nazi "manhunts," and fellow citizens are "deported." Some try to persevere, some try to escape, some try to fight back, some just give up.
Though this is a fictional novel, it is based on true events, and I learned more about ghetto life, extermination camps, and underground resistance than I could in any history class. I suggest printing a map to refer to while reading (I found a good one of the ghetto in 1942-1943 online). It may take 20 or 40 pages to get used to the format (a journal with dashes in place of quotation marks), but it's well worth it and gets more and more fascinating, poignant, profound, and enthralling. I'll never forget some of the heroic characters, especially Rachel and Berson.
Here are a few quotations, not the best of the book, just what I had a chance to copy:
"To me, it makes no difference whether I am to die at the hands of Nazis or of microbes." - Goldflamm.
"The fact that a man is a man is more important than the fact that he believes what he believes."
"I now see that the greatest mistake we can make is to try to judge a whole man from the few things we hear him say and see him do." - Levinson.
"There is nothing like an expensive mistake to show a man to himself." - Berson.

[Stephen Gold · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a novel written 70 years ago, "The Wall" still packs a punch. Author and journalist John Hersey powerfully relates the story of Nazi Germany's infamous creation of the Judischer Wohnbezirk in Warschau -- the 1.3-square-mile Jewish walled camp in Warsaw, where 400,000 Jews were imprisoned -- from the building of the brick barrier that locked the Jews in, to the deportation of Jews to death camps, to the doomed uprising of about 750 resistance fighters. In the book Der Schwarze Obelisk, written just six years after Hersey's book, Erich Maria Remarque notably wrote, "The death of one man is just a death, the death of two millions is a statistic." The Warsaw ghetto numbers -- more than 300,000 Warsaw Jews were shipped off to death camps, more than 90,000 perished in the ghetto -- are impossible to fully appreciate. But tell the courageous, heart-breaking story of a handful of people, some of whom succumbed to the Nazis, some of whom fought , some of whom escaped, and you truly begin to understand the totality of the tragedy of that era. In today's climate of increasing antisemitism in Europe and America, it's a good time to reread Hersey's masterpiece.

[Juancho Vizcaino · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The occupation authorities are building this wall as they do everything else - section by section, episode after episode, separately, without apparent sequence. Here and there, now and then. Casual looting of Jewish property; Kosher slaughter forbidden; Kehilla disbanded and Judenrat formed; public worship forbidden; census registration for labor, ghetto, decree; ghetto, decree called off; Armbands; bank account, frozen; limitations of change of residence; registration of Jews’ jewelry; schools closed; restrictions of travel; registration of property; Jews, barred from trolleys and buses; restrictions on postal savings; prohibition of purchase of gold; wall sections built. Each episode comes at a different time. Each affects a different group. And when each group raises a clamor, all the other Jews cry:
- Hush! Do you intend to endanger the majority? Hush, Friends!
Yet I think we are all going to wake up one of these mornings, hear a loud click in the sky and see all this puzzle-parts fall into place around us. I wish I could understand the real meaning of the sections of the wall…”

[Eric Kirkman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fictional retelling of the lives of the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto. The tension builds and builds. The first 300 pages invests you in the lives of the characters, while the 2nd half reads as a macabre thriller.

I do not know if this is unique to thee Vintage edition, but no where in the prologue, nor at the end of the novel does it state that "The Wall" is a work of fiction, with the exception of the copyright page. A person only versed in John Hersey's Hiroshima could pick this book off the shelf, and believe they are reading a non-fiction account of the Warsaw Ghetto as compiled by Noach Levinson, who took first-hand accounts, interviews and letters, which were compiled by the unnamed editor. This should be corrected as it could cause confusion for the uninformed reader.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

From a perspective of technical literature, this is the most jaw-dropping book I have ever read due to the sheer amount of detail and historical research that must have gone into it. This book is meticulous and filled to the brim with detail; both historical and fictional. However, as a reader, I cannot say that this book was enjoyable. The fact that it reads like an archive (as it was intended) is both its greatest accomplishment and downfall. The pages are filled with completely irrelevant information and therefore make it difficult to parse, what feels like hundreds of characters to keep track of, and unnecessarily confusing language. It is definitely worth a read for those who are patient enough, but I would advise against it if the reader is seeking more entertainment value or an easy read.

[Greg Strom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I needed a reminder of what true suffering and depravation might be like to experience (beyond imagination really) but this fictional account written as non fiction did not really capture the people it was trying to portray very well though it did try. I got that Rachel was unattractive and Berson was clever, and that any number of them had to climb through sewers to survive but you never got the sense of what lives used to be like or what was happening in the rest of the world to effect their fate. Knowing what we do now it is even more disturbing that people among us could parade around with nazi symbols, give nazi salute and in general think so carelessly about the horrors of what these evil bastards perpetrated. Have mercy indeed as human kind fails to evolve or learn from the past. No idea what is next but want something a bit more hopeful.