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Mila 18
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It was a time of crisis, a time of tragedy and a time of transcendent courage and determination. Leon Uris's novel is set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi tyranny, as the Jews of Warsaw boldly met Wehrmacht tanks with homemade weapons and bare fists. Here, painted on a canvas as broad as its subject matter, is the compelling story of one of the most her
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Paperback, 563 pages
Published
November 1st 1983
by Bantam
(first published 1961)
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Nobby Kleinman
I read this book about 45 years ago and it has stuck in my mind as one of the best stories I have ever read.
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Mila 18 is a breathtaking account of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, by the Jewish population of Warsaw, against the plans of the Nazi regime to exterminate them.
It is a great epic from the pen of one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, Leon Uris.
The Warsaw ghetto uprisings are an important symbol of the freedom and dignity of mankind and the ongoing struggle against totalitarianism and cruelty (particular that type of cruelty that is self righteously practiced by ideologues from the left ...more
It is a great epic from the pen of one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, Leon Uris.
The Warsaw ghetto uprisings are an important symbol of the freedom and dignity of mankind and the ongoing struggle against totalitarianism and cruelty (particular that type of cruelty that is self righteously practiced by ideologues from the left ...more
I grew up during World War 11 and although it was kept pretty quite by the Nazis many of us heard about what was happening to the Jewish people in Europe. I read this book when it first came out back in 1961, and I decided to read it again just this past month. This is a really powerful novel, not for the faint hearted. What was so amazing is what these poor Jewish people suffer through. I could hardly put this book down once I started reading it again. I give it five stars. Leon Uris the author
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Historical fiction by Leon Uris first published 1961 this audio recording released 2009.
This is the retelling of the horror that was the Warsaw Ghetto and more pacifically the uprising by the Jews who were held prisoner within the ghetto.
The bravery, determination and the willingness to self sacrifice for the greater cause shown by the oppressed Jewish people is nothing short of inspirational.
For a people whose very existence is steeped in forbearance this uprising was unprecedented.
The excess ...more
This is the retelling of the horror that was the Warsaw Ghetto and more pacifically the uprising by the Jews who were held prisoner within the ghetto.
The bravery, determination and the willingness to self sacrifice for the greater cause shown by the oppressed Jewish people is nothing short of inspirational.
For a people whose very existence is steeped in forbearance this uprising was unprecedented.
The excess ...more
I recently re-read Mila 18 while in Warsaw; of course, I went to Mila 18 and stood on the actual spot. I had first read the book when it came out in 1962. It was powerful then, even more so today. The most moving lines ... "For the first time I am proud of being a Jew" ... "you must survive and be part of the State of Israel" ... resonated with me as a Jew and as an author who has written about Jews. My grandparents lived near Warsaw; they left in the early 1900s; their families stayed and were
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My initial reading of Mila 18 by Leon Uris occurred shortly after the novel was published & in fact it may have been one of the first contemporary books I purchased. Tucked into my book was a newspaper review & a listing of best-selling fiction books, with Mila 18 at #3 just behind works by Irving Stone & John Steinbeck. After finishing the Uris novel I was discomforted to read a comment that the author's main reason for being was that Uris managed to create fiction easily translated into blockb
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Leon Uris was an amazing author. His books do not exactly fit into my favorite reading genres, but they transcend. I binged on a few of his works in 1970 and loved them
This began like one of those 1980s epic TV series when the subject matter is fascinating but the script and acting awful. The author gets carried away with every character's back story and he shows us in superfluous and often syrupy detail scenes that could have been told in a sentence or two. However once he had settled into his grove and the war narrative began it was a compelling read. He gives us the Warsaw Ghetto from the perspective of both the Jews and the Nazis with the odd Pole thrown i
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It has been a very long time since I read this book. It had a profound effect on me, and for that I have marked it as amazing. Though I'm not certain how fond I would be of it now, I think that it made me search my soul for certain answers about humanity, its strengths and weaknesses. In short it is about war, genocide, the human spirit, and taking a stand even when you know the action is futile. Though, as I've recently read in another book, wouldn't it be far less meaningful if we knew that we
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Leon Uris books are written in a style that takes history and historical characters and fictionalizes events through these made-up composite characters in a very entertaining, personalized and informative manner. Not great literature, however, his books are all page-turners and can be very emotional wrenching. This book, about the history of the Nazis taking over Poland, and the brave fight in the Warsaw Ghetto has left a deep imprint on my soul. Reader beware - if sad books stay with you, this
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A work of historical fiction, this novel is both informative and mind boggling. I learned a wealth of information about the situation of Jews in and around Warsaw before and during WW II and was reminded to "never forget." I used the term mind boggling because enjoyable is too light of an adjective to describe such horror juxtaposed to kindness, love to hate, and good to evil.
One of the many things I enjoy about Uris's books is the way he describes and develops his characters and the various sit ...more
One of the many things I enjoy about Uris's books is the way he describes and develops his characters and the various sit ...more
Ah, the benefit of age and experience.
I read this book when it was first published in the 60s and thought it was wonderful. I see now that what I got from it was incredibly deep research into the story of the resistance of the Warsaw Ghetto.
While that story is compelling and heartbreaking, I wonder if Mila 18 could even be classified today as a "novel." The characters are two dimensional and serve essentially as plot devices rather than as real people. Even in historical novels, character shou ...more
I read this book when it was first published in the 60s and thought it was wonderful. I see now that what I got from it was incredibly deep research into the story of the resistance of the Warsaw Ghetto.
While that story is compelling and heartbreaking, I wonder if Mila 18 could even be classified today as a "novel." The characters are two dimensional and serve essentially as plot devices rather than as real people. Even in historical novels, character shou ...more
Ok. Ok. Deep breaths. I'm going to try really, really hard to not get overly worked up here. It's entirely possible, that if you know nothing about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, if you have never read any literary version of the Holocaust (SOPHIE'S CHOICE AHEM COUGH COUGH), and/or if you had forgotten about the many and varied injustices of World War II, this book will present itself as new, exciting, and maybe even revelatory to you. I don't have any personal foothold on these events, but (big di
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A compelling, dramatic account of the Rising in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Outstanding book! I really like Leon Uris as an author with his insight and writing style.
I am left stunned by this story. It is a story; not a lot is known about what actually happened, about who were the participants, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and here a riveting story has been crafted around the known facts. But even the known facts are astonishing; that a group of essentially unarmed Jews in the Ghetto that had been created by the Nazis took on the German war machine and held out for 42 days - longer than Poland itself.
There is surviving testimony as to what took place bu ...more
There is surviving testimony as to what took place bu ...more
I read Mila 18 immediately after Armageddon and I thought they made a great combination. Everyone has heard of the Warsaw Ghetto but I never quite understood just what happened there. This book was a great illustration of that bit of history. Again, the novel is about people in inhuman conditions trying to find some hope for the future, refusing to be trodden under the boots of megalomaniacs. But as we know from history the events in Warsaw were a horror and a tragedy so be prepared for another
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A reread for me, having first read this back in 1961 or '62. I remembered it as being a very powerful fictionalized version of history back then. It has not lost any of that impact over time.
I credit Uris with laying the ground work for my long lasting love of the fictionalized history genre that I enjoy today. Anytime I can learn something factual from a fast paced novel, it's a good read.
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I credit Uris with laying the ground work for my long lasting love of the fictionalized history genre that I enjoy today. Anytime I can learn something factual from a fast paced novel, it's a good read.
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The #4 bestseller of 1961 was another door stopper but mostly a page turner. It is the second version I have read of events concerning the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. I also read John Hersey's The Wall as part of my reading list for 1950. Each book takes a slightly different look at this atrocity but it is hard to say which is better.
Because he is Leon Uris, he had to put several love stories in his version, but compared to his 1958 bestseller Exodus this book is so much better in terms ...more
Mila 18 has a copyright of 1961 making it over 50 years old. I probably read it 30 years ago but found my way to it again after visiting Warsaw, Poland and learning a little bit about the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto during WWII. This book is a fictional account of that event.
It took me a while to get into this book but once I did, I found myself sobbing over the plight of the Jews with some regularity. As the book tells us, “The Warsaw Ghetto…once held nearly six hundred thousand people. That ...more
It took me a while to get into this book but once I did, I found myself sobbing over the plight of the Jews with some regularity. As the book tells us, “The Warsaw Ghetto…once held nearly six hundred thousand people. That ...more
I recommend this book. The real events were told through fictitious characters. The book opens with the first salvo of WWII when Germany invaded Poland. The 'sub-human' Jews and other undesirables were rounded up like cattle and herded into the ghettos of Warsaw, Poland. What they did to survive slaughter is the meat of this book. Living in the ghetto meant a life of hunger, thirst, fear and a declining will to live. The ghetto dwellers eventually moved underground where even the healing rays of
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I first read this book many many years ago but I had forgotten just how powerful it was. During a recent trip to Warsaw I was inspired to read it again. It meant a lot more to me this time as I was able to "see" places mentioned through the lens of my recent travels. It is a novel based on factual events but featuring imaginary characters. Uris did an amazing job making it read as though it was fact. I grew to deeply care for some of the charactors. I would highly recommend this book to anyone i
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** NOTE: Some spoilers included in review of novel. **
This novel was required reading for a course I'm currently taking on the Holocaust. In college, I minored in history because of my love for the subject, but despite my previous knowledge about WWII and the Holocaust, my knowledge of the Warsaw Ghetto was limited to a cursory understanding of the uprising that occurred in the spring of 1943. As a result, I was looking forward to reading Uris’s novel on the subject.
My first thought was how im ...more
This novel was required reading for a course I'm currently taking on the Holocaust. In college, I minored in history because of my love for the subject, but despite my previous knowledge about WWII and the Holocaust, my knowledge of the Warsaw Ghetto was limited to a cursory understanding of the uprising that occurred in the spring of 1943. As a result, I was looking forward to reading Uris’s novel on the subject.
My first thought was how im ...more
Coronavirus (update: Coronavirus + Rebellion 2020) book review #19 - 3.75 stars
I didn’t have high hopes for this seemingly beloved 1960s best-seller. It read more like a dressed up trashy romance novel with some Polish WWII history thrown in to give it some legitimacy. But a page-turner, nonetheless, about the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
I could have lived without the objectification of women. Although to be fair, there are numerous women in this book who have their own backstories and roles to play ...more
I didn’t have high hopes for this seemingly beloved 1960s best-seller. It read more like a dressed up trashy romance novel with some Polish WWII history thrown in to give it some legitimacy. But a page-turner, nonetheless, about the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
I could have lived without the objectification of women. Although to be fair, there are numerous women in this book who have their own backstories and roles to play ...more
Very powerful novel about the Warsaw Ghetto and the Jewish Uprising there during WWII. I've read quite a bit about the Holocaust but this is the first novel I've read about the Warsaw Ghetto and the courageous fighters who faced the Nazis with limited weapons including homemade bombs and their bare hands. This novel by Uris was sweeping in scope telling the story of Poland and Warsaw before the German invasion in 1939 and through the horrors of the ghetto. The novel focuses on a group of people
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This is a typical Leon Uris novel. He does a great job setting up fictional characters in the historic setting of the Warsaw Ghetto. It is a tragic story and I was amazed at how long they held out. Worth reading for multiple reasons.
Imagine being an Olympic soccer player, an officer in the Polish Army, and a loyal Pole who happens to be a Jew. The main character in this book,(which is based on the real life events of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in the spring of 1942) is all of those. Andrei Androfski bravely leads his troops against the Germans while still an officer in the Polish Army. Once defeated by Germany however, he is made to live in the Warsaw ghetto along with hundreds of thousands of Jews from Poland and other pa
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Uris is a compelling author and has a knack for the historical fiction page-turner. Mila 18 is excellent at capturing the world of the Warsaw Ghetto and really paces the novel well so that you, through the eyes of several characters, see its inexorable decline towards death and destruction. Uris puts a lot of emphasis on the complexities of Jewish society in this period - rather than portraying them all as heroic victims in unified suffering, he goes into the complex intra-social divisions among
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Great novel. Leon Uris never dissapoints. I have read two of his books previously and they were great. Here, we are transported to Poland and the year is 1943 or therabouts. Hitler and his Nazi buddies have invaded Poland with his barbarous goal of exterminating the Jews. In order to tame them he comes up with the idea of recruiting some of their own to control the population. Alongside the Germans, they form the Jewish Civil Authority, Jewish Militia, and others whose work is to transmit the la
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My wife and I went to Poland on an Eastern European tour in 2005. As a part of that tour we visited the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial. At a souvenier stand near the memorial I noticed copies of a paperback book which I owned but had never read, i.e.,
by
Leon Uris. I read the book as soon as we returned from our trip. This historical fiction book is the absolutely incredible story of how the Germans built a walled concentration camp within the city of Warsaw and forced a huge number of Jews in
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by
Leon Uris. I read the book as soon as we returned from our trip. This historical fiction book is the absolutely incredible story of how the Germans built a walled concentration camp within the city of Warsaw and forced a huge number of Jews in
...more
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Leon Marcus Uris (August 3, 1924 - June 21, 2003) was an American novelist, known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels. His two bestselling books were Exodus, published in 1958, and Trinity, in 1976.
Leon Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish-American parents Wolf William and Anna (Blumberg) Uris. His father, a Polish-born immigrant, was a pa ...more
Leon Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish-American parents Wolf William and Anna (Blumberg) Uris. His father, a Polish-born immigrant, was a pa ...more
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“Who is left in the ghetto is the one man in a thousand in any age, in any culture, who through some mysterious workings of force within his soul will stand in defiance against any master. He is that one human in a thousand whose indomitable spirit will not bow. He is the one man in a thousand whose indomitable spirit cannot bow. He is the one man in a thousand who will not walk quietly to Umschlagplatz. Watch out for him, Alfred Funk, we have pushed him to the wall.”
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