They Called Me Frau Anna

The Holocaust Diaries #2

by Chana Marcus Banet

Abridged translation of: Be-tsel korato shel natsi.

Genres: Holocaust, Jewish, Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography

190 pages, Paperback (Abridged)

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

aka Ḥanah Baneṭ

Reviews

[juliette [beth mccarthy’s version][school ia]]

Soft dnf bc I had to leave the book behind

[Camille McCarthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This account was very interesting because it was written by someone who experienced the Soviet occupation of Poland first, and then the Nazi occupation. She was also very wealthy, which is the main reason she survived the war: she was able to bribe people, pay high rents to suspicious landlords, and serve as a housekeeper using her high-class manners so that even if they suspected she was Jewish, they did not turn her in.
I felt for her plight but I was taken aback by her Zionism at times, especially at the end when she lamented so many young Jewish people were leaving Israel and intermarrying with gentiles, and said she was giving the proceeds of the book to young Jewish couples so that they could live in the settlements (taken from Palestinians) on the edges of the Israeli territory sothey could maintain a purer Jewish country. This language is disturbing because it is reminiscent of the very attitude that led to Nazism in the first place - a desire for purity of race or culture, and a fear of intermingling with 'the other.' This is the only account I've read by Jewish survivors which has this attitude, of which I'm glad. The other thing that bothered me is that she never once points out that, in large part, she survived because she was in fact very wealthy to begin with - I wish she had acknowledged that those who were poor, such as the poor Pepa whom she scolds for hoarding slices of bread, did not have such means at their disposal.

[Matty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting & captivating, with some not great endings

[Memory Toast]

This was an interesting read for me because the author was older at the time of the Holocaust than the narrators I'm used to reading. I also learned something about what it was like for those living in Eastern Poland toward the beginning of the war.

Reading this was a wake up call to try a little harder in my cushy life, to strve to be a little more grateful, caring, and hard0working.