What do you think?
Rate this book
The Nazi's Granddaughter: How I Discovered My Grandfather was a War Criminal
A deathbed promise leads a daughter on an incredible journey to write about her grandfather who was a famous war hero. But this journey had a terrible the discovery that he was a Nazi war criminal.
Silvia Foti’s mother was dying. Wanting to preserve family history, Silvia’s mother asks her to write a book about Foti’s grandfather, Jonas Noreika, a famous WWII hero. Foti’s grandmother tries to intervene - begging her granddaughter not to write about her husband. “Just let history lie,” she whispered.
Foti had no idea that in keeping her promise to her mother, her discoveries would bring her to a personal crisis, unearth Holocaust denial, and expose an official cover-up by the Lithuanian government that resulted in an internationally-followed lawsuit.
Jonas Noreika was a Lithuanian known as General Storm. He led an uprising that won the country of Lithuania back from the communists, only to have it fall under Nazi control. He was an official during the Holocaust and chief of the second largest region in the country during the Nazi occupation, yet he became a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. Foti set out to write a heroic biography about her famous grandfather. But as she dug ever deeper, she “encountered so much evidence proving my flesh and blood ‘hero’ was a Jew-killer, even I could no longer believe the lie.”
The Nazi's Granddaughter is Foti’s first-hand account of her journey, which began as an act of family pride and ended with uncovering the secret her family, and an entire nation, had kept hidden for 79 years. It
How should our family’s past, shameful or noble, shape our identity? How could one man be revered as a hero, having a grammar school named after him, and yet be a villain responsible for the deaths of thousands? Why are some European countries still in denial about their role in the Holocaust? How was this kept secret until now?
Silvia Foti’s mother was dying. Wanting to preserve family history, Silvia’s mother asks her to write a book about Foti’s grandfather, Jonas Noreika, a famous WWII hero. Foti’s grandmother tries to intervene - begging her granddaughter not to write about her husband. “Just let history lie,” she whispered.
Foti had no idea that in keeping her promise to her mother, her discoveries would bring her to a personal crisis, unearth Holocaust denial, and expose an official cover-up by the Lithuanian government that resulted in an internationally-followed lawsuit.
Jonas Noreika was a Lithuanian known as General Storm. He led an uprising that won the country of Lithuania back from the communists, only to have it fall under Nazi control. He was an official during the Holocaust and chief of the second largest region in the country during the Nazi occupation, yet he became a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. Foti set out to write a heroic biography about her famous grandfather. But as she dug ever deeper, she “encountered so much evidence proving my flesh and blood ‘hero’ was a Jew-killer, even I could no longer believe the lie.”
The Nazi's Granddaughter is Foti’s first-hand account of her journey, which began as an act of family pride and ended with uncovering the secret her family, and an entire nation, had kept hidden for 79 years. It
How should our family’s past, shameful or noble, shape our identity? How could one man be revered as a hero, having a grammar school named after him, and yet be a villain responsible for the deaths of thousands? Why are some European countries still in denial about their role in the Holocaust? How was this kept secret until now?
399 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 9, 2021
117 people are currently reading
4083 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
July 13, 2021
FULL DISCLOSURE: I have no knowledge about Lithuania’s history or its politics.
“The truth is that Lithuania was forced to make an excruciating choice between the Communists and the Nazis.” (Pg.131). To me, that was no choice at all.
All her life Silvia Foti heard nothing but glowing stories about her heroic grandfather, Jonas Noreiks, from both her grandmother and her mother. He was by all accounts a Lithuania hero.
The book is all the more engaging because most of the first chapters are dedicated to the adulation heaped upon her grandfather by family and friends.
Her mother had been planning to write a biography of her father for most of her life. A father she last saw when she was 4-years old. Sadly she passed away before she could write the book but had amassed hundreds of pages of information and documents. Her death bed request of her daughter was for Silvia to write the book.
Her grandmother on her deathbed told Silvia “It’s best to just let history lie.”
Not long into her research Silvia’s shock and horror is evident at the first sign that all is not what she was led to believe. Her research was extensive and took years.
It is highly likely that her mother and grandmother were aware of Jonas’ actions.
Documents with signatures are hard to forge.
There is every reason to believe that Silivia’s story is true.
“The truth is that Lithuania was forced to make an excruciating choice between the Communists and the Nazis.” (Pg.131). To me, that was no choice at all.
All her life Silvia Foti heard nothing but glowing stories about her heroic grandfather, Jonas Noreiks, from both her grandmother and her mother. He was by all accounts a Lithuania hero.
The book is all the more engaging because most of the first chapters are dedicated to the adulation heaped upon her grandfather by family and friends.
Her mother had been planning to write a biography of her father for most of her life. A father she last saw when she was 4-years old. Sadly she passed away before she could write the book but had amassed hundreds of pages of information and documents. Her death bed request of her daughter was for Silvia to write the book.
Her grandmother on her deathbed told Silvia “It’s best to just let history lie.”
Not long into her research Silvia’s shock and horror is evident at the first sign that all is not what she was led to believe. Her research was extensive and took years.
It is highly likely that her mother and grandmother were aware of Jonas’ actions.
Documents with signatures are hard to forge.
There is every reason to believe that Silivia’s story is true.
April 22, 2021
Frankly I was intrigued by the bottom line on the cover: "Blaming Russian propaganda, however, has suddenly become a lot more difficult thanks to Mr. Noreika’s own granddaughter, Silvia Foti" - NEW YORK TIMES.
As a swede, who has served in Swedish Military Force I can distinguish Russian propaganda quite well. Actually I had a training on this subject. And after reading this book, I can reassure you, that this all book is nothing, but quintessence of Russian propaganda. Straight from the KGB textbook: blaming anti-russian resistance fighters of all mortal sins, starting with antisemitism. And instead of facts, which are missing completely use just emotions - that works quite well on some naive westerners, including, sadly, even New York Times.
As a swede, who has served in Swedish Military Force I can distinguish Russian propaganda quite well. Actually I had a training on this subject. And after reading this book, I can reassure you, that this all book is nothing, but quintessence of Russian propaganda. Straight from the KGB textbook: blaming anti-russian resistance fighters of all mortal sins, starting with antisemitism. And instead of facts, which are missing completely use just emotions - that works quite well on some naive westerners, including, sadly, even New York Times.
June 24, 2022
Considering the current geopolitical context, this is a bad time to read this book. And even a worse time to review it. But oh well.
I wonder who decided to title the book. The author, at least in her interview with Nara, claims she wanted a different title. Evidently, someone wanted sales, even at the cost of (or precisely because of) a bit controversy. Yet, whomever it was, they knew they would trigger not only hardcore right-wing but also all those people who consider themselves perhaps not necessarily sworn patriots of Lithuania but simply people who love their country. Especially, if their parents/grandparents/greatgrandparents were somehow involved in the events that shaped what happened to our country later. Or were victims of the Soviet regime.
And yet. I think that it's good that this book was written, even though there were (quite a few) things that I did not like about it.
Every country is very touchy about some parts of their history. For some - it's their colonial past. For others - it's being the victims of somebody's colonial past. Crazy, mad, insane policies. Unfairness. Some extremely shameful decisions. Inherited anguish. Something you'd either call the powers of hell to correct the historical injustice incurred or, if you can't, you'd rather forget. And they do. To a lesser or larger extent - history is a bit like our Facebook, Instagram or GoodReads profiles- something how we want others to see us. I don't particularly like Harari, but he wrote many things right. Such as humans being creatures of a myth. We need to have stories to live, to exist. Not only as individuals, but as organised groups of individuals. So we tell stories. And we whitewash them a bit. Sometimes more intentionally, sometimes less - being objective does not exist. Period.
Problems begin when you can't question stories. It doesn't matter why - whether its fear of being offensive to someone's feelings about their country's history, or because there are survivors of the sensitivity in question still alive, or because some evil powers can manipulate your questions or answers. We have a saying "a holy cow". You know - something you'd rather not touch because it's so sacred, so important and so sensitive.
And they become more difficult when the evidence is scarce, patchy and subjective. When there are few witnesses remaining. And when there are interests for a particular kind of truth.
And it's a problem when somebody who questions - out of curiosity or for any other reason - gets shushed, ridiculed or hounded for daring ask. And it's a problem when it reaches political level.
In Lithuania, particular sensitivities include guerilla movements and the Holocaust. The former are the heroes, don't you dare say anything that even remotely contradicts that; and the latter is a horrible atrocity, that's it, Lithuanians were sent to Siberia too, I said, that's it, enough, I don't want to hear any more of that.
And yet. When you talk to individual people, they quietly say various things. Many reinforce the official narrative, others - not quite so. What can you do. The evidence is patchy. And subjective.
A couple of things are clear, though. Behind heroes there were simple humans with individual stories. And there was WW2 that somehow eradicated most of the Jewish population in Lithuania.
Silvia Foti tells the story of her grandfather - Jonas Noreika. Who was a comandant in Šiauliai region during the Nazi occupation. The major controversy and disagreement regarding this historical role in the Holocaust in Lithuania. What the arguing sides agree on is that as a commandant under the Nazi rule, he signed some documents, the consequence of which was Jews in the region getting closed in ghettos, their property taken over by others, most of the Jews killed in the end. What they disagree is whether Noreika was an obedient tool used by the Nazis, or if he was a willing accomplice, or if he was somebody who did all he could in a difficult situation that he was in to save and protect whomever he was able to save or protect.
I was not expecting an academic historical account but rather a detailed description of the investigation - something like other investigative fiction I had read recently. But it was not exactly that.
Foti chose to tell Noreika's story from her personal point of view - more a shift in her view. As a granddaughter of a human-idol, she tells about how Noreika was adored in her family and the community of Lithuanian expats (DPs) in Chicago and their children. She describes her family and community like some sort of fanatical cult - both towards Lithuania, occupied by Soviets when she was a child/young woman, and towards Jonas Noreika - a human hero, cruelly taken away from his family while still in Lithuania - first by the Nazis (he was sent to a concentration camp for displeasing the occupiers) and then by the Soviets, who jailed and cruelly tortured him and killed him in the end. I am not sure how other people, who are not Lithuanians or who are Lithuanians but never met the DP expats in USA and their children or grandchildren, feel about this, but some those people do live in a parallel reality. I don't mean anything offensive by that - but rather that the elderly have preserved the in-between-war Lithuania as a dream country in their memories and see it through rose glasses, with a lot of sugar coating. They hopelessly idealise it and idolise it and don't always understand that such a Lithuania only exists in dreams. And that the actual country is very different from what they imagine. Some still behave as if our country is something that is threatened and still needs to be saved from something (e.g. becoming unLithuanian).
Foti describes this quite well, actually. Although I absolutely hated the overdone emotional, sentimental, sugary coated descriptions of her family's and immediate environment's image of Lithuania and Noreika (was even worse when listening to an audiobook - the voice actress overdid the sentimentality), that quite reflected some examples I met in my life. Well, they love Lithuania and that's no joke even if you don't understand it.
But that sentimentality was overwhelming. It's clear where from it comes, but there was too much of it.
She does quite well with explaining how she was raised to worship her grandfather and how big an influence it had in her life. Everything in her life was defined by her grandfather's legacy. And that was a bit creepy to read. Imagine - every single decision in your life revolves about your granfather. All family celebrations - about your grandfather. The only things your family talks about - your grandfather. Grandfather as an example, a reference point, some ideal you should strive for. And what long-term effects it has - for you, your own children and spouse or anyone, really. And she makes you empathise with that but hate it at the same time, too.
I would not be able to live like that.
Then she tells about a deathbed promise to her mother - to write a book about her grandfather. Fortunately, times have changed, Lithuania is free again, she wants to bury her mother's and grandmother's remains in Lithuania. She does that, the funeral being all pomp - afterall, her grandfather was a hero. And then she meets someone, who, with a grace and sensitivity of Lithuanian country bumpkin run over by Soviet bulldozer (cultural type, rare, but exists) blurts out there was some controversy regarding her grandfather and that it may have something to do with Holocaust.
I think she describes the shock and the turmoil of emotions such a news caused quite well. I don't know what I would think in such a situation and whether I would be able to accept it. She somehow did. Maybe when you know that you are fed not necessarily a fairy tale but a strongly idolised view, perhaps subconciously you know there is something more. At least that's how Foti retrospectively rationalises - not as bluntly but through her memories of her mother and grandmother, inconsistencies in their stories.
Her description of search for historical truth - whether her grandfather was a hero or a Nazi accomplice - received quite a bit of criticism from other readers. Not without a reason. I love "Dievų miškas" - that's about the only thing you can read about life in a concentration camp without crying in a corner - but that's too fictionalised to rely on as a historical source. The historical evidence in general is scarce, so she does use some historical KGB files and reliability of anything touched by KGB is questionable at best. At the same time she captures cultural tendencies well. Lithuanians do not like to talk about unpleasant things, especially, regarding history. Regarding family ("bad is the bird who soils its nest"). And the Holocaust is quite a taboo. And she talked to many - Noreika's surviving comrades, her relatives. Yes, it is a problem that some interviewees were children at the time (or some not yet born when Noreika was a commandant in Šiauliai), so some stories were on family lore or hearsay level. But not everything. E.g. pamphlets written by her grandfather, with somewhat questionable views. A lot of such evidence - circumstantial. But when put together, they paint a certain picture, and that picture is not wholy pleasant. Yes, there is space for interpretation. But nevertheless.
All in all, I would recommend to read this book (for Lithuanian readers). First and foremost because it raises questions and makes you think. And that's what such books should do. No, I don't think it's a propaganda. Yes, it's inconvenient. Yes, it may be used by manipulators. No, it's not an academic text. Yes, for a journalist investigation, it's not detached enough. Yes, in places it's annoyingly sentimental. Yes, this book assumes. Yes, it does extrapolate because Noreika is long dead, there is no way to get into his head. Yes, he was in a difficult position, no, I don't know what choices he had or did not have. Yes, you may not like it, especially, if you are Lithuanian. In fact, if you are strong believer in black or white, it may offend your beliefs. Yes, you may not find the story presented in this book persuasive enough.
But it made me think. I know that at least two of my greatgrandparents did absolutely nothing when the Holocaust happened. They stood by and watched - one listening to the screams of live people burning in Slabada ghetto, the other - at piles of shoes and clothing that used to belong to fellow human beings in a small Lithuanian village. Yes, I probably owe my existence to that. No, I don't know what I would have done in their place. I pray never to find out. But what can be found out about the things already done, I think that should be found out. Because I think it's easier to exploit and manipulate someone's lack of knowledge than knowledge possessed, even if painful.
I wonder who decided to title the book. The author, at least in her interview with Nara, claims she wanted a different title. Evidently, someone wanted sales, even at the cost of (or precisely because of) a bit controversy. Yet, whomever it was, they knew they would trigger not only hardcore right-wing but also all those people who consider themselves perhaps not necessarily sworn patriots of Lithuania but simply people who love their country. Especially, if their parents/grandparents/greatgrandparents were somehow involved in the events that shaped what happened to our country later. Or were victims of the Soviet regime.
And yet. I think that it's good that this book was written, even though there were (quite a few) things that I did not like about it.
Every country is very touchy about some parts of their history. For some - it's their colonial past. For others - it's being the victims of somebody's colonial past. Crazy, mad, insane policies. Unfairness. Some extremely shameful decisions. Inherited anguish. Something you'd either call the powers of hell to correct the historical injustice incurred or, if you can't, you'd rather forget. And they do. To a lesser or larger extent - history is a bit like our Facebook, Instagram or GoodReads profiles- something how we want others to see us. I don't particularly like Harari, but he wrote many things right. Such as humans being creatures of a myth. We need to have stories to live, to exist. Not only as individuals, but as organised groups of individuals. So we tell stories. And we whitewash them a bit. Sometimes more intentionally, sometimes less - being objective does not exist. Period.
Problems begin when you can't question stories. It doesn't matter why - whether its fear of being offensive to someone's feelings about their country's history, or because there are survivors of the sensitivity in question still alive, or because some evil powers can manipulate your questions or answers. We have a saying "a holy cow". You know - something you'd rather not touch because it's so sacred, so important and so sensitive.
And they become more difficult when the evidence is scarce, patchy and subjective. When there are few witnesses remaining. And when there are interests for a particular kind of truth.
And it's a problem when somebody who questions - out of curiosity or for any other reason - gets shushed, ridiculed or hounded for daring ask. And it's a problem when it reaches political level.
In Lithuania, particular sensitivities include guerilla movements and the Holocaust. The former are the heroes, don't you dare say anything that even remotely contradicts that; and the latter is a horrible atrocity, that's it, Lithuanians were sent to Siberia too, I said, that's it, enough, I don't want to hear any more of that.
And yet. When you talk to individual people, they quietly say various things. Many reinforce the official narrative, others - not quite so. What can you do. The evidence is patchy. And subjective.
A couple of things are clear, though. Behind heroes there were simple humans with individual stories. And there was WW2 that somehow eradicated most of the Jewish population in Lithuania.
Silvia Foti tells the story of her grandfather - Jonas Noreika. Who was a comandant in Šiauliai region during the Nazi occupation. The major controversy and disagreement regarding this historical role in the Holocaust in Lithuania. What the arguing sides agree on is that as a commandant under the Nazi rule, he signed some documents, the consequence of which was Jews in the region getting closed in ghettos, their property taken over by others, most of the Jews killed in the end. What they disagree is whether Noreika was an obedient tool used by the Nazis, or if he was a willing accomplice, or if he was somebody who did all he could in a difficult situation that he was in to save and protect whomever he was able to save or protect.
I was not expecting an academic historical account but rather a detailed description of the investigation - something like other investigative fiction I had read recently. But it was not exactly that.
Foti chose to tell Noreika's story from her personal point of view - more a shift in her view. As a granddaughter of a human-idol, she tells about how Noreika was adored in her family and the community of Lithuanian expats (DPs) in Chicago and their children. She describes her family and community like some sort of fanatical cult - both towards Lithuania, occupied by Soviets when she was a child/young woman, and towards Jonas Noreika - a human hero, cruelly taken away from his family while still in Lithuania - first by the Nazis (he was sent to a concentration camp for displeasing the occupiers) and then by the Soviets, who jailed and cruelly tortured him and killed him in the end. I am not sure how other people, who are not Lithuanians or who are Lithuanians but never met the DP expats in USA and their children or grandchildren, feel about this, but some those people do live in a parallel reality. I don't mean anything offensive by that - but rather that the elderly have preserved the in-between-war Lithuania as a dream country in their memories and see it through rose glasses, with a lot of sugar coating. They hopelessly idealise it and idolise it and don't always understand that such a Lithuania only exists in dreams. And that the actual country is very different from what they imagine. Some still behave as if our country is something that is threatened and still needs to be saved from something (e.g. becoming unLithuanian).
Foti describes this quite well, actually. Although I absolutely hated the overdone emotional, sentimental, sugary coated descriptions of her family's and immediate environment's image of Lithuania and Noreika (was even worse when listening to an audiobook - the voice actress overdid the sentimentality), that quite reflected some examples I met in my life. Well, they love Lithuania and that's no joke even if you don't understand it.
But that sentimentality was overwhelming. It's clear where from it comes, but there was too much of it.
She does quite well with explaining how she was raised to worship her grandfather and how big an influence it had in her life. Everything in her life was defined by her grandfather's legacy. And that was a bit creepy to read. Imagine - every single decision in your life revolves about your granfather. All family celebrations - about your grandfather. The only things your family talks about - your grandfather. Grandfather as an example, a reference point, some ideal you should strive for. And what long-term effects it has - for you, your own children and spouse or anyone, really. And she makes you empathise with that but hate it at the same time, too.
I would not be able to live like that.
Then she tells about a deathbed promise to her mother - to write a book about her grandfather. Fortunately, times have changed, Lithuania is free again, she wants to bury her mother's and grandmother's remains in Lithuania. She does that, the funeral being all pomp - afterall, her grandfather was a hero. And then she meets someone, who, with a grace and sensitivity of Lithuanian country bumpkin run over by Soviet bulldozer (cultural type, rare, but exists) blurts out there was some controversy regarding her grandfather and that it may have something to do with Holocaust.
I think she describes the shock and the turmoil of emotions such a news caused quite well. I don't know what I would think in such a situation and whether I would be able to accept it. She somehow did. Maybe when you know that you are fed not necessarily a fairy tale but a strongly idolised view, perhaps subconciously you know there is something more. At least that's how Foti retrospectively rationalises - not as bluntly but through her memories of her mother and grandmother, inconsistencies in their stories.
Her description of search for historical truth - whether her grandfather was a hero or a Nazi accomplice - received quite a bit of criticism from other readers. Not without a reason. I love "Dievų miškas" - that's about the only thing you can read about life in a concentration camp without crying in a corner - but that's too fictionalised to rely on as a historical source. The historical evidence in general is scarce, so she does use some historical KGB files and reliability of anything touched by KGB is questionable at best. At the same time she captures cultural tendencies well. Lithuanians do not like to talk about unpleasant things, especially, regarding history. Regarding family ("bad is the bird who soils its nest"). And the Holocaust is quite a taboo. And she talked to many - Noreika's surviving comrades, her relatives. Yes, it is a problem that some interviewees were children at the time (or some not yet born when Noreika was a commandant in Šiauliai), so some stories were on family lore or hearsay level. But not everything. E.g. pamphlets written by her grandfather, with somewhat questionable views. A lot of such evidence - circumstantial. But when put together, they paint a certain picture, and that picture is not wholy pleasant. Yes, there is space for interpretation. But nevertheless.
All in all, I would recommend to read this book (for Lithuanian readers). First and foremost because it raises questions and makes you think. And that's what such books should do. No, I don't think it's a propaganda. Yes, it's inconvenient. Yes, it may be used by manipulators. No, it's not an academic text. Yes, for a journalist investigation, it's not detached enough. Yes, in places it's annoyingly sentimental. Yes, this book assumes. Yes, it does extrapolate because Noreika is long dead, there is no way to get into his head. Yes, he was in a difficult position, no, I don't know what choices he had or did not have. Yes, you may not like it, especially, if you are Lithuanian. In fact, if you are strong believer in black or white, it may offend your beliefs. Yes, you may not find the story presented in this book persuasive enough.
But it made me think. I know that at least two of my greatgrandparents did absolutely nothing when the Holocaust happened. They stood by and watched - one listening to the screams of live people burning in Slabada ghetto, the other - at piles of shoes and clothing that used to belong to fellow human beings in a small Lithuanian village. Yes, I probably owe my existence to that. No, I don't know what I would have done in their place. I pray never to find out. But what can be found out about the things already done, I think that should be found out. Because I think it's easier to exploit and manipulate someone's lack of knowledge than knowledge possessed, even if painful.
June 7, 2021
Holocaust literature is vast and varied. But this is the only example I know of a descendant investigating a grandparent’s role and writing an expose of his heinous complicity in genocide.
The author’s achievement is all the greater when you consider her circumstances:
—She grew up in a Lithuanian neighborhood of west Chicago, hearing tales that cast her grandfather as a courageous patriot, tortured then executed by the Soviet occupiers in 1946.
—Relatives and friends discouraged her investigation; sources lied to prevent her from discovering their own complicity.
—The Lithuanian government resisted her letters and petitions, clinging to its fairy tale of Jonas Noreika as a hero.
—And reviewers on GoodReads, who don’t like the message, post hostile reviews reminiscent of playground insults. “Liar, liar, pants on fire,” opined one ever-so-articulate poster.
The book is far from perfect.
You will have to read about conversations in which sources and relatives repeat ludicrous claims.
—The most mind boggling of these was the belief that “Lithuania had suffered under the communists as badly as the Jews had suffered during the Holocaust” (page 216). Yeah right. Was 95 percent of the population murdered?
—A close second was the conversation in which the author’s stepmother professes absolute belief in the long-debunked blood libel. This is Chicago in the 1980s! You have to feel bad for Silvia Foti, having a psycho for a stepmother.
You will also have to read through many pages in which the author describes her own research in often irrelevant detail.
You will have to be patient as the author slowly comes to understand that her grandfather ordered the killing of thousands of Jews and distributed their stolen property, reserving a few choice items for himself. As a reader, you’ve twigged to his virulent anti-semitism long before, and you want to gently (or not so gently) suggest that she wake up and smell the coffee.
You also want some organizational aids to help you through the morass of detail and the disordered sequence of events. A list of names, a family tree, and a timeline would have helped a great deal. Oh, and a usable index.
Don’t let these flaws keep you from reading this ultimately encouraging story. It took three generations in America (somewhat longer than 40 years in the desert) but Silvia Foti has overcome the jingoistic nationalism and virulent anti-semitism of her heritage.
The author’s achievement is all the greater when you consider her circumstances:
—She grew up in a Lithuanian neighborhood of west Chicago, hearing tales that cast her grandfather as a courageous patriot, tortured then executed by the Soviet occupiers in 1946.
—Relatives and friends discouraged her investigation; sources lied to prevent her from discovering their own complicity.
—The Lithuanian government resisted her letters and petitions, clinging to its fairy tale of Jonas Noreika as a hero.
—And reviewers on GoodReads, who don’t like the message, post hostile reviews reminiscent of playground insults. “Liar, liar, pants on fire,” opined one ever-so-articulate poster.
The book is far from perfect.
You will have to read about conversations in which sources and relatives repeat ludicrous claims.
—The most mind boggling of these was the belief that “Lithuania had suffered under the communists as badly as the Jews had suffered during the Holocaust” (page 216). Yeah right. Was 95 percent of the population murdered?
—A close second was the conversation in which the author’s stepmother professes absolute belief in the long-debunked blood libel. This is Chicago in the 1980s! You have to feel bad for Silvia Foti, having a psycho for a stepmother.
You will also have to read through many pages in which the author describes her own research in often irrelevant detail.
You will have to be patient as the author slowly comes to understand that her grandfather ordered the killing of thousands of Jews and distributed their stolen property, reserving a few choice items for himself. As a reader, you’ve twigged to his virulent anti-semitism long before, and you want to gently (or not so gently) suggest that she wake up and smell the coffee.
You also want some organizational aids to help you through the morass of detail and the disordered sequence of events. A list of names, a family tree, and a timeline would have helped a great deal. Oh, and a usable index.
Don’t let these flaws keep you from reading this ultimately encouraging story. It took three generations in America (somewhat longer than 40 years in the desert) but Silvia Foti has overcome the jingoistic nationalism and virulent anti-semitism of her heritage.
May 6, 2021
As interesting as this book is, equally of interest are the comments on Goodreads of Lithuanian readers who accuse the writer of having been "taken in" by KGB, Russian propaganda. I think the author makes a very good case for her "hero" grandfather's complicity in the killing of Lithuanian Jews. The Jewish community of Lithuania was killed in greater percentage than anywhere else in Europe. They didn't bother with ghettos (on the whole) but just shot thousands a day in the woods near their home communities. Foti explores carefully her investigation - which isn't easy in a country where leadership continues to avoid responsibility for complicity in these deaths. Very interesting book.
May 6, 2023
This one fell way short of my expectations.
The premise was very interesting. The author grew up hearing stories about her grandfather’s heroic actions during WW2. She makes a promise to her dying mother that she will finish the novel that was begun about his life. As Sylvia dives deeper into research, she discovers shocking things about her grandfather that gives an entirely new perspective about the man he really was.
As I read past the first few chapters, I began to get bogged down with the immense amount of information the author was detailing. It began to read more like a history textbook than a memoir. I pushed myself to the end, and was actually relieved when I finished.
The premise was very interesting. The author grew up hearing stories about her grandfather’s heroic actions during WW2. She makes a promise to her dying mother that she will finish the novel that was begun about his life. As Sylvia dives deeper into research, she discovers shocking things about her grandfather that gives an entirely new perspective about the man he really was.
As I read past the first few chapters, I began to get bogged down with the immense amount of information the author was detailing. It began to read more like a history textbook than a memoir. I pushed myself to the end, and was actually relieved when I finished.
Read
January 18, 20222021.04.06 Pirmas skaitymas, todėl įspūdžiai tik labai momentiniai:
1) Foti MFA tikrai atsipirko, knyga parašyta puikiai - ryškūs akcentai, tvarkinga struktūra, vis intensyvėjančios mini kulminacijos. Tokio pobūdžio knygose stereotipų neišvengt, nes istorija yra tokia, kokia yra, veikėjai visur yra tie patys, trečios kartos psichologiniai procesai irgi smarkiai nesiskiria. Kuo knyga išsiskiria iš kitų? Tuo, kad Noreika turi savo lentelę ir gerbėjų būrį. Ir tai yra tikrai ganėtinai svarbus skirtumas.
2) Bet, kaip autorė pati pabrėžia, tyrimas žurnalistinis, ne istorinis. Vietomis išlenda keistas istorinių aspektų nesupratimas (žydų ir lietuvių santykiai iki karo, pareiškimas, kad visi nieko nedarę stebėtojai yra kalti - tai ir vaikai, kurie įsilipę medžiuose stebėjo žudynes, kalti?), neįsigilinimas. Kai kur sekama Vanagaitės pėdom, daromi labai beniuansiai pareiškimai, keliami didingi retoriniai klausimai, kurie dingtų perskaičius didžiąją dalį lietuviškos-vokiškos-amerikietiškos istoriografijos apie Holokaustą Lietuvoje, pasikalbėjus su reikšmingesniais istorikais (ne tik iš LGGRT, ne jie vieninteliai tyrimus atlieka). Beje, pati Vanagaitė ir knygoje minima, o J. Šukys ir R. Gabis - ne. Įdomu, kodėl. Labai norėčiau, kad apie Noreiką parašytų ne Pro Patria ir ne Foti, o koks nors nesuinteresuotas asmuo - norėjau sakyti objektyvus, bet tokių turbūt nėra, todėl būtų gerai bent gebantis reflektuoti istorinius procesus ir patį istorijos rašymą bei tarp šitų dviejų šalių vykstantį konfliktą. Žodžiu, painvestavus ne į MFA, o į istorijos magistrą būtų buvę dar daugiau naudos.
3) Kad ir kaip nenoriu, reiks skaityt ir "Kūju per Lietuvos istoriją", nes nesugebu suvokti, kodėl Noreika yra taip smarkiai kai kurių sambūrių ginamas ir garbinamas. Man rodos, čia praleidžiama labai vaisinga proga apmąstyti to meto veikimo sąlygas ir principus, pasigilinti į kolaboravimo subtilumus. Sutinkant, kad Noreika kaltas dėl dalyvavimo Holokauste. Ir taip pat sutinkant, kad įvairiai dalyvavo pasipriešinime komunistams. Tas atminties konfliktas ir bendras antagonizmas, mano manymu, nė vienai pusei nieko neduos. Rėkdamas, kad kitas yra debilas niekeno požiūrio nepakeisi (čia labiau apie bendrą situaciją, ne apie knygą). Kita vertus, nerėkdamas neatkreipsi dėmesio.
4) Man labai keistas pasirodė keliskart po susitikimų su greičiausiai nuo senelio veiksmų nukentėjusių žydų palikuoniais pakartojamas "nusiraminau, nes jie manęs nekaltino". Aš suprantu, kad nepabuvus tuose batuose negaliu suprasti šitos jausenos, bet visur kur pasisuksi visi siaubingai bijo būti apkaltinti kažkuo, ko nepadarė. (Čia, vėlgi, labiau apie bendrą istorinę sąmonę nei apie knygą.)
5) Taip pat buvo keista, kad autorei nekilo klausimų dėl senelio nepatekimo į tremtinų asmenų sąrašą 1941 m. Tiek Šukys, tiek Gabis močiutės buvo ištremtos dėl senelių darbo (aišku, jie tuo metu abu dirbo policijoj, ne mokykloj). Bet Noreika vis tiek buvo karininkas ir man čia pasirodė labai fishy momentas, kažkiek žaidžiantis su Snyderio mintimi apie dvigubą kolaboravimą.
2021.06.22 Antras/trečias skaitymas:
1) Kuo daugiau aš skaitau tą knygą, tuo mažiau mane įtikina Foti argumentai (tbh vienodai lygiai kaip ir Pro Patrijos). Labai lengva yra švaistytis žodžiais žudikas, nacis ir karo nusikaltėlis, bet juos pagrįsti žymiai sunkiau. Nėra abejonės, kad Noreika dalyvavo Holokausto organizavime ir į tai jį memorializuojant reikėtų atsižvelgti (t.y. nuimti lentelę ir negarbint kaip žydus gelbėjusio herojaus; +koks skirtumas, kas davė įsakymą suvaryti žydus į getą, jei jis pasirašė ant to įsakymo, jis yra už jį atsakingas, vargu ar kas jam laikė į galvą įremtą pistoletą), bet įvairiai pritempinėjant ir ekstrapoliuojant bei manipuliuojant amžininkų liudijimais bandyti visą Lietuvoje vykdytą Holokaustą ir jo atmintį suvesti į vieną asmenį yra, švelniai tariant, neracionalu. (Racionalumas parduoda mažiau knygų turbūt, reiktų pasiteiraut Vanagaitės, ar interviu su Diechmannu taip pat gerai perka kaip "Mūsiškius".) Aišku, didžioji Foti knygoje aprašomo veiksmo ir būvio dalis yra iki 2012 m., - būkim biedni, bet teisingi, nuo 2016 m. tikrai įvyko pokyčių, bet jų autorė renkasi nepastebėti.
2) Foti reikalauja, kad Lietuva ir lietuviai atgailautų, jaustųsi kalti ir atsiprašytų. Bet kieno? Kiekvieno sutikto žydo, kaip kad pati daro? Ar kiekvieno kaltintojo? Atrodo, kad autorė nesuvokia skirtumo tarp pirmojo (kriminalinės, politinės, moralinės) ir antrojo (pasirinkimo nenutraukti socialinių, kultūrinių ar ekonominių ryšių su nusikaltėliu) laipsnio kaltės. Viskas yra tik juoda arba balta. Bet šita tema VISUR ir VISADA bus pakankamai sudėtinga ir taip visų mylimas manicheimzas jos atskleisti yra tiesiog neįgalus. +Turint omenyje, kad pasakojimas skirtas užsienio, o ne Lietuvos skaitytojams, ar tikrai jos raginimas atgailauti yra nuoširdus? Ar labiau dėmesio siekimo taktika? Čia kol kas tik klausiu, neatsakau, bet jei raginimas nuoširdus, tada parodo absoliutų žmonių elgesio ir psichologijos nesuvokimą.
3) Labai mėgstu apibendrinimus. Dauguma lietuvių tiki, kad žydai į macus įmaišydavo vaikų kraujo. Dauguma lietuvių sako, kad būt įkalintam Sibire buvo taip pat blogai kaip būt nušautam Paneriuose. Dauguma lietuvių akli ir kurti bet kokiai kritikai. Dauguma lietuvių tiki, kad bulvėje yra visų žmogui reikalingų vitaminų ir mineralų. Ai, čia dar ir pagrįsti reikia? Nesakau, kad dalis lietuvių netiki visais šitais keturiais teiginiais, net bibliotekų knygose prirašinėta visokių judokomunistinių nesąmonių. Labai norėčiau pamatyti kokį sociologinį tyrimą šiuo klausimu.
1) Foti MFA tikrai atsipirko, knyga parašyta puikiai - ryškūs akcentai, tvarkinga struktūra, vis intensyvėjančios mini kulminacijos. Tokio pobūdžio knygose stereotipų neišvengt, nes istorija yra tokia, kokia yra, veikėjai visur yra tie patys, trečios kartos psichologiniai procesai irgi smarkiai nesiskiria. Kuo knyga išsiskiria iš kitų? Tuo, kad Noreika turi savo lentelę ir gerbėjų būrį. Ir tai yra tikrai ganėtinai svarbus skirtumas.
2) Bet, kaip autorė pati pabrėžia, tyrimas žurnalistinis, ne istorinis. Vietomis išlenda keistas istorinių aspektų nesupratimas (žydų ir lietuvių santykiai iki karo, pareiškimas, kad visi nieko nedarę stebėtojai yra kalti - tai ir vaikai, kurie įsilipę medžiuose stebėjo žudynes, kalti?), neįsigilinimas. Kai kur sekama Vanagaitės pėdom, daromi labai beniuansiai pareiškimai, keliami didingi retoriniai klausimai, kurie dingtų perskaičius didžiąją dalį lietuviškos-vokiškos-amerikietiškos istoriografijos apie Holokaustą Lietuvoje, pasikalbėjus su reikšmingesniais istorikais (ne tik iš LGGRT, ne jie vieninteliai tyrimus atlieka). Beje, pati Vanagaitė ir knygoje minima, o J. Šukys ir R. Gabis - ne. Įdomu, kodėl. Labai norėčiau, kad apie Noreiką parašytų ne Pro Patria ir ne Foti, o koks nors nesuinteresuotas asmuo - norėjau sakyti objektyvus, bet tokių turbūt nėra, todėl būtų gerai bent gebantis reflektuoti istorinius procesus ir patį istorijos rašymą bei tarp šitų dviejų šalių vykstantį konfliktą. Žodžiu, painvestavus ne į MFA, o į istorijos magistrą būtų buvę dar daugiau naudos.
3) Kad ir kaip nenoriu, reiks skaityt ir "Kūju per Lietuvos istoriją", nes nesugebu suvokti, kodėl Noreika yra taip smarkiai kai kurių sambūrių ginamas ir garbinamas. Man rodos, čia praleidžiama labai vaisinga proga apmąstyti to meto veikimo sąlygas ir principus, pasigilinti į kolaboravimo subtilumus. Sutinkant, kad Noreika kaltas dėl dalyvavimo Holokauste. Ir taip pat sutinkant, kad įvairiai dalyvavo pasipriešinime komunistams. Tas atminties konfliktas ir bendras antagonizmas, mano manymu, nė vienai pusei nieko neduos. Rėkdamas, kad kitas yra debilas niekeno požiūrio nepakeisi (čia labiau apie bendrą situaciją, ne apie knygą). Kita vertus, nerėkdamas neatkreipsi dėmesio.
4) Man labai keistas pasirodė keliskart po susitikimų su greičiausiai nuo senelio veiksmų nukentėjusių žydų palikuoniais pakartojamas "nusiraminau, nes jie manęs nekaltino". Aš suprantu, kad nepabuvus tuose batuose negaliu suprasti šitos jausenos, bet visur kur pasisuksi visi siaubingai bijo būti apkaltinti kažkuo, ko nepadarė. (Čia, vėlgi, labiau apie bendrą istorinę sąmonę nei apie knygą.)
5) Taip pat buvo keista, kad autorei nekilo klausimų dėl senelio nepatekimo į tremtinų asmenų sąrašą 1941 m. Tiek Šukys, tiek Gabis močiutės buvo ištremtos dėl senelių darbo (aišku, jie tuo metu abu dirbo policijoj, ne mokykloj). Bet Noreika vis tiek buvo karininkas ir man čia pasirodė labai fishy momentas, kažkiek žaidžiantis su Snyderio mintimi apie dvigubą kolaboravimą.
2021.06.22 Antras/trečias skaitymas:
1) Kuo daugiau aš skaitau tą knygą, tuo mažiau mane įtikina Foti argumentai (tbh vienodai lygiai kaip ir Pro Patrijos). Labai lengva yra švaistytis žodžiais žudikas, nacis ir karo nusikaltėlis, bet juos pagrįsti žymiai sunkiau. Nėra abejonės, kad Noreika dalyvavo Holokausto organizavime ir į tai jį memorializuojant reikėtų atsižvelgti (t.y. nuimti lentelę ir negarbint kaip žydus gelbėjusio herojaus; +koks skirtumas, kas davė įsakymą suvaryti žydus į getą, jei jis pasirašė ant to įsakymo, jis yra už jį atsakingas, vargu ar kas jam laikė į galvą įremtą pistoletą), bet įvairiai pritempinėjant ir ekstrapoliuojant bei manipuliuojant amžininkų liudijimais bandyti visą Lietuvoje vykdytą Holokaustą ir jo atmintį suvesti į vieną asmenį yra, švelniai tariant, neracionalu. (Racionalumas parduoda mažiau knygų turbūt, reiktų pasiteiraut Vanagaitės, ar interviu su Diechmannu taip pat gerai perka kaip "Mūsiškius".) Aišku, didžioji Foti knygoje aprašomo veiksmo ir būvio dalis yra iki 2012 m., - būkim biedni, bet teisingi, nuo 2016 m. tikrai įvyko pokyčių, bet jų autorė renkasi nepastebėti.
2) Foti reikalauja, kad Lietuva ir lietuviai atgailautų, jaustųsi kalti ir atsiprašytų. Bet kieno? Kiekvieno sutikto žydo, kaip kad pati daro? Ar kiekvieno kaltintojo? Atrodo, kad autorė nesuvokia skirtumo tarp pirmojo (kriminalinės, politinės, moralinės) ir antrojo (pasirinkimo nenutraukti socialinių, kultūrinių ar ekonominių ryšių su nusikaltėliu) laipsnio kaltės. Viskas yra tik juoda arba balta. Bet šita tema VISUR ir VISADA bus pakankamai sudėtinga ir taip visų mylimas manicheimzas jos atskleisti yra tiesiog neįgalus. +Turint omenyje, kad pasakojimas skirtas užsienio, o ne Lietuvos skaitytojams, ar tikrai jos raginimas atgailauti yra nuoširdus? Ar labiau dėmesio siekimo taktika? Čia kol kas tik klausiu, neatsakau, bet jei raginimas nuoširdus, tada parodo absoliutų žmonių elgesio ir psichologijos nesuvokimą.
3) Labai mėgstu apibendrinimus. Dauguma lietuvių tiki, kad žydai į macus įmaišydavo vaikų kraujo. Dauguma lietuvių sako, kad būt įkalintam Sibire buvo taip pat blogai kaip būt nušautam Paneriuose. Dauguma lietuvių akli ir kurti bet kokiai kritikai. Dauguma lietuvių tiki, kad bulvėje yra visų žmogui reikalingų vitaminų ir mineralų. Ai, čia dar ir pagrįsti reikia? Nesakau, kad dalis lietuvių netiki visais šitais keturiais teiginiais, net bibliotekų knygose prirašinėta visokių judokomunistinių nesąmonių. Labai norėčiau pamatyti kokį sociologinį tyrimą šiuo klausimu.
April 22, 2021
This book is full of disinformation from false sources. Jonas Noreika, Silvia's grandfather did not par take in the horrific crimes of Nazi Germany, in fact there are some sources that even indicate that he himself took part in saving jews. For anti-Nazi activity he was sent to Stutthof concentration camp. Doesn't sound like a Nazi collaborator's fate, does it?
This whole book is nothing but slander on great man who put his life and well-being on the line for others and his country. It has the same historical weight as Rūta Vanagaitė's "Mūsiškiai"- meaning it's sources are false and meant to spread disinformation.
It is a shame that the granddaughter of such a great man was led to believe these lies, because her book is an insult not only to her grandfather's memory but to her ancestral home as well.
This whole book is nothing but slander on great man who put his life and well-being on the line for others and his country. It has the same historical weight as Rūta Vanagaitė's "Mūsiškiai"- meaning it's sources are false and meant to spread disinformation.
It is a shame that the granddaughter of such a great man was led to believe these lies, because her book is an insult not only to her grandfather's memory but to her ancestral home as well.
April 24, 2021
A pesar de todo, afrontar y buscar la verdad hasta sus últimas consecuencias y hacer correcto es lo que ha hecho la autora de este libro. Una jornada difícil pero que finalmente no define quiénes somos, solo es de dónde venimos.
Muy interesante, como toda una nación puede disfrazar su verdad sin importar los hechos.
Muy interesante, como toda una nación puede disfrazar su verdad sin importar los hechos.
April 22, 2021
Biggest lie ever written, the auther should be ashamed and prosecuted for mis-information.
April 22, 2021
A fairytale, not a documentary.
April 23, 2021
Liar liar pants on fire. Shameful propaganda.
January 11, 2025
3-1/2 stars. The author is incredibly brave for doing this work and the story she tells is fascinating and horrendous. In addition to calling out her parents’ country for their denial in their role for killing Jews, she brought attention to how shockingly common it is for entire groups of people to deny parts of the Holocaust. The relatively low rating I gave this is simply for the writing - it was extremely repetitive and the book’s length could have easily been reduced by a quarter just by removing repetition.
Read
April 15, 2021It is, undoubtedly, a good read. Emotional, touching, personal. And I think that's where my issue with the book is.
The nation-building processes in most post-Soviet and ex-Eastern block states have effectively finalized some 20 years ago, with histories rewritten, streets renamed, and new heroes sanctified. Hungary, the Baltics, Ukraine all came up with a new nationalist-inspired version of their past (and I don't think it is a coincidence that it is these countries that have the best museums on genocide, focusing primarily of the Soviet atrocities). PhD dissertations have been written and defended, political capitals have been built - all based on the same nationalistic ideas and denial of collaborationism. It would take a lot more than a personal readable family research book to find a chink in their armor.
The archives have been open for the past 30 years. And it pains me to read that the author had made it to the Special Archive, only to spend about half a day translating "a portion" of a 3,000-page file (because getting the whole file would've been "too expensive"). This is not how research is done - and that's what makes the findings of the book so easy to deny and discredit (which, incidentally, the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre very promptly and efficiently did).
Still, lots, lots of respect for Foti. I can only imagine what it would feel like to write a book like this.
The nation-building processes in most post-Soviet and ex-Eastern block states have effectively finalized some 20 years ago, with histories rewritten, streets renamed, and new heroes sanctified. Hungary, the Baltics, Ukraine all came up with a new nationalist-inspired version of their past (and I don't think it is a coincidence that it is these countries that have the best museums on genocide, focusing primarily of the Soviet atrocities). PhD dissertations have been written and defended, political capitals have been built - all based on the same nationalistic ideas and denial of collaborationism. It would take a lot more than a personal readable family research book to find a chink in their armor.
The archives have been open for the past 30 years. And it pains me to read that the author had made it to the Special Archive, only to spend about half a day translating "a portion" of a 3,000-page file (because getting the whole file would've been "too expensive"). This is not how research is done - and that's what makes the findings of the book so easy to deny and discredit (which, incidentally, the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre very promptly and efficiently did).
Still, lots, lots of respect for Foti. I can only imagine what it would feel like to write a book like this.
April 30, 2021
Cómo no admirar a alguien que a pesar de todo defiende de la verdad. Ir caminando y durante el trayecto e ir descubriendo una verdad dolorosa, que cambia la esencia de lo que conoces y de quienes te criaron. La negación es una pieza importante en esta historia. La incapacidad de afrontar lo sucedido. Un país defendiendo lo que Silvia niega con hechos. Es muy fácil dejar la historia en el pasado. Es todo un reto desenterrar esa historia para presentar una verdad, que por dolorosa que sea, trata de hacerle honor a los judíos que fueron ejecutados por manos Lituanos, manos que se siguen escondiendo y siguen negando su participación.
February 9, 2021
Wow. The author has been fed folklore and legends her entire life about her sainted grandfather, a hero of Lithuania. Only after decades of meticulous research she discovers he was the total,opposite, a major perpetrator against the Jews, sending thousands to their deaths. This book knocked my socks off. It’s a heavy, powerful read. Foti is forthcoming with her emotions as she faces the horrible truth about her’ grandfather. I love family history sleuthing stories, but reality can be a huge dose of bitterness. Thanks to edelweiss and Regnery History for the advance read.
March 22, 2021
This is a brave book, meticulously researched and written in a way that is intimate and very readable.
November 13, 2022
Prireikė beveik viso laiko, kol pripratau prie amerikietiško rašymo stiliaus. Cheesy toks. Lyg skaitytum kokį "Tarp pilkų debesų". Vis voliojo tą patį apie tą patį ir kelis kartus kartojo vėl iš naujo.
Lietuviai nuolat pateikiami iš blogosios pusės: paprašė, kad atsiųstų iš Amerikės pinigų, Maximoje esant nuolaidoms rašo "akcija", brangiai ima už šoferio paslaugas, meluoja, naudoja žodį "genocidas" apie Rainių žudynes, Rainių žudynių vietoje žuvusiems lietuviams pastato koplyčią ar tai bažnyčią, o žydams tik lentelę pastato. Bet kai nuvažiuoja pas seną žydą ir jis nori paveiksluotis su sovietų armijos švarku - ok, išdidu. Net nepriėjus knygos pabaigos, atrodo, kad lietuviai daugiau nieko neveikė, tik visi buvo antisemitai, ir dar žudė žydus net dar neatsikrausčius į rajoną naciams. Net nelabai užsimenama, kad naciai išvis žudė. Anava, Plungėj buvo palikti tik du nudriskę naciai kuriuo tat metu.
Knygoje minima Vanagaitė ir Zuroffas. Ok. Aišku, medžiagą padėjo rinkti istorikai, kurie nėra istorikai.
Foti generalizavimas ir hiperbolizavimas aukštesnio lygio nei mano bakalauro darbe - nesiginčysiu, geresnė rašytoja už mane. Lietuviams žydai buvo komunistai, daugelis lietuvių antisemitai, galbūt, galimai...
Neteisinu Noreikos, bet čia daugiau romanas nei faktai. Net taip įsijaučiau skaitydama, jog pagalvojau, kad su Dovidavičiumi dar ir romantinė siužeto linija bus.
Kaip liaudies išmintis byloja - nei 5, nei 9.
Lietuviai nuolat pateikiami iš blogosios pusės: paprašė, kad atsiųstų iš Amerikės pinigų, Maximoje esant nuolaidoms rašo "akcija", brangiai ima už šoferio paslaugas, meluoja, naudoja žodį "genocidas" apie Rainių žudynes, Rainių žudynių vietoje žuvusiems lietuviams pastato koplyčią ar tai bažnyčią, o žydams tik lentelę pastato. Bet kai nuvažiuoja pas seną žydą ir jis nori paveiksluotis su sovietų armijos švarku - ok, išdidu. Net nepriėjus knygos pabaigos, atrodo, kad lietuviai daugiau nieko neveikė, tik visi buvo antisemitai, ir dar žudė žydus net dar neatsikrausčius į rajoną naciams. Net nelabai užsimenama, kad naciai išvis žudė. Anava, Plungėj buvo palikti tik du nudriskę naciai kuriuo tat metu.
Knygoje minima Vanagaitė ir Zuroffas. Ok. Aišku, medžiagą padėjo rinkti istorikai, kurie nėra istorikai.
Foti generalizavimas ir hiperbolizavimas aukštesnio lygio nei mano bakalauro darbe - nesiginčysiu, geresnė rašytoja už mane. Lietuviams žydai buvo komunistai, daugelis lietuvių antisemitai, galbūt, galimai...
Neteisinu Noreikos, bet čia daugiau romanas nei faktai. Net taip įsijaučiau skaitydama, jog pagalvojau, kad su Dovidavičiumi dar ir romantinė siužeto linija bus.
Kaip liaudies išmintis byloja - nei 5, nei 9.
March 22, 2022
I read this book in anticipation of interviewing the author Silvia Foti for the show Inside Scoop on Fairfax Public Access which broadcast on Monday, March 21st. This interview was prompted by a virtual event hosted by the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond, Virginia, on May 5, 2022. One of the founders of the Virginia Holocaust Museum is a Litvak-American survivor, Jay Ipson. The fact that 95% of Lithuanian Jews were exterminated during the Nazi Occupation makes descendants of survivors few and far between.
Joining author Silvia Foti for this event is Grant Gochin, who is descended from Lithuanian-Latvian Jews who escaped the Holocaust but whose family members did not. Grant Gochin has spent more than 25 years researching what happened to the Jews of Lithuania. He uncovered the fact that Jonas Noreikas was responsible for the murder of Jews in Lithuania years before his granddaughter Silvia figured that out.
This book is so well written and so accessible to those of us who are not historians or academics. We travel on this journey of discovery along with the author as she tries to piece together what she always believed about her grandfather against mounting evidence about who he was, what he espoused, and what he did. He was hailed as a national hero for his resistance to the occupation of Russian Communists in Lithuania, but not held accountable for his role in the wholesale murder of nearly the entire population of Lithuanian Jews.
I love the fact that the chapters of the book are punctuated by official responses from the Genocide and Research Centre in Lithuania to a lawsuit brought by Grant Goshin against the Lithuanian government regarding their recognition of Jonas Noreikas as a national hero. He continues to pursue that case through the international judicial system.
It was very moving to hear from both Silvia and Grant about how they connected. It took courage for the granddaughter of a Nazi collaborator to reach out to the grandson of Holocaust survivors and expect him to take her call. He did take that call and what has ensued is both a collaboration seeking truth and justice as well as a genuine friendship. They have a unique story to tell and it's not finished.
I highly recommend this book. History becomes the provenance of those who control the narrative. We have experienced that here in Virginia and it's true around the world. As William Faulkner observed, "The past is never dead. It isn't even past." And we can see how that is unfolding as Vladimir Putin attempts to twist the narrative of his invasion of Ukraine even as it is unfolding.
We must bear witness to the truth of history. This book shines a light on facts that have been buried too long. Silvia Foti has crafted a fascinating book that allows us to walk alongside her on a journey into her past and toward the beacon of truth for the Jews of Lithuania.
Joining author Silvia Foti for this event is Grant Gochin, who is descended from Lithuanian-Latvian Jews who escaped the Holocaust but whose family members did not. Grant Gochin has spent more than 25 years researching what happened to the Jews of Lithuania. He uncovered the fact that Jonas Noreikas was responsible for the murder of Jews in Lithuania years before his granddaughter Silvia figured that out.
This book is so well written and so accessible to those of us who are not historians or academics. We travel on this journey of discovery along with the author as she tries to piece together what she always believed about her grandfather against mounting evidence about who he was, what he espoused, and what he did. He was hailed as a national hero for his resistance to the occupation of Russian Communists in Lithuania, but not held accountable for his role in the wholesale murder of nearly the entire population of Lithuanian Jews.
I love the fact that the chapters of the book are punctuated by official responses from the Genocide and Research Centre in Lithuania to a lawsuit brought by Grant Goshin against the Lithuanian government regarding their recognition of Jonas Noreikas as a national hero. He continues to pursue that case through the international judicial system.
It was very moving to hear from both Silvia and Grant about how they connected. It took courage for the granddaughter of a Nazi collaborator to reach out to the grandson of Holocaust survivors and expect him to take her call. He did take that call and what has ensued is both a collaboration seeking truth and justice as well as a genuine friendship. They have a unique story to tell and it's not finished.
I highly recommend this book. History becomes the provenance of those who control the narrative. We have experienced that here in Virginia and it's true around the world. As William Faulkner observed, "The past is never dead. It isn't even past." And we can see how that is unfolding as Vladimir Putin attempts to twist the narrative of his invasion of Ukraine even as it is unfolding.
We must bear witness to the truth of history. This book shines a light on facts that have been buried too long. Silvia Foti has crafted a fascinating book that allows us to walk alongside her on a journey into her past and toward the beacon of truth for the Jews of Lithuania.
November 12, 2022
Історія — 5
Авторка — 3
Прекрасне розслідування йде поруч з абсолютно дикими діями авторки, яка втрачає свідомість при слові «Акція», роздає гроші усім кого зустріне, а потім жаліється на фінансові складнощі, абсолютно нейтрально ставиться до наркозалежної дочки, називає речі не своїми іменами. Авторка — прекрасний приклад стереотипного «Американця в східній Європі».
Редактори книги мабуть теж ні в Литві, ні десь навколо неї ніколи не були…
Авторка — 3
Прекрасне розслідування йде поруч з абсолютно дикими діями авторки, яка втрачає свідомість при слові «Акція», роздає гроші усім кого зустріне, а потім жаліється на фінансові складнощі, абсолютно нейтрально ставиться до наркозалежної дочки, називає речі не своїми іменами. Авторка — прекрасний приклад стереотипного «Американця в східній Європі».
Редактори книги мабуть теж ні в Литві, ні десь навколо неї ніколи не були…
July 17, 2022
Skaičiau lietuvišką vertimą “Vėtra lietaus šalyje”.
Kadangi jaučiuosi pakankamai “apsišvietusi” temoje, pateikti faktai knygoje manęs nešokiruoja, bet gal labiau įsirėžia / užsifiksuoja mastai lietuvių veiklos Holokausto metu. Ir taip, aš esu iš tų žmonių, kurie nesupranta, kodėl mes (lietuviai) norim visada pasirodyti geresni nei esam. Aš matau, kaip tautos stiprybę pripažinti nemalonius istorijos tarpsnius ir stengtis, kad jie daugiau nepasikartotų, o ne viską stengtis užglaistyti, kad čia viskas vardan tos, Lietuvos buvo.
Kaip gerai autorė reziumuoja: “Tai, kad lietuviai nukentėjo nuo rusų, nesuteikė lietuviams teisės persekioti žydų”.
Ši knyga - tam tikra autorės dramatiška kelionė keletu lygių. Ne tik keliaujame kartu su ja, jai atrandant, kas iš ties buvo jos senelis J. Noreika, bet keliaujame su ja ir per asmenines, skaudžias šeimos dramas.
Man gal įstrigo vienas dalykas, kuris privertė susimąstyti - atrodo, kad lietuvių bendruomenė svetur gyvena kaip sava respublika respublikoje: nelabai domisi, kas vyksta šalyje, kurioje išties gyvena, bet gyvena prisiminimais, nostalgija šaliai, kurią paliko. Tų emigrantų vaikams, anūkams, kurių dauguma tikrai negyvens Lietuvoje, turėtų būti sunku gyventi tokiame kaip ir “limbo” (tikriausiai dauguma tai suvokia kaip patriotiškumo palaikymą, bet man tai nesuprantama), kur jiems nuolat “pompuojama” vienokia informacija, jie turi gyventi “prarastos” šalies realijomis, kai iš tikrųjų, turėtų kuo geriau integruotis į šalies, kurioje gyvena, realijas. Turėtų būti nesuvokiama, kai tu esi trečios kartos lietuvis, gimęs Amerikoje, ir iš tavęs tikimasi, kad tu vesi / ištekėsi už lietuvio, jai ne - tai jau “nesvietiška” drama.
Šią knygą tikrai turėtų perskaityti jaunoji karta - joje yra ateitis.
Kadangi jaučiuosi pakankamai “apsišvietusi” temoje, pateikti faktai knygoje manęs nešokiruoja, bet gal labiau įsirėžia / užsifiksuoja mastai lietuvių veiklos Holokausto metu. Ir taip, aš esu iš tų žmonių, kurie nesupranta, kodėl mes (lietuviai) norim visada pasirodyti geresni nei esam. Aš matau, kaip tautos stiprybę pripažinti nemalonius istorijos tarpsnius ir stengtis, kad jie daugiau nepasikartotų, o ne viską stengtis užglaistyti, kad čia viskas vardan tos, Lietuvos buvo.
Kaip gerai autorė reziumuoja: “Tai, kad lietuviai nukentėjo nuo rusų, nesuteikė lietuviams teisės persekioti žydų”.
Ši knyga - tam tikra autorės dramatiška kelionė keletu lygių. Ne tik keliaujame kartu su ja, jai atrandant, kas iš ties buvo jos senelis J. Noreika, bet keliaujame su ja ir per asmenines, skaudžias šeimos dramas.
Man gal įstrigo vienas dalykas, kuris privertė susimąstyti - atrodo, kad lietuvių bendruomenė svetur gyvena kaip sava respublika respublikoje: nelabai domisi, kas vyksta šalyje, kurioje išties gyvena, bet gyvena prisiminimais, nostalgija šaliai, kurią paliko. Tų emigrantų vaikams, anūkams, kurių dauguma tikrai negyvens Lietuvoje, turėtų būti sunku gyventi tokiame kaip ir “limbo” (tikriausiai dauguma tai suvokia kaip patriotiškumo palaikymą, bet man tai nesuprantama), kur jiems nuolat “pompuojama” vienokia informacija, jie turi gyventi “prarastos” šalies realijomis, kai iš tikrųjų, turėtų kuo geriau integruotis į šalies, kurioje gyvena, realijas. Turėtų būti nesuvokiama, kai tu esi trečios kartos lietuvis, gimęs Amerikoje, ir iš tavęs tikimasi, kad tu vesi / ištekėsi už lietuvio, jai ne - tai jau “nesvietiška” drama.
Šią knygą tikrai turėtų perskaityti jaunoji karta - joje yra ateitis.
January 2, 2023
This book documents the authors investigation of her Hero grandfather who started an uprising against the communist control of Lithuania. As she investigates to finish her mother's book, she becomes convinced that her father was a Nazi sympathizer and even ordered the deaths of 1,000's of Jews during the Holocaust.
I don't know much about Lithuania's history so it's hard to comment on that. I have seen many reviews that say this book is just Russian propaganda or historical nonsense. I question if those are true or are they like people in America who don't want to face their racist past? I don't know. I would read this with an open mind and do some research on your own.
For me, I kept wondering what I would do if I found out that my grandfather who fought in WW1 gassed others instead of being gassed. The Author went through a lot of struggles finally realizing what she came to believe.
I found the book was an easy read with short chapters. Something that anyone might enjoy. Something that each of us need to do is challenge our family's history. Even if it goes against what we have been taught.
I don't know much about Lithuania's history so it's hard to comment on that. I have seen many reviews that say this book is just Russian propaganda or historical nonsense. I question if those are true or are they like people in America who don't want to face their racist past? I don't know. I would read this with an open mind and do some research on your own.
For me, I kept wondering what I would do if I found out that my grandfather who fought in WW1 gassed others instead of being gassed. The Author went through a lot of struggles finally realizing what she came to believe.
I found the book was an easy read with short chapters. Something that anyone might enjoy. Something that each of us need to do is challenge our family's history. Even if it goes against what we have been taught.
July 4, 2022
It must be terribly difficult to be given a deathbed assignment from a loved one, as Ms. Foti did, and to pursue it as an awful tale gets more and more awful once the facts become known. At the same time, clearly, her family was falling apart, and her travels to Lithuania to uncover the truth about her grandfather's complicity in the Holocaust despite his veneration as a national hero becomes more and more quixotic. The Nazi and Soviet back and forth coupled with antisemitism has obscured a nation's true history.
September 4, 2022
This book is fairly interesting, but too long. Something about the reader's voice didn't help, sort of whiny.
March 11, 2025
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
December 9, 2024
This book is so good and so important. Silvia Foti tells the story of her long and arduous journey to discovering the truth about her grandfather, a decorated general during WWII Lithuania. She tells the story of her struggle (both physical and emotional) to uncover the true nature of her grandfather’s collaboration with the Nazis and his degree of complicity in the widespread murder of the Jews of Lithuania. This story hits very close to home as my grandmother was born in Lithuania, and though her immediate family escaped, all of her remaining relatives were slaughtered by the Lithuanian Nazi collaborators. Silvia Foti devoted much of her life to uncovering the uncomfortable and devastating truth of her own grandfather’s culpability and the denial of the Lithuanian government to this very day. This book is a result of her perseverance and courage. Excellent audiobook.
April 7, 2024
I found this book intensely moving, and even personal.
To wit, I spent several years in Lithuania in the 1990s and launched my career as a journalist there. I loved Vilnius, I made many friends, and it was a fascinating example of a "transition economy" from a command to a market system.
I also had a deep interest in the Holocaust, but not for deeply personal reasons beyond being the child of a Canadian WWII veteran. One of the issues I sometimes wrote about was Lithuanian participation in the Holocaust - a very thorny issue there to say the least. When I was writing for the English-language weekly The Baltic Observer (BO) , I managed to wrangle my way on a press junket to Israel in 1995 when the Lithuanian President Algirdas Brazauskas movingly apologised to the Knesset for Lithuania's participation in the holocaust.
I also wrote a three-part series for the BO about the topic, which some of my non-editorial Lithuanian colleagues were uncomfortable with as it is a raw wound in the official nationalist view of the country's history.
The bottom line is that Lithuania suffered the highest percentage of a European country's Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust - about 95%. And many Lithuanians were active perpetrators in this vile crime against humanity, willingly killing their Jewish neighbours after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.
Interestingly, the biggest concentration of Jews of Lithuanian descent would wind up in South Africa where I currently reside, and they played a big role on the political and cultural stages of this country as both anti-apartheid activists and staunch supporters of the apartheid regime.
This brings us to Foti's moving, painful and arresting memoir. Lithuania's Jewish community was diverse but tended to own a disproportionate percentage of businesses and industry. And yet at the same time, when the Soviet Union erased the country's independence in 1940 - part of the infamous bargain sealed by the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact - they were accused of being communists who greeted the Russian invaders with flowers. Many were also deeply religious, and would have been unlikely converts to the enforced atheism of Soviet-style communism.
Indeed, when I wrote my series in the mid-1990s, I interview a Lithuanian historian - whose name I have forgotten - who had discovered inadvertently through his archival research that Jews where actually underrepresented as a percentage of the population in the Lithuanian Communist Party.
Foti grew up in the bubble that was the Lithuanian community in Chicago, and apparently in the 1990s none of these facts pierced that bubble. She vowed to her mother on her death-bed that she would complete a biography of her maternal grandfather, Jonas Noreika, who has been executed by the Soviets and imprisoned by the Nazis.
He is and was a Lithuanian national hero.
But her research lead her to conclude beyond a shadow of a doubt that her grandfather was in fact a war criminal who actively participated in the Holocaust. This triggered a storm in the land of rain, which is what Lithuania means roughly in Lithuanian.
For Foti, this was a harrowing experience, and it has made her an outcast among much of the very right-wing Lithuanian community in Chicago. But she has done a service here to both her craft of journalism and history,
To wit, I spent several years in Lithuania in the 1990s and launched my career as a journalist there. I loved Vilnius, I made many friends, and it was a fascinating example of a "transition economy" from a command to a market system.
I also had a deep interest in the Holocaust, but not for deeply personal reasons beyond being the child of a Canadian WWII veteran. One of the issues I sometimes wrote about was Lithuanian participation in the Holocaust - a very thorny issue there to say the least. When I was writing for the English-language weekly The Baltic Observer (BO) , I managed to wrangle my way on a press junket to Israel in 1995 when the Lithuanian President Algirdas Brazauskas movingly apologised to the Knesset for Lithuania's participation in the holocaust.
I also wrote a three-part series for the BO about the topic, which some of my non-editorial Lithuanian colleagues were uncomfortable with as it is a raw wound in the official nationalist view of the country's history.
The bottom line is that Lithuania suffered the highest percentage of a European country's Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust - about 95%. And many Lithuanians were active perpetrators in this vile crime against humanity, willingly killing their Jewish neighbours after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.
Interestingly, the biggest concentration of Jews of Lithuanian descent would wind up in South Africa where I currently reside, and they played a big role on the political and cultural stages of this country as both anti-apartheid activists and staunch supporters of the apartheid regime.
This brings us to Foti's moving, painful and arresting memoir. Lithuania's Jewish community was diverse but tended to own a disproportionate percentage of businesses and industry. And yet at the same time, when the Soviet Union erased the country's independence in 1940 - part of the infamous bargain sealed by the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact - they were accused of being communists who greeted the Russian invaders with flowers. Many were also deeply religious, and would have been unlikely converts to the enforced atheism of Soviet-style communism.
Indeed, when I wrote my series in the mid-1990s, I interview a Lithuanian historian - whose name I have forgotten - who had discovered inadvertently through his archival research that Jews where actually underrepresented as a percentage of the population in the Lithuanian Communist Party.
Foti grew up in the bubble that was the Lithuanian community in Chicago, and apparently in the 1990s none of these facts pierced that bubble. She vowed to her mother on her death-bed that she would complete a biography of her maternal grandfather, Jonas Noreika, who has been executed by the Soviets and imprisoned by the Nazis.
He is and was a Lithuanian national hero.
But her research lead her to conclude beyond a shadow of a doubt that her grandfather was in fact a war criminal who actively participated in the Holocaust. This triggered a storm in the land of rain, which is what Lithuania means roughly in Lithuanian.
For Foti, this was a harrowing experience, and it has made her an outcast among much of the very right-wing Lithuanian community in Chicago. But she has done a service here to both her craft of journalism and history,
February 7, 2023
Ms. Foti made a death-bed promise to her mother to finish the project and to write the book. There were many times Ms. Foti regretted that promise, but finish she did. And in so doing, began to poke oh-so-very necessary holes in the Lithuanian state-supported Holocaust denial.
During the Holocaust, 95% of Lithuanian Jewry perished, often at the hands of Lithuanians, including the author's grandfather, whom she eventually comes to see not as a hero but as a virulent anti-Semite who was *personally* responsible for the death of thousands of Lithuanian Jews. Most Lithuanian Jews died at the hands of the Einsatzcommando, who forced them to dig pits and then shot them. Think Babi-Yar.
The author got TWO additional graduate degrees to allow herself time to work on the project -- first a teaching degree that gave her the summers "off' and then a graduate degree in creative non-fiction. That is some serious dedication.
Grandpa held the highest government job permitted to a Lithuanian national under the German occupation. You know what that means? Grand-papa was a **collaborator.** Already, under no circumstances could he be considered a hero. The 'propaganda' machine that the author feared might have ginned up material to undermine her grandfather's legacy appears to have fostered that legacy, building it up over the tattered remains of his rather pathetic 'revolt' against the Soviet occupation in the years immediately after the war.
Eventually, the evidence she collects is overwhelming and she puts it all out there. She decides to love her grandfather, as such, but states that she "hates his sins."
Harrowing read.
During the Holocaust, 95% of Lithuanian Jewry perished, often at the hands of Lithuanians, including the author's grandfather, whom she eventually comes to see not as a hero but as a virulent anti-Semite who was *personally* responsible for the death of thousands of Lithuanian Jews. Most Lithuanian Jews died at the hands of the Einsatzcommando, who forced them to dig pits and then shot them. Think Babi-Yar.
The author got TWO additional graduate degrees to allow herself time to work on the project -- first a teaching degree that gave her the summers "off' and then a graduate degree in creative non-fiction. That is some serious dedication.
Grandpa held the highest government job permitted to a Lithuanian national under the German occupation. You know what that means? Grand-papa was a **collaborator.** Already, under no circumstances could he be considered a hero. The 'propaganda' machine that the author feared might have ginned up material to undermine her grandfather's legacy appears to have fostered that legacy, building it up over the tattered remains of his rather pathetic 'revolt' against the Soviet occupation in the years immediately after the war.
Eventually, the evidence she collects is overwhelming and she puts it all out there. She decides to love her grandfather, as such, but states that she "hates his sins."
Harrowing read.
February 25, 2021
En el lecho de muerte de su madre, Silvia Foti le promete escribir un libro sobre su famoso abuelo, el General Storm de Lituania, un héroe de guerra durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Lo que nunca se imaginó es que este viaje de más de 20 años en el cual escarbó su pasado familiar, la conduciría a una crisis personal, la negación del Holocausto y un encubrimiento por parte del gobierno lituano sobre lo sucedido en el país durante la ocupación nazi.
A través de las casi 400 páginas en las que Silvia Foti narra su ajetreado pasado familiar; tiende a ir entre lo biográfico y lo recreativo para contarnos una historia particular, dura y con un mensaje excepcional para todo lector.
¿Qué pasaría si la persona a la que creciste creyendo era un héroe durante toda tu vida en realidad estuvo implicado en la muerte de miles de personas?
Ese es el duro descubrimiento de las pesquisas, en los cuales Foti; periodista, escritora y maestra estadounidense narra su largo viaje a través de los años contando la vida de los horribles actos que cometió su abuelo, Jonas Noreika, quien fue un autor intelectual en el Holocausto en Lituania.
El libro está contado en primera persona, por lo cual no solo conocemos a fondo la historia familiar de Silvia; nos adentramos en sus pensamientos y conocemos a fondo sus batallas internas, el proceso de negación-aceptación de su pasado familiar, por el cual quedó marcada como ella menciona por toda su vida.
LEER COMPLETO EN MI BLOG: https://divergentemexico.blogspot.com...
A través de las casi 400 páginas en las que Silvia Foti narra su ajetreado pasado familiar; tiende a ir entre lo biográfico y lo recreativo para contarnos una historia particular, dura y con un mensaje excepcional para todo lector.
¿Qué pasaría si la persona a la que creciste creyendo era un héroe durante toda tu vida en realidad estuvo implicado en la muerte de miles de personas?
Ese es el duro descubrimiento de las pesquisas, en los cuales Foti; periodista, escritora y maestra estadounidense narra su largo viaje a través de los años contando la vida de los horribles actos que cometió su abuelo, Jonas Noreika, quien fue un autor intelectual en el Holocausto en Lituania.
El libro está contado en primera persona, por lo cual no solo conocemos a fondo la historia familiar de Silvia; nos adentramos en sus pensamientos y conocemos a fondo sus batallas internas, el proceso de negación-aceptación de su pasado familiar, por el cual quedó marcada como ella menciona por toda su vida.
LEER COMPLETO EN MI BLOG: https://divergentemexico.blogspot.com...
Read
March 11, 2023Silvia Foti spent her entire life hearing from her mother and grandmother about how her grandfather was a hero during World War 2. He was loyal to his homeland of Lithuania and fought against the Communist regime (Russia). He spent 2 years in a Nazi prison during the German occupation of Lithuania. Then he was arrested by the Communists when Russia took over the country at the end of the war. He was eventually executed by the Communists too, for his part in the uprising against the Communist regime.
Imagine her shock and horror when a return to Lithuania to bury her mother's and grandmother's remains in the fatherland brought a terrible rumor to her awareness: to some Lithuanians, her grandfather was no hero; he was a murderer. A Nazi collaborator. A man who participated in genocide.
Now she must know: who was General Storm, her grandfather. Was he the hero she'd always been told he was? Or was he a villain? What she discovers will have international repercussions.
There were times when this book was very interesting and engaging. But there was a lot of detailed information that sometimes seemed to drag on. The author literally takes us with her on her journey to discovery, and sometimes it was a bit much, in my opinion. I can only imagine what she would have been feeling, though, to have to go on this hunt. How it would shake her identity. Also, I loved the title, especially after reading the quote at the beginning of the book.
Definitely gave me stuff to think about in terms of how we in the present try to make right what went wrong in the past.
Imagine her shock and horror when a return to Lithuania to bury her mother's and grandmother's remains in the fatherland brought a terrible rumor to her awareness: to some Lithuanians, her grandfather was no hero; he was a murderer. A Nazi collaborator. A man who participated in genocide.
Now she must know: who was General Storm, her grandfather. Was he the hero she'd always been told he was? Or was he a villain? What she discovers will have international repercussions.
There were times when this book was very interesting and engaging. But there was a lot of detailed information that sometimes seemed to drag on. The author literally takes us with her on her journey to discovery, and sometimes it was a bit much, in my opinion. I can only imagine what she would have been feeling, though, to have to go on this hunt. How it would shake her identity. Also, I loved the title, especially after reading the quote at the beginning of the book.
Definitely gave me stuff to think about in terms of how we in the present try to make right what went wrong in the past.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews