Books & Discussion on the Holocaust Showing 951-1,000 of 1,027

[Jonny]

Best revenge ever:

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ne...

[Marc]

Jonny wrote: "Best revenge ever:

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ne..."

That's good alright, but how about this one (see #5, which I wrote about my late father):

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

[Tony]

Jonny wrote: "Best revenge ever:

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ne..."

Love that.

[Manray9]

Marc wrote: "Jonny wrote: "Best revenge ever:

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ne..."

That's good alright, but how about t..."

Not a book, but Poe's The Cask of Amontillado.

"The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could. . ."

[Susan]

In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Week my ebook Of Bitter Herbs and Sweet Confections (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1729756050) is free on Amazon from January 21-25.
Kirkus Reviews: An illuminating contribution to Holocaust literature and a riveting family drama.

Of Bitter Herbs and Sweet Confections is a fictionalized memoir, based on real-life events and experiences. The story presents the journey of Tanya, a Jewish teenager, as it unfolds over a ten-year period from 1939 to 1949. Forced to flee their Polish hometown in order to escape the Nazis, Tanya and her family wander from place to place, trying to keep one step ahead of the German army, until they fall into the hands of the Russians and are exiled to Siberia.
Having survived hard labor in the frozen north, Tanya's father relocates the family to central Asia where they live out the final years of the war. On her return to Europe, where she encounters the atrocities committed during her absence, Tanya finds the inner strength to help those whose war time suffering has been even greater than her own. This "truth is stranger than fiction" novel-cum-memoir is a heartrending and heartwarming coming of age story which opens a window into a lesser-known side of this horrific chapter in history through a young girl/woman's eyes.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Very interesting summary so far into your book. Thanks for sharing those details Travelin.

[Bernice]

Thanks so much, Travelin, for your review of this book thus far. If of interest, I wrote a brief article about the war crimes trial immediately preceding the Nuremberg Trials: https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-trial...

[Bev]

Thank you for sharing your article Bernice.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Great article Bernice, thanks for sharing.

[Jonny]

Travelin wrote: "Of keen interest regarding the Nuremberg trials, I think and hope:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

Thanks for posting that up Travelin, some interesting stuff there. The one that leapt out was the revelation about German justice after World War One; it echoed rather well the one thing I got out of Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland; he seemed to imply that German courts simply didn't care.

I wasn't too impressed with Browning; as Theresa suggested elsewhere, it was pretty underwhelming. I'm sure it might have had more impact when it was released, but the weight of that thirty year gap means he's working against the likes of Starsgard (The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939–45), Shepherd (Hitler's Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich) and Richard Evans excellent trilogy on the Third Reich. And you can't just unknow stuff.

[Colin]

I met and spoke Rolf Mengele, his son. Great interview.

[Theresa]

Jonny wrote: "Travelin wrote: "Of keen interest regarding the Nuremberg trials, I think and hope:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

Thanks for posting that up Travelin, s..."

I had Evans's trilogy on my TBR list along with Stargardt's book, but hadn't heard of Shepherd's book before. Thanks for listing that, Jonny - I just added that to my TBR mountain, too! I definitely found Browning's book to be underwhelming. It was very poorly organized and the thing I remember most about his book is obvious feud he has with Daniel Goldhagen, author of Hitler's Willing Executioners (which should be prerequisite reading for Browning's book). I just found Ordinary Men to be strangely compiled. Have you read Goldhagen's book and if so, did you find it worthwhile?

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Starsgard's; "The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939–45", and Shepherd's "Hitler's Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich" are both very good books. I found Richard Evans' third book (that's the only volume I've read in the trilogy) to be an excellent account.

[Jonny]

Theresa wrote: "Have you read Goldhagen's book and did you think it worthwhile?"

I've not, although it is in my TBR boxes, its a very dense book (the paperback is possibly one of the heaviest books I own) and my reading practices have gone down the u-bend since the indeterminate virus of unknown origin as I'm driving more and using public transport not at all. I an aware of his thesis and in theory probably I'm closer to that than Brownings apologism; I didn't find him at all rigorous and was far too eager to take reports at face value, without going further into motives.

To finalise however, my overall view on the two books was, and remains "neither ordinary Germans nor Ordinary men". The ground truth, I think, is murkier and more subtle.

[Colin]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Starsgard's; "The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939–45", and Shepherd's "Hitler's Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich" are both very good books. I found Richard Evans' third book (that..."

Ben Shepherd is a good historian, we had a good time when we got together to compare notes when he was teaching at Univ. of Birmingham in England, and I was in Glasgow, Scotland. You may like a book I wrote on this subject. Occupation and Insurgency, full of interviews with participants.

[Liz V.]

Haven't seen routine
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainmen...

[Liz V.]

Travelin wrote: "Jimmy Carr is not funny. His so-called "humour" is acting like a fucking freak because he looks like one."

I'll add that I had never heard of Carr before reading article.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Liz V. wrote: "Haven't seen routine
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainmen..."



That's one subject that should not be part of any comedy routine.

[Liz V.]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Liz V. wrote: "Haven't seen routine
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainmen..."

That's one subject that should not be part of any comedy routine."

Agree completely.

[Simon]

Travelin wrote: "Simon wrote: "On matters regarding the Holocaust there is one area that irritates the hell out of me. When Jews (or others) comment that the Western Allies' Bomber Forces could have stopped the Hol..."

Slight difference, the Rail and Road plan was to stop German forces moving freely, something very important for D-day.

I don't imagine Eisenhower selected rail lines to Death camps, presumably because such a target does not benefit the Allies militarily, it doesn't save Allied lives, it doesn't shorten the war.

The Death camps stop either because of the approach or the arrival of Allied ground forces. That stops the criminal activity.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

"Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - From the chapter - Holocaust by Gas:

"Of the 3 million Jews who were murdered during the course of 1942, more than 2 million of them perished in gas chambers and mass-shooting operations during an 18-week period between late July and mid-November, almost exclusively on Poland's pre-war territory. These three-and-a-half months were the most intense, the deadliest of the entire Holocaust. Neither the mass shootings carried out by the Einsatzgruppen, the police battalions, the SS brigades and the Wehrmacht in the occupied Soviet territories during the second half of 1941 nor the extermination of the Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau between May and July 1944 resulted in the death of so many people within such a short space of time. Between July and November 1942, a massacre the size of Babi Yar was committed almost every day. Never before in history had people been killed on an assembly-line basis."

Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing by Alex J. Kay

[Theresa]

So very, very sad!

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

"Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - The author mentioned the German operation; 'Harvest Festival':

" .. the largest mass shooting of Jews during the entire war, surpassing the death toll of 33,771 Jews shot at Babi Yar on 29 and 30 September 1941."

Operation Harvest Festival:
https://www.holocausthistoricalsociet...

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

"Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - From the chapter - Decentralised 'Euthanasia' in the German Reich:

"The independence of action displayed by medical personnel during the decentralised 'euthanasia' is perhaps best illustrated by events at Kaufbeuren-Irsee. There, patient killings continued even after Germany's unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945, which ended the Second World War in Europe. On 29 May, fully three weeks after the cessation of hostilities, the staff murdered a child for the last time when Sister Mina Worle, the head nurse of the 'special children's ward', administered a lethal injection to four-year-old Richard Jenne. At 1:10p.m., Director Faltlhauser recorded the death of the child from 'typhus'. Though American troops had entered the town of Kaufbeuren in late April, they were deterred for several weeks from venturing inside the hospital by a large sign warning of an outbreak of the disease there. As a result, the routine killing was able to continue beyond the formal end of the war."

Kaufbeuren-Irsee:
https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/childre...

https://www.normandy1944.info/holocau...

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

"Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - From the chapter - Decentralised 'Euthanasia' in the German Reich:

"Based on the present state of research, at least 196,000 mentally sick and disabled people - predominately patients in psychiatric institutions - were murdered between 1939 and 1945 within the borders of the German Reich, including the annexed territories. If we add the approximately 80,000 killed in institutions in the occupied Polish, French and Soviet territories, as well as the 20,000 concentration-camp inmates murdered in the T4 facilities, the death toll rises to almost 300,000."

Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing by Alex J. Kay

[Mike, Assisting Moderator US Forces]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: ""Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing" - From the chapter - Decentralised 'Euthanasia' in the German Reich:

"Based on the present state of research, at least 196,000 mentally sick..."

Staggering numbers AR. I guess Stalin was right. “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic.” But the death of four-year-old Richard Jenne brings it back to tragedy.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Mike, this book has been one of the most depressing books I've read for some time!

[Jonny]

Horrific stories there Rick, and an interesting point Travelin. One of the more telling points Stephen Fritz made in "Endkampf" was that by the end of the war US forces identified more with the Germans they were occupying and were more likely to side with them than the Displaced Persons making their way back to their home countries from either work or concentration camps.

Endkampf: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Death of the Third Reich

[Tony]

I finished The Holocaust: A New History this afternoon. While it’s obviously a difficult read, I do recommend it. It doesn’t fully explain “why”, but then I’m not sure there really is a rational explanation.

Laurence Rees

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Tony wrote: "I finished The Holocaust: A New History this afternoon. While it’s obviously a difficult read, I do recommend it. It doesn’t fully explain “why”, but then I’m not sure there really ..."

It's a good book covering a shocking subject and well worth the read. Glad to hear you found the book interesting.

[Manray9]

From Resistance: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945 by Halik Kochanski.

By the end of 1943 most of the Jews to perish in the Holocaust were dead. Kochanski wrote:

The non-Jewish resistance could afford to wait for the right time to come out into the open and fight. The timeline for the Jewish resistance to the Holocaust was different: the Jews could not afford to wait. . . while obedience to Nazi edicts spelled survival to the non-Jews, the reverse was true in regard to the Jews: ‘The more closely they conformed to the law, the less were their chances of surviving. Where they disobeyed the law by changing identity, leaving their homes or their ghettos, or going into hiding, the percentage of losses diminished, sometimes showing a spectacular drop.’ Ultimately, Jewish resistance was doomed and the participants knew that. When resistance was discussed by the Jews it became clear that their choice was not that of a general resistance – submit or die – but was rather a choice of how to die. . .

Dolek Liebeskind, a Jewish resistance fighter in Poland wrote:

We are fighting for three lines in the history books to make the world know that Jewish youth did not go like lambs to the slaughter.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Manray9 wrote: "From Resistance: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945 by Halik Kochanski.

By the end of 1943 most of the Jews to perish in the Holocaust were dead. Kochanski wrote:

The n..."

Excellent post MR9!

I remember when reading the book; "Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews In Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017" by Ian Black the author quoted this observation about Palestinian youth from a Shin Bet agent in the early 2000's:

" ... The moment that you reach the conclusion that you have nothing to live for, you immediately find that you have something to die for."

[Manray9]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "From Resistance: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945 by Halik Kochanski.

By the end of 1943 most of the Jews to perish in the Holocaust were dead. Kochans..."

It reminded me of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago. It took me some time to find the segment:

From the moment you go to prison you must put your cozy past firmly behind you. At the very threshold, you must say to yourself: “My life is over, a little early to be sure, but there’s nothing to be done about it. I shall never return to freedom. I am condemned to die — now or a little later. But later on, in truth, it will be even harder, and so the sooner the better. I no longer have any property whatsoever. For me those I love have died, and for them I have died. From today on, my body is useless and alien to me. Only my spirit and my conscience remain precious and important to me.”

Confronted by such a prisoner, the interrogation will tremble.

Only the man who has renounced everything can win that victory.

Solzhenitsyn went on to write about savvier police interrogators.
They made a point of allowing prisoners to retain a ray of hope. That hope made the prisoners amenable. Those who had lost all hope could not be coerced or manipulated.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Another excellent and though-provoking post MR9!

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

I decided to start this new book which was a Christmas present from my wife. Not a very cheerful topic but a very important one.

Never Forget Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz by Alwin Meyer
Reviews:
https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book...

https://www.sareview.org/pub/w8xd8hsf...

https://networks.h-net.org/node/4182/...

[Jonny]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I decided to start this new book which was a Christmas present from my wife. Not a very cheerful topic but a very important one.

[bookcover:Never Forget Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz|594393..."

You may have very right inn that assessment Rick. Best of luck.

[Hedda]

I'm reading now the Nuremberg Diary by Gustave M. Gilbert. He was the psychologist at the Nuremberg Trials. I can only read it slowly, it's disturbing for me to read how hard they tried to escape the death sentence or the prison years some of them got. It's a sensitive topic for me, my grandmother used to tell me stories of what she saw...

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

"Never Forget Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz" - I have just finished a chapter in the book on Auschwitz that truly sickened me. I thought I had read enough to grasp the brutality of the Nazi regime, but this really was too much. I am going to hide the quote with a warning of readers discretion advised:

(view spoiler)[Because of a shortage of gas in mid-1944, Camp Commandant Rudolf Höß ordered that less gas should be introduced into the gas chambers. After liberation, Hermann Langbein, inmate number 60355, from Vienna, who, as a clerk to the SS camp doctor, saw and heard a lot, wrote several books on Auschwitz. In Die Starkeren, he described the gas shortage in 1944:

Many were just numbed but not dead and were thus transported live on the carts to the crematorium and incinerated there. Höß gave another order to save gas. Piles of wood were collected outside the crematoria. The children of Hungarian Jews were thrown into the flames. The children were chosen because they were lighter. Strong men were picked from every transport, who were ordered to throw the children - including their own children - into the flames. Then the men were gassed.

All infants and children who got as far as one of the crematoria - in other words, who were not killed beforehand by the SS and/or thrown alive into the fire pits outside - were murdered in the gas chambers. There were slave labourers who witnessed or saw what happened in front of the crematorium, in the entrance to the gas chambers, and in the gas chambers themselves." (hide spoiler)]

Never Forget Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz by Alwin Meyer

[Marc]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: ""Never Forget Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz" - I have just finished a chapter in the book on Auschwitz that truly sickened me. I thought I had read enough to grasp the brutality of the Nazi ..."

Ugh, truly monstrous.

[Jonny]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: ""Never Forget Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz" - I have just finished a chapter in the book on Auschwitz that truly sickened me. I thought I had read enough to grasp the brutality of the Nazi ..."

"Don't be daft, there's always somewhere lower you can go". Don't suppose I should be surprised, but there you go. Enough to put me off my breakfast and keep the diet on track.

[Doreen]

I just reread Schindler’s List. Was hard for me since since I had a great-uncle and great-cousin murdered there. I think we should all remember the Holocaust happened and never forget.

[Bev]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: ""Never Forget Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz" - I have just finished a chapter in the book on Auschwitz that truly sickened me. I thought I had read enough to grasp the brutality of the Nazi ..."

That truly is horrific!

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

"Never Forget Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz" - The author mentioned 'Stolpersteine' (stumbling blocks):

" ... 'Stolpersteine' is the name given by the artist Gunter Demning to the concrete cubes on which 10 x 10 cm brass plates are fitted with the brief details of the victims of the Nazi dictatorship engraved on them. Over 75,000 'Stolpersteine' have been installed in around 1,200 cities and municipalities in Germany and in twenty-five other countries since 1995. The blocks recall murdered Jews, Sinti, Roma, Social Democrats, Communists, homosexuals and euthanasia victims."

I've seen these in various spots in Rome and Paris so far.

https://www.stolpersteine.eu/en/home/

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/20...

[Bev]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: ""Never Forget Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz" - The author mentioned 'Stolpersteine' (stumbling blocks):

" ... 'Stolpersteine' is the name given by the artist Gunter Demning to the concrete ..."

We have seen some in our European travels too. It makes it very real.

[Bev]

If you are interested in watching a replay of a Holocaust Remembrance ceremony held tonight I think you will find it worth your while. The keynote speaker is an Auschwitz survivor whe emigrated to Canada and settled in Toronto. His story is very moving. Here is the link to the replay. https://amyisraelchaiatlanta.org/refl...

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Thanks for that link Bev.

[Mike, Assisting Moderator US Forces]

Bookmarked that link and will watch the story later, thanks.

[Bev]

Mike wrote: "Bookmarked that link and will watch the story later, thanks."
You are welcome!

[Tony]

I’ve read a couple of holocaust books over the past few months, which other members might be interested in.

If you like your history books to read like a thriller (not always a good thing, in my view!!) then Hunting Eichmann might be of interest. It’s pretty interesting and pacy, and an easy read, although I would have liked more depth and detail.



And if you’re looking for something genuinely different, Philippe Sands’ East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity is definitely worth a look. It’s a combination of family memoir, holocaust and legal history, principally concerned with the two men who originated the war crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, but covering much more including the Nuremberg Trials and the author’s own family history. I’ve tried to summarise it here, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., although it’s one of those books that defies categorisation.

[Bev]

Last night I watched a very interesting virtual presentation from Am Yisrael Chai that focused on the Holocaust in Lithuania where over 96.4% of Jewish people were murdered primarily by Lithuanians. Guest speakers were Elly Gotz, a 95 year old survivor from Lithuania, followed by a panel discussion featuring author and 1923 Nobel Peace prize nominee Sylvia Foti, Grant Gochin, a South African descendant of Lithuanian Jews and Michael Kretzmer, who produced a documentary J'accuse Lithuania which speaks as a voice for the murdered Lithuanian Jews and details Grant Gochins efforts to correct Lithuanian Holocaust distortion as well as Sylvia Foti's discovery that her highly honoured Lithuanian grandfather was actually one ofvtge men who ordrred the deaths of Lithuanian Jews. The link for the presentation is still live and can be watched here: https://amyisraelchaiatlanta.org/cour... It is 2.5 hours long.