arts & Life

SARAH HELM

F( Never

RAVENSBRUCK

LIFE AND DEATH IN HITLER'S

CONCENTRATION CAMP FOR WOMEN

e

In honor of Yom HaShoah

(Holocaust Remembrance Day),

we have rounded up a collection

of new Holocaust-themed books

(plus one CD) worth a look.

SWAN
SONG

10.VMM.

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19 45

WALTER KEMPOWSKI

God, Faith
&_ Identity
from ',Ashes

Reflections of Children
and Grandchildren
of Holocaust Survivors

Edited by Menachem Z. Rosensalt

Prologue be Elie Wiese]

SURVIVAL
SHADOWS

-

SEVEN 1 WS HIDDEN IN HILLER, BERLIN

BARBARA LOVENHEIM

Don Cohen
I Contributing Writer

or six years, more than
130,000 women of all
backgrounds (mostly
non-Jewish) from across Europe
were imprisoned by the Nazis
just 50 miles north of Berlin. The
story is comprehensively told for
the first time in Ravensbruck:

F

Life and Death in Hitler's
Concentration Camp for Women
($37.50; Nan A. Talese). Using
research into German and newly
opened Russian archives, as
well as interviews with survi-
vors, author Sarah Helm weaves
together various accounts, allow-
ing readers to follow characters
from all sides and consider why
its history has largely been for-
gotten.
■ The late Walter Kempowski
collected diaries, letters and
memoirs of World War II that
have been edited into a 10-vol-
ume series published in German.
Swansong 1945: A Collective
Diary of the Last Days of the
Third Reich ($35; W.W. Norton)
is the final volume to be trans-
lated into English and brings
together more than 1,000 choice
extracts to tell what was occur-
ring during four days in 1945:
April 20, Hitler's final birthday;
April 25, American and Soviet
troops meet on German soil;
April 30, Hitler's suicide; and
May 8, the German surrender.

The result is a compelling mon-
tage of diverse, authentic voices
that capture the feel of the lived
moment.
■Deeply personal and forward-
focused are the 88 essays gath-
ered in God, Faith efr Identity

from the Ashes: Reflections of
Children and Grandchildren
of Holocaust Survivors ($25;
Jewish Lights Publishing). Edited
by Menachem Z. Rosensaft, the
longtime, second-generation
Holocaust activist and gen-
eral counsel of the World Jewish
Congress, and including a pro-
logue by Elie Wiesel, the book is
a collection of prominent voices
in the Jewish world — theolo-
gians, scholars, spiritual leaders,
authors, artists, political and
community leaders and media
personalities among them —
reflecting on their family experi-
ences, history and their own lives
to explain, suggest or contem-
plate how we move forward as
people and as Jews.
■For 10 years, the Italian-born,
Jerusalem-based singer Shulamit
has been performing songs of
women who wrote about the
Holocaust before perishing in
it. Her new album, For You the
Sun Will Shine ($12.97; Rock
Paper Scissors), includes 11 of
these songs, which even with a
language barrier will make their
melancholy felt. The 12th song
is the prayer for peace, "Oseh
Shalom," sung to a melody that
originated in Rome, which seeks

to inspire hope after the wrench-
ing but hauntingly beautiful
journey she's taken us on. The
first-rate musicians include Frank
London of the Klezmatics.
■By chance, Barbara Lovenheim
met three Holocaust survivors
in her hometown of Rochester,
N.Y., and weaved together their
memories, photographs and
journals to tell their compel-
ling story. In Survival in the
Shadows ($9.99 e-book; Open
Road Media), she tells of seven
Jews who escaped deportation to
Auschwitz by living for two years
in a small factory just miles from
Hitler's bunker. The book tells of
the resourcefulness and bravery
of the Jews in hiding as well as
the fortitude and humanity of
ordinary Germans who kept
them alive.
■Upper-middle-class and
Catholic, the Boulloche family
was known for its intellectual
pursuits and profound sense of
moral obligation. In The Cost of
Courage ($26.95; Other Press;
June 2015), Charles Kaiser tells
the true story of the family's
extraordinary courage and sac-
rifice for the French Resistance
in Nazi-occupied Paris during
World War II. Kaiser, a former
reporter, worked for years to
dig out the story from French
archives and gain the family's
cooperation.
■A young Jewish boy trying to
stay alive and keep others alive
by smuggling contraband into

NEVER FORGET on page 64

April 16 • 2015

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