arts & life
books

NIKOLAUS WACHSMANN

God, Faith
&_ the
Identity
from

from pag e 33

co

E

A HISTORY OF THE NAZI
CONCENTRATJON _CAMPS

ISRAEL/JUDAISM

Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947
(Knopf, 2015), Bruce Hoffman,
the director of the Center for
Security Services at Georgetown
University, uses recently released
British documents and first-

July 16 • 2015

■ &M

e his/

Tirtiritrehen4ani

Rullections of Chiklrcn
and Grandchildren
of I holocaust Survivors

I. diwa

THE HOLOCAUST
■In Born Survivors (Harper), British-based journalist and biog-
rapher Wendy Holden tells the remarkable true story of three
newly pregnant women, a Pole, Slovak and Czech, who were sent
to Auschwitz II-Birkenau in 1944. Miraculously, they hid their
pregnancies and gave birth while virtual walking skeletons — and
their children survived. This year, the now 70-year-old children
reunited at Mauthausen concentration camp as a tribute to their
courageous mothers.
■Born in the Displaced Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen,
Menachem Z. Rosensaft has assembled a collection of essays by
fellow second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors in God,
Faith dr Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and
Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors (Jewish Lights). As well
as a prologue by survivor and author Elie Wiesel, some of the
88 voices Rosensaft collected include Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.),
David Miliband (former foreign secretary of the U.K.), Justice
Rosalie Silberman Abella of the Supreme Court of Canada, author
Yossi Klein Halevi and former Israeli minister of internal security
Avi Dichter.
■Nikolaus Wachsmann is a professor of modern European
history in London and author of two previous books about
the Holocaust. His new 865-page book, KL: A History of the
Nazi Concentration Camps (FSG), chronicles the camps from
their inception in 1933 to their demise at war's end in 1945.
Documented with nearly 200 pages of footnotes and sources and
more than 60 photos, Wachsmann includes material previously
untranslated and unknown outside Germany. He provides both
the details and the overview of the German concentration camp
system.
■In Single-Handed: The Inspiring True Story of Tibor 'Teddy'
Rubin — Holocaust Survivor, Korean War Hero, and Medal of
Honor Recipient (Berkley Caliber), Daniel M. Cohen introduces
readers to Tibor Rubin, a Hungarian Jew who survives the hell of
a Nazi death camp, emigrates to America and joins the U.S. Army,
where, despite virulent anti-Semitism, he distinguishes himself in
the Korean War. A P.O.W. for more than 21/2 years, he uses skills
forged surviving the Nazis to help his fellow inmates. In 2005,
after 50 years of waiting, he received the Congressional Medal of
Honor, becoming the only Holocaust survivor to receive America's
highest military distinction.
■Historian Dan Stone focuses on the Holocaust concentra-
tion- and extermination-camp survivors in the months and years
following their rescue in The Liberation of the Camps: The End
of the Holocaust and its Aftermath (Yale University Press). He
describes their feelings of guilt, exhaustion, fear and devastating
grief for lost family members — as well as their medical problems
and struggles to rebuild their shattered lives. He also examines the
experiences of those living in Displaced Persons camps and their
efforts to be released and resettled in countries of their choosing.

■In Anonymous Soldiers: The

34

h

person accounts to produce a
landmark history of the battles
between Jews, Arabs and the
British that led to the creation
of Israel. He sheds new light on
relations between the Haganah
and Irgun and the infamous
bombing of the King David

"A literary sensation"Haaretz

GEFEN PUBLISHING HOUSE

MEMOIR
good questions that linger.
Shulem Dean's All Who Go Do Not
■In Catch the Jew! (Gefen), gonzo
Return (Gray Wolf) is a powerful
journalist Tuvia Tenenbom goes
addition to the growing bookshelf
undercover — sometimes as "Tobi
of memoirs by people who grow up
the German" or "Abu
— around
in the Chasidic world, leave every-
Israel and the Palestinian Authority
for seven months, often risking his
thing they know behind and try to
find a place for themselves in what
life in search of the untold truths in
had previously been considered the
today's Holy Land.
From the ultra-Orthodox in
forbidden outside world. Many of
the recent titles have been written by Jerusalem to the intellectuals of Tel
Aviv, from self-promoting
women, and Dean's
PLO execs in Ramallah
is the rare male voice
to foreign human rights
— he speaks of the
heartbreak of being
activists in Nablus, he
S NA
ItterSte finds a way to sit down
separated from his
SALMI,
ON AMR FAY
five children. The
\VA;igZ p
T HOD0)( and break bread with
7- q4116rlY1- them. Then he shares the
former Skverer
Chasid, founder of
intensity of this turbulent
the website Unpious,
area person by person, city
writes with candor
by city, meal by meal. The
and sensitivity as
book — at times poignant,
enraging and hilarious —
he describes New
Square — from
was a No. 1 bestseller in
which he is expelled
Israel and now is out here.
for heresy — and its way of life and
■Honest, painful and inspiring,
his own struggles.
Leah Vincent's memoir, Cut Me
■ Hannah Nordhaus goes back
Loose: Sin and Salvation After
more than a century to uncover
My Ultra-Orthodox Girlhood
(Penguin Books), follows her
and understand the story of her
great-great-great grandmother, who
through the most difficult time of
came to America from Germany as
her life. Readers will find themselves
a pioneering young bride in 1866.
captivated as Vincent shares with
According to local legend in Santa
uncensored honesty her experiences
following her abandonment in the
Fe, where she settled, her ghost has
long remained.
name of ultra-Orthodox Judaism.
American Ghost: The True
The story of Vincent's fight to find
Story of a Family's Haunted Past
a balance between her desires and
(Harper) is a well-researched mem-
the traditional life she has always
oir that's full of compassion and
known will speak to anyone who has

■

ThL

Hotel. Hoffman paints a picture
of a muddled, brutal, declining
colonial Britain susceptible to
terrorism to argue that terrorism
is often a successful political tool.

■

How the Bible Became Holy

(Yale University Press) offers a
reinterpretation of biblical his-

tory. Drawing on cutting-edge
historical and archeological
research, scholar Michael L.
Satlow tells in engaging narrative
of how an ancient collection of
obscure Israelite writings became
the founding text of both Judaism
and Christianity.