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Andy K (10821 KP) rated Shoah (1985) in Movies
Jul 20, 2018
Unforgettable
Director Claude Lanzmann, who recently passed away at the age of 92, spent a significant portion of his life working on interviews, editing and putting together this immaculate epic masterpiece portrait of the Holocaust through the words of people who were there and lived through the torture.
I sobbed for days after watching the more than 13 hours of footage from the documentary and the DVD extras. Some of the descriptions and scenes were so moving I actually had to pause for a moment to collect myself before continuing.
I purchased when Criterion had one of their 50% off sales and it was well worth it. You will be changed forever as a person after watching this and you will start to think all your first-world problems are minuscule in comparison.
I sobbed for days after watching the more than 13 hours of footage from the documentary and the DVD extras. Some of the descriptions and scenes were so moving I actually had to pause for a moment to collect myself before continuing.
I purchased when Criterion had one of their 50% off sales and it was well worth it. You will be changed forever as a person after watching this and you will start to think all your first-world problems are minuscule in comparison.
KU
Kibbutz: Utopia and Politics: The Life and Times of Meir Yaari, 1897-1987
Aviva Halamish and Lenn J. Schramm
Book
Meir Yaari (1897-1987) was the leader of Hashomer Hatza'ir, a movement which took an active part in...
The Great Departure: Mass Migration from Eastern Europe and the Making of the Free World
Book
Between 1846 and 1940, more than 50 million Europeans moved to the Americas, irrevocably changing...
Outfoxing Fear: Folktales from Around the World
Book
Humans of all eras and cultures have lived with fear-whether fear of becoming jaguar prey, of being...
Berlin at War: Life and Death in Hitler's Capital, 1939-45
Book
Berlin was the nerve-centre of Hitler's Germany - the backdrop for the most lavish ceremonies, it...
ClareR (5726 KP) rated The German House in Books
Dec 30, 2019
The German House is set in Frankfurt in 1963 at the time of the Auschwitz trials. Eva Bruhns is a 24 year old translator, and is asked to translate the testimony of the Polish speaking Jews who were imprisoned at Auschwitz. Eva was a small child during the war, and remembers little of it. She seems to be mostly concerned with her romance and possible engagement to Jürgen Schoorman, a wealthy businessman. However, when David Miller, a Canadian lawyer who is working for the prosecution at the trials, hires Eva as a translator, her world view and her opinion of her parents and the Germans involved in the war, changes. Her parents don’t want to talk about their involvement in the war, and Jürgen doesn’t think that she should be involved in something so distasteful. But this isn’t just a coming of age story. Granted, Eva does grow in this novel. She learns about the collective guilt of the German nation with regards to the Holocaust, and looks at how the children of the war generation reacted to something that was in effect hidden from them. They called it Vergangenheitsbewältigung - the struggle to come to term with and overcome the past. Young Germans wanted to analyse, digest and learn to live with the past, and the Holocaust in particular. Eva can’t understand why her parents will not own up to their share of the guilt.
I really enjoyed this novel. It was hard-going at times, and it did read like a translated novel. It did however, catch the spirit of the time. Eva’s longing to break out of the societal restrictions of the time (for example when she refers to how much she likes a new Beatles song that Jürgen can’t understand, he doesn’t like pop music) and Jürgen’s wish that she stops work as soon as she gets engaged (as a modern woman, I was positively fuming at this point!!).
I was fascinated by the trip the Court makes to Auschwitz - somewhere I’ve never been, and after a trip to Oranienburg (a camp for political prisoners outside Berlin), I feel that I would struggle to go. This was one of the most emotional parts of the book.
The side story involving Eva’s older sister is also fascinating, and I feel portrays the effect of seeing so much violence and hatred as a young child (no spoilers here!).
All in all, after I got used to the writing style, I really enjoyed this. It was an interesting insight into the post-war years, and West Germany’s reaction to the damage and destruction that the Nazis had caused during the Holocaust.
This is well worth a read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book to read and honestly review.
I really enjoyed this novel. It was hard-going at times, and it did read like a translated novel. It did however, catch the spirit of the time. Eva’s longing to break out of the societal restrictions of the time (for example when she refers to how much she likes a new Beatles song that Jürgen can’t understand, he doesn’t like pop music) and Jürgen’s wish that she stops work as soon as she gets engaged (as a modern woman, I was positively fuming at this point!!).
I was fascinated by the trip the Court makes to Auschwitz - somewhere I’ve never been, and after a trip to Oranienburg (a camp for political prisoners outside Berlin), I feel that I would struggle to go. This was one of the most emotional parts of the book.
The side story involving Eva’s older sister is also fascinating, and I feel portrays the effect of seeing so much violence and hatred as a young child (no spoilers here!).
All in all, after I got used to the writing style, I really enjoyed this. It was an interesting insight into the post-war years, and West Germany’s reaction to the damage and destruction that the Nazis had caused during the Holocaust.
This is well worth a read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book to read and honestly review.
Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated In the Darkroom in Books
Jul 28, 2017
Deeply moving, powerful account of identity
Susan Faludi's autobiographical bestseller juxtaposes feminist theory with the transgender change of her father who seems to reinforce gender stereotypes while attempting to establish her own identity.
Her father's confusion over what she believed to be 'female', at the same time denying an abusive past and surviving the holocaust, highlights the troubles of adopting another identity as a form of escape.
Faludi's attempt to understand her father, however, is deeply moving - trying to process her previous actions with her past and her present is an account that many can relate to. Her passion to find out the enigma that is her father is commendable and there were many times I shed a tear listening to this tale of much sorrow.
It really is a masterpiece of writing and will go down as an important piece of literature for this decade.
Her father's confusion over what she believed to be 'female', at the same time denying an abusive past and surviving the holocaust, highlights the troubles of adopting another identity as a form of escape.
Faludi's attempt to understand her father, however, is deeply moving - trying to process her previous actions with her past and her present is an account that many can relate to. Her passion to find out the enigma that is her father is commendable and there were many times I shed a tear listening to this tale of much sorrow.
It really is a masterpiece of writing and will go down as an important piece of literature for this decade.
Jessica Erdas (463 KP) rated The Book Thief in Books
May 16, 2018
It's rare to find a book that grips you by the heart and takes you on a ride. There's so much to love about this book. Zusak definitely has a way with words that draw you in and make it hard to put down. The story is about a young girl torn apart from the life she's known during the holocaust. It details the pain of nazi Germany and the trials that went with it. This is a story about death, love, friendship, books, a love of words, and a young brave girl trying to do the right thing in a world gone bad. It's told in the viewpoint of death and his encounters with the book thief. Finished this in 5 days and I'm sitting here pining for more, even though the story was brought to an acceptable conclusion. Find the time to read this, it's well worth it.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Jews and Jewishness in British Film, Television, and Popular Culture
Nathan Abrams and Phyllis Lassner
Book
Hidden in Plain Sight: Jews and Jewishness in British Film, Television, and Popular Culture is the...
Mr Sammler's Planet
Saul Bellow and Stanley Crouch
Book
Mr. Artur Sammler, Holocaust survivor, intellectual, and occasional lecturer at Columbia University...