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Title: The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust by Martin Gilbert ISBN: 0-8050-6260-2 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Righteous Indignation
Comment: My reaction to this book was that it showed two different themes. One was the theme mentioned in the title, the unsung heroes of the holocaust. The other was its opposite, the villains of the holocaust.
As we read about this or that Christian who risked all to help a stranger, we also read about the Nazi collaborators, the anti-semitic actions taken, the villains of the period. This book makes you angry, with a cold hatred. It makes you hope there is a Hell, a suitable punishment for acts of cruelty committed during this life on Earth.
How many times do we read about helpless sweet children below the age of six being hunted down by grown men, insane men, stupid men, sadistic men, Germans and their collaborators.
In one of the reports, we read about a little 5 or 6 year old girl who is asked her name. She answers with the Christian alias she was given, and then she cheerfully adds that her real name is something else, a Jewish name. Why must this little child be careful? What kind of world was she living in, that forced insane, unnatural caution on an adorable child?
Perhaps my "favorite" report in this book is when the Germans were tipped off by an informer that a little 5 year old Jewish girl was being cared for by a Christian family. These grown German men tracked the little girl down. They had already decided to kill her, but that was not enough for them. First they had to make her final hour one of panic and pain. They whipped the child. When they were done with their sadistic fun they killed her. Then they killed the Christian family of eight that had cared for the little girl.
It is amazing that this sick German culture actually believed that they were in some way "superior" to the Jews. Not for nothing, but these Germans were morally inferior to a pack of wolves, certainly sub-human.
The book is infuriating. If it does not infuriate you, there's something missing in you.
But there are positive things in here too. I am not referring to the acts of individual heroism, which, by the way, seem to be carried out more often by women than men. I'm referring to the nations in which there was no anti-semitism.
Denmark, Albania and Bulgaria are described that way in this book. I knew that Denmark wasn't viciously anti-semitic but I learned from this book just how beautiful a people the Danes were. And I had absolutely no idea that the Albanians and Bulgarians were so kind. I'm impressed. Belgium also came across very well.
I was disappointed to learn that Holland was not as gentle and civilized as I had thought. This book tells us that Holland had its share of anti-semites and informers. It seems to be about equal to France in the fact that while the majority wished to protect the Jews, a sizeable minority were quite happy to slit Jewish throats.
This book tells us just how bad the Polish people were in general, most of them perfectly happy about the holocaust. After all, the Jews killed Christ, so they were only getting what they deserved. Amazing that people think that way. Some people seem to have descended (as opposed to ascended) from the ape. There were also many Polish heroes in the book, all the more impressive given the general attitude prevailing in the country, with its added risk of informants.
But of course the inside track to Hell is owned by the German people. Even their allies the Italians considered anti-semitism the German disease, and refused to cooperate with the murders. Italy, and the Pope, were portrayed very positively in this book. I was told elsewhere that the Pope was a Nazi collaborator, but he didn't appear so in this book. The Pope, here, was a strong supporter of the Jews, and saw to it that all of Italy was too, except for those Italians who milked Jews for every penny they could extort.
I understand why other reviewers would object to the writing style of this book. It is a series of anecdotes. They are just piled one on top of the last. But it is a reasonable way to approach the subject, if your aim is to recognize the unsung heroes of the holocaust. Okay, here's this hero, here's the next, and this is what they did. It's not a novel. The organization and the writing style are what they are.
I expected to read more about the Croat attempt to exterminate both the Jews and Serbs during this period in history. The Croats were cruel, which prompted the reprisal by the Serbs as soon as Marshall Tito died. We think of the Serbs as the villains of Yugoslavia, but during World War Two the Eastern Orthodox Serbs and the Jews were victims of the Catholic Croats in an extermination that was truly German in its cruelty. I mention the religion of the Serbs and Croats only because that is the only way to tell them apart, since they are one and the same people racially, differentiated only by religion, according to another book that you can buy on Amazon, whose name I have forgotten.
The next time some racist idiot says there was no holocaust, hand it this book.
Rating: 4
Summary: Conglomeration of Rescue Stories Broken out by Region
Comment: This book isn't so much "written" as it is "assembled." On the other hand, the research task accomplished here is gargantuan, and it's a good deed to make these testimonies easily accessible under one cover.
There were a larger number of good people who helped Jews and put not only their own lives at stake, but the lives of their families, than I imagined. Many of whom gave their lives and those of their families in their effort.
Splitting meager rations of food among too many people, creating special hiding places around their homes, smuggling documents, all to save the lives of neighbors and strangers; all these selfless acts and more are recorded to offer a different view of ordinary citizens during the War.
Mostly the rescuers are Christian because of the region, but there are a few Muslims in the mix and even a few sympathetic German soldiers.
One story that I was familiar with, I was kind of disappointed with the treatment it received in this volume. A Polish woman named Irene Opdyke saved 9 Jews under the very nose of a German Major. One day, he accidentally caught her with those she was hiding. The book (p. 45) says she was able to convince the Major "somehow" not to turn her and the Jews in. It does not say that she bartered her innocent 17-year-old body on an on-going basis for the lives of the Jews she protected. (I have not read it, but her book is called "In My Hands"). I don't know a 17-year-old who can figure out how to bag groceries let alone hide 9 Jews from a German Major in his own home.
I suspect there was much more of this kind of exploitation going on than the book would lead one to believe. Not an especially good read, but a good deed, and uplifting information.
Rating: 4
Summary: One of a kind, presented sloppily
Comment: Martin Gilbert has written extensively on Jewish issues. His main contributions are this work, a 'History of Israel' and 'The Holocaust'. His other books are far superior to this one and I was disappionted by the seemingly sloppy writing style and jampacked but shabbily constructed book.
This is a ONE OF A KIND affair. This book details those that saved the lives of the Jews during the holocaust. it details gentiles and Jews who went out of their way, risking their lives, to save even one person, but int he case of Schindler or the Bielski brothers thousands.
The book is arranged by country and region and details the number of Jews living in the area in 1939 and the number killed in the holocaust and then explains the number saved and by what means.
In countries like Italy Gilbert shows how the people did not have the anti-semetic vigor of other places and so many of the Jews survived.
The author shows difinitevly that the French collaborated with the nazis and were quick to volunteer to help round up the Jews, this is because France is a profoundly anti-semetic country and the stain of the holocaust must be broguht to bear on its present nazilike actions. Gilbert shows the many competing politics of Poland that also fueled the hate and destruction of the Jews in that country.
Gilbert does not show, however, the importance of the Danish King who did so much to save the Jews. This is a lost chapter that deserved more work.
The book is one of a kind and deserves to be read. Gilbert obtained his list of the 'Righteous' from Yad Vashem and he has been loyal to the Israeli official list of those that helped the Jews.
It to bad that with such a long list of people that saved even one person the book ends up sometimes feeling like a long list of names and short descriptions of deeds. Their might have been a better way to present it and still uphold the message Gilbert was trying to make. Gilbert also shows how it has taken so long for people to be recognized for their deeds, a tragedy unto itself. These people that risked their lives to save just one person, are so important because they show to us what can be done in the face of evil.
This book will help you understand how if you save one life you save the world.
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