Lives Lived and Lost, by Kaja Finkler and Gold Finkler
Golda and Kaja, mother and daughter, each survived the holocaust and tell their stories from differing perspectives. Their story paints a rich picture of Hasidic life before the holocaust and the terrible decision Golda, who was about to be sent to a slave labor camp, and her husband, who was to stay in the ghetto, would have to make: with which parent to send their daughter Kaja. After the war, mother and daughter were reunited in Sweden and eventually moved to America to establish new lives.
The Death of the Shtetl, by Yehuda Bauer
Unlike most books about life in pre-war Jewish towns in eastern Europe and their subsequent destruction during the holocaust---which are riveting narrative personal histories—Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at Hebrew University and Yad Vashem, Yehuda Bauer, takes a purely academic approach. Using newly translated Russian texts and Nazi files, he traces how the shtetls of eastern Europe were systematically destroyed. Yet resistance to the Nazis, such as the Bielski brothers’ family camp as seen in the recent movie Defiance, tells an additional story of Jewish courage. Because it is an academic analysis, the book may seem dry and be at too high of an academic level for a general audience. But for the reader who wants to read primary sources and delve into the chapter end-notes, it is ideal.
Reviews by Dr. Gene Printz-Kopelson. Gene generously volunteers his spare time while in Seattle at the Holocaust Center.
