My Brother's Keeper

"They are perhaps the sole rays of light in this dark era, the few whose consciences prevented them from being indifferent." ~ Yad Vashem

"Many did nothing - even though they called themselves Christians. Others joined the Nazis and supported Shoah, or Holocaust - the dark deadly storm that swept over Europe with the rise of Nazi Germany. In it more than six million Jewish men, women and children perished, killed by starvation or illness, fatally tortured or beaten, shot by Nazi death squads, or executed in concentration camp gas chambers. Contrary to popular misconception, in may ways the Jews of Europe resisted the evil that befell them. And as the unimaginable horror of the Holocaust descended upon Europe, countless people who professed the name of Christ also refused to remain silent or inactive. Many risked everything to help rescue Jewish targets of Nazi tyranny. Some even made the ultimate sacrifice, faithfully fulling the words of Jesus: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

My Brother's Keeper by Rod Gragg records the stories of thirty of them, all of whom have been honored by the State of Israel as "the Righteous Among the Nations." One of the Christians whose story is recounted in this work likely spoke for all herein when he explained why he chose to risk everything to save a single Jewish life. "I know that when I stand before God on Judgment Day," he said, "I shall not be asked the question posed to Cain - where were you when your brother's blood was crying out to God? " (pg 10).

My Brother's Keeper shares both the stories of these men and women who rose up in the face of perhaps the greatest evil atrocities of human kind and vowed not to stand by and do nothing when Hitler and his men tried in vain to rid the world of the Jewish race. Notables like Corrie Ten Bloom are captured as well as those whose names people might not recognize but save thousands of lives through their heroic efforts, some even paying with their own lives instead of standing idly by. This book also shares the history of such people like Hitler, Oskar Shindler and others so you get a full sense of what happened from the beginning until the brutal end. Why did the US and other nations not get involved when they knew what was happening in Germany and in other countries that Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini were controlling piece by piece. This is a part of world history we cannot forget and it shows that good can still overcome evil if people are willing to step up and challenge them.

I received My Brother's Keeper by Rod Gragg compliments of Center Street Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Groups. It is hard to read these accounts and in the process you, the reader, are transported back to this time in history where people were stripped of their world possessions, wealth, and humanity for the sole reason of their birthright. The book shares these 30 accounts along with some historical pictures and is one I will not part with, and thus has become a part of my library sharing the history of the Jewish Holocaust as well as those that died trying to risk all to protect them. For me, this is a true 5 out of 5 stars.

For more information about My Brother's Keeper, Rod Gragg or where you can pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links today.

My Brother's Keeper by Rod Gragg

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To read more reviews on My Brother's Keeper, please visit Hachette Book Group's website. 

For Such A Time

I love it when authors can take an exceptional story from the Bible and breath new life into it and cause us to reflect on the parallels between the two circumstances. In the story of Esther from the Bible, we know of Esther, a niece of Mordecai, that was taken into the King's palace in an effort to find his favor in a search for a new wife. While Esther was in the palace, a man named Haman began to plot for the destruction of the Jewish people, whom Esther and Mordecai were both of the Jewish race. But God had other plans for Esther and she was born for such a time as this to save her people.

In the novel from author Kate Breslin, she opens each chapter with a verse from the book of Esther that correlates to the particular party of the story involving a woman named Hadassah, whose untold beauty would also be her saving grace. Her uncle Morty, secures her false papers that identify her as Stella Mueller, a woman of Austrian descent instead of her Jewish background in light of the capture of Jewish citizens from the Nazi's and taken to concentration camps. Only they become separated and Morty can only hope that he has found a way to save her life and in time through visions given to him from God, she will be their salvation.

But when Stella winds up in a concentration camp along with her daughter Anna, she is labeled and tattooed as a Jew. When she learns she is about to face a firing squad, she boldly takes the hand of her daughter and faces whatever fate has in store for them. Only her daughter is the first to die in order to see if they can break Stella's resolve, but thankfully God intervenes and sends a savior in the form of the Nazi Jew Killer, SS Kommandant Colonel Aric von Schmidt. He runs a transit camp of Theresienstady in Czechoslovakia, and he believes he can offer her some respite and a way to freedom.  This is a retelling of the biblical story of Esther through the eyes of the Jewish Holocaust and one that was exceptionally well written.

I received For Such A Time by Kate Breslin compliments of TLC Book Tours and Bethany House Publishers for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions are strictly my own. I absolutely was captivated heart, mind and soul by this novel. It takes the reader into the heart of being a Jew and trying to find a way to exist in the midst of the horror from the past, where citizens were treated worse than animals and had to find a way to make it just through one day and hope life would be there tomorrow. Their future was always uncertain and especially for women, it was a brutal life among the Nazi's. I love how well Kate paralleled the story of Esther alongside this one but kept them separate in that the stories don't concede like you think they will if you know how Esther turns out and that's what makes it unique and completely unforgettable. Hands down a 5 out of 5 stars and what a way to begin her writing career with this debut novel!

For more information about For Such A Time, Kate Breslin, or where to pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

For Such A Time by Kate Breslin

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To read more reviews on For Such A Time, please visit TLC's Book Tour page. 

Displaced Persons

In May 1945, Pavel Mandl, a Polish Jew recently liberated from a concentration camp, finds himself among similarly displaced persons gathered in the Allied occupation zones of a defeated Germany. Possessing little besides a map, a few tins of food, and a talent for black-market trading, he must scrape together a new life in a chaotic community of refugees, civilians, and soldiers. With fellow refugees Fela, a young widow, and Chaim, a resourceful teenager with impressive smuggling skills, Pavel establishes a makeshift family, as together they face an uncertain future. Eventually the trio immigrates to the United States, where they grapple with past traumas that arise again in the everyday moments of lives no longer dominated by the need to endure, fight, hide, or escape.

Ghita Schwarz’s Displaced Persons is an astonishing novel of grief, anger, and survival that examines the landscape of liberation and reveals the interior despairs and joys of immigrants shaped by war and trauma.

My Review:

I personally found this a difficult book to get through. The story at times repeats itself over and over and I found myself wondering if I was on the same page or was simply re-reading the passage over again. While the story content had me interested, it was simply the style of writing that did not appeal to me.

There is a situation where Pavel and Fischl, his traveling companion from the concentration camp come upon a home where a widow is staying. While sleeping, it's not clear at some point in the story that they are having a flash back or the story is just skipping by to their time in the camp. All of a sudden they simply wake up and Fischl leaves. Pavel heads out to a refugee camp where he meets a woman, Fela who herself is a young widow and a boy by the name of Chaim who is apparently taken for stealing.

Then next we read all three are headed back to the old widows home where he stayed previously and Chaim is with them. It doesn't state how he was released or how he managed to be traveling with them. Then they end up removing the old lady from her home, telling the local police that they own the home instead despite the kindness she showed him and Fischl earlier.

For me there is simply a huge disconnect in the telling of the story. My other readers however might find the story one they can work through, but for me it didn't work. I would rate this book a 1.5 out of 5 stars. I received this book compliments of TLC Book Tours for my honest review and would recommend readers who are interested to give it a try, they may just see something I didn't.

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Displaced Persons by Ghita Schwarz

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