| Territories & Nunavut (NT, NU, YT) |
|
|  |
| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 6 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Did you like the movie "Defiance"? Mar 15, 2009
By jscrollick
Did you like the movie "Defiance"? Surprised that not every Holocaust story was about concentration camps or hiding "in the annex"? Then this is a must-read: the life before the storm, narrow escapes, blowing up bridges as a member of the partisans, more narrow escapes, coming to America, and, of course, more. Real life being more moving than fiction. Beautifully written.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
An Amazing Story Jun 07, 2009
By Lois Liebowitz
A truly amazing and absorbing story of one man's will to live against all odds. The really incredible thing is that this type of story was repeated thousands of times during the Holocaust--all involving ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times. Maybe it was skill. Maybe it was resilience. Maybe it was luck. Whatever it was, I remain in awe of people like Leon Gleicher who not only survived but went on to create a full life after everything they experienced and saw. I'm not sure of course how I would have reacted if I had been in his shoes. I can only hope I would have managed half as well.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
A compelling story of bravery and optimism May 17, 2009
By Bettina Kramer
A wonderful must read story which encompasses the amazing life of hardship, bravery and adversity of Leon Gleicher. Leon's devotion to his brother Siche and Siche's devotion to Leon make this story much more than just a recounting of survival, it touches on poignant themes of loyalty and family as well.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
An extraordinary account May 12, 2009
By Irving Wiesen
This Holocaust story exhibits in the telling the very qualities which manifested themselves in the character of its author: pluck, straightforwardness, and the defiance of submission. While replete with the arbitrary twists of fate which characterize the many accounts of Holocaust survival, and as a partisan story, chock-full of derring-do, we nevertheless get a sense of what makes an ordinary person do extraordinary things in extraordinary times--the determination to survive, and yet to keep intact one's integrity and ethical core. Leon Gleicher and his brother Zyche, from a small town in Galicia, Poland, whose family, and most of the town's Jews were murdered by the Nazis, spent the war years in nearby forests, alternately foraging for food and shelter, dodging Nazis, Polish collaborators, and murderous Ukraninan anti-Semites all at once, and later fighting in a partisan unit attached to the Soviet army. Severely wounded, he became separated from his brother, and recuperated in a Soviet hospital, later rejoining his brother who had also been wounded, and finally making their way to the United States where they began new families and new lives. While stripped of so much which had typified their pre-War lives--there was no "kosher" or "Shabbos" in the War--they never forgot who they were, and their obligation, despite the crush of circumstances, to create meaningful lives. There is so much in this honest, clear-eyed account which haunts the reader: at one point, the partisans became aware of a group of 200 Hungarian Jews in a work detail nearby, put to work by the Germans digging ditches. Leon was sent to infiltrate their camp and persuade them to come out to join the partisans. At great peril he made contact and attempted to convince them to flee. Suspicious and fearing a German trap, the Jews instead discussed killing Leon. Leon escaped, and found out later that the Jews were all shot in the very ditches they had shortly afterwards completed. There are many such stories which challenge the reader to think about what he/she would have done, how they would have acted in those extraordinary circumstances. Thankfully, we have survivors such as Leon Gleicher who can tell us their stories and thereby serve as teachers and guides for how to live one's life. For, as the reader moves from the wartime account to the period after the war and the new life in the United States, he increasingly realizes this is not simply a work of history, but an invaluable lesson of life itself. Deepest respect to the author not just for his actions, but his courage in recounting them to new generations.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
well worth the time May 08, 2009
By David Finkelstein
I have read many personal accounts of the Holocaust. Leon's account was very well done. I have never met Leon, yet I feel as though I know him well after reading the book. I learned a lot I did not already know, and it was a very easy read and hard to put down.
I would like to thank Leon and other survivors for documenting their personal accounts so that people like me will have the opportunity to study and learn from them!
David Finkelstein
Stamford, CT
See all 6 customer reviews on Amazon.com
|
| | |
|
|
