Archive for WWII
You are browsing the archives of WWII.
Maps and Shadows (Nicola)
Maps and Shadows by Krysia Jopek
Pages: 151
First Published: Dec. 16, 2010
Publisher: Aquila Polonica
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
Everyone has a story.
Acquired: Received a review copy from Aquila Polonica.
Reason for Reading: I enjoy memoirs of the war (even fictionalized) and I particularly like WWII books which introduce me to new information that is not so widely known.
This is a novel but is based on the true story of the author’s father’s family (his siblings and their parents). I also think there is a fuzzy line between where the truth ends and the fiction begins. It truly seems that the author used the novel format simply so she could write her family’s story from all sides, giving voice to all four members old enough to tell their own story.
This story tells one Polish family’s experience as Russia invades and sends all Poles to labour camps in two places in the frozen Arctic. The Jopeks are sent to Siberia and it is from this point their story is told as they are separated and survive the war being sent from country to country, with even a few years stop in Tanganyika, until they eventually end up as people stripped of their Polish citizenship and start a new life in America. Told in the first person, the narrative switches back and forth between the father, who at first chance leaves Siberia to join the Polish army for the good of his family, the eldest son (the author’s father) who much later on joins the Young Polish Battalion (at first to help supply extra rations to his mother & siblings), the sister, the eldest child in the family and the mother, who tries to give her remaining children hope. The youngest boy is but 4 when they are deported and knows no other kind of life by the time the war is over.
I had a hard time with the Prologue but once the chapters started I became interested and the further on the story went the more involved I became in the lives of these people. I came to care for them and root for their survival. The Table of Contents tells us right off that the last chapter is called “The Burial” and with the wonder of whose burial it would be hanging over my head throughout the book I really came to love each and every one of them. Having read many books about the forced labour camps much of the information wasn’t new to me, yet of course it is always shocking that people were treated this way, and each person’s story is unique in its own way.
What I found absolutely fascinating was the whole role Poland had in WWII and how it’s people were treated by the “Allies”. First they are invaded by Communist Russia (their long time enemy) and then suddenly Russia becomes their “ally” in the war. The Polish people lost their country to Communist Russia; Poland had fought under its own flag in the war and yet no one came to help them get their country back. They were forbidden to march in the victory parade at the end of the war by the British and US so as not to offend Lenin. Stripped of their citizenship if they did not immediately return to the new Communist ruled Poland thousands of exiled Poles became “displaced persons” who had fought a war to save their country’s freedom, only in the end to be scattered to the ends of the earth: Britain, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Mexico, United States and the few who did go back home knowing it would never be the same with their enemy now in control.
A very vivid personal tale of one family’s experience of the war from their own unique experience, which would have been echoed by many other Polish families in similar yet unique to them ways. Also, an extremely eye-opening look at a not so familiar aspect of World War II’s history, the Polish experience, a people who fought hard and ended up with no country or citizenship.
Innocent War (Nicola)
Innocent War by Susan Violante
Nino Series No. 1
Pages: 183
First Published: Apr. 17, 2009
Rating: 3.5/5
First sentence:
“Nino, wake up! You’re going to be late,” hollered Papa from the hallway outside of my room.
Acquired: I received a review copy from the book’s publicist.
Reason for Reading: The plot and point of view intrigued me.
Summary: The author received five cassette tapes from her father recording his life story and she has started to turn them into a fictionalized biography of her father’s life with this first volume covering young Nino’s life from age 10 to 15, years 1940 to 1945. Nino is born in Italy but soon moves with his family to Tripoli in the Italian Colony of Libya. His father is a construction worker and the Italians in the Colony are indoctrinated by Mussolini via the radio and propaganda, children must attend weekly youth meetings. But these people are far removed from Europe, they have no proper understanding of the war, nor how it affects them until the day the radio announces that Italy is at war with France and Britain and simultaneously the town of Tripoli is attacked by French bombers, leaving dead, injured and rubble behind them. This then is the story of an Italian family living in Libya trying to survive in the war torn country told through the eyes of a child.
Comments: Before commenting on the story I must quickly say this first. The book is self-published (not necessarily a bad thing) but really needs editing. There are some typos, many awkward sentences and quite a number of grammatical errors, such as the one that annoyed me the most: the use of the word “on” instead of “in” throughout the book and quite often the reverse as well. ‘Nuff said.
The story itself was delightful. Nino and his mother Maria are wonderful, full characters with many layers. This is a very unusual point of view for a World War II story and I really appreciated experiencing it, especially knowing that it is based on fact. The Italians in Libya have no idea why they are suddenly being bombed, then the Italian and Nazi soldiers arrive. The Nazi’s immediately intimidate the people and Nino and his family watch in horror as Sarah, their Jewish babysitter’s, family is taken away in the night. Having made a prior promise to the mother, Sarah has become their cousin, Rita, from Naples as they keep her in their house. Told through a child’s eyes we see the horror, the hardships, the death of war but as a child we also see the adventures a boy can have, the escapades and ideas he comes up with that sometimes benefit the family and sometimes get him in trouble. He is an innocent child living the life he has been given and yet this is also a coming of age story as the boy becomes a man and can discern the truth behind what he sees. As a little boy he sees the Italian soldiers as heroes but when he sees up close and personal on a train how a soldier abuses a man, Nino knows he never wants to be a soldier.
A delightful read which can be harrowing and humourous, heart-wrenching and heart-warming.
Clara’s War (Nicola)
Clara’s War: A young girl’s true story of miraculous survival under the Nazis by Clara Kramer with Stephen Glantz
Pages: 339
First Published: 2008 UK (Apr. 7, 2009 CAN)(April 21, 2009 US)
Genre: memoir, nonfiction, Holocaust
Rating: 5/5
First sentence:
My entire family was camped out on blankets and goosedown bedding in the apple orchard behind Aunt Uchka’s little house.
Reason for Reading: I am always driven to read first hand Holocaust accounts, especially from children’s points of view.
Comments: Young teenager Clara Kramer is living in a small Polish town when WWII starts. The book is her story retold from her memories and from the aid of her diaries kept while hidden during the last 2 years of the war. Starting off in 1939, we get a quick feel for pre-war life, then immediately a Russian protection takeover then quick withdrawal. The Germans soon infiltrate the town and a Jewish Ghetto is set up and the 5,000 Jews in the town are rounded up, sent to the Ghetto, packed onto cattle trains, while others desperately seek hiding places.
Clara’s family along with a group of family and friends ask their Polish maid to
persuade her husband to hide them. This isn’t so hard since he is having a secret affair with her best friend (who happens to be Jewish and part of the group to be hidden). They ask him to requisition one of the families houses, which the Germans gladly give him, as he has some standing in the community, and then the children in the group (because of their size) start to dig a dugout underneath the house. Eventually everyone helps out and the dugout becomes big enough (just) for the 18 people to squeeze into.
Mr. Beck, the man who is hiding them is actually quite well known for his antisemitism and he regularly has Nazi visitors to his house. Later on the Nazi’s impose themselves on his hospitality and at any time there could be 6 or 7 Nazi soldiers or even SS officials sleeping above the hidden Jews. Beck is not who he first appears to be though and as the life of these people unfold both those downstairs and upstairs we learn how humanity can triumph over even the most degradable conditions.
At times a heart-wrenching tale, at others an uplifting tale of survival against all odds. No matter how many books one reads of the Jewish Holocaust, it is always unbelievable that humans could have treated other humans this way. A story of triumph, love and respect that is well worth the read. Also rather a unique tale in that 18 people were hidden by one small family literally right under the feet of the Nazis themselves.
I only wonder as to why no photographs are included, not even an author’s photo of Clara. At first I thought none may have survived but in the final chapter Clara tells us what happened to all persons involved up to the present and she says the photos are all that remain from that time period. It would have been nice to have had faces to go with the names or even at the least a photo of Clara herself at any age.
If you are reading Jewish Holocaust memoirs this is one not to be missed. Read it.