The story of a Polish Jew who faced moral as well as emotional anguish in the Holocaust, told in his own tortured words. At the start of WW II Perechodnik was a young agronomist who wished to immigrate to Palestine to start a new life with his wife and daughter. But he waited too long, and the the Perechodniks, along with all the Jews of Otwock, were confined to a ghetto. Perechodnik was strong and bright, a perfect candidate for the ghetto police force. The police were responsible for keeping order for the Germans—which included rounding up Jews during aktions. Perechodnik and the other policemen did so to keep themselves and their families safe. At one point, assured by the commandant of the Ghetto Polizei that his family would be protected, Perechodnik brought his own wife, Anka, and two-year- old daughter, Athalie, to the ghetto's main square. But he was betrayed: Anka and Athalie were taken to the Treblinka death camp. Even more tragically, Perechodnik discovered the following day that a Polish woman had agreed to save Athalie by taking her and raising her as a Christian. Filled with self-recrimination, Perechodnik managed to make it to Warsaw, where he hid with his mother and other Jews in the apartment of a Polish woman—for a stiff fee. His father, Aryan in appearance, remained at large to support the family until he was captured, as well. Perechodnik joined the Polish underground, but sick with typhus, killed himself. He was 27 years old. Perechodnik's memoir was kept by Polish friends and eventually found its way to the Yad VaShem museum in Israel. The author wrote furiously and without editing, and the narrative is not at all polished or literary. It does, however, convey with remarkable immediacy one man's wartime anguish and is valuable for what it reveals about human nature during times of extreme duress. (map and 9 photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8133-2702-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1995
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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