These probing interviews with German-Jewish survivors of Nazi Germany, most of them current or former residents of Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood, will bring readers as close as memory can to the life in extremis led by Jews in Germany between 1933 and 1945. In 1986, Manfred Kirchheimer (Film/School of Visual Arts), himself a child of Washington Heights, wrote and produced a documentary film called We Were So Beloved, about the history and present circumstances of the community that raised him. The original interviews, much condensed for the film, are here reproduced in fuller form, edited and annotated by the filmmaker's wife. To the original interviews Kirchheimer adds more recent ones with current residents of his birthplace, Saarbrucken, Germany, including both Jewish returnees to Germany and non-Jewish Germans. In the kaleidoscope of memories that results, the harsh distinctions the Holocaust calls up between innocence and guilt, oppressor and victim, native and foreign, begin to blur; the authors imply that in the moral chaos of the times remembered here, and in the opinions and attitudes of those who remember, stark oppositions break down. One interviewee recalls his German education with fondness; another remembers kindnesses from German police and soldiers; others note tensions within the Jewish refugee community, between those from eastern and western Europe; still others feel accused by, even as they verge on accusing, those who lacked the stamina or resources to escape. The raw material of the interviews cries out for a grandly reconciling interpretation, which the authors wisely confine to a brief foreword by Steven Lowenstein of the University of Judaism and an afterword by Dan Bar-On of Ben Israel's Gurion University of the Negev. The largely uninterpreted data of the interviews effectively re-creates for readers the feelings of fragmentation and loss of bearings the interviewees knew firsthand. (34 b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 18, 1997
ISBN: 0-8229-3997-5
Page Count: 440
Publisher: Univ. of Pittsburgh
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.
Four decades after Watergate shook America, journalist Woodward (The Price of Politics, 2012, etc.) returns to the scandal to profile Alexander Butterfield, the Richard Nixon aide who revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes and effectively toppled the presidency.
Of all the candidates to work in the White House, Butterfield was a bizarre choice. He was an Air Force colonel and wanted to serve in Vietnam. By happenstance, his colleague H.R. Haldeman helped Butterfield land a job in the Nixon administration. For three years, Butterfield worked closely with the president, taking on high-level tasks and even supervising the installation of Nixon’s infamous recording system. The writing here is pure Woodward: a visual, dialogue-heavy, blow-by-blow account of Butterfield’s tenure. The author uses his long interviews with Butterfield to re-create detailed scenes, which reveal the petty power plays of America’s most powerful men. Yet the book is a surprisingly funny read. Butterfield is passive, sensitive, and dutiful, the very opposite of Nixon, who lets loose a constant stream of curses, insults, and nonsensical bluster. Years later, Butterfield seems conflicted about his role in such an eccentric presidency. “I’m not trying to be a Boy Scout and tell you I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Butterfield concedes. It is curious to see Woodward revisit an affair that now feels distantly historical, but the author does his best to make the story feel urgent and suspenseful. When Butterfield admitted to the Senate Select Committee that he knew about the listening devices, he felt its significance. “It seemed to Butterfield there was absolute silence and no one moved,” writes Woodward. “They were still and quiet as if they were witnessing a hinge of history slowly swinging open….It was as if a bare 10,000 volt cable was running through the room, and suddenly everyone touched it at once.”
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1644-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2015
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