An intriguing memoir of life during wartime and after, centering on a seldom discussed aspect of the Nazi agenda. The author grew up in France's Alsace region, where as a teenager he was part of a discreet gay underground. During one clandestine rendezvous at age 17 his watch was stolen; when he reported the circumstances of the theft to the police, Seel wound up on an official list of homosexuals. A year or so later, in May 1941, after France fell, the Gestapo arrested the young man for being gay and sent him to the Nazi prison camp of Schirmeck, in Alsace. Seel describes with edgy restraint his brutal interrogation and the torments of incarceration; his worst moment came when he was forced to witness the execution of his lover, whom the guards stripped naked and had their attack dogs rip to shreds. Inexplicably, Seel was released after six months, but soon thereafter he, like many Alsatians, was conscripted into the German army, in which he served for the duration of the war. He was wounded in Yugoslavia and near the war's end was sent to the eastern front. At one point, he was ordered to spend a few days at one of Hitler's eugenics camps, where he watched model Aryan couples cavorting and wondered whether this sinister scene was supposed to convert him to heterosexuality. He never found out, but the episode exemplifies the hallucinatory horrors and absurdities the war forced Seel to contend with. Virtually all evidence of the deportation of homosexuals was deliberately forgotten in France after the war. Seel was married unhappily and had children, but he remained conflicted until bravely deciding in the 1980s to come out and to tell his story. Although the translation is painfully unidiomatic, Seel's memoir is arresting as personal narrative and as an indictment of the selective French national memory.
Pub Date: Aug. 30, 1995
ISBN: 0-465-04500-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1995
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
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
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