Product Description
During the Holocaust, thousands of Jews sought to flee from Nazi dominated Europe to safer havens. This book details how diplomats in China, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Brazil, Holland, Turkey, Italy, Yugoslavia, Japan, Germany and the Vatican risked everything their careers, their reputations, even their lives to save Jews. Laying aside customary diplomatic behavior, they used various unorthodox methods and designs in order to keep the Nazis and their collaborators at arms length. Their diplomatic protection saved tens of thousands of Jews.
Book Description
"As a researcher and collector of historical source material, Mr. Gilbert has no peer among contemporary historians." The New York Times According to Jewish tradition, "Whoever saves one life, it is as if he saved the entire world." In The Righteous, distinguished historian Sir Martin Gilbert explores the courage of those who, throughout Germany and in every occupied country, took incredible risks to help Jews whose fate would have been sealed without them. Indeed, many lost their lives for their efforts.From Greek-Orthodox Princess Alice of Greece to the Ukrainian Uniate Archbishop of Lvov, from priests and soldiers to employees and neighbors, many risked, and sacrificed, everything to help their fellow man. Drawing from twenty-five years of original research, Gilbert re-creates the remarkable stories of the non-Jews who have received formal recognition by the State of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations.
Customer Reviews:
These people were saints.......2007-07-11
Martin Gilbert is the greatest historian on the subject of the holocaust out there, and is one of the most prolific historians of today.
In The Righteous, Gilbert describes the many cases of righteous gentiles, throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, who risked their lives and all they had to save Jews, many of them children, from certain death at hte hands of the Nazi killing-machine.
Gilbert describes the heroic actions of those brave and righteous gentiles, by region describing the action of the unsung heroes in Eastern Galicia, Vilna, Lithuania, Poland, Warsaw, Western Galicia, Germany and Austria, Central Europe and the Balkans, Norway, Finland and Denmark, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, Holland, Italy and the Vatican and Hungary as well as in the Camps and on the death marches.
In some cases, entire nations came together to say no to Nazi evil, and to save the Jews of their country.
Denmark, Bulgaria and Albania stand out in this regard.
Irene Grunbaum wrote in her memoirs that one day she would tell the world how the Albanians 'protected a refugee and wouldn't allow her to be harmed even if it meant losing their lives. The gates of your small country remained open, Albania. your authorities closed both eyes, when neccesary, to give poor persecuted people another chance to survive the most horrible of all wars. We thank you'.
Morechaie Paldiel writes that 'An overwhelming majority of the Albanian population, Muslim and Christian, gave refuge to two thousand Jews in their midst, resulting in the almost total rescue of the Jewish community'.
While Gilbers describes the hroism of the Danish and Bulgarian people, he does not write enough on the very special and noble roles, to save Jews, taken by King Christian X of Denmark and King Boris III of Bulgaria.
Despite the collaborators and local anti-Semites in these nations, whole towns and villages came togehter in some cases, in France, Belgium, Holland and Greece, to save their Jews from Nazi anihilation.
Nazi Germany's allies, Italy and Hungary rejected Nazi genocide of Jews, and did what they could to save the Jews. Italian occupied zones in France,the Balkans etc were safe zones for Jews. Only after direct Nazi ocupation were the Jews of these countries taken to the death camps. Finland also protected her Jews, and the neutral countries like Spain, Portugal and Sweden played a role in saving a number of Jewish refugees.
Many Jewish children were taken in by Christian families throughout Europe and looked after them as their own.
In Poland and the East, the penalty for just having contacted a Jew was death.
There are many accounts of the recue and care of Jewish children by saintly people and families, during the war.
I will mention a few of them.
*In the Novogrudok region (which is today in Belarus), one of those saved was a baby, Bella Dzienciolska. 'Her parents had entrusted her to a farmer to hide. She was blonde and did not look like a Jewish child, but at two years old she already spoke Yiddish. So the farmer made a hole under the floor and kept her there during the day for a year until she forgot to speak. He then took her out and told the neighbours that a relatives child was staying with them.'.
Bella Dzienciolska suvived the war, and fifty years later, returned to the farm, and found the hole under the floorboards where she had been hidden.
Other children were hidden and raised by nuns and churchmen, in abbeys, monasteries, churches and hospitals and schools run by the Church.
* In the small town of Licskowke, in Eastern Galicia, Father Michael Kujita hid eight year old Anita Helfgott, a fugitive from the ghetto of Skole, in his parsonage. Later a Catholic couple, Josef and Paulina Matusiewicz gave her sanctuary. She survived the war.
* In Czêstochowa, in Poland, Genowefa Starczewka-Korczak gave sanctuary to a little Jewish girl, Celina Berkowitz, shortly before her parents were killed. When the Nazis executed Genowefas husband she was forced to place her Jewish charge and her own two daughters in a Catholic orphanage. But each weekend she brough all three girls home.
* In the Siedlce region east of Warsaw, a poor peasant widow gave shelter to two Jewish girls, Eva, aged 11, and Batja, aged 5, sisters who had escpaed from the Warsaw ghetto and wandered for several moths through the Polish countryside.
Fearing betrayal, the peasant woman took Ester and Batja for sanctuary to Sister Stanislawa Jozwikowska, in the Heart of Jesus convent, near the village of Skorzec. 'I was dirty, ill, weak and full of lice' Batja recalled years later, 'The nuns washed me thoroughly, put me into soft pajamas and put me in a clean bed'.
Despite the convent being occupied by German soldiers, nobody knew of the girls Jewish identity except the Mother Superior, and
.Sister Stanislawa Jozwikowska. Sixty years after having been given shelter Batja recalled "Mother Superior Beata Bronislawa Hryniewicz healed me; she recovered my soul by great love; she pampered me as her own child; she dressed me nice and neat; she combed my hair and tied ribbons in my plaits; she taught me manners (she was from an aristocratic noble family). She was strict but fair with my duties; to pray, to study, to work on my character, to obey etc, but every step was with love, love love!'
Children, who were rescued by righteous gentiles, included Israel Lau, later Chief Ashkenazic rabbi of Israel, and Aharon Barak (out of the Kovno Ghetto in a suitcase as a child and hidden by a Lithuanian farmer), later President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 until the middle of 2006.
Many people chose to help out of moral reasons or out of love for their charges. These people were Saints!
These stories are being re-examined at a time when some, like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad deny the Holocaust happened-while working to carry out a real holocaust against the Jews , while others forget history and aim to dismantle the Jewish State, built to a large extent by Holocaust survivors.
Remarkable stories of Holocaust heroes.......2007-03-24
I have long appreciated Martin Gilbert's works. His compendium of the Holocaust, titled "The Holocaust" in my opinion is one of the best works on the subject. This book may not be in the same league, but is of no less importance, for it focusses on the people who risked their lives to help the Jews in occupied Europe during World War Two.Some of the accounts are just mere sentences, but reading them all gives one a better picture of these heroes, many of whom were ordinary people who had everything to lose, yet through individual acts of heroism, made a difference in the lives of the saved Jews.
Tales of Courage.......2006-12-16
After watching the procession for Oskar Schindler's funeral, Gilbert is inspired to do more research on those who risked their lives, called the Righteous, to save to aid Jews in WWII. Extensive research in archives and interviews lead to short sketches of courage and rescue.
Gilbert divides the book up by geography which gives the book some order. Many of the stories of courage are very short and thus the number of them is overwhelming, at times you don't realize that he has shifted to another story. Another fascinating element of the stories is the various methods that were used to save lives. Some so ingenious and others so horrific you can't imagine how anyone could survive under those conditions.
This book is at turns a wonderful monument to those who risked everything to save others but in the end you are struck with the fact that every 100 saved from some town -- 1000's died. It is well worth the read but be prepared.
Very interesting topic / very boring text.......2005-10-11
For the most part, this book bored me to tears. I did find the stories of the heroes whose selfless devotion to humanity portrayed to be moving and inspiring. These people have (or will have) a special place in Heaven, I am sure. Having lived most of my life among holocaust survivors and their children, I have heard and read alot of stories in several languages. These stories, while moving, I felt were quite boringly presented. I have read other works by Mr. Gilbert, and found this one extremely disappointing because of its literary style, although the content was o.k.
Disappointing.......2005-10-06
I read this book to learn the motives of those who risked themselves to shelter Jews in WW2 (a valuable subject) but was sadly disapointed. It's as readable (and interesting) as a telephone book.
Try Browning, Kuznetsov, Sereny, Rhodes, Hilberg, Wiesenthal, etc
Book Description
"You can't let people be treated in an inhuman way around you. . . . Otherwise you start to become inhuman."
So speaks rescuer Hetty Voûte in The Heart Has Reasons, a remarkable book that provides both a fresh look at the "righteous gentiles," and a meditation on what they might have to teach us more than half a century after they defied Hitler.
In 1996, Mark Klempner sought out some of the last surviving Dutch rescuers of Jewish children to better understand how and why they made their courageous choices. Inspired by their willingness to risk everything to help others during the war, the author became deeply interested in what the rescuers have done with their lives since, and where their moral compasses point today.
What emerges is both a window to the past and a vision for the future. If the rescuers could remain committed to making a difference while under the boot of the Nazi regime, we surely have something to learn from them about taking a stand against injustices, about maintaining an open heart, and about not giving in or giving up. Framed by Klempner's quest for meaning, their words resonate across generations, providing insightful guidance as to how people of conscience can navigate ethically in an increasingly complex world.
From the Foreward:
"I have spent much of my professional career trying to put a human face on the ordinary men who committed asks of unspeakable evil. Like no other work I have read, The Heart Has Reasons puts a human face on those who committed acts of inestimable goodness."—Christopher R. Browning.
Customer Reviews:
The heart of the matter.......2007-04-29
As those who celebrated the construction of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. worked hard to make clear, we are reaching an important point in the history of the world - there will soon be no survivors of the World War II period left alive. The commentary on the presidential elections in France mentioned that this is the first set of candidates for the high office with no experience of the war. This same situation is true for those who experienced the Holocaust, in its various dimensions - there will soon be no one left alive to tell the story directly. In a world where Holocaust denial ebbs and flows, this becomes a problem. Projects such as Mark Klempner's `The Heart Has Reasons' are truly important, in helping to keep alive the memory of those who had direct experience.
Most people in the Western world are familiar with the Diary of Anne Frank, but fewer are aware that there were many stories of heroism among the Dutch during the war. However, the overall survival rate of Jews in Holland was among the lowest in occupied Western Europe. There were people who helped hide and shelter Jewish people, at tremendous risk to their own lives. `Those who decided to help Jews in Holland had to be willing to disobey the Nazi measures and resist the Nazi machinations to relegate Jews to subhuman status. They had to cross the line from being law-abiding citizens to enemies of the state. They had to act from the heart, come what may.' This book is about ten different people who took it upon themselves to come between the Nazi efforts and those who would be victims.
Mark Klempner is listed in the credits as a folklorist and oral historian. Given that narrative theology is a particular interest of mine, his background and method of development fits with my own ideas of how to develop history into a memorable and lasting element of culture. It was also an important development for Klempner. The final paragraph of his introductory piece speaks to this: `Spending time with the rescuers was, for me, a transforming experience. They welcomed me into their homes as though I were someone special - a characteristic inversion - and showered me with hospitality and kindness. I soon was looking at them not only as people who had made history, but also as people who could teach me a different way to live. I've come to think of them as radiant specks around the black hole of the Holocaust, and they've become a radiant presence in my own life as well.'
Klempner presents, after his personal introduction, a chapter on the background of the history, which includes both general history of the development of the Holocaust as well as specifically Dutch history - the NSB (Dutch Fascists), the piece-by-piece encroachment on Dutch rights and Jewish rights during the occupation, and overall development of a resistance to the oppression. The heart of the book, however, is in the ten stories of those who put security, family and life on the line to help those in need.
The names are important, for the Holocaust gets lost in the abstraction of numbers. But all stories are personal. Heiltje Kooistra found inspiration for her actions in her own religious faith - `If you love Jesus, how can you not love the people and tradition out of which Jesus came forth?' Rut Matthijsen was a behind-the-scenes operator in the resistance, who looked past the discrimination: `Years later, when I went to Israel to receive the Yad Vashem award, I was asked, "Why did you help the Jewish people?" The emphasis being on the word Jewish. But that was Adolf Hitler's emphasis. I helped them because they were people.' Hetty Voute spent years in prison for her efforts, as did her friend Gisela Sohnlein. Clara Dijkstra ended up being the second mother to a girl she rescued, a relationship that continues to this day. Some, like Kees Veenstra, are very private about their actions, preferring to consider himself an ordinary person. Janet Kalff tapped into her Quaker background for strength, whereas Mieke Vermeer drew from a Calvinist background. Pieter Meerburg's actions came out of a humanism not borne of religious conviction, but out of respect for life. Theo Leender's relationship with God can sometimes be stormy, but his faith in doing what is right did not falter.
These are not people who looked for personal reward - in fact, just the opposite is the case for several of them. Many remained generous beyond their wartime efforts; Klempner mentions one man who had a stack of fund-raising letters from charities, who always found time to help even the smaller causes with a little bit, saying, `Even a small donation can give a lot of encouragement to people doing good work.'
This book was a gift to me, both spiritually and literally. I was offered the chance to read it months ago, and it took a long time. The stories could not be rushed through as if it were one more text to read; I found myself with tears of anger, frustration, and occasional joy throughout many of the stories (and it is hard to read through tears). Klempner has given rare insight into a side of the Holocaust little known but very important, and very powerful witnesses who give hope to the future.
Hope and Lessons for Living.......2007-03-30
The dark cloud of disaster can't hide the brilliant light of joy and altruism in the human spirit. Somedays I don't turn on the news; it's too depressing to bear. But in this book, author Mark Klempner gazes unflinchingly at one of the blackest episodes in human history . . . and finds there hope and lessons for living.
Klempner interviewed ten of the "Righteous Gentiles": people who risked all to save Jewish children from the Nazis. A folklorist and oral historian, Klempner lets his subjects take center stage and tell their stories in their own words. This is precious documentation of the experiences of a generation that is passing on.
As counterpoint, Klempner relates the autobiographical saga of his own search for an ethical compass. This journey led him from the amoral canyons of the Los Angeles music scene to explore his Jewish immigrant roots in Europe. Klempner also includes historical and political essays that place the individual stories in the context of world events. The narratives are not homogenized into a smooth package. Think of these gems as displayed in their natural state, not cut and mounted so as to preserve the authenticity of the historical record.
To sum up, this book contains:
* Fascinating true stories, very accessible to the casual reader.
* Primary source historical material, lovingly preserved.
* Troubling questions about ethics, psychology and the meaning of life; pat answers not included.
* Inspiration, and proof that in the face of the most horrifying threats imaginable, some people will step forth and risk all to do the right thing.
inspiring.......2006-12-06
Mark Klempner is a masterful storyteller. Although 'storyteller' may make you think of fiction, this story is not fiction. Mark has poignantly shared interviews with Dutch resisters and rescuers in a way that won't let you stop thinking about them. He asks big questions and gives important answers about learning from the righteous and from history.
Vividly recounts deeply terrifying efforts of ten gallantly individual experiences.......2006-07-10
Enhanced with an informative foreword by Christopher R. Browning, The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers And Their Stories Of Courage by folklorist and oral historian Mark Klempner is the account of how many valiant people worked at great personal peril through the Holocaust and Hitler's Reign to save Jewish children and others from being murdered in the Nazi death camps. Guiding readers through the epic and heroic tales of these Dutch rescuers, The Heart Has Reasons vividly recounts deeply terrifying efforts of ten gallantly individual experiences. Superbly presented and an important addition to the growing library of holocaust literature, The Heart Has Reasons is very highly recommended reading, especially for all historians and students of the Dutch involvement in World War II.
Acting from Your Heart.......2006-06-20
WOW! After reading the last word of, "The Heart has Reasons," I slowly closed the book, gazed searchingly at the cover, and clutched it to my chest. In that moment, I was hoping to burn into my being the founts of wisdom, courage, sacrifice, compassion, and tenacity that were exhibited by the Holocaust Dutch rescuers.
It was refreshing to read about everyday unselfish people who "chose" to act from their heart. It brings hope to mankind to realize that such depths of sacrifice existed in that dark time of history and even today, with God's help, may we also "act from the heart" as the need arises.
Mark Klempner does a great job of refocusing what is truly important in our fast-paced everyday living. I think anybody who reads this book will come away grateful for life and grateful to be shown what true living is really about.
Book Description
Faces of Courage: Young Heroes of World War II is an inspiring compilation of twelve stories of courageous teenagers from all across Europe who resisted the Nazis.
There is Kirsten, a Danish girl who helped save a group of Jewish children from the Nazis. Jacob, a young Pole, survived the Holocaust by concealing his Jewish identity and working in a German armament factory. Jacques Lusseyran, a blind French boy, organized a student resistance group called the Volunteers of Liberty. The Edelweiss Pirates were a group of German teenagers who opposed The Hitler Youth and aided homeless runaways from reform schools and labor camps.
All of these young people displayed enormous courage in the face of adversity and risked their lives to stand up for what they believed in.
Customer Reviews:
Himmler Review.......2006-02-20
This is a great Heinrich Himmler biography, especially if you are interested in Nazi Germany and the Third Reich. This book goes through Himmler's life step-by-step. It explains in great detail how and why Himmler comes to power in the Schutzstaffel (SS) and the Nazi party. I would defenately recommend this book to anyone although it is, of course, a little disturbing.
Book Description
The only one to survive an Auschwitz camp, Clary was discovered by an American talent scout after the war singing in a Parisian dance hall.
Customer Reviews:
The courage to forgive.......2007-01-12
I was very impressed with Robert Clary's autobiography. He told of his life with honesty and realism. The nightmare he endured could have destroyed him, or embittered him, or silenced him.
It did silence him for awhile--and understandably so. The only way to survive such horror is to shut down one's emotions and/or block the memories.
But Robert Clary has told his story to teens in high schools, in speeches and interviews elsewhere, and now in his book.
Don't forget...but do forgive.
That's true courage.
Wonderful Book.......2005-11-28
I saw Mr. Clarey speak at my highschool 20 years ago and he left 3,000 students in tears, it was a life changing experience for me, it is a great book and a true story. I canno believe the uneducated gentlemen below had the gall to question if Mr. Clarey was in a concentration camp, you review just lets any one who reads it know your IQ level.
Short.......2002-12-20
First, I would like to clarify something that another reviewer apparently didn't understand. Robert Clary was NOT in a "death camp." He was in a "forced labor camp."
Second, based on what I have heard from him in several documentaries made for PBS, Robert Clary has a lot more that he could have said in his autobiography. He was obviously holding back on information or censoring his experiences. My feeling was that he would take his experiences to the moment of pain and then pull away from them. As much as I liked Robert Clary as Corporal Louis Lebeau on Hogan's Heroes and as a narrator of Holocaust documentaries, I must admit that his writing is not as intense as I was expecting.
A Biography Worth Reading.......2002-11-08
"From the Holocaust to Hogan's Heroes", is a fascinating account of Robert Clary's experiences growing up amid the backdrop of the Nazi occupation of France. Robert proves to be a remarkably 'lucky' individual who has had to face extra-ordinary circumstances and yet has not allowed the scars of Genocide to prevent him from finding personal joy, while allowing that joy to touch others. His exuberance and boyish charm punctuates the pages of his book as he recounts his innocent childhood, the horrific 31 months in Nazi prison camps from the age of 16, and the eventual realization that almost every member of his beloved family had been literally wiped out. His remarkable flight out of purgatory leads him to a renewed zest for living and to his own personal success on stage, television and pictures. His personal insights of the personalities that he met along the way, as well as his jaunt on Hogan's Heroes, keeps you from putting the book aside. Robert Clary literally leaves you wanting more.
Interesting Account of the Holocaust.......2002-05-31
I have been familiar with Robert Clary's work in soap opera, particularly DAYS OF OUR LIVES. I had read several accounts in various magazines, mentioning his experiences in the concentration camps and was quite interested in reading his experiences in his own words.
As an account of the Holocaust, it is of value. However, this was not an easy book to get through. Clary makes reference to so many friends and relatives that after a while it becomes difficult to keep any of them straight. The book varies from depressing to matter-of-fact, without very much relief for the reader from the overwhelming depression of the Holocaust. I had been looking forward to reading about his entertainment career after the camps to get relief from the grief, and then started to feel bored.
Customer Reviews:
Heroes Of The Holocaust Review By: Adam.......2007-04-25
Heroes of the Holocaust is a tragic but true story of this horrid time in history. Allan Zullo wrote this spectacular book on the Holocaust. I think this was a great book because it shows a lot of interesting information about this important time in history. All the people that were taken into these depressing concentration camps were: Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and the disabled. So if Franklin D. Roosevelt lived in Germany he would've been sent to a camp because he was in a wheelchair because he had polio. Before the Holocaust there were approximately nine million Jews living after there were only three million Jews living. Can you believe it only 3million. Six million Jews died, that's a lot. In the first chapter a girl named Maria hides two Jews. She brought books and food for them for two straight years. Then something happens to her dad. I recommend this to someone who wants to find out about an important time in history.
Average customer rating:
- This book is excellent! Well researched and written.
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Heroes, Antiheroes, and the Holocaust: American Jewry and Historical Choice
David Morrison
Manufacturer: Milah Press, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 0964688603 |
Customer Reviews:
This book is excellent! Well researched and written........2003-12-08
This is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what was being done within the American Jewish community during the Holocaust. He delves deeply yet readably into the details of who did what, when, with whom, and why.
To compile this book, Dr. Morrison distilled thousands of pages of personal records of the personalities involved, and eventually teased out the truth. Much of his research was in public archives, but which have never been published elsewhere. Some of what he found is surprising, some is shocking, and some is infuriating. Much of what he says is controversial, but it's all well researched and well documented.
He does an excellent job of letting the letters of the major actors speak for their authors, while at the same time giving us a readable yet insightful history of a time whose lessons we must learn, lest it be repeated.
I apologize if this sounds like I'm shamelessly plugging this book, but I really am very impressed with it.
Average customer rating:
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The Three Tragic Heroes of the Vilnius Ghetto: Witenberg, Sheinbaum, Gens
N. N. Shneidman
Manufacturer: Mosaic Press (NY)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
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Holocaust
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ASIN: 0889627851 |
Book Description
Since the Middle Ages, Vilnius, Lithuania, has been a main center of Jewish cultural, religious, social and political activity. At one time, half of the population was Jewish, but everything changed during the Holocaust: the Jewish community was destroyed by the Nazis and their collaborators--but some refused to surrender without a fight. Witenberg and Sheinbaum were the leaders of the Jewish underground resistance in Vilnius; the Germans appointed Gens as Jewish Head of the ghetto. Each of them had the same objectives: personal and communal survival--yet all three perished. This book compares the * different approach of each man to the issues of resistance and survival * illuminates the specific problems of Jewish resistance * considers the larger dilemma of survival during the Nazi era
Average customer rating:
- A GOOD READ. VERY INTERESTING.
- You Can't Go Home Again
- He sounds like a funny and likable guy
- longitude and attitude
- Pathetic Misrepresentation
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No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home
Chris Offutt
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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Binding: Hardcover
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The Same River Twice: A Memoir
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Out of the Woods: Stories
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Kentucky Straight: Stories
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The GOOD BROTHER : A Novel
ASIN: 0684865513 |
Book Description
Wearing blue jeans meant I was a local. The gray in my hair meant I'd been away. Word of my impending return spread throughout the county. Some stories would have me moving in with my folks because one of them was very sick. Another had me purchasing my old grade school and converting it into an art colony. I was living in a houseboat on Cave Run Lake. I had AIDS and came home to die. My wife left me and I was back to hunt another. One story said it wasn't Chris Offutt but his younger brother who was investing in the new mall. When the truth finally outed, everyone knew I had bought the old Jackson place, which meant I must be doing pretty well for myself because they were asking a pretty penny for it. On top of that, somebody else said I was teaching at the college, but no one believed the college would ever allow that.
In his fortieth year, Chris Offutt returns to teach at his alma mater, Morehead State University, the only four-year school in the Kentucky hills. With the humblest of intentions, he expects to give back to his community, hoping to become, quietly, a hero of sorts. Yet present-day reality collides painfully with memory, leaving Offutt in the midst of an adventure he never imagined: searching for a home that no longer exists.
During that same year, Offutt records the story of his parents-in-law, Arthur and Irene, Holocaust survivors who emigrated to New York from Poland in 1946. Their moving chronicle of exile and war entwines with Offutt's attempt to find a sense of safety and home. But it is Arthur who sagely states that "home is illusory" and there are "no heroes" in life.
The New Yorker crowned Chris Offutt's 1993 memoir, The Same River Twice, the "memoir of the decade." No Heroes is a sure contender to reclaim that honor, lifting the tale of one man's homecoming to universal significance.
Customer Reviews:
A GOOD READ. VERY INTERESTING. .......2007-06-11
In many ways, this work is more complex than you would first think. Note the various reviews here. This work seems to bring out all sorts of emotions. This work is not easy to review. I suppose the best place to start is to state my humble opinion in reference to a couple of points. First, I don't think that the author was actually "putting down" the good folks in his old home town. I think he was just calling it the way he saw it. I have traveled through this area of the country extensively, spent quite a lot of time there. To be honest, the author nailed a certain segment of the population quite well. Now let me state that I am from and live in the Ozarks is S.W. Missouri. Some of the folks here, myself included, make the people of the author's home down seem down right sophisticated. I have traveled and lived all over this country for more years than I care to admit to. To be quite frank, the people the author described here can be found in just about ever town in the U.S., from coast to coast. Kentucky does not have lock on "town characters." Secondly, the author indeed has some rather harsh things to say about Morehead State University. This was silly on the author's part. Schools are schools. I work with a lot of Harvard and Yale graduates that have far less "education" than a lot of Jr. College drop outs I work with. School is what you make of it after you get out. Those attending this college should not feel bad. After all, the author himself graduated from this "inferior school," made the most of it and seems to have done alright for himself.
Now, as to the book: It is actually rather well written. I do like the author's style. The story was good, easy to follow and simply interesting. This is actually two books in one. The first is about the author and his family returning to the hills of Kentucky to teach and possibly make a difference. The second story is that of his in-laws, both of whom were Holocaust Survivors. At this point I will state that I think it a shame that the author choose to use this method to tell these two stories. Both really should have been extended and made into two separate works.
The author is very, very good ad descriptions, the country, the people the background. The author is quite good a capturing emotions. Chris Offutt is obviously quite a talented writer. I should also note that a few other reviewers have stated that the author made most of the stories here up. I doubt that very much. The stories just ring too true. He may have done a bit of embellishment here and there, but is that not what most authors do?
I am giving this one only four stars rather than five for two reasons. First, there is an element of "sour grapes" that runs through the story which I found unbecoming and secondly, I feel the author should have devoted an entire book to his in-laws and their stories.
I do recommend this one highly. It is a very good read.
D. Blankenship
You Can't Go Home Again.......2005-03-07
The author writes about his returning to his home to his eastern Ketucky roots to teach at the local college, and "give back" to his hometown. That part of the book was informative for me since I did not know a whole lot about that part of the world and its people. But, the really intersting part of the book is the parallel story he tells about his mother and father inlaw, who are Holocaust Survivors.
That part of the book, which documents his inlaws' survival stories, is especially memorable. Now the fascinating aspect of all of this to me was that the two stories, ie his memoir, and the inlaws' history, have virtually nothing to do with each other.
The two stories remain separate throughout the book.
Offutt's style of short concise sentences, and chapters makes for easy reading. His insights into the Appalachian culture
are eye opening for us outsiders.
I recommend the book, especially for those who might be considering "going home" to give back. According to Offutt, it isn't easy.
He sounds like a funny and likable guy.......2004-06-21
The book No Heroes suffers from a severe dislocation, when Chris Offutt tries to tell the story of Arthur and Irene, his in-laws, and their shattering Holocaust experiences, but basically giving them short shrift and only a few paragraphs compared to his lengthy tales about encountering old chums, teachers and girlfriends when he returns to teach in the hills of Kentucky.
His little hostage to fortune, Sam, doesn't like school there, so Chris doesn't stay long. In a way it's a shame he wrote this book because it makes nearly every person in the Kentucky hills sound like a moron. He is unforgiving in his characterization. can people really be this small-minded and idiotic? Maybe so, but he isn't doing the Kentucky visitors bureau any favors.
At the same time, he's great at describing things, and the colorful dialect of many of his old Morehead buds will provoke a round of belly laughs, some of their sayings are both priceless and profane. He sounds like a funny and likable guy, except he's a little bit on the preachy side.
Not really a success, but maybe he's written other and better things, I'd read more of him.
longitude and attitude.......2003-01-11
this memoir reads like a journal and seems to square many assumptions the writer went into a larger world to confirm. my own experience: leaving the south, making friends from other cultures, then coming back (for what?) line up almost perfectly with the trajectory of Mr. Offutts story. Progress has been made, work needs to be done.
Locals who have problems with this book, I have advice: go and be.
Chris is actually doing you a service...
Pathetic Misrepresentation.......2002-10-29
Yes, I am educated enough to spell misrepresentation. I am also a graduate of Morehead State University and soon will have a Masters of Business Administration. Wait it gets better. I also have already obtained an MCSE, MCSA, Dell Certified Technician, A+ Certification, Brainbench Computer Technical Support, ExPert Rating Computer Technical Support, and 17 other professional certifications. Could this be possible? Yes, it is. Morehead State University is a fine institution and there are not as many "hicks" roaming the streets as Mr. Offutt would like to believe. There is no mistaking his imaginative talent and excellent authorship, but his egotistical dreamland is very questionable. I would recommend this great work of FICTION to anyone out there who enjoys a good Kentucky redneck or imbreed joke because you are just as imaginative as Mr. Chris Awful (oops, eye lowst meye diktonary!!!)
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