jennypowell.org

This was the holocaust book I made reference to last week (the one I was reading before bed) – ‘Remembering: Voices of the Holocaust – A New History in the Words of the ‘Men and Women Who Survived‘.

One reviewer shares:

“… Working as a freelance interviewer for the Imperial War Museum’s Sound Archive in London and the National Holocaust Museum’s Sound Archive in Washington, D.C., Smith recorded testimonies of men and women who had been directly affected by the tragedy. This includes not only Jewish survivors but also refugees, families of those murdered, aid workers, and soldiers who liberated the concentration camps. More than 100 testimonies have been selected for this book. Details were often too painful to recall, and many of those interviewed explained the inadequacy of language to convey the sights, sounds, smells, humiliation, degradation, and terror they endured…

– George Cohen (Copyright © American Library Association.)

This book impacted me, tremendously – and I pray that it will continue to, and that I won’t return to that place of slumber that is so easy for me to fall into. As the above review mentioned, the book includes over 100 testimonies of holocaust survivors. However, the book is ordered by time-line rather than full testimonies. Meaning, that the book is divided in sections like: pre-war testimonies, time in the ghetto, concentration camps, marches, post-war etc.

They use many of the same people throughout the book but their testimonies are split up over the course of each time period. I liked this, in the sense that it really did help give you a grasp of each season they went through. But at times I wanted more understanding of each individual’s journey and it was difficult to keep track of who was who.

Overall it was excellent, though incredibly sobering and unfathomable (in many respects). I hope that this will be one I read repeatedly over the years. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and I just found that you can read much of it at Google Books!