History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers

Average customer rating:

Tough but necessary read..
Most graphic and gripping
should be read by everyone
Sad but True
Bone Chilling

Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers
Filip Muller
Manufacturer: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1566632714

Book Description

Filip Muller's firsthand account of three years in the gas chambers. One of the few prisoners who saw the Jewish people die and lived to tell about it, Muller has written one of the key documents of the Holocaust. A very detailed description of day-to-day life, if we can call it that, in Hell's inmost circle...jammed with infernal information too terrible to be taken all at once. --Terrence Des Pres, New Republic

Customer Reviews:

Tough but necessary read.........2007-09-21

It is hard to read this book because the subject matter is so grim. It is not written especially well but the unique view of the author makes this an important document. It is clear that the Nazi plan developed over time and it was truly a murder machine. This story from inside the machine is sad and ultimately worth reading and remembering.

Most graphic and gripping.......2007-09-02

Since my tour of duty in Augsburg and Schwaebish Hall W. Germany (mid-60's) I have read fifty books trying to undersand the holocaust. I found the German people warm and generous, thus was unable to put the two continums in the same world.

This book does not help you understand the reasoning behind that most powerful historical event, but it does give you an extremely graphic picture of HOW it was done on a day to day basis.

Filip Mueller, saw things that Hoess (Commandant of Auschwitz) did not see first hand and he tells it all.

Great read.

should be read by everyone.......2007-06-12

Highly recommended. Gripping, suspenceful. Manages to unnerve, shock, without hysterics--and this is the best type of approach for something this gruesome.

How did the author live through it? How would you have dealt with it? How would I?

Get it. Read it.

And for those who think by simply saying NEVER AGAIN that it won't, couldn't happen again, are only fooling themselves. Humans never learn a damn thing from history. Why? Because we're basically retarded.

It could happen again, and in fact, it has happened--to a lesser degree. I say any time a Hitler or Saddam wannabe rears his ugly head--you better believe there are a few of them out there even right now--confront
the control-hungry pissant to keep him from attaining enough power to reach his objective.

Sad but True .......2007-02-18

As I am an avid reader, and am highly intrested in WW2, I bought this book, not to be disapointed. It literally took me only two days to finish because of my intregment. It is a very good read, giving you the true story of what innocent people went through as a result of racism. The book is very graphic, interesting, but terribly sad at the same time. Overall, is a must-read. I highly recomend this book.

Bone Chilling.......2007-01-29

Read this and live the horror of the Holocaust. You will cry but come away the wiser.

Average customer rating:

The voice of the authority

One Hundred Years of Art in Israel
Gideon Ofrat
Manufacturer: Westview Pr (Trd)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0813333776

Customer Reviews:

The voice of the authority .......2006-04-23

No one knows the world of Israel Art better than Gideon Ofrat. In this survey work he traces the story from the beginning of the great Jewish return to the land, up and through the present.

I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust

Average customer rating:

Fantastic book!
A Heart Breaking Story of Survival
one of the best
Must Read
This book was heartbreaking

I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust
Livia Bitton-Jackson
Manufacturer: Simon Pulse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0689823959

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic book!.......2007-10-15

I read this book years ago, when I was about 10 years old and didn't even understand fully the depth of the Holocaust. But even then I enjoyed this tale of a girl surviving against the odds. Great book for everyone; helps even the young to understand the plight of millions during that dark era and got me interesting in the Holocaust.

A Heart Breaking Story of Survival.......2007-10-01

This book will leave you speechless. Just when you think humanity can
go no lower, the author describes acts that leave you amazed that
humans can be so cruel. A story of survival that needs to be told so that
we never forget the loss of so many innocent lives.

one of the best.......2007-07-10

I have been reading many Holocaust memoirs in search of one that would be appropriate to use in teaching junior high English; this memoir is the best I have found for teens because it is written from the perspective of a young adolescent girl. The voice in the memoir is so different because even though she is trapped in the death camp, she still has many of the same cares and worries of a normal teenage girl. When she talks about how she had a crush on a young Jewish boy in the ghetto, feeling ugly after her hair is shorn off, her frequent fights with her critical mother, or her excitement about being told she was pretty, she could easily be one of my students. But her will to live is anything but normal, as she talks about surviving in the filth of Auschwitz and risking her life to save that of her mother. The most gripping scene of the novel is when American forces mistakenly fire on her transport car as they are being shipped from Auschwitz juts days before liberation. Many of the young girls around her literally blown apart while she sits in horror. Somehow she manages to survive and move on in her life, and even return to German to confront her past many years later. She has truly lived a thousand years.

Must Read.......2007-05-30

We must never forget the Holocaust. There are many lessons learned in works about the Holocaust. This book is about a 13 year old girl fighting to survive in a concentration camp. Imagine your child being thrown out of school, can no longer keep your possessions. Not be allowed to talk even to a neighbor. Have little food, and then thrown into a nightmare beyond belief! Not to be a gloomy gus but I think we must learn from the holocaust. We never know what tomorrow may bring.

This book was heartbreaking.......2007-05-17

For some reason this book was harder for me to read than the others. I guess because it was written from the view point of a young girl. She even calls her mother -'mommy' throughout the book so at first I thought it might be relatively tame compared to the other accounts. Especially because the book was recommended for Young Adults. It was not! The things she describes seemed more horrific than the other books I've read. You dont want to believe this young girl would go through all she did and survive. Honestly who would want to? I went to bed dreaming about her story. It really makes all our problems seem so laughable and insignificant. And to think that -we- the human race did those things to one another is an unbearable truth to bear. It is another testament to faith and the Human will to survive.

Nazi Germany and the Jews: Volume 1: The Years of Persecution 1933-1939

Average customer rating:

Fantastic!
Great Work from A Great Historian
Excellent Intro to Hitler's Germany
What a shame
Intriguing Study Of Nazi Persecution of Jews 1933-1939

Nazi Germany and the Jews: Volume 1: The Years of Persecution 1933-1939
Saul Friedlander
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060928786
Release Date: 1998-03-10

Book Description

A great historian crowns a lifetime of thought and research by answering a question that has haunted us for more than 50 years: How did one of the most industrially and culturally advanced nations in the world embark on and continue along the path leading to one of the most enormous criminal enterprises in history, the extermination of Europe's Jews?

Giving considerable emphasis to a wealth of new archival findings, Saul Friedlander restores the voices of Jews who, after the 1933 Nazi accession to power, were engulfed in an increasingly horrifying reality. We hear from the persecutors themselves: the leaders of the Nazi party, the members of the Protestant and Catholic hierarchies, the university elites, and the heads of the business community. Most telling of all, perhaps, are the testimonies of ordinary German citizens, who in the main acquiesced to increasing waves of dismissals, segregation, humiliation, impoverishment, expulsion, and violence.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic!.......2005-04-09

This is a wonderful book albeit with few personal experiences of the victims but on the whole you will enjoy the book. The writer's grasp of English is exceptional and in fact taking this parameter alone you can enjoy the book and learn something new in word and sentence formations. Though at first glance it may look like one of those boring and dry books, which inhabit the shelves of libraries all over the book without being opened for many years to come. The book is excellent and shows the level of utter nadir reached by Nazis and German people while persecuting their own. Seems to have been a sort of a collective disease in which even a modicum of humanity or decency taken a permanent back seat. The author has presented the facts and names of very difficult and guttural German names with such ease that there is no confusion to the reader.

I wonder why Israelis have to have any kind of relationship with Germany or Poland. . I think Israeli children are not really taught history but some kitsch formulated to draw their minds away from the murderers of their grandfathers to Palestinians. I think Israelis pretend that the Palestinians are the Germans of 1930's and 1940's, hence the highly ambiguous stance and conflicting gestures. Though it must be remembered that Arabs briefly flirted with Nazis like the Great Indian Leader Subhash Chandra Bose who fought against British imperialism - who excelled in demonstrative racial discrimination that was religiously followed by Germans with such ardor. I support the bombarding of German cities and also of the London Blitz. No doubt such "innocent" darlings hugely deserved each other.

Great Work from A Great Historian.......2004-03-10

I've taken several seminars at UCLA with Saul Friedlander, and to say that he is an objective and very insightful historian is an understatement. This book is terrific and deserves all the critical praise that it has received. Even if you are just curious about the Holocaust, or you are a serious historian of the time period, you should definitely pick this book up.

Excellent Intro to Hitler's Germany.......2003-07-04

This book is an excellent book for anyone wanting to learn about the rise of Fascism in Germany. It is factual and yet easy to read. Anyone that wants to understand how Hitler got his power should read this. The author's bias is kept to a minimum.

What a shame.......2001-07-21

This is an outstanding history. It is measured, detailed and backed by meticulous research. It is by far the best of this genre

The shame is that the much anticipated sequel is now not planned for publication.

But half a classic is better than none

Intriguing Study Of Nazi Persecution of Jews 1933-1939.......2000-07-03

This first in a two volume work by acclaimed historian is a remarkably objectivean , comprehensive and scrupulously scholarly work and represents a very critical contribution to historians' efforts to comprehend just how and why one of the most civilized and sophisticated countries in Europe descended into the systematic attempt to exterminate the Jews. The book proceeds along a chronological axis in recounting the slow but inexorably tightening of restrictions on the Jewish population within Germany during the years of the mid to late 1930s.

While centering his account of what went wrong in Nazi Germany during the pre-war years, he also humanizes his narrative considerably by interspersing individual accounts of people caught confused and unaware of what was really occurring in the crucible of cultural change. As substantiated in other recent accounts such as Victor Klemperer's "I Shall Bear Witness", Jews were very slow to recognize just how malevolent and serious the national Socialists were about ridding Germany of its Jewish population and also nationalizing and "Aryanizing" their resources and assets.

It is important to note that the author does not overlay any overall interpretive spin of his own, intent more on presenting the best evidence of what was going on than in coming to any premature general interpretation of what the mass of evidence in total might mean. This is not to suggest he offers no interpretation; on the contrary, he offers a series of brilliant insights in various aspects of the evidence. But unlike other recent authors like Goldhagen, he makes no sweeping interpretative conclusions based on all of the evidence he presents. Also, one must remember that this is the first of two volumes, and one would expect that he intends to fully conclude his systematic and chronological presentation of all of the available evidence before engaging in that sort of interpretative analysis.

In sum, I find this work to be an excellent book that is engaging, well-written and argued, and a joy to read despite its tragic and dispiriting subject matter, and a book that offers an amazing look at a wide variety of different perspectives and social situations within the Third Reich as it descended into the abyss. After finishing this volume I immediately ordered the second volume, which is slated for formal publication release later this year. This is a work that belongs on the bookshelf of any serious student of the Holocaust.

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Easy and quick Jewish recipes

Best High holiday recipes

Fantastic Delicious Book

A Converts' culinary guide to Judaism

Outstanding authentic recipes!

Fast & Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays: Complete Menus, Rituals, And Party-Planning Ideas For Every Holiday Of The Year
Marlene Sorosky
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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Entertaining on The Run

Marlene Sorosky's Cookery for Entertaining

The New Jewish Holiday Cookbook

A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking

Season's Greetings: Cooking and Entertaining for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's

ASIN: 0688145701
Release Date: 1997-08-20

Amazon.com

There's more than just recipes here: in addition to great menus for every Jewish holiday, Sorosky includes a short history of the occasion, the appropriate blessings, decorations and centerpieces, and essential religious items and foods--in short, everything you need to know and have to make your holiday meal a success. What's more, she provides a game plan for organizing your time in the kitchen and getting everything on the table at the right time and temperature. As an added bonus, Sorosky includes "Extra Points": special projects for children, invitation ideas, or special decorations to lift your celebration above the ordinary.

In her foreword, Marlene Sorosky admits that her upbringing in a tyranically Orthodox household spoiled Jewish holidays for her until she was well into adulthood. While writing this book, however, she discovered the joyous spirit of both the holidays and Judaism--apparent in every page of Fast and Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays.

Book Description

Marlene Sorosky, America's favorite party planner and James Beard Award-winning author of Entertaining on the Run, makes the Jewish holidays come alive with simple, festive menus providing nearly 150 recipes and essential prayers and rituals that make it easy for home cooks to celebrate all year round. From Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah to the Sabbath, Passover, and celebrations, including the Bar Mitzvah, each holiday chapter contains menus, game plans, table decorations, fascinating historical information, important prayers, and celebration ideas.

Here's the must-have cookbook for the modern home cook who has little time but lots of enthusiasm for keeping up with Jewish traditions.

Customer Reviews:

Easy and quick Jewish recipes.......2007-03-08

Recently I have become interested in Jewish culture and tradition, wanting to understand more facets including food. But the Jewish recipes I had were too complicated and time consuming, not to mention extremely high calorie. Then I found this cookbook. The recipes range from very simple to fairly complex, but the equipment required can be found in my kitchen, the steps are clear, and the tastes have been updated for a modern palate. Jewish customs central to the holidays are also explained clearly, with simple, effective ideas for decorations included. This is a great book.

Best High holiday recipes.......2006-09-23

The recipe for the Crowned apple cake is Awesome!! I make it every year for Rosh Hashana and everyone raves about it. This is just one the many wonderful recipes in this book. The Passover desserts are great, too.

Fantastic Delicious Book.......2005-03-30

I have a huge library of Jewish cookbooks, and this is now the only one I turn to. The recipes are easy to execute, and will make you look like a gourmet cook.
I use this cookbook, even when it is not holiday time.
The stuffed cabbage casserole is remarkable and the brisket is just devine.
The Pesach desserts are incredible, and everytime I make one, someone asks me if it was store bought, they come out so professional looking. They are that terrific. The chocolate chip cookies are so delicious that my Mom could not believe they were Pasidic. I also enjoy the ritual information, and table setting ideas.
The dreidle cake was a major hit at Chanukah.
The is the ONE book that you must have for holiday cooking.
It should be in every household. I have given this book as a gift year after year, and it is always appreciated.

A Converts' culinary guide to Judaism.......2003-12-25

Last year my sister gave me Fast and Festive Meal..as a Chanakah gift as I was converting to Judaism and had little knowledge of how to cook jewishly. This book is absolutely amazing. Wonderful meal suggestions that have allowed me to incorporate Jewish eating into my new life as a Jew with the attendant rituals. What I find most attractive are her suggestions on the timing of preparations and the possibilities for freezing.

L'année passée ma soeur m'a donné comme cadeau de Hanoucca, Fast and Festive Meals car j'étais en train de me convertir au Judaisme. J'avais besoin d'un guide pour cuisiner en juif Ce livre m'a permis d'incorporer la cuisine juive dans ma vie de tous les jours et ceci avec les rituels prescripts. Ce que je trouve des plus intéressants sont ses suggestions pour l'horaire de la préparations et les possibilités pour la congelation.

Outstanding authentic recipes!.......2003-02-12

I was skeptical that this cookbook could deliver, but it does! I have made many of these recipes and complete menus, and everything has obviously been tested repeatedly; each recipe is a winner! I have gotten many compliments over these dishes. Best of all, I am able to entertain with two small children by following her timelines and preparing in advance. This has become a favorite cookbook of mine for all Jewish holidays.

The Gefilte Variations: 200 Inspired Re-creations of Classics from the Jewish Kitchen, with Menus, Stories, and Traditions for the Holidays and Year-Round

Average customer rating:

An Entirely New Gourmet Cuisine
A Jewish Cookbook that would make J.S.Bach proud

The Gefilte Variations: 200 Inspired Re-creations of Classics from the Jewish Kitchen, with Menus, Stories, and Traditions for the Holidays and Year-Round
Jayne Cohen
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0684827190

Amazon.com

Jewish food--the cuisine of the Diaspora--has remained largely unchanged, even as other venerable cooking traditions have been renewed. But this savory fare was meant to be potchkeyed, or played with, writes Jayne Cohen, author of The Gefilte Variations. To prove her point, she offers 200 kosher recipes that reinterpret the classics of American, European, North African, and Asian Jewish cooking. Resisting the obvious pitfall of devising hybrid "cheffy" concoctions, Cohen has found a way to be satisfyingly innovative, lightening kasha, for example, with caramelized onion marmalade and melting eggplant cubes, or boosting matzo-ball flavor with smoky roasted fennel. Cooks, kosher and not, who have long sought a fresher take on Jewish fare, as well as those who relish hearty but sophisticated dishes, should welcome the book. Cohen first presents year-round favorites, organized by categories like breakfasts and brunches, dairy dishes, and sweet kugels and desserts. Among these, readers will want to try Aromatic Marinated Brisket with Chestnuts, Potato-Onion Kreplach Potsticker-Style, Sorrel-Flavored Mushroom Barley Soup, and Rich Noodle Pudding Baked with Fresh Plums and Nectarines. The book's second section offers a contemporary look at Jewish holiday cooking and introduces international dishes, such as Cheese Latkes with Persimmon Sauce, that would make a delicious Hanukkah-table addition. A pantry and procedures section, a collection of menus, and a glossary of useful terms, both culinary and cultural (finally--a right-on definition of ongepotchken, that onomatopoeic Yiddish word for "fussed with to tackiness"), round off this useful and imaginative book. --Arthur Boehm

Book Description

THE GEFILTE VARIATIONS IS ABOUT MUCH MORE THAN GEFILTE FISH. Inspired by the rich traditions of the Jewish community, this cookbook offers all the excitement of a newly discovered world of eating. Food writer Jayne Cohen celebrates her culinary mother tongue, improvising with the foods she is passionate about. Faithful to the traditions -- all recipes are kosher -- she presents the full range of dishes: breakfasts and brunches, starters and noshes, soups and garnishes, fish, meats and poultry, dairy dishes, nondairy and pareve grains and vegetables, fruit sauces, sweet kugels and desserts -- 200 mouthwatering reinterpretations of traditional dishes designed for everyday meals as well as every holiday.

EVEN IF YOU'VE NEVER GOTTEN BEYOND TOASTING A FROZEN BAGEL BEFORE THIS, you'll find the recipes in this book readily accessible. Transform ready-made wonton wrappers into sheer silken salmon kreplach floating in warm shav (sorrel soup), or fashion supermarket phyllo into airy knishes brimming with luscious garlic mashed potatoes. Or make a batch of buttery rugelach with store-bought caramels.

HERE ARE THE DELICIOUS REINTERPRETATIONS OF A FEW CLASSICS...Matzoh balls that begin with roasted fennel and change with the seasons, a whole chicken rubbed with a garlicky marinade and roasted on a bed of lemons, and a sleek buttermilk noodle kugel bursting with fresh and dried peaches.

THERE'S AN ENTICING VARIETY OF MEATLESS MEALS, emphasizing fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs, and using them in exciting, novel ways. A simple staple like hummus becomes a sensuous feast prepared with quick-cooking lentils, perfumed with pomegranate and mint, and served with toasted spiced matzohs. Kasha is lightened up with a caramelized onion marmalade and cubes of melting eggplant. Fabulous, easy-to-prepare cheese latkes are graced with fresh persimmon sauce.

STORIES AS ENCHANTING AS THE RECIPES that you will want to read around your own table to family and friends. Follow the author as she takes you through the streets of the old Jewish community in Carpentras, France, sleuthing after a recipe for a Passover breast of veal from a forgotten novella. Learn why Jews light menorahs against the darkness of winter with everything from olive oil to goose fat in potato or egg shells. Or share a sip of Kiddush wine around her father's Sabbath table.

IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE WORLD OF JEWISH CUISINE. Learn what Jewish food is, how to stock your pantry to make basic preparations such as olive oil schmaltz and yogurt cream to create lighter versions of your favorite dishes, and find the definitions of Jewish terms in a comprehensive glossary.

CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAYS. Discover new recipes for your Sabbath and Hanukkah tables in the extensive section devoted to the holidays. Create memorable seders and complete break-the-fast Yom Kippur buffets using the suggested menus. Richly woven details of biblical origins and today's customs vividly bring these occasions to life.

Customer Reviews:

An Entirely New Gourmet Cuisine.......2000-04-05

Jayne Cohen's The Gefilte Variations not only is an exceptionally well written collection of personal and historical Jewish memorabilia and literary and folk,scholarly and pungent and often quite humorous anecdotes;it is also that rarest of creations, a truly and compulsively readable food book. What makes it so exceptional is the author's obvious lifelong passion for memorably earthy,redolent food and her creativity in rendering five-star meals out of what so many of us (non-culinary cognoscenti)grew up thinking was a clunky, Eastern European poor substitute for appealing French Italian or Asian meals. The international range of these dishes-from Iranian Stuffed Chicken, Egyptian Ground Fish Balls with Tomato and Cumin to Bombay Pineapple-Coconut Milk Kugel and the numerous inspired pomegranate based creations, make this even more appealing than the finely-tuned work of Joan Nathan and Claudia Roden-and that's pretty rarefied territory. Gefilte Fish itself, a dish one would never normally consider in the same breath with gourmet foods, rises to ethereal levels in the author's several fish-ball recipes, using as alternatives to pike combinations of lean fish like red snapper or striped bass mixed with the more succulent flavor of pompano,whitefish or salmon.Or as another alternative,inspired by Chinese dumplings, quickly steamed between cabbage leaves. And the directions for cooking are literally a treasure trove of generations of secrets perhaps not seen before in this form in the light of day. In addition to mining culinary traditions, one also gets the impression from this book that much of the author's creation of these tantalizing and often tart-sweet dishes arose in the night kitchen of her fertile mind. The book is elegantly divided into sections for dairy, fish meat etal and a separate easy to follow section suggesting various alternatives for the holidays-all nicely mixed in with family story-telling,folklore and easy to read scholarship. This is plainly one of the most exciting cookbooks I have ever come across-one which transcends in its universality, humor and sauciness any one religion while remaining faithful to the tenets of underlying rules. Listen to the author describing Rich Noodle Kugel Baked with Plums and Nectarines-"The paradigm of ongepotchkeh(the author's all-time favorite Yiddish word, meaning overly fussy) is taking noodle kugel- a luxurious confection of pasta eggs butter and milk or cheese-and then slathering it with some sweet stickiness that may have been a fruit in another life.The very lushness of a noodle pudding demands an innocent topping. .." This is a book to take on vacation. An outstanding culiniterary work.

A Jewish Cookbook that would make J.S.Bach proud.......2000-03-25

These are the GEFILTE VARIATIONS by Cohen, not the GOLDBERG Variations by JSBach as performed by Glenn Gould. Just a note of history first. The Goldberg Variations (Aria with 30 variations) were composed by J. S. Bach for Count Herman Carl von Keyserlingk of Dresden to be played to soothe him by his harpsichordist and 15 year old prodigy Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727-1756). The variations explore the full palette of emotions: joy, contemplation, happy, quiet, tragic, resurrection. Okay, now what about this Jewish recipe and story book? Just as Bach showed full range and innovation, the Gefilte Variations is innovative in its presentation and reinterpretation of the Jewish musical, I mean recipe, standards, such as matzo balls (with fennel and seasonal changes), kasha (with melted eggplant) chopped liver, kugels (with peaches), entrees (like fish and rhubarb and tomato), soups, latkes (with persimmon), and matzo brei (with artichoke hearts, with wine and dried plums, or french toast style, or fritatta style, or fluffy egg style, or pancake style). Oh their are so many variations. Speaking of matzo, Cohen provides a recipe for recrisping matzo to give it that fresh from the Williamburg oven taste (toasting it at 400 degrees), as well as at least five variations of flavored motzot, from lemon to cheese to sweet to onion, garlic, thyme, or herb. I hope I have given you a flavor of the book's contents.

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

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Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621066

Product Description

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.

Customer Reviews:

Check and see.......2007-06-21

I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.

Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22

Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.

Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05

We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:

a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;

b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;

c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.

Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:

It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.

- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.

- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.

Fomenko goes by the following axioms:

- Chronology is the basis of history;

- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;

- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;

- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;

- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;

- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?

The Russians:

Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.

The Westerners:

Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Chinese:

Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.

The Arabs:

Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The Divinity:

Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.

According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.

St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09

After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.

However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:

- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.

I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.

The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.

It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?

Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.

Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).

Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30

If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?

Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.

Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..

Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.

In the Jewish Tradition: A Year of Festivities and Foods

Average customer rating:

A Beautiful and Informative Book
Not Exhaustive but Practical
A perfect overview
An interesting and easy to read book about Jewish culture.
Interesting information and excellent recipes

In the Jewish Tradition: A Year of Festivities and Foods
Judith B. Fellner
Manufacturer: Smithmark Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0831752688

Customer Reviews:

A Beautiful and Informative Book.......2005-02-16

This is one that as soon as I read the copy I borrowed from the library, I had to put on my Amazon list. It tells a simple history of Jewish feastivals and hoidays, not going into too much detail. That is not what this book is about. It is a guidebook for the many wonderful ways Jewish famiies celebrate their faith.
The receipes are wonderful. They range in degrees of difficulty from simple cookies to the moe complex. Everything is beautifully photographed.

Not Exhaustive but Practical.......2001-05-26

Overall, this is a well organized book. It provides background information on each Biblical festival as well as current traditions. It even has recipes. It is not an exhaustive study of each festival, hence the rating, but it is a really good book for those of you who want to practice the traditions of the Biblical world.

A perfect overview.......2000-12-28

This book gives a little bit of everything. Organized according to the Jewish calendar, it has chapters for all the holidays. The histories and traditions of the holidays are explained in a clear and concise way.

Of course, it contains that hallmark of Jewish culture: food. Wonderful recipes are interspersed with beautiful photos of delicious food. Want a recipe for poppyseed hamantashen? Just find you way to Purim.

The design of this book is beautiful. It has plenty of art and photos. And the recipes are first-rate. My favorite? The challah recipe, of course. It's absolutely fabulous.

My only problem is choosing whether to put this in my living room as a coffee-table book or on my kitchen counter as a cookbook.

An interesting and easy to read book about Jewish culture........1999-09-26

This is a wonderful book I borrowed from my local library because of my interest in Judaica. It is such an interesting and easy to follow book that I had to have my own from Amazon.com. The book is rich in culture, history and religious customs and traditions. It has wonderful holiday menus that appeal to all tastes. This book has awesome pictures and it brings all that is Jewish to life. Although I am Catholic, I enjoy learning about this deeply spiritual religion. This book is a must-have! After reading this book, you can appreciate the beauty of their evolution, customs and traditions. This book is a rewarding journey through history and exploration of their beliefs.

Interesting information and excellent recipes.......1999-05-01

Not only is this book beautiful to look at and informative about the Jewish holidays and their traditions, it includes delicious and creative recipes. I have made a number of the recipes in the book. They are fairly easy to make and delicious. We have enjoyed them all. I have given the book to several friends who have all appreciated receiving it.

I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years

Average customer rating:

Final Journey to freedom
Great Book
A Courageous, One-of-a-Kind View Inside Nazi Germany
The most compelling book I have ever read
Life-Affirming, Edge-of-your-seat, Nonstop Reading

I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years
Victor Klemperer
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375756973
Release Date: 2001-04-03

Amazon.com

The second volume of Victor Klemperer's searing diary, kept in secret during the 12 years he suffered under the Nazi regime, covers the period from 1942 to 1945. The humiliations visited on even such "privileged" Jews as Klemperer (whose wife was Aryan) grew increasingly severe, with house searches, arbitrary arrests, and brutal beatings becoming virtually routine. The 60-year-old historian is forced to shovel snow despite his heart condition; hunger gnaws at him as rations are mercilessly cut. Yet he clings to an intellectual life, continuing his reading and making notes on the lies and obfuscations of official Nazi discourse that would become his postwar masterpiece, Lingua Tertii Imperii. "The Russians, who have only just been annihilated, are tremendous and quite inexhaustible opponents," he notes sardonically after reading a mendacious fascist article in 1942. His lengthy account of his escape with his wife from Dresden after the Allied bombings of 1945 unforgettably captures the chaos of World War II's final days and the mixed feelings of a Jew who could never wholeheartedly gloat over the defeat of the nation that had persecuted him. Above all, his unflinching depiction of human nature and society in extremis amply justifies his cherished belief that even the Nazis "cannot prevent language from testifying to the truth." --Wendy Smith

Book Description

Destined to take its place alongside The Diary of Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night as one of the great classics of the Holocaust, I Will Bear Witness is a timeless work of literature, the most eloquent and acute testament to have emerged from Hitler's Germany. Volume Two begins in 1942, the year the Final Solution was formally proposed, and carries us through to the Allied bombing of Dresden and Germany's defeat.

Customer Reviews:

Final Journey to freedom.......2007-09-03

One should read this book only after the first volume covering the years 1933-41. The story of Victor & Eva's survival of detention in the Jews' house, the Dresden bombing and subsequent wanderings stunned me. But Victor's courage in continuing his secret diary for 12 years comes through - as does his humanity ad personal growth.

The diary jotting sryle means you pick it up and read a section at a time, but you will most likely be drawn into finishing it within a short time.

Great Book.......2007-02-09

And I will get the other years of this author's diary. This is not a fast paced WWII battle book; this is the diary of a poor soul who had to live through every moment of a terrible regime, to endure even more when he thought he'd reached his limit. If you're interested in what it was like to live day to day in Hitler's Germany (as a Jew or a gentile)--to understand what it was like to watch it begin and grow and eventually implode--this is an excellent read. I would say it is for those deeply interested in the psychology of the times; not a passing interest. I'll get the other books and read them in order of the years they cover. I really want to understand how the Third Reich could ever BE.

A Courageous, One-of-a-Kind View Inside Nazi Germany.......2006-07-04

This is actually the second volume of Klemperer's diaries, published in two volumes. I highly recommend that you buy both volumes as a set and read from the beginning how a bureaucratic mindset advanced towards ultimate evil.

In the end, Klemperer's diary doesn't fully answer the haunting question, "How could it have happened?" But you will find some definitive answers here to questions that Holocaust scholars have debated over the years.

For example, Klemperer's experience answers the charge that virtually all Aryan Germans knew from the beginning exactly what the Third Reich's intentions were towards the Jews. Klemperer's actual interactions stand as refutation of this blanket indictment. Often when he visited Aryan acquaintances to conduct business - he would then jovially be invited to come back that evening for schnapps. Klemperer had to explain that he couldn't come back later for schnapps - that as a Jew, he was prohibited from boarding any vehicle of public transportation after 6:00 PM, that he had a general curfew, and that of course, he had long since been banned from owning his own car.

Klemperer was always circumspect in recounting these laws he labored under to his "Semitophile" acquaintances. (That's an awkward translation of the German phrase Klemperer probably used to refer to Aryans who were sympathetic to Jews. But it is perhaps the only word that was available to Martin Chalmers, who otherwise has produced a generally fluid translation of Klemperer's journals.) At any rate, Klemperer was careful never to appear too whining or too critical of the restrictions placed on him. He didn't want to alienate these Aryan allies. Nevertheless, he repeatedly found himself in the position of having to enlighten them about the government's latest round of restrictions. And his listeners were almost always genuinely surprised to hear about these laws. Their ignorance in the face of all the anti-Semitic propaganda blared daily from radios, blazoned from the newspapers, seemed to be more a function of people's tendency towards plodding self-preoccupation than an indication of any active complicity with the advancing evil.

I think you'll find that Klemperer's account also carries a very relevant warning to us in our current pursuit of terrorists at all costs. Klemperer survived the early rounds of call-ups for the concentration camps because he was a decorated World War I hero, and because he was married to an Aryan. For these reasons, he was given some initial grudging dispensation from the worst Nazi reprisals. However as the War progressed, his past service to Germany and his Aryan affiliation came to count for less and less. Finally his number was up and he, along with the last handful of Jews remaining around Dresden, were scheduled for transport. The only thing that saved him was the Allied bombing of Dresden. Most local Nazi records were destroyed in this notorious bombardment. So Klemperer and his wife, having survived the bombing, were also able to survive those last most brutal months of the Nazi regime by assuming new identities and wandering through the German countryside from town to town, passing themselves off as a typical displaced Aryan couple. If the Nazis' meticulous records (documenting family lineages and confirming who was where) had remained intact, Klemperer would certainly have been deported to the gas chambers.

So if you don't already have doubts about the increasing surveillance measures being taken in the U.S., presumably to guard against terrorists and other "evildoers" - reading these journals will give you pause. One of the lessons of Klemperer's journal is how tyranny proceeds by little increments of paperwork. Its power is in keeping tabs.

Klemperer risked his life to write the entries in these journals, because it eventually became a capital crime for a Jew to possess paper or any pen/pencil. So it feels almost sacrilegious to make any criticism of this supremely brave and literate account. However I do have one small criticism. And that is Klemperer's common masculine tendency to put his wife in the background of his life. Eva Klemperer comes off in the diary as a shadowy adjunct to the importance of Victor's work producing these pages.

She is mentioned, more frequently in the first volume of the diaries, but this mention is usually limited to reports of the fact that she had another hysterical fit that day, or that she engaged Victor in another round of angry lamentation, or that she suffered some physical malady. He does acknowledge her collaborative bravery. She also risked her life every time she smuggled the pages of his work out of their small assigned apartment into the hands of friends for safekeeping. But we never directly hear Eva's voice in all this. The reader is only left to guess at the actual substance of her outbursts.

You will probably feel impelled to read between the lines to flesh her out. Perhaps Eva wasn't the prettiest girl in school, so she took the one marriage proposal that came her way. She married the intellectually accomplished Victor. Victor was available because Aryan prejudice, even in those early years, already limited him socially. We can imagine her outbursts of recrimination as the Nazi noose grew tighter around their yoked necks. Why did you have to be Jewish? Why have you dragged me down with you? I could have led such a happy life. And instead, look at me - scrounging for rotten potatoes, under constant threat of beatings and death - and all because of you!

If only Eva had written her own diary, we might have had some additional fascinating insights into why and how a couple stays together under such trying circumstances. We might have gained a greater understanding of the ties of love and the chains of having nowhere else to go. As it is, we have only Victor's side of the story. But that is a powerful, must-read insight into how tyranny grows, brick-by-brick, petty edict by petty edict.

The most compelling book I have ever read.......2006-03-22

Because my friends all know what a book-hound I am, people often ask me what my all-time favorite book is. Admittedly the answer to this would change over time, but, at present, "I Will Bear Witness" is the one that first pops into my mind.

I found this very personal account of the days and nights of a German Jewish man--an inoffensive and formerly rather conservative German nationalist academic married to a Gentile--during the Nazi terror regime to be absolutely breathtaking. Indeed, I was so caught up in his account that I took an unexpected day of vacation from work just to not interrupt my reading once I had started.

Further, I found myself sprawled on my bed, as is sometimes customary with me, surrounded by ancillary books, atlases, and maps --a behavior that signifies I'm reading a book that has utterly gripped me and a book that is expanding my horizons.

Klemperer was (just barely) saved from being sent to a concentration camp due to his marriage to a non-Jew. However, he lived every day under the threat of torture and deportation to a camp and his journal tells of the years of grinding anxiety over his fate and the fate of his wife, friends, and relatives-many of whom were taken. It also speaks to the minutiae of life under the Nazi's--such things as their penchant for legalisms to justify their treatment of the Jews embodied in his incessant embroilment in Nazi demands that he take part in the legalisms of their confiscation of his property. Moreover, as the war draws to a close, he draws a stunning portrait of life as a war refugee--a picture that applies to war refugees the world over throughout time.

Kudos to those who elevated this book to number one among the history choices-it deserves it and in my mind deserves even more.

Life-Affirming, Edge-of-your-seat, Nonstop Reading.......2006-01-30

Victor Klemperer's diary of the years of the Hitler dictatorship and his recording of the day-to-day lives of the Jews of Dresden, his thoughtful and insightful commentary on the methods (particularly the language of the propaganda) of the Third Reich, the heart-wrenching stories of those who were taken away never to be seen again, his experience in the firebombing of Dresden in 1945 and his miraculous journey home should be required reading for everyone about the horrors of tyranny and war. It is also a tribute to the true human spirit and the power of the intellect. Klemperer never lost his determination to live, despite all the blows of terror that were aimed at him, his family, and his friends. That he believed there was something to live for--in the midst of utter barbarity--should inspire all of us to work for a better world. It did me.

A remarkable record of a dark time. Reading it gives one the courage to carry on in the dark times that have come again.

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