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7 reviews for:
I Seek a Kind Person: My Father, Seven Children and the Adverts that Helped Them Escape the Holocaust
Julian Borger
4.23 AVERAGE
7 reviews for:
I Seek a Kind Person: My Father, Seven Children and the Adverts that Helped Them Escape the Holocaust
Julian Borger
4.23 AVERAGE
An impacting memoir and fascinating history of how some Viennese Jews sought help from England for their children (and often them) to escape the Holocaust. I appreciated the author's perspective and the research is so well-done.
This is a must-read, especially for this day and age. Once the Nazis came to power, the antisemites in Austria emerged almost instantly--they were there, but had not unleashed their antisemitism until a certain point.
There appears to be a kind of parallel with the alarming rise in antisemitism today....
This is a must-read, especially for this day and age. Once the Nazis came to power, the antisemites in Austria emerged almost instantly--they were there, but had not unleashed their antisemitism until a certain point.
There appears to be a kind of parallel with the alarming rise in antisemitism today....
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
There exists now a plethora of memoirs and research works that explore such a layered period in global history, so it takes a lot for a new work to feel it is adding something more to the collective consciousness. This book manages it.
While Borger is exploring his family's history, centring on his father, he seeks to provide context for the man's life from those who shared, in some small part, the experience. As such, this book weaves a complex tapestry of lives. It's well-informed, balanced and reflective. It is bleak and harrowing, whilst also tender and empathetic.
Yet, the book is periodically let down by the clarity of the writing. There are points of profoundly moving writing- the epilogue being a clear example of this- so it is by no means a consistent fault. However, there are times when the narrative is lost, either through jumping between so many individuals and their stories (there are a great many included), or by the whistlestop tour through historical events. It all adds to form a rich background for these stories, but does mean there's a lot covered in so few pages.
While Borger is exploring his family's history, centring on his father, he seeks to provide context for the man's life from those who shared, in some small part, the experience. As such, this book weaves a complex tapestry of lives. It's well-informed, balanced and reflective. It is bleak and harrowing, whilst also tender and empathetic.
Yet, the book is periodically let down by the clarity of the writing. There are points of profoundly moving writing- the epilogue being a clear example of this- so it is by no means a consistent fault. However, there are times when the narrative is lost, either through jumping between so many individuals and their stories (there are a great many included), or by the whistlestop tour through historical events. It all adds to form a rich background for these stories, but does mean there's a lot covered in so few pages.