Customer Reviews

Bashert: A Granddaughter’s Holocaust Quest (Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bashert chronicles the transformation of a woman spellbound by her larger-than-life grandmother's stories to an investigative journalist. Ms. Simon's relentless determination to uncover the fate of her family members and their neighbors is mirrored by her powerful, propulsive prose. If all ancestors were honored by descendants like Ms. Simon, history would no longer keep repeating itself.

Bashert by Andrea Simon is not only a labor of love and a remarkable gift to those who came before and will follow, it is an important addition to Holocaust literature, describing events that may not have come to light before. The events are described in a very readable and personal form.

What makes this book especially moving is the way the author weaves her personal story into her search for historical fact. It is the author's personal involvement, warmth and humanity that draw the reader in and create a sense of personal involvement for the reader. We are not just reading history, but being taken along on the author's quest for knowledge and truth. We share her hunger to know what happened to her lost family.

For those with personal experience or knowledge of the Holocaust, this will add; for others it is a good place to start. It is a remarkable personal odyssey which will leave the reader affected and transformed.

Andrea Simon has written a memoir filled with haunting memories. I found her descriptions so realistic, her feelings so intense that I was transported to the time and place of her ancestors. It became clear as I turned the pages that what began as the author's personal journey ended as a reminder to all readers, of events never to be forgotten.

The importance of family makes the biggest impression on me after reading this powerfully written literary book. The horrors that Simon's family experienced in the Holocaust bring that atrocity home in a profound way. Her personal journey becomes our journey with her as she discovers atrocities such as the killing of 50,000 Jews in mass graves, simply because they were Jewish. Making the reading even more insistent is her grandmother's voice which we hear throuought the book, urging her on and being with her. Being able to read a Holocaust account of one family, with photos of relatives past and present, puts the reader inside the family, as if this were your own family album, and an account and discovery of your own relatives. Evil such as the Holocaust gives us all pause and reaffirms the need to pray for God and goodness to prevail in all times, even now. While some people have a family tree that they borrow from family members, Simon's family has something much greater. They are so very lucky to have a relative who puts together a detailed family experience, researches its important past,and delivers it to present and future generations. Simon's grandmother and mother must certainly be very proud of her. Proud, too, must be her living relatives who can now hold in their hands such an intelligent, eloquent and profoundly moving account of their family. As outsiders,we are fortunate to have the opportunity to experience that family, and to acknowledge again the horrors of the Holocaust, through Beshert.

This is a riveting account of Ms. Simon's search for her roots as she returns to the birthplace of her eccentric and fascinating grandmother. In the process of unveiling her family's history, she unwittingly becomes a post-holocaust witness and a chronicler to a little known yet horrifying Nazi-Russian massacre. In this memoir, Simon carries us with her on an intimate, personal and historic trip. And, one that stayed with me long after the last page was read. I highly recommend this book to those interested in a soulful, spiritual and important journey.

This is a beautifully written memoir. The weaving of the authors personal stories with her discoveries about how the holocaust affected her ancestors is moving and brilliant.

This excellent work re-unites the personal and archival approaches to Holocaust writing that had tended become disconnected in recent years. Simon finds a lucid and passionate authorial voice that communicates the spirit of her family members, many of whom were killed by the Nazis in 1942, but she also stays close to the archival sources and does not simplify the complex historical issues raised by her material. The interviews with the local bystanders of Volchin that she publishes can be read alongside those collected by Father Patrick Desbois in the Ukraine and published in his "The Holocaust By Bullets", another book that re-unites the personal and the academic. These voices are seldom heard in the history yet are essential to any understanding of it.

"Bashert" is therefore essential reading for historians of the Holocaust in Belarus and the Ukraine, as well as the general reader.

I can't imagine many non-Jews looking at Andrea Simon's book in a catalogue or a store and thinking they MUST have it, or that it would necessarily contain anything of value to them. After all, it's just a Jewish woman's search for her history, right? Wrong! It is a tender, and unsettling, story of a personal journey that turns historic. And it is a reminder of what can happen, and has happened, when we lose touch with our shared humanity. This is not an easy book to read but it is a compelling book- and it is a call to action. We must never forget, and we must never give up. Andrea Simon persevered on her journey, as did her grandmother (and many others) before her. So must we all.

This is one of the best holocaust memoirs I've ever read. Simon's account of the atrocities that were inflicted are woven through the horrific experiences that her own family suffered -- experiences that she learns on many steps of her journey. Beautifully written, expertly researched and told.

From the very first page, I could not stop reading this book. Simon's writing is so descriptive and compelling that you feel you are thinking and feeling right alongside her -- a hallmark of a terrifically sensitive and talented writer. Her investigation into the Holocaust reveals impressive research of the highest order. Combined, her descriptions, sensitivity and research produce an intimate portal into the tragedy of the Holocaust, with the reader becoming personally involved. Her love for her family is plainly apparent, and her extraordinaly love for her grandmother makes this a heart-enriching story.