Customer Reviews

Biancastella: A Jewish Partisan in World War II

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My family came to the U.S. from Austria in 1907. If we had stayed, the majority of us would have been killed. This book is the personal account of a young man from a well to do Jewish family in Vienna. When the Nazis came to Austria his family fled, and when he could no longer flee, he decided to join a partisan group to combat the Nazis in Northern Italy. This book is honest and to the point. As a person who spent six years in the Marines and has a degree in History, I found Burger's accounts to be very real. His first-hand experience with resisting the Nazis is something everyone should read so it never happens again. If the world had reacted to Hitler the way Burger did as a young man, WWII probably would have been avoided. This book should be included as part of the curriculum of every WWII History course.

What struck me with this book was its honesty, the warts-and-all view of a boy's attempt at dealing with a nightmare by design; his incredible survival instincts and the places they took him. This book stands as testimony to the reality that Jews did, in fact, stand up in the face of Adolf Hilter through whatever limited or even extraordinary means opportunty presented. You can't write fiction like this first-hand account, though people like Herman Wouk have tried with great market success. The author, for example, chances upon people like Louis Armstrong giving us milestones as a frame of reference, but with a sincerity the best historical fiction writer sorely lacks.

I could not put this book down! The author wrote a personal and honest story which seemed believable. I recommend it to all.