Customer Reviews

Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust

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As a contributor to the anthology, I am astounded as to the diversity of the poets who have contributed, as well as the excellence of the quality of their work. I am honored to be among the very well known poets, such as Alexie, Levertov, Forche, Piercy, Stern, but am just as humbled to be among those lesser known, but excellent writers, whose words are just as powerful and moving.
A wonderful addition to your library on Jewish studies, as well as a powerful teaching tool for Jewish history, or Jewish writings.

Sandra Cohen Margulius

Charles Fishman is to be given tremendous credit for the dedication diligence and generosity it took to assemble this anthology . His openness to the work of other poets, and his deep feeling for the suffering of the Holocaust combine here to bring a large and varied collection of writing.

My personal poetry collection includes hundreds of volumes, but this October 2007 2nd edition of Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust is by far one of the best.

From Marjorie Agosin, the Chilean daughter of Jewish refugees from Odessa and Vienna, to John Ciardi, Anthony Hecht, Philip Levine and Barnett Zumoff, the famed New York Albert Einstein professor of endocrinology, the sheer brilliance of dozens of poets in 478 pages defies description.

What's almost as amazing, though, is the labor and love that went into an almost letter-perfect copy--with not a single typographical error yet found in hundreds of poems, footnotes, biographical notes and acknowledgments. Without a doubt, this 630-plus page compilation of Holocaust poems is the most remarkable literary feat of this memorial genre I'm privileged to own.

I am greatly honored to have two poems in this volume, beside those of several good poet friends, but most remarkably, hundreds more whose work I revere from a distance.

One cannot adequately praise Charles Ades Fishman, a poet with stunning style, for the years of work he has invested in this remarkable collection of American poets writing on the Holocaust.

Buy it.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

Over the years, I've read a number of anthologies of poetry on the Holocaust. Among them are Beyond Lament: Poets of the World Bearing Witness to the Holocaust, The Last Lullaby: Poetry from the Holocaust, Holocaust Poetry, and Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust.

Each has its own special focus. One concentrates on poets alive during the Holocaust; another gathers together poems from around the world; and a third looks at poems written by Holocaust survivors and victims. All of these works, of course, are valuable, but I find myself most often returning to one anthology of Holocaust poetry, the one edited by Charles Adès Fishman, my co-editor here at Writing the Holocaust. The range of poets represented is truly extensive, and whenever I find myself wanting to see what a poet has written about the Holocaust, Fishman's Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaustis the book I turn to first.

It contains the work of over 200 poets, some old, some new, some well known and others not so well known, but the breadth and depth of writing here is remarkable. Also valuable are the personal remarks made by many of the poets regarding what moved them to write poetry in response to the Holocaust.
Take a look.