Echoes From The Holocaust: Memoir [Paperback]

Mira Ryczke Kimmelman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1939, 16-year-old Mira Ryczke was forced by Nazi troops to leave her childhood home in Poland for an uncertain future. In the next five and a half years, Ryczke, through the support of others, memories of her family and sheer luck, survived the Warsaw ghetto, three concentration camps and a death march. Her memoir is simply written and unflinchingly detailed: she recounts being tattooed for identification purposes; waking up in a freezing bunk to touch the cold hand of the girl next to her, who had died during the night; "composing" herself as she attempted to look strong enough to avoid being "selected for death." Ryczke (she married a fellow survivor, Max Kimmelman, in Bavaria and immigrated with him to the United States) decided to recount her life because the "dead cannot speak: they cannot be witnesses to the unspeakable horrors. I am their witness, and my years are numbered. I have to do it for them."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This book has the now-familiar timbre of horror common to the growing number of memoirs of the Holocaust. Kimmelman, a Polish Jew, grew up in Danzig and fled to Warsaw in October 1939 at the start of World War II. From then until her liberation in April 1945, she spent time in three concentration camps and a ghetto. Twenty members of her family were killed by the Nazis; only her father survived. She writes of the terror and anguish, which included rats gorging themselves on the bodies of prisoners and dogs tearing live inmates to pieces. Yet a part of Kimmelman's memoir deals with a new life--a new love, a new family, and a new country. She was married in 1946 to a man who lost his first wife and daughter in the Holocaust, and they came to the U.S. in 1948. Not able to write while in the camps, Kimmelman trained herself to remember most of the events she experienced. The result is this compelling memoir, illustrated with 68 black-and-white photographs. George Cohen --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press; 1 edition (December 6, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870499564
• ISBN-13: 978-0870499562
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #447,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Must Read" Book, April 12, 2006

By 

Nancy William (Queens, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Echoes From The Holocaust: Memoir (Paperback)

Echoes from the Holocaust by Mira Ryczke Kimmelman is a riveting memoir that recounts her life as a child in Danzig to her life in the United States after World War II. Mira describes how the innocence, effulgence, and peace of her youth are shattered once the Nazi troops force her family to leave their home in Poland in October 1939. Embracing her Jewish heritage, Mira tells of how she strives to preserve her identity and pride as a Jew alive by receiving secret Hebrew lessons, attending prohibited Jewish gatherings, and becoming a member of the Zionist movement. Kimmelman refuses to let herself become discouraged when she learns that more than twenty of her family members and friends are killed by the SS officers.

Infused with aspirations, Mira does whatever she can to cope with the persecution she and others receive at the ghettos and concentration camps. After suffering from typhoid, physical torture, starvation, horrendous living conditions, and simple dehumanization, Mira continues to be a burning flame among all the melted candles. All her struggles and lucky moments become learning experiences.

Mira is able to move on with her life, after the end of the war in 1945. She marries Max Kimmelman, another Holocaust survivor, and has several children and grandchildren after. She gives them the names of her relatives and close companions so that her memories of them will live on. Although life in the United States becomes a bit of a struggle, Mira manages to carve out a content life with her husband and family. She continues to encompass her traditions and tell her story of survival.

The memoir is written simplistically, but with very powerful imagery and episodes, that capture Mira's moments effectively. Metaphors, similes, or hyperboles are not necessary to make this memoir memorable. The book is divided into several short chapters that make it an easy read. With cliffhangers at the end of every chapter, this book becomes a real page-turner. An atmosphere of hope surrounds the events Kimmelman depicts and reiterates the idea that Mira has survived for a purpose. No history book can tell a story such as this one. To capture the meaning and depth of the Holocaust, one must go out and read Mira Kimmelman's account.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievable horror!, May 20, 2001

By 

Dov B Yair (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Echoes From The Holocaust: Memoir (Paperback)

From a priveleged upbringing in pre-war Gdansk, the author and her family are deported first to Warsaw then to other ghettos and camps. The book is written in a frank, no-nonsense fashion and she really states the facts about what happened to her and her family. An amazing book and one that everyone should read.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars more than just a survivor, February 24, 2007

By 

anne (OAK RIDGE, TN, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Echoes From The Holocaust: Memoir (Paperback)

Mira lived to tell the tale of the holocaust. She's carried the message of strength and forgiveness, of working through the horrors she's lived by bringing the message to all who will listen. This is a strange and different book: on the one hand, so repulsive, so unbelievable, yet, on the other hand, compelling. Several questions ran through my mind: how does a person continue to live with any humanity at all after such an experience; why does one person live, while all the rest die; what kind of magnetism did Mira have that encouraged people to help her?
I've met Mira; she lives here in my home town of Oak Ridge. She will speak before my class. Perhaps my questons will be answered, and I will know who Mira is after all.