A Hole in the Heart of the World: Being Jewish in Eastern Europe [Paperback]

Jonathan Kaufman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1998

Spanning more than half a century, from the years preceding the Holocaust through the Nazi defeat, the rise of Communism, and the fall of the Berlin Wall on to the present day, here are the remarkable stories of five families whose very survival tells us much about the fragile culture of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. A West German cantor and concentration camp survivor crosses the Berlin Wall to minister to Jews in East Berlin. A prominent Berlin family clings to its Communist ideals even after the end of the Cold War. In Hungary a rabbi turns dissident when Communist-controlled Jewish leaders dismiss him. Young citizens of Prague, Warsaw, and Budapest find renewed faith as they uncover a secret heritage buried in the rubble of war. A Polish Catholic woman, a friend to many Jews, discovers a liberating truth about her heritage. Weaving together these stories of old and young, disenchanted and enthusiastic, this luminous cultural group portrait takes us deep into the still-dark soul of Eastern Europe, where we emerge-profoundly moved, and cautiously optimistic about the religious rebirth that is taking place there.

• Author is the recipient of the National Jewish Book Award and the Present Tense/American Jewish Committee Award

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This deeply engrossing history, expertly crafted by Kaufman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist (Broken Alliance: Turbulent Times Between Blacks and Jews in America), traces the lives of five Holocaust survivors who continued to live in Eastern Europe after WWII. Four of the survivors were Jewish and, in addition to being hunted by Nazis during the war, they and their children endured intermittent waves of postwar anti-Semitism. Kaufman's research took him to Berlin, where in the East, Klaus Gysi became a powerful member of the Communist government, while Greek refugee Estrongo Nachama served as cantor for West Berlin's Jews. The author also details the life of Tamas Raj, a dissident Hungarian rabbi, Sylvia Wittman, imprisoned as a "Zionist agent" in 1950s Czechoslovakia, and Barbara Asendrych, daughter of a Polish Catholic family who learns that her biological mother was Jewish. Kaufman predicts that the collapse of Eastern Europe's Communist governments will help the resurgence of Judaism in that part of the world.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

While many books on the Holocaust have focused on the attempted destruction of the Jews, this compelling book by Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Kaufman (Broken Alliance: Turbulent Times Between Blacks and Jews in America, LJ 10/1/88) examines how the Jewish people have survived through the reign of Communism. He studies the lives of five families, four Jewish and one Catholic, in West Germany, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, to learn why the families stayed in Eastern Europe and how they survived. The stories are fascinating, and Kaufman relates them objectively, detailing both the horrors and the surprises in the lives of these people. He begins with the fall of the Berlin Wall, then backtracks to pre-World War I to trace the history of the families up to the present day. This thorough study shows a side of history never before traced. Highly recommended.?Jill Jaracz, Chicago
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140254536
• ISBN-13: 978-0140254532
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #977,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Review of the Book by a Non-Jewish Reader, April 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Hole in the Heart of the World: Being Jewish in Eastern Europe (Hardcover)

I don't know if the author Kaufman is Jewish or not, but his account appears not to be opinionated, biased, judgmental, or one-sided, but gains its strength through the characters or the situation "talking," rather than the author explaining things as Goldhagen tried to do in Hitler's Willing Executioners. I had read quite a few books on the Holocaust and wondered what happened after the war. Kaufman answers this question clearly and to the point, and for this I give him five stars. - As for the book's readability, as noted in previous reviews, the narrative introduces us to several Jewish families in different East European countries, and lets us "follow them" closely from the war's end to after the Berlin Wall fell. The result is quite good and, at the same time, very surprising and unexpected, at least to me; the characters are alive and real and they and their histories will remain in the reader's memory for some time. - Overall, I think Kaufman did an excellent job in answering my question as to what happened to the European Jews after the war. I was impressed.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting story of Judiasm under the Communists, August 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: A Hole in the Heart of the World: Being Jewish in Eastern Europe (Paperback)

Jonathan is first a journalist. He gives you a penetrating view of what it was like to be in Europe under communism as told by people that lived it. He makes you identify with these people and feel their stories. This is no simplistic story of good and evil. This is the story of real and complex people dealing in their different ways with an impossible situation. Some rebelled, some hid, and some joined the enemy. The only common thread is that they were all alive to tell Jonathan their stories when the Berlin Wall fell. Fortunately Jonathan was there at this unique point in time to listen to their stories and tell them to us.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasent surprise!, June 16, 2000

By 

Eva Szende (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Hole in the Heart of the World: Being Jewish in Eastern Europe (Paperback)

Jonathan Kaufman wrote a wonderful book. It is very authentic, very broad and very readable, especially considering that it is non-fiction. The characters and situations are so real that all the time whilr reading I had the impression that the author had to come from that area in order to have such an understanding for the place and for the people.