Customer Reviews

In the Lion's Mouth: Gisi Fleischmann & the Jewish Fight for Survival

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Gisi Fleischmann's pre-Holocaust life was unexceptional, but the woman, it turned out, was not. Strong both in moral principle and in determination to act, effective both as an inspiration to others and as a doer, Fleischmann set her whole being to the task of saving Jewish lives--in exchange, inevitably, for her own. The story of her activities and those of her Slovakian colleagues has been kept alive in memory through the exhaustive research of Joan Campion. Based on archival materials and on interviews with surviving family members and friends, the book describes the real-life nightmare in a way that is the more disturbing for being low-keyed. Our only consolation is our recognition that here was a heroine.

Notes, bibliography, archival and interview sources, and index are included.

There are a hundred ways to tell the story of the Holocaust. Books have been written on the history, sociology, psychology and political conditions that contributed to the Nazi efforts to exterminate the Jews of Europe. The most moving books on the Holocaust, however, often concentrate on the fate of a family or an individual. "The Diary of Anne Frank" comes immediately to mind. Joan Campion has chosen that personal approach to tell the story of Gisi Fleischmann and her efforts to save Slovakian Jews. The resulting book brings back to life a strong, courageous woman. She appears to have been quite an ordinary woman who showed great bravery and intelligence in dealing with extraordinary challenges. In their efforts to destroy millions of innocent people, the Nazis also destroyed potential. We can never know what art, music, literature and scientific discoveries were lost in the death camps. But thanks to Joan Campion, another of Hitler's victims will be remembered, and he is denied another posthumous victory.

Over the years, when friends and I have discussed the Holocaust and the way in which the courageous acts of certain individuals made a difference in thousands of lives, names such as that of Raoul Wallenberg would inevitably be mentioned. I would bring up the name Gisi Fleischmann, because I had had the good fortune to read "In the Lion's Mouth," and to learn of her all-but-unknown efforts to call international attention to the plight of Slovakian Jews in the latter years of World War II.

Joan Campion's fluid narrative deftly guides the reader through the series of audacious negotiations and plans undertaken by Fleischmann and her colleagues to stave off the impending "Final Solution." The story's drama is heightened by Fleischmann's devotion to the work of saving as many people as possible- especially children -while being torn with anxiety for the safety of her own family.

There are people still living to whom Gisi Fleischmann did, indeed, make a difference. How wonderful that, thanks to Campion's efforts, her story is once again available in a world language!