Customer Reviews

My Just War: The Memoir of a Jewish Red Army Soldier in World War II

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Folks, this book is probably one of the best, if not THE best, book to come out of the Soviet/German conflict of WW2.

Gabriel Temkin, unemcumbered by Soviet propaganda, tells it the way it really was. The best part of the book is that we get a real close look at what the common Red Army soldier went thru, and we also get a closer look at the common Russian people, whose courage and patriotism show us what a great people they were, and still are. There are scenes in the book describing the way poor kholkozniks helped Mr. Temkin back to Russian lines that really got to me emotionally in the way they sacrificed all just to help a lone, Russian solder, albiet a stranger.

I cannot recommend this book too highly, it is one of my top 10 books, and I own over 600 books, mostly on history.

Since writing the above words 3 years ago, I have since been to the Russian Federation 4 times in the last 2 years. I have seen many of the memorials to the "Velikaya Otechestvannaya Voina" or Great Patriotic War. I have met one Soviet War veteran that I had a good talk with. And I had the good fortune of staying not in Hotels, but in people's houses, and I can now understand further why the "slavic" hospitality I saw in Mr. Temkin's book, still survives in some ways now in the Russia I visited.

Mr. Temkin's book is THE BEST one in describing what Soviet Soldiers went thru. If only more Americans knew how much the Russian and Soviet people sacrificed in defeating Hitler. If only there were a lot more memoirs of men like Mr. Temkin, that were translated into English.

URRA...

Mark Conway
conway2000@comcast.net

Mr. Gabriel Temkin's book "My Just War" is quite remarkable for at least two reasons. He is one of the very few Jewish soldiers who were captured by the German Army, spent several months as German prisoner of war, and survived. Apparently he owes that to his good looks, good reflexes, and the fact that his Russian comrades had not betrayed him. Of particular interest are his observations concerning the conduct of Hungarian soldiers in whose custody he was for some time, and their treatment of the Hungarian Jewish labor force... Liberated by the Russian offensive, he joined a Russian infantry regiment and had ample combat experience on the Southern front (among others, in the famous Korsun Shevchenkovsky battle), then in Romania, Hungary, and Austria. Here is the second important quality of the book, that is, a vivid rendering of his experience. I would say the detailed description of combat given in this book can be compared with Victor Nekrasov's story "In the Trenches of Stalingrad".

Dear Sir, I have noticed the recent changes in the Amazon's Website of my book:"My Just War" and I would like to propose that some excerpts from other editorial reviews be also added: 1.From "Publisher's Weekly" of Jan.26,1998: 2.from "Parameters"US Army War College Journal.Spring 2001.From the"Canadian Jewish News",April !998;4. the "Jerusalem Post" and the "The Jerusalem Report", July 13 and August 1998. There were also many very favorable rewies in many local papers in the USA as well as in England. With many thanks, Gabriel temikn.

This is simultaneously a moving story of the ability of the human spirit to survive the unthinkable and a fascinating account of Russia at war, as seen from ground level. The real wonder of the book is that Mr.Temkin - who lost home and family in the Holocaust, who endured appalling privations in Soviet labour battalions, who survived capture by the Nazi and the suspicions of the NKVD of escaped prisoners, who fought his way from the Don to Budapest in an infantry unit, who built a new life after the war as a Polish academic, only to become a refugee again in 1968, and who ultimately created a new life for himself and his family in the United States - could not just prevail, but do so with the generosity of spirit that radiates from every page of this book. A sub-theme of the story, equally inspiring, is Mr.Temkin's relationship to his wife, who suffered little less than himself, but who stayed a faithful support over sixty years. There is enough raw material in this book for a dozen novels but, the personal story aside, the most fascinating aspects are the details provided of what it was like to be a tiny cog in the massive Soviet war machine, not in a crack armoured or artillery or Guards unit, but in one of the vast multitude of "rifle divisions" - infantry units equipped with little more than the weapons from which they took tier name and dependent on "the horse with ten toes" for movement over vast distances and on the four-legged variety for transport of their supplies. Mr.Temkin's division could boast two motor vehicles by the end of the war - US-made jeeps for senior officers, and for the rest differed little from the units that had fought in the Crimea almost a century earlier. Much of the story makes painful reading, and spares us nothing, including details of the trail of rape and massacre cut through the civilian populations of Eastern Europe as the Soviet army, thirsty for revenge, lunged westwards. Despite all the horror - and the knowledge of the underlying tragedy of the loss of almost all the writer's family - this is a book filled with hope and inspiration. Its greatest merit may be that it rescues from oblivion so many decent, unassuming and courageous people - family members, peasants, army comrades - who live again in these pages. It is a wonderful book. Read it - and give it to your children and friends to read as well.

My Just War is truly a work of art. Through this book, one sees what really happened during one segment of World War 2. The author begins with the occupation of Poland, details the initial persecution of the Jewish population, his subsequent flight to Russia, then documents the movements, courage and self-sacrifice of the Russian Army up through the liberation of Budapest. Many interesting, little known facts come to light. As a society, we learn from the past. This professionally written, factual account keeps the past alive. My Just War is a remarkable, wonderful historical document and a "Must Read" selection.

This is a remarkable account of a Polish Jew's escape from the Nazis and his subsequent wartime service in the Red Army. Mr. Temkin's writing is rarely emotional, never vengeful, which may seem somewhat incongruous with the level of the tragedy he experienced. His entire family perished, after all; he barely escaped. And he encountered physical hardship and anti-Semitism in Russia. But he gives a straight-forward account of the Holocaust in Poland, his rather extraordinary rise in rank in the Soviet Army, and his "just war" -- his personal battle against Fascism. Credit belongs to Mr. Temkin's family for persuading him to share his very interesting memoir.

My Just War was with a doubt a very good book especially if you're intrested in ww2. It had alot of detail about what Gabriel Temkin had to go through fighting both as a red army soilder and being a jew. I think that this book should also be made into a movie so that everyone could see what it was like to be a soilder during ww2. I would recamend this book to anyone who can read it might teach some people some respect for their elders.

Most people living today have no memory of WWII. This is a most interestingly told story that gives the reader a real understanding of the hardships endured by most of the people of Europe, not just the Jews. It should be required reading for anyone under the age 50.

A very gripping book, I believe that it is an important historical document. In my eyes Mr. Temkin is a true hero, a lucky survivor, and we are blessed that he has shared a part of his life with all of us.

This book shows a man who could "think on his feet" as he found a way of staying alive in many difficult situations during WW II. You are allowed to understand what it must have been like to have been a Jew and almost more afraid of being discovered than you were of dying. It is an interesting book that allows the reader to feel, and almost see, the horror of WW II from the Polish/Russian perspective.