Customer Reviews

A Partisan's Memoir: Woman of the Holocaust

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I cried at least once every other chapter...I would like to applaud Faye for having the courage to write about such painful memories!!! It is hard for me to even imagine what life must have been like in Europe during WWII...especially for the Jews!! Faye does an outstanding job of pulling the reader into her world, and it is impossible not to feel her pain and terror. And she does so with such little bitterness or self-pity!! If you love memoirs, you must read this one!!! Excellent!!!

In one scene in the book, Faye described an attack by a German helicopter on their group of partisans. Two of the reviews said that the book is historically inaccurate as they claim that the Germans did not have helicopters in use in WWII. This is false information. The Germans did use a helicopter in WWII called the Flettner FL-282 Kolibri. Initially it was used by the German navy for reconnaissance purposes for convoy protection and submarine warfare. However, later in the war, it was used in land warfare by artillery brigades to direct artillery fire. It is entirely possible that Faye and the partisans had an encounter with the helicopter in this context. And even though the helicopter did not have its own weapons, it's not difficult for a soldier to stick a machine gun out of the window and fire away at targets on the ground. This book is accurate, and the details of Faye's exploits, and her courage, will serve as an inspiration for generations.

This book is a powerful read - I highly recommend it. It chronicles the experiences of Faye Schulman, a 19-year-old teenage girl who was left alone after her family was murdered by the Nazis. It is a unique perspective of the Holocaust: Schulman escaped the Nazis to join the partisans, and in her book, gives a moving account of her years of living and surviving in the woods, her participation in raids against Nazi forces, and her role as a self-trained nurse and photographer during these years. A Partisan's Memoir is a story of tremendous courage, a book that shouldn't be missed.

In grade 12 English, we had to pretend to be a person and talk about our life. I picked up this book, and started looking through it, read the first page and was very impressed. Nobody has ever heard of Faye Schulmann, so, I figured it would be a nice idea. Everybody kind of looked at me funny when they asked me whom I chose, and chuckled a bit. I have always been interested in this topic, especially being from Germany. People my age just don't have a clue about what went on over there, and that is a shame. I thought this book brought part of the war to life anyway. Everybody was sceptical about my speech at first, kind of got a giggle out of it, but by the time that I was finished, half of my class was in tears, and were very moved by that story. Books such as this one is a great educational book. It was sad to see, that people actually had to live through this just because of their religion.Maybe it will make somebody think twice about judging someone by their skin colour or their religion.

Faye's memoir is a fascinating read. I must admit I devour anything Holocaust related, but a book on the Partisans was just too fabulous to miss. The book isn't prettied or stylishly fabulous. You can tell Faye never studied how to properly write a book, and the segways, if present, are insufficient BUT she did catch my interest and more than any of that, I cared about Faye and cared about what happened to her. Isn't that the true test of fine writing? It's an honest, heart ripping account of what happened to her and what it felt like to live through the holocaust and beyond. Bravo!

Having seen a photographic exhibit of her work in Seattle, I wanted to read about this amazing woman !!!! to have survived period, but to have been able to capture some of the war, The Nazi invasion of Polandto have protected her camera, her ability to develop some negatives in the forest and to finally stay alive fighting for several years without a home in Eastern Poland !!! the quality of the photos is remarkable.

this woman does not boast, is not overwhelmed with bitterness. she just wants people to know what happened. I cannot imagine her life. she alone survived from her family in Belarus.

I appreciate Amazon for it can make available and deliver unusual books. thank you so much.

This is a fascinating book. Ms. Schulman details all that she endured to survive during the Nazi occupation of her country. I learned a great deal that I hadn't known about the partisan network that existed to fight back against the Nazis. Yet even in the partisan groups that had the unifying cause to fight against the Nazis, there was antisemitism. Regardless of how often Ms. Schulman risked her life to help her partisan group she was still regarded negatively as a Jew first and a partisan a distant second.

An interesting memoir, but has a serious problem. The author mentions that her Soviet Partisan unit was subjected to a German helicopter attack in 1944. The Germans did not have any helicopters in WWII, and neither did any other country. They did have ground attack airplanes, but the book describes a helicopter attack. There is either a credibility problem with this account, or some type of translation/linguistic error. The publisher should have caught this.

This memoir describes a German helicopter attack on the author's Soviet Partisan unit in 1944. This sounds unlikely, as the Germans had produced only 39 of the experimental 8-passenger Fa 223 (1942), the only helicopter they made that carried a machine gun. Few survived; Allied bombers destroyed the factory. The Germans had ground attack airplanes, but a helicopter attack is unlikely. Helicopters were developed to their full military potential after WWII. Was this a linguistic error or faulty memory by the author? The publisher should have caught this or attempted to verify the unusual use of technology.