The Polski Affair [Paperback]

Leon H. Gildin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2009

The Polski Affair is the story of Rosa Feurmann and others who found themselves as "guests" of the Hotel Polski during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. The Hotel mysteriously drew in Jewish survivors who wished to buy their way to freedom. Rosa, a Jewish partisan, infiltrates the hotel. She is detected and comes under the personal control of the Hotel's Nazi Commandant. What she did to survive continues to haunt Rosa's life. She is called as a witness at the Commandant's War Crimes Trial in Heidelberg and years later, she attends a reunion of the surviving hotel "guests". It is only upon her return to Israel that Rosa ultimately reconciles her inner conflicts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: Diamond River Books (June 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981137601
• ISBN-13: 978-0981137605
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,820,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars The Polski Affair, December 20, 2011

By 

N. Milenkovic (usa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Polski Affair (Paperback)

About:
The Polski Affair is an engaging novel that quietly drew me into its pages and left me feeling both shock and sorrow.
For a short book, this story packs a punch and is actually hard to review mainly because there are a few different things going on in the storyline.

Anna Adler is a Holocaust survivor living in Israel. The book goes from flashbacks to when Anna was incognito at the mysterious Hotel Polski to present day. Anna's first husband and her children were killed by the Nazi's. She is sent to the Hotel Polski disguised as a Polish maid in order to find out any information she can about what is going on there. There are all kinds of rumors surrounding the hotel.

While at the hotel, Anna meets a man named Chaim. He has also lost his family and the two of them bond quickly and fall in love.
One day, Anna is unexpectedly confronted by a Colonel who in charge of the Hotel Polski. He makes her his personal servant and Anna cannot refuse for fear of her life as well as Chaim's.
The Colonel is named Peter Hauptmann and he treats Anna as decently as can be expected. As the months pass, the two have an illegal affair.
When the Colonel is reassigned, he makes arrangements for Anna and Chaim to be sent overseas with new identities.
Years later after the war is over, Anna has never forgotten the Colonel and one day she is called upon to testify at the International War Crimes tribunal about his role at the Hotel Polski. Anna's past seems to forever haunt her.

An invitation has also been sent out for the 'guests' who survived Hotel Polski to come reunite and perhaps find closure.

My thoughts:
I had no idea what to expect when I began reading The Polski Affair. What I found here is an interesting take on an actual hotel where events were never fully reconciled.
The first part of the book took off a tad slowly for me. I think it was slow mainly because I was getting used to the flashbacks and the main characters. However, once the story took off, I was up late into the night reading.
I was shocked that Anna was made to be a Nazi's mistress. And even more stunned that she began to have feelings for him, especially after how her husband and children were murdered.
At the end of the book she does make a speech to her son where she justifies her actions a bit, as best as she can. I liked that she did that, it made me like her character a bit more.

The characters are interesting and the book is well written. This book is set during an atrocious time in history and I think the author did a good job at bringing these characters to life. The Holocaust survivors wonder why they survived, while so many did not, including their own loved ones.

There is one scene where a group of people, children included, are rounded up by the Nazi's and taken by train supposedly for 'freedom'. While on board, all the windows are covered with sheets so they cannot see where they are going. I found that scene bone chilling, just the thought of being at someone elses mercy like that.

I should mention there are some brief sexual scenes in the plot. I found those unexpected, but they fit in well with the storyline.

I enjoyed reading this one and when it was finished, I did wonder what would happened next.

Special thanks to BookSparks for my review copy.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gripping and Bizarre Tale, December 6, 2011

By 

Man of La Book (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Polski Affair (Paperback)

The Pol­ski Affair by Leon H. Gildin is an award win­ning, fic­tional book about a very weird and bizarre his­tor­i­cal occur­rence dur­ing World War II. The book is the story of one fam­ily of Holo­caust sur­vivors, takes place in present day Israel and Poland as well as through flashbacks.

Rosa Feur­mann found her­self in the Hotel Pol­ski in Nazi Occu­pied War­saw as part of an inves­ti­ga­tion of Jew­ish par­ti­sans as to exactly what is going on in there. Rumors were afloat that rich Jews were able to buy their way to free­dom using false doc­u­ments. How­ever, Rosa is detected by the Gestapo Colonel in charge of the hotel and becomes his per­sonal servant.

Years later Rosa, now liv­ing under her new iden­tity in Israel, is called to be a wit­ness to the Commandant's war crimes trial which causes her to relive her mem­o­ries and rec­on­cile her own conflicts.

The Pol­ski Affair by Leon H. Gildin is a grip­ping, bizarre read and an emo­tion­ally provoca­tive book. I have read many books about World War II, heard many strange sto­ries but this one is one of the stranger ones, the fact that it actu­ally hap­pened bog­gles my mind.

I have never heard of The Hotel Pol­ski and the bizarre scheme the Nazis were run­ning there. The more I read about the whole issue, the more bizarre it became. Basi­cally the Gestapo used the hotel to house Jews who had exit visas from Poldand. But, the visas of dead Jews were sold to ones who man­aged to escape the roundups and hide in the Aryan side of Warsaw.

After the Jews came out of hid­ing, the Gestapo col­lected the money but many of the peo­ple were sent to their deaths. What makes the issue even strangers is that many of the visas were for South Amer­i­can coun­tries which would have refused to rec­og­nize the pass­ports anyway.

The char­ac­ters are well writ­ten and the story moves along in a fast pace. There is many aspects to this book, promises bro­ken, betrayal, heart­break and sev­eral enlight­en­ing and happy moments. A page turner and a great pick for a book club.

Disclaimer: I got this book for free.

4.0 out of 5 stars Strong Historical Fiction, June 5, 2011

By 

Sandra Kirkland (High Point, North Carolina United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Polski Affair (Paperback)

Anna Adler is living in Israel as the book opens. She and her husband Chaim are immigrants and Holocaust survivors. They have a son, Sholom, and a daughter, Tamar, and are a happy family with successful lives. But before this life, they had other lives back in Poland. Anna was Rosa Feurmann and was married to a professor and had two lovely boys. She left the house one day and when she returned they were gone. Chaim was Itzik, and he lost his wife and four children. Drawn together by shared tragedy, they made their way to Israel and started new lives.

But the past cannot be forgotten. They made their way to Israel after staying in the Hotel Polski. It was touted among the Jews as a refuge in the madness, somewhere that families could stay and get visas to other lands. Desperate to escape, it was always crowded with families, although no one really knew if those who left were taken to jail or the camps, or if they did make it to new lives elsewhere. They are willing to give up their entire fortunes for a chance at survival.

Rosa has no money to try to purchase papers. She lives in the hotel, passing as a Polish maid. Then one day she catches the eye of Colonel Peter Hauptmann, the Nazi who is in control of the hotel. He informs Rosa that she will be his personal assistant and companion. Over the weeks that follow, she does that; dressing in the designer clothing of women killed in the camps and doing whatever he asks of her, including a sexual relationship. She is torn and ashamed, but knows she must do whatever is asked of her to have a chance at survival. When the Colonel is reassigned, he makes arrangements for Rosa and Itzik to be sent overseas. The papers he arranges for them gives them their new identities and Chaim and Anna Adler.

Now the past has returned in two ways. Anna is called after the war to testify at the International War Crimes tribunal about Colonel Hauptmann's role at the Hotel Polski. She testifies that he was involved in the departure of many families; some to be saved; some to be killed. The Colonel is given a prison sentence, but Rosa's testimony keeps him from execution. Then years later, a reunion of Hotel Polski survivors is held and she attends. It is another piece in the puzzle of those years that she constantly works and rewords, trying to make sense of her life.

The Polski Affair is the 2010 International Book Awards winner for historical fiction. The hotel did exist, and the mystery of what the Nazis were doing there has never been solved. What is clear and what Gildin portrays so movingly, is what people will do for survival, and how one can move on in later years to a more successful life. The past will never be forgotten but it can be integrated into the present in a way that doesn't destroy the survivor. This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction and for those interested in survival stories.