Customer Reviews

To Save a Life: STORIES OF HOLOCAUST RESCUE

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"To Save a Life" may move you to tears (it did me). You will read about the experiences of persecuted Jews and their rescuers during the Holocaust, as told in their own words. At the same time the stories in the book are also inspiring and even cheering -- it's wonderful to see how kind some people are in the most adverse situations. The author interviewed a select number of rescuers and some of the people they rescued, then edited their words into coherent stories in a way that lets the subjects' voices come through with simple clarity and grace. Additionally the book is illustrated with fascinating photographs, many from the war years, plus contemporary portraits taken by the author. This is a great book and a great read for all ages: history from the mouths of the people who lived it.

A wonderful collection of memories and stories by Holocaust survivors and about both the people who saved them and the (unfortunate) ones who didn't try. Reading these stories places one in a time completely foreign to the world around us today, but reconnects one to what it means to be human and to be humane. A very moving collection. Highly recommended.

I have no problem with how many Jewish people she has helped or kept hidden in her home or grand Mothers home.
Here are the problems with Tina's story, Henry Polack, name is spelled wrong, it should be Henri Polak and the elaborate identity card was a picture ID with 2 prints of the right index finger
One finger print was put on a breakeble seal then glued on the back of paspoort picture for whom this ID was and one fingerprint on a other part of the ID, now if the picture was replaced with a other picture the finger print would not match.
Over the other finger prints a special glue was applied to make it almost impossible to remove.
Not as Tina states, I put there finger print(one only?)on the back of the photo.
Then Tina talks about listen to the BBC and as many 30-40 people came to listen most of them were Jewish.
Why would the Jewish people who were living in hiding would go out on the streets and walk, even in walking distance, one or five blocks? risk there lives to go listen to a radio broadcast.
Now there are listering to a illegal radio station and live in hiding, and with 30-40 people in a room?and nobody noticed all those people going in to one building.
Tina also talke's a bout the old Jewish quarter,we who lived there called a neighborhood,as one of the nices neighborhoods in Amsterdam, not at all poverty-stricken.
On a other page with a picture of the old Jewish quarter,she discrbe this same old Jewish quater completely the opposite, she says here that this it was one of the poorest disticts of Amsterdam, filled with alleys, and slums.
Sorry Tina,you can't have it both ways.
Now the worse parts, in 1941 the Germans closed off the Jewish quarter, true but only for a short time, and forced in to it all the Jews living in other parts of the city.
Not true, by that time my family and my fathers brother and his family plus a sister from my father with her family were living in the other parts of the city, and we or any other people in
our neighborhoods were forced to move to the old quarter.
They,the Germans,put up barbed wire all around but left the main thoughfares and Jew or non-Jews could in and out of this closed off area, why would the Germans close off the Jewish neighborhood but let anybody go in and out?
The curfew for the Jewish people started on 6-30-42 not in 1941.
No mention of the word ghetto.
After this the word ghetto shows up 7 times, there was no ghetto in Amsterdam during 1940-1945.
Then Tina discriped how her mother was leaving the ghetto and was asked to take a baby with her but Tina's mother can't, because she will be stopped at the gate, which gate? Tina stated that every body could in and out, because the main thoroughfares were open.
Tina's mother tell the parens of the baby if you know a way I can meet him outside, a place you can get him through the barbed wire, then I can help.
But lined up every ten feet were flares and lights, plus machine guns on the roofs , and every street corner. There was really no way she could do this.
As I said, the old Jewish neighborhood was closed of a very short time less than 3 months.
There never any flares, lights or machine guns on the roofs or on any street corners.
I have e-mails from the Jewish Historical Museum and from the Dutch War Documentation Office, NIOD, both in Amsterdam, and both deny that there was a ghetto in Amsterdam during 1940-1945 or any machine guns or light or flares during the time that there was barbed wire around the old Jewish neighbohood.
Plus there are more parts in this story that were diverent from the reality.
If anybody want copys of those e-mails, or have any questions contact me at jmeents3729@msn.com.