Customer Reviews

Seed of Sarah: Memoirs of a Survivor

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The story that this woman has to tell about her experience is absolutely amazing. I work at a private school in Maine, and I have had the privilege of hearing her read one of her chapters aloud, and, along with the room of 300, I sat mesmerized by her powerful story of personal courage and perseverance. As she mentioned, the chance of hearing holocaust survivors tell their own story grows smaller each year. Listening to her tell her story, my husband and I realized that although she had suffered such inhumane treatment, she has not lost any of her humanity. She was truly inspirational, and the powerful message that she gave our students was to work for understanding and harmony while also enjoying the happy moments in their own lives. Despite the ups and downs, life is a wonderful gift. Hearing someone like Mrs. Isaacson tell you that you can look on the bright side of your life really puts everyday troubles into perspective.

In November 1976, the Bates College Dean of Students - Judith Magyar Isaacson - was invited to give a talk on the Holocaust at her alma mater, Bowdoin College. For the first time since her concentration camp and forced labor camp experiences, she spoke about them in public. After that she knew she had to write her story, just as she'd planned she would while those events were happening to her.

What does it mean to be a Hungarian Jew, in the years before the war? Judit Magyar, nicknamed Jutka, lives a happy and secure life as the only child of a middle class couple. That comfortable existence falls away piece by piece, as laws are passed that take away one right after another from the Magyars and other families like them. By the time Jutka and her remaining loved ones are deported, they've already survived being barred from working for a living - being deprived of their property - and being crowded into a ghetto, that used to be one of many neighborhoods where Kaposvar Jewish families lived.

Wrenching though the rest of the book is, to me its most interesting aspect is Jutka's calm narration of how the city that once respected and valued her family gradually embraces Nazi-sponsored anti-Semitism. What happens when government institutionalizes hate, and makes it respectable, is all the more frightening because the culture thus poisoned is both ancient and thoroughly civilized.

Brrr. Could there be a lesson in this for today's world?

This book is one of the greatest ive ever read. It is written so well, that the reader transforms himself into Jutka's life, and seems to experience this book as if it were his own experience. This is one fo the most stuningly realistic survivor books, ever written. There are no words that can express the power of this book, completely.

Judith Magyar Isaacson tells her story of the Holocaust that speaks of those who cannot. This first person account amazes me that she has to decipher her role in life, but also has to fight for her life. Why should someone have to fend for him or herself while going through the hardest part of her life? When I started reading this book I thought it was going to be like any other Holocaust book I read, but it had a twist to it that made it unlike any other book I have read. This book I think is one of the best first person accounts of the Holocaust, its right up their with Anne Frank's Diary. She has so much courage to speak out about this horrific time period, to have the courage to tell us what you went through to be where you are right now.
Judith Magyar was born to two Jewish parents she and her family was like any other middle class family in Hungary except that they were Jewish. She was stuck in this everyday life closed off from the world until Hitler comes to power and establishes the first and second Jewish laws. During the establishing of these laws is in which she is first discriminated against because she is Jewish. Even though it happened, she doesn't allow it to get to her; she acts like it's every other day. This all changes when they are ghettoized into the center of town. Her 19th birthday is celebrated in a horse stable, when it's supposed to be celebrated at home with family and friends. That's when it hits her that her world has changed. Then they are transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where they lose their reason for living. As it comes close to liberation, the Americans are within a town away. The Kommandant all of a sudden decides that they are going to keep moving. This cliché keeps happening throughout the rest of the book. When they first come in contact with there first taste that the Americans were close, they felt as though they are destined to live, and that someone really cares for them. She is transported from camp to camp, inching closer and closer to death. She is liberated from this hell that they have been living in for the past couple years and she realizes that she is really suppose to live. She meets an OSS officer. They get to know each other from spending a lo0t of time together. Judith realizes that she loves him when he is sent to the western front, and she actually becomes really sick because she misses him so much. When he gets back he proposes to her. Guess what she says? After years of being away from her hometown, she come back and is amazed by everything and how different it is. She realizes that she is one out of 250 that survived the Holocaust out of 5000 people from this region 5% AMAZING! What ends this heart wrenching yet beautiful book?
This book was really astonishing it was unlike any other Holocaust book I have ever read. This book would be good for anybody who is interested in the Holocaust or also if you like historical fiction. There are a couple of mistakes with the writing the first is that there are a few misspelled words. In addition, it skips around really quickly. I got lost a couple times, but I found out what was happening. Even with those mistakes it is still a really good book. I highly recommend it to anyone. This is one of the books I have ever read.
Steven Kidder "Book Fiend" (Concord, NH USA)

Among the many published accounts of the Holocaust, Seed of Sarah stands out for its amazing clarity, its portrayal of courage in the face of unprecedented crimes against humanity, and for its optimism despite those crimes. Not many first-hand accounts of the death camps center on the perspective of women. This one does, but it is also universal in its appeal and the genius of the author is that she allows the reader to be with her during the worst of the experience and to survive, as she has done, with love. If you are teaching or taking a course on the Holocaust or on World War II, this book is essential.

I'm amazed that someone who has endured a tragic event in their life has found the stength to speak, and write about it. These survivor's had their businesses, properties and personal belonging taken from them, because they were Jewish!! The treatment in the camps was horrendous. I'm not even sure how they managed to survive. You can spend your life reading and studing the Holocaust, however unless you were there you will never really know. This book bring you as close as you can get.

This is a memoir that is easier to read than many about experiencing Nazi Germany. Nonetheless it expresses the experience quite fully. I think it is appropriate for adolescents on up. I bought it for my elderly aunt who was interested in exploring the Holocaust in a prayerful way.

I could not put this book down once I picked it up. I have read many great books involvong the Shoah and this one stands out. Judith is such a truly a remarkable woman, that it serves as a reminder of how many remarkable lives were lost.

This was a great book! It really told about her experiences during the whole war and what many people had to go through. I would definitely recommend it!

I wish it were possible for me to meet this fascinating lady.