Shattered Faith: A Holocaust Legacy [Hardcover]

Leon Wells (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky; First edition (October 5, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813119316
• ISBN-13: 978-0813119311
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,932,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very important work, April 13, 2000

By 

Henry Greenspan "Henry Greenspan, Ph.D." (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shattered Faith: A Holocaust Legacy (Hardcover)

This is an essential memoir for those interested in the ways Holocaust survivors contend with faith and overwhelming loss. As always, Wells' writing is lucid, candid, and hugely informative. Even for those who have read a lot by survivors, this book will add a perspective that most will not have encountered before: looking back, with pain but not sentimentality, on the definitive end of a world. This is a vitally important book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this book has to be read now, December 9, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Shattered Faith: A Holocaust Legacy (Hardcover)

Reviiewing the latest "swiss gold scandal" this book is a must. To the best of my knowledge the content of this book is true, I am saying this as a survivor of shoa. I am very much indebted to the author Mr. Wells who dared to lift the smoke screen of some incredible decisions and deads which caused many of us to die. It is unfortunate that the Germanand the Swiss public is not able to read this book as there are no German copies anymore in the market

2.0 out of 5 stars Not at all what I had expected, February 1, 2007

By 

Stefan Isaksson "www.stefanisaksson.se" (Malmoe, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shattered Faith: A Holocaust Legacy (Hardcover)

Obviously this is an important book. All literature about the Holocaust is important, and especially when the book in question is written by survivor. And a survivor is just what Leon Weliczker Wells is. Unfortunately the rest of his family perished in the Nazi death camps, something that quite understandably traumatized him badly.

But not only has he been forced to live out the remaining days of his life grieving the horrible loss of his family. As a result of his experiences his relationship to God, as well as his identity as a faithful Jew, changed dramatically. And that's something I've thought about from time to time: how did these people - all these faithful Jews - look at God after such an unspeakable event as the Holocaust had taken place? How could anyone remain a believer afterwards? Surely they all must have given up their faith?

Yes, some indeed did just that. But others grew stronger in their faith, unbelievable as it might sound. But no matter what the outcome was, no one came out of the ordeal untouched. Especially not Wells, who has written several other books about his life besides Shattered Faith. I haven't read any of them, though, because according to the information I found beforehand, Shattered Faith focuses on how Wells started questioning his beliefs.

And yeah, I guess that's true. At least to a certain extent. But far from as much as I had hoped. In fact, the book was mostly a huge disappointment, because the majority of the text is made up of extremely detailed descriptions of the religious everyday life for young Wells and the rest of the Jews where he lived before the Nazis took over. Of a total of 151 pages - the glossary, notes, bibliography et cetera exempted - no less than the initial 90 are filled with these descriptions of the Jewish religion and how it affected Well's entire existence. Before the takeover. And I'm pretty sure I could have learned about that in countless other books.

Then when the Nazis eventually arrive the endless descriptions continue, at least from time to time, and still they're detailed to such an extent that I doubt few besides students of religion or adherents to the Jewish faith will find them very interesting. True, there are good moments, for example when Wells discusses how the Holocaust changed his and other Jews' beliefs, or how parallels may be drawn between the Nazi ideas of a master race or supreme people and the Jewish notion of being the people "chosen" by God, but these moments are few and far between. So while I don't doubt that this book is important in many ways, to me it was still nothing but a disappointment.