And Then There Was One [Paperback]

Michael Stone (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0935047344 | ISBN-13: 978-0935047349 | Publication Date: March 20, 2001

This is the story of how a comfortable middle class Jewish family dealt with the political and economic turmoil caused by the end of the Czar's reign and the onset of Communist government in Russia and how it eventually made its way to Weimar Germany where it prospered once again, only to have to leave when the Nazi rule made continued life in Berlin impossible. Provides riveting vignettes of how the cataclysmic events that shook the world between 1914 and 1945 dramatically effected the author's own life and those around him in many walks of life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A moving and not soon to be forgotten story of a Jewish family caught in pre-WWII European turmoil. -- Godfrey Harris

About the Author

Michael Stone

Product Details

• Paperback: 628 pages
• Publisher: Americas Group (March 20, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935047344
• ISBN-13: 978-0935047349
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,182,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #90 in Books > History > Europe > Latvia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A riveting personal saga that spans nations, January 9, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: And Then There Was One (Paperback)

And Then There Was One... is a historical memoir covering the era from 1910 t o 1945. Author Michael Stone was born in Latvia in 1910, grew up in Moscow, relocated to Berlin with his family to escape the Communist Revolution, and emigrated to the United States when the Nazis emerged to take control. And Then There Was One... is a riveting personal saga that spans nations, and offers a very personal view of cataclysmic events that reshaped human history and the world. Enhanced with an appendix, bibliography, and index, And Then There Was One... is highly recommended reading.

5.0 out of 5 stars BOOKREADER REVIEW, November 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: And Then There Was One (Paperback)

(...)Twentieth century lives are often studies in chaos, disruption, and just one damned thing after another. For Michael Stone, born in 1910, it's a century of the murder of Jews and of coming to America and having the freedom to build a successful life. But a successful and culture life was Stone's in Latvia, born into a family of prosperous entrepreneurs. Memories, experiences, fascinating bits of information—The Cotton Club, speeches in Columbus Circle, in the Latvian army, upbringing, siblings and parents, and meeting European men and women who, through their experiences, would define the times. But also there is the malady of the century: the Nazi murder of Jews. A horrifying depiction of the roundup of the Jews of Riga: "Those actions were representative of a number of carefully planned acts of extermination of Jews, not only in various cities in Latvia, but also in other parts of Nazi-occupied regions in Europe." And the terrible personal experiences of Stone. "My initial reaction to being transferred from the hands of the Gestapo to the regular, green-uniformed police calmed me a bit." In an important sense, this is a modern American life: coming from war-torn Europe, a man prospers but remembers, for future generations, the terrible things done in Europe. And it is a history of all of Europe as that history affected poor, helpless people. Stone remembers in a thoughtful, scrupulously detailed way: And Then There Was One is a clearheaded and instructive memoir, related with passion, and with enormous sorrow(...)

5.0 out of 5 stars And Then There Was One . . . -, May 24, 2001

By 

Jay G. Baris (Brooklyn, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: And Then There Was One (Paperback)

Unlike traditional history books, which are written many years after events have actually occurred, this unusual book tells of the cataclysmic world events of the the first half of the last century from the perspective of one who was there. The reader will get a graphic description of the different cultures, customs and events as they then existed.

There are not many people today who can say that they were acctually present in Moscow when the Bolshevic revolution was unfolding. Michael Stone was there. In this meticulously researched volume, Mr. Stone vividly describes how he survived the bloody two-year civil war when his mother was brutally killed. He goes on to describe his family's flight from Russia to the Weimar Republic. He provides a first-hand account of the World War II from the German perspective. Mr. Stone writes with passion about his experience of being arrested by the Gestapo on charges of high treason, which carried a mandatory sentence of decapitation (He was ultimately pardoned by Hermann Goering, personally!) We are fortunate that Mr. Stone, who was thrust into the middle of the century's greatest historic events, survived to preserve the truth from his unique perspective.

This is a must read for all history buffs.