Alicia

Rating:
Summary: An inspirational story . A phenomenal woman .
Review: "I swore on my 17 year old brother Zachary's grave that I would tell his
story," recounts Holocaust author Alicia Appleman
Jurman. You will be moved Alicia's riveting book.

The terror for Alicia began in 1939 at age 8 in the town of Buczacz, Poland, where one-third of the 18,000 people were Jewish. First her brother was beaten and his treasured violin
smashed. By the end of the war, the Nazis had shot, hung, tortured and
starved to death about 80 members of Alicia's family, including her
parents and 4 brothers.

Alicia's story tells how she defied all odds, surviving six attempted
murders. In one instance, similar to the recent anthrax incidents, Alicia
was intentionally infected with typhoid through water contamination. In
another episode, she was buried alive in a mass grave.

Despite the horrors, this book strikes many surprising, hopeful notes,
serving as an inspiration to Alicia's readers. Several suicidal
individuals have confessed to the author that her book encouraged them
to survive. All readers cannot help but stand in
awe of Alicia's resistance efforts. Young Alicia threw boiling soup in the
face of Russian jailers, spat at Polish Nazi collaborators, and punched a
British soldier in the nose when he boarded the Theodor Herzl ship after it
was attacked in the Haifa seaport. She was thrown out of a moving freight train
to escape execution. She ran into the forest fleeing a death march.
"The Jews did not go like sheep," Alicia explained to a group of Palo Alto, CA,
junior high school students. But her explanation is unnecessary: she is
living proof of Jewish courage.

Alicia was not only a survivor, but she rescued others as well. Even as a 15 year old orphan, Alicia managed an orphanage. She personally smuggled Jews out of Poland. "I am my brother's keeper," Alicia has always insisted.

While many victims never want to discuss the horrors again after
experiencing such unspeakable tragedies, Alicia has used her story of
suffering to prevent its recurrence. For more than 50 years, Alicia has given talks in her family's and friends' memory She has made presentations across the U.S. and Canada to
groups as large as 13,000 at the Long Beach arena. "Students have a right to
know what happened, to build a secure future," she explains as her
motivation. "Today's students are the last generation able to meet a living
survivor and hear a personal account of what actually happened."

Recently, Alicia declared, "The Holocaust can happen here." She concluded,
"The Jews died of a disease called indifference."

Even those who have studied the Holocaust will
appreciate and admire Alicia Appleman Jurman's story. Read her book. Give it
as a gift to a young person.

After meeting Alicia when I wrote the above book review for a local periodical almost 4 years ago, I became more and more involved in her life. She has been an inspiration to me. She still receives many e-mails and letters. She has a videotape available of one of her presentations.

[...]

Rating:
Summary: amazing book
Review: "Alicia" was loaned to me by a lady at our church last Sunday. Although I had much to do this week involving my being out all day every day, I read through much of the nights, and have just finished the book this morning (Thursday). I am so grateful to the author for going through the agony of remembering her experiences of man's cruelty. I am an American living in England and am so glad that she knew kindness at the hands of my fellow countrymen. And I am so ashamed of the treatment meted out by the British, just when freedom was in sight.
As a Christian, I am deeply angry that so much of the pain suffered by Alicia and all the other Jews was carried out by people thought to be Christians. I hope she has by now discovered that there are many fake Christians around and that a true follower of the Lord Jesus would love and help her people. This very week many from our area are travelling up to London for a Saturday conference run by PFI - Prayer For Israel. The believers we know all have a heart for Israel and the Jewish people. Our Saviour was Jew, His mother was Jew and the apostles were all Jews.
Alicia has brought home to us the age old hatred of the Jewish people and the horror it can unleash. We all know about the Holocaust, but that is very different from hearing about the heart-breaking effects on one family.
I am ordering two copies of this book; one to keep and one to lend out. It is a most important book and should certainly be in every library, particularly every school library. Every generation must know what happened.
In the story of one young girl's desperate struggle for survival, we see the total evil of not only Naziism, but also Communism, and it becomes clear that the problem is evil in the heart of mankind, whatever label is pinned on it. Only a heart conversion to faith in Jesus could change the monsters we encounter in Alicia's book.
If Alicia should happen to still be alive and perhaps even read this review - thank you so much for writing your story. I am so glad you found refuge and love in my country.

Rating:
Summary: This is the most amazing story I have ever read.
Review: Alicia Appleman Jurman tells us a truly captivating story that makes us to see her grife throug tearful eyes. Alicia very quickly grew into a resourceful and brave human being. A young survivor has so much courage to live through the holocaust as well as loss her family one by one. Alicia passed through extremely dangerous situations when she was younger than 14 years of age. For a child to survive and fight back is truly awe-inspiring. The world depends on people like Alicia who still are today heroes and survivors from the march and telling the exhilarating story of an epic life and hardships. It helps all of us to know what was done and what happened. This is a truly powerful book, I would recommend to anyone who has never read or know about holocaust.

Rating:
Summary: A true survivor
Review: Alicia Jurman was a young girl living happily among her large Jewish family in Buczacz, Poland, when it was invaded by the Russians in 1939. The Germans followed shortly thereafter and thus began the end of Alicia's world as she had always known it. As the Nazis sought to annihilate the Jewish population, Alicia lost first her beloved father then one by one each of her four brothers. She and her mother, whom she vowed to protect, were then forced to move from ghetto to ghetto in their efforts to escape capture, even sometimes hiding in wheat fields when they could find no other means of shelter. Alicia was often able to get work from farmers who would employ her to help them in their fields for the day in exchange for a potato or a piece of bread and a cup of sour milk. Before the war was over, Alicia would lose her mother as well.

This is the amazing and remarkable story of a courageous young woman who not only survived the Holocaust but went on to help other Jewish orphans and displaced persons after the end of the war. By sheer ingenuity and living by her wits, Alicia managed to avoid the concentration camps but there were times when it seemed truly miraculous that she lived through the ordeals she faced. Once she was rounded up with other Jews who were placed in boxcars to be taken to a concentration camp. Some of the men inside the car were able to free a bar from one of the small windows and were able to put several children out through the opening. Alicia was one of those children. Another time after having been beaten and imprisoned she was presumed to be dead and thrown on a pile of bodies awaiting burial in a mass grave. The man who picked up her body realized she was still alive and while he had no choice but to bury her at the time, came back shortly after the German soldiers left the site and rescued her.

Alicia's story is one that you will find very hard to put down. While it is filled with many, many tragic episodes there are glimpses of goodness to be found in those few individuals who were willing to take a risk and help Alicia in her struggle to survive. Ms. Jurman has written a very riveting memoir. If you are interested in reading the tale of a true survivor and a brave and heroic individual then look no further than this book.



Rating:
Summary: Alicia's Life
Review: Alicia's story was one of the most touching that, I have ever read. She was a young girl who was faced with many problems financially and emotionally. Being a Jew made it quite difficult when it came to the Nazis. They would mistreat the Jews just because of their race. So you can say that they were quite prejudice. Although she had many deaths in her family, she was able to pull through and continue with her life. She was very young when she went out trying to trade with other people in order to get food or other items for her family. If she was caught by the Nazis while on this task she would have been sent to jail or probably be killed. So she had to live in fear most of her life.
I would recommend this book because it was very interesting. Although there were many tragic incidents, it made me what to read further. I think that no one who is not able to handle tragic incidents should read the book because they would probably break down. This book also thought me how and why the Nazis treated the Jews that way and it is sad to know that all around the world, there are people who went through Alicia's problems and were in need of help just like her. Alicia also obtained help from some great people in this book. She had people who saved her from death and this enabled her to go back to her family who loved her and would do anything for her. I think that her writing would inspire anyone who has doubt of surviving in this world. In addition, it would probably change their way of thinking.


Rating:
Summary: I will never forget this novel.
Review: It started out quite innocently, seeing someone else reading the book and growing interested in the cover. I always read books about World War 2 because they moved me so and I learned so much. In comparison to so much other history, it is a much more recent event. I then went to buy the book, after all it was on a book list for school. I didn't know that after I read this book my life wouldn't quite be the same.Alicia was an extremely brave girl who risked her life to help others, even when she did not realize it. For years before 1939 she lived a perfect life. She had friends, a loving family, a nice home... but then it was taken away from her. She nearly lost her life many times, but continued to survive. She worked for food in the fields of Poland, making up stories, and struggling to get just one piece of bread for her mother. Soon, she looses everyone and she has to cope with the loss and continue to live. So many times I had to put this book down because tears were streaming down my cheeks. After reading this I have decided to do something to help humanity and to be courageous in that way like Alicia was. She is my hero and probably always will be. I will read this book for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, horrifyingly true holocaust story
Review: Thank you, Alicia Appleman-Jurman, for telling this heroic, heartening, tragic, horrifying story of the Holocaust. You are a hero for the ages. Please keep telling the story as much as you can. Readers: if you have not read this, please buy or borrow this book and do so. You need to learn this story of the Holocaust. This story because it is to compellingly written and told. This story because of the heroism of the author. This story because the Holocaust should never be forgotten.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book: First hand account of the Holocaust
Review: The novel "Alicia" by, Alicia Appleman-Jurman, is about a girl trying to live as a Jew in Poland during World War Two. Alicia is happy. She lives with her mother, father, and four brothers. Everything is wonderful in her life, she goes to school, she has friends, and is surrounded by those who love her. When one of Alicia's brothers gets permission to go away to school in another city, no one thinks anything about it. When his letters start sounding odd, unlike the happy, bubbley, 17 year old boy, the family gets suspicious. Suddenly, there are no letters. He trys to come home, but is caught, and killed. Little things happen to almost everyone in Alicia's family, until its just her and her mother. With her father, and all four brothers dead, the world is a hard and lonely place for Alicia. Provideing food is getting hard. They are living on 1 slice of bread each, and maybe some sour milk or a quick drink from a stream, for all day long. When they finally think they war is over, come out of hiding, and try to live a normal life, tragity strikes again. Will Alicia ever be able to survive the war? Will her life ever be somewhat normal? I really enjoyed this book, and I think anyone who wants to get a first-hand account of the Holocaust, through a teenage girls eyes, should read "Alicia".

Rating:
Summary: A Young Girl's Journey of Life and Death
Review: Thirteen year-old Alicia was living in Poland, when her and her family went through a brutal separation in 1942. Alicia escapes a terrifying and violent world, fleeing through fields and woods, meeting refugees, and sometimes manages to find safe hideout spots. Although Alicia has never experienced the death camps her self, she has lived in constant fear, and survives through pure luck and her sense of smartness. She sees her mother's brutal death, and endures physical and mental deprivation, but she manages to restore her faith in herself, God, and in her people. She eventually leads a group of Jewish survivors, who stay in Palestine.
One thing I disliked about this book was that when she and the other survivors finally reach their destination, Eretz Israel, they are sent to a camp called Caroalas. I mean come on now, haven't these people already suffered enough? Shouldn't they have enjoyed their freedom, instead of being put into another camp, which by the way I know that the British people only said that it was for their own goods. Even though that camp wasn't a camp ran by the evil Nazis, it was still a prison because it was holding those people in from being free.
One thing I liked about the book, was that Alicia never gave up. She would just go on saving other people's lives as well as trying to stay alive herself, all at the same time. She was a brave thirteen year-old, who had to go through things she shouldn't have to go through at that age. Alicia was a very courageous girl, and I'm just sad that I didn't get to met her like some of my friends have. I thought the book was very interesting, and as I was reading it, I felt the pain that Alicia felt, although I never experienced anything she went through, I was and still am clearly disgusted with everything the Nazis did to those poor people. This book has inspired me to read other books that deal with the Nazis, and World war 2, and I hope it has to other people as well.

Rating:
Summary: HEARTWRENCHING!!!!!
Review: This is perhaps the best book on the holocaust EVER written!!! Alicia really has done a stunning job on this book; not a detail left out! And it is SO gripping! This story has anger and hatred towards Hitler and his followers, of course, but it is much more emotional, more intimate. This story has much more tenderness than any other Holocaust story I have EVER read; even the hardest, most callous person(I am the stoic type) would be left sobbing from this story.
Alicia has a close and VERY loving family(a rarity nowadays, which is quite a pity): both parents, three older brothers and one younger one. Your heart is torn to pieces as each of the family is killed one by one. After her mother was killed and she had to flee Buczacz, she finds herself working for farmers and trying to help her fellow Jews, and even saves some Russian partisans from death. When she is congradulated by the Russian army, she wishes to return to Buczacz. But(the way I see it) she seems to have somewhat of a crush on one of the partisans she saved(Kola, I think his name is) and is hesitant on leaving.
This whole book is remarkable! But Miss Jurman must have gone through the most dreadful pain having to remember all these terrible memories. But her work has not at all been in vain. Brava Alicia! I hope you are reunited with your family and friends when your time here has passed. This book is just wonderful to read. Thank You so Much!