Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death : A Holocaust Childhood

Rating:
Summary: Lost Childhood
Review: A childhood spent on the run from Nazis, in Poland, Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Italy: what a memoir. It reminds us that even Holocaust survivors who escaped the concentration camps could hardly find a day of rest from the major and the petty harassment visited on them by Nazis. Gerda Bikales seems to have remembered every home or shed that offered her and her mother shelter, and she is generous in thanking those who helped. Remarkable that she is not bitter, but grateful for survival, that she was able to stay with her mother until almost the end, and was reunited with her eventually, and most of all that she was able to enter the United States and make a happy adult life. An amazing book. I recommend it heartily to Amazon's readers.

Rating:
Summary: An Intimate Slice of History
Review: As one of her acquaintances who has been urging Mrs. Bikales to finish her memoir of a childhood journey through wartime Europe, I am delighted with the result. Her book reads like a thriller as she and her mother move from one place to another to avoid the impositions of Nazi tyranny. There are warm allusions to the importance of family and survival as well as the kindness of strangers, all in the context of innocent childhood thrust into the cauldron of hatred and violence. In these times, when so many would have us suspend memory of the Holocaust by revising history, it is ever more important to have the witnesses share their stories. Gerda Bikales has shared hers, adding to the treasury of important memory. Her writing is exceptional, with the photographs bringing one family's unique existence into focus. Yet, one realizes that this family's history is symbolic of so many more in their various experiences during a tragic and unforgettable time.

Rating:
Summary: Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
Review: Gerda Bikales' story of her Jewish childhood in hiding in Hitler's Europe is told with a novelist's feel for scene and character - and terror. It is also authentic. There are no tortures or eyewitness murders to harrow those with little stomach for atrocities. Rather this is a profoundly moving story of the WWII through the half-comprehending eyes of child, a girl aged eight to 12, on the run for her life. Occasionally she grabs snatches of education in different countries and different languages but mostly she lives in hiding, afraid and observing with extraordinary sensitivity. Unlike many stories of this kind this one has a happy ending. If you are used to thinking about political events as semi-abstract movements and isms this book will provide a different perspective.

Rating:
Summary: more incredible than fiction
Review: This is a remarkable true-life account of refugee flight from the Third Reich as seen through the eyes of a precocious young girl. Full of unforgettable characters, it is the amazing story of a mother and daughter's courageous escape across the darkening landscape of World War II Europe. At times more incredible than fiction, this well-written book brings history to life in a way that the reader will never forget. I cannot recommend it too highly.