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Rating: 
Summary: Must reading: Wallenberg is Here
Review: I have just read this fascinating historical novel by Carl Steinhouse. Having read many other materials on Nazism and the treatment of Jews in my teaching career, I have found the information, settings, and characters to be carefully portrayed. In the section on Auschwitz, I had to recall the feelings I experienced in visiting the site. While there, I tried to place myself in the role of one of the victims arriving by train and living in one of the barracks until my death. The author does give a realistic portrayal of the fate of so many humans. One must admire Wallenberg for the risks he took and the creative ways he used to help the Jews in Hungary. The author has presented the material in an easy to read and easy to follow manner. The book is one when you start reading it, you will stay up late into the night because Steinhouse has written a most interesting book on an important series of events in our history.
Rating:
Summary: Fiction/Non Fiction--A Subtle Metamorphosis
Review: If a reader is looking for a good factual, non-fictional account of the horrors of late 1944 Budapest and the efforts of a little known Swedish hero to save the last remaining Jewish community in Europe, then by all means pursue Carl Steinhouse's Wallenberg is Here! If, on the other hand, one wants to immerse one's self in an exciting World War II work of historical fiction, then by all means read Carl Steinhouse's Wallenberg is Here. Can these paradoxical recommendations be a misprint? Most assuredly not, as Mr. Steinhouse's moving portrayal of the true story of Raoul Wallenberg works extremely well on both levels. In fact, it is actually an excellent example of the increasingly popular genre of the fictionalized version of real events peopled by the actual figures, both famous and infamous, in the history of man's journey on this planet.Carl Steinhouse places us in Budapest in late 1944 and early 1945 with a verisimilitude worthy of the better-known writers of World War II fiction, and his accurate historiography reflects what must have been a long and painstaking research process. The facts presented are reminiscent more of a post-graduate thesis than of a work of historical fiction and while the read is not the juicy stew of other books in this genre, it still remains a tasty consommé to lovers of these works. The primary antagonists in this quintessential good versus evil tableau are Adolph Eichmann and Raoul Wallenberg. Eichmann and his brutal history are well known to the masses, but Wallenberg is known mostly to those interested in Holocaust studies and it is only in recent years that his leviathan efforts to rescued a doomed humanity have become more widely heralded. Steinhouse provides the reader with a brilliant portrayal of both these men, reinforcing the ignominy so well deserved by the Nazi and the honor due the little known Swedish diplomat. Even the more intense scholars of this global calamity will learn more about the Second World War from this well executed factual/fictional tract. Mr. Steinhouse deserves praise for reinforcing the utter depravity of Hitler's war against the Jews by presenting it on a very personal, average-man level. By illustrating the work with individual criminal acts, the enormity of the bestial atrocities committed by the Third Reich and its willing accomplices are seared into the reader's consciousness. Obviously some of these victims are fictional, yet their suffering is all too real. The author has also included many lesser know villains in his treatise and by doing so further creates the travail suffered by the Jews of Budapest at the hands of their sadistic tormentors, the Nazis and their willing local fascist allies, the Arrow Cross of Hungary. The six years of global conflict in the middle years of the twentieth century has provided a most fertile field for authors to cultivate, and the flow of true stories from this period that continue to amaze one seem infinite. Following in this tradition, Mr. Steinhouse has definitely both entertained and enlightened, The book lover in search of a World War Two thriller and the serious student of the history of this watershed in world history can both find intellectual satisfaction between the covers of his eminently readable work. It definitely deserves a place in the literary canon of this fascinating period.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping
Review: This is a very moving book. In describing the day to day existence of Raoul Wallenberg during the period of his face-off against Eichmann and the Hungarian anti-semites, it defines heroism. To those of us who have been fortunate to live our lives in this country, this book provides a valuable reminder that sometimes one individual who commands moral authority by virtue of his own actions can mobilize the people around him to great bravery.
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