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REVIEWS Adolf Burger Frontline Books, 2009. 288 pp. $39.99 ISBN: 978-1848325234 32 Jewish Book World Spring 5770/2010 Autobiography and Memoir THE DEVIL’S WORK- SHOP: A MEMOIR OF THE NAZI COUNTERFEITING OPERATION Although The Devil’s Workshop is described as a memoir of the Nazi counterfeiting operation based in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp between 1942–1945, Adolf Burger’s book is much more than that. Burger was arrested by the Nazis in Slovakia and subsequently sent to Auschwitz. He describes what life was like for Jews under the government of Monsignor Joseph Tiso, a Catholic priest, and his ersatz SS group, the Hlinka guards. He gives a vivid description of life in Auschwitz, where his 22 year old wife was sent to the gas chamber. He tells how Jewish “kommandos” were assigned to rob the dead of their dignity in Birkenau—shearing their hair, extracting gold fillings from their teeth, and so on. Berger also provides a harrowing picture of the Nazi treatment of the Gypsy camp at Birkenau—all in all a searingly graphic description of Auschwitz. He tells how Jewish “kommandos” were assigned to rob the dead of their dignity in Birkenau—shearing their hair, extracting gold fillings from their teeth, and so on. The second part of the memoir deals with the Nazis’ attempt to forge millions of British pounds sterling in order to weaken the British currency. Toward that end, the Reich Security Service organized a forgery workshop in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The Nazi creation of this economic weapon entailed the recruitment of Jewish prisoners from selected camps such as Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Ravenbruck, Mauthausen, and Theresienstadt, who were transferred to Sachsenhausen. The criteria for those selected was that they had some experience with the printing trade, and this was how Adolf Burger was saved from eventual death in Auschwitz (the memoir never explains why Jewish prisoners alone were chosen). All told, the project included 142 Jewish inmates who were forced to forge not only British paper money but also American bank note, worth billions, as well as bonds, stamps, and other documents. Accompanying his experiences in “Project Bernhard,” named after the SS supervisor of this criminal enterprise, Burger and the publisher have provided a large assortment of primary documents, rare photos of the main participants in the operation, and of prisoners incarcerated in the various concentration camps. If “Project Bernhard” sounds familiar, it is because the book served as the basis for the award-winning film 2007 film “The Counterfeiters.” This riveting book is essential for our understanding of a relatively unknown chapter of the Holocaust. JF DEVOTION: A MEMOIR Dani Shapiro HarperCollins Publishers, 2010. 256 pp. $24.99 ISBN: 978-0-162834-4 Dani Shapiro lives with endless questions. Raised in an Orthodox Jewish family, she believes she has escaped that “stifling” world. Yet she finds that every time she touches something that reminds her of that world, she has the urge to cry and then experiences a disarming sense of peace. Instead of seeking further in that direction, she runs from those feelings, perceiving them to be nothing more than the comforting memories of childhood. Thus, her search continues. Neither AA meetings nor yoga and meditation yield much tranquility. Finally, a series of ...her depiction of her walk through shame, guilt, pain, darkness, and light is beautifully told. losses and near losses lead Shapiro to realize that the journey is rewarding only if “...there is value in simply standing there—this too— whether the sun is shining, or the wind whipping all around.” Later she concludes that each of us is “full of longing, reaching out with our whole selves for something impossible to touch. Still, we are reaching, reaching.” While one may have wished for Shapiro to reveal a return to her roots, her depiction of her walk through shame, guilt, pain, darkness, and light is beautifully told. DS EATING ANIMALS Jonathan Safran Foer Little Brown, 2009. 352 pp. $25.99 ISBN: 978-0-316-06990-8 Everything about factory farming is illuminated in Foer’s first major work of nonfiction, which attempts to help us make more informed choices about what we eat. Motivated by the question of what to teach his first son about food, Foer set out on a three year journey to learn where the meat on our plate comes from. His findings are startling. The author feeds us the gory details of the lives of factory-farmed animals. His first hand descriptions are vivid and striking in their gruesomeness. But this book is about much more than the gore that surrounds our meals. Foer explores the environmental impact of factory farming (“animal agriculture...is the number one cause of climate change”), he describes the way in which large-scale health threats are linked to factory farming (H1N1 aka swine flu), he probes into the waste, the humanitarian violations, and the ethical dilemmas surrounding the process by which many of us fill our dinner plates. He also debunks the myth of “free-range” and tells us exactly what is in our chicken...and it’s not just chicken. Foer is a fiction writer and portions of the book come to life the way his novels do. Beautiful passages describe the social and even ritualistic aspects of sharing meals (Passover seders). He begins the book with a powerful story of his grandmother turning down a piece of pork even while she was starving during the war. “If nothing matters, there’s nothing to save,” she told him. He ends the book with these very words, and the chapters in between tell us what, exactly, we are choosing when we choose to eat certain meats, and why it matters. Foer uses some of his trademark literary devices in this book—long lists (chapter 3, Words/Meaning), changes in narrative voice (he uses transcripts from his interviews with farmers without indicating who is speaking). These gimmicky devices make for a disjointed and sometimes tiresome reading experience, but they are well-worth the effort. Whatever is said of this www.jewishbookcouncil.org
ook’s style, there is no question that it is a terribly important work—well-researched, heartfelt, and above all filled with facts that anyone who eats should know. Index, notes. AB GERTRUDA’S OATH Ram Oren; Barbara Harshav, trans. Doubleday, 2009. 320 pp. $24.95 ISBN: 978-0-385-52718-7 ncredible’ doesn’t even begin to describe ‘Ithis nonfiction tale, which deals with the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel. In the opening chapter, we’re introduced to Michael Stolowitzky and his adoptive mother, Gertruda Babilinska, living in Israel in the 1950’s. The narrative then shifts back to $15.95 paperback www.jewishbookcouncil.org Autobiography and Memoir the 1930’s, where Gertruda, a Polish Catholic teacher, is hired as a nanny for Michael, a tiny Jewish child of an extraordinarily rich family. As Germany invades Poland, unleashing events that remove him from the care of his parents and the safety of his home, Gertruda comes to be Michael’s lone protecter. It’s a role she will continue to play at great risk through Poland, Lithuania, and other nations. The book reads like a novel—it’s fastpaced, heavy on violent confrontations, and colored with an array of supporting characters, including a sympathetic SS officer, Karl Rink, who is the husband of a Jewish woman. One could complain about certain elements—the author’s knowledge of World War II history is a little weak (the Soviet Union, for instance, also invaded Poland in 1939) and some of the sentences spoken by the very young sound contrived. Still, there’s no getting around what an astounding story this is. In the spirit of Gone With the Wind, this is a true tale of people caught up in the pulverizing sweep of history, as well as of survival under the most trying circumstances imaginable. DC REVIEWS THE GIRLS OF ROOM 28: FRIEND- SHIP, HOPE, AND SURVIVAL IN THERESIENSTADT Hanalore Brenner; John E. Woods and Shelley Frisch, trans. Schocken, 2009. 336 pp. $26.00 ISBN: 978-0-8052-4244-7 As librarian of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center in Glen Cove, NY, I have read every book about Theresiendstat in my library, but never have I been as moved, emotionally or intellectually, as by Hannelore Brenner’s book. We have in the U.S. our own second and third generation children of Survivors; Germany, too, has its counterpart, and Brenner is a great representative of it. Brenner, a print and broadcast journalist, was moved to produce a “Rabbi Aaron brin g gs us to the realizatio n et ndles aht s joy is aactually ava vailable to and attainable b y each of u us. ” — dr dr. gerald schroede oeder r , autho r of God od A Accco ord din ing g tto to God G od “If you long for happi pppiness, wholeness, n insda piration, , I h ighly recommend you read this book. ”. — debbie ford d , author of �e 21- -Da DDay y C Co oncss iousness ss CCl Cle eanse anse You ou a are nothing other tha a n an individual expression of God—so the Kabbalah h sa ays ys. Rabbi Aaron takes that ancient teaching from m t heory into practice, showing you how to conne ne ct with the Divine reality within to discover profou ofou nd meaning in your life. Trr umpeter B ooks | www .shambhala.com Spring 5770/2010 Jewish Book World 33
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Page 9 and 10: ANTHOLOGIES AND COLLECTIONS Winner:
Page 11 and 12: out whom they can trust. In additio
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Page 15 and 16: Finalists: THE WARSAW GHETTO: A GUI
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Page 19 and 20: SCHOLARSHIP Nahum M. Sarna Memorial
Page 21 and 22: WOMEN’S STUDIES Barbara Dobkin Aw
Page 23 and 24: JUDGING PANELISTS We wish to public
Page 25 and 26: O Israel... In a perfect—perhaps
Page 27 and 28: A Conversation with David Sax By La
Page 29 and 30: New from Jewish Lights Publishing I
Page 31 and 32: Save the Dates Jewish Book Authors
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Page 43 and 44: JEWISH SLOW COOKER RECIPES Laura Fr
Page 45 and 46: JUDAISM: A WAY OF BEING David Geler
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Page 51 and 52: Shushan “Shoeshine” Cats, a sel
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Page 63 and 64: Tobi Kahn for ritual and meditative
Page 65 and 66: Monika Schroder Front Street, 2009.
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Page 69 and 70: A CHAT WITH ZACHARYSHAPIRO By Barba
Page 71 and 72: Please note that all book descripti
Page 73 and 74: THE LIFE WORTH LIVING: FAITH IN ACT
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Page 77 and 78: THE BOOK OF PSALMS: A TRANSLATION W
Page 79 and 80: SHELLY FEIT (SF) has an M.L.S. and
Page 81 and 82: An index of all titles included in

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