Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival

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As a young boy, Finkelstein’s father survived incarceration during the Holocaust years with his indomitable mother after the family had become separated. Being read by Finkelstein himself, the deeply harrowing details of these years of torturous suffering and of his family’s persecution in the 1930s strengthens the impact of this indelible memoir. This book is all about the jews family who is survivors of holocaust, its all about the journey especially the story of parents who want to survive just because to keep safe of thier heirs. it is all about the hope,dream, psychology and himanity. through out the book one can say wow or some time one can dismay.Yep,its all about living thoughts which is invisible but you can feel it. These projects need our support. After the war, my grandfather found it hard to get support for his work, with many people openly wondering what the point was. They don’t wonder now. This is a hard book to review because it is such an emotional read. This book was interesting in that it covered the two families. It is also a huge reminder, that the Holocaust happened, and it wasn’t pretty. I always go into a nonfiction book expecting to learn one new fact, and I was able to in this one so I consider that winning. I loved how emotionally invested I was able to get about two families I’ve never once met. The holocaust was a huge tragedy, and the things that Jewish people were forced to go through was abominable. The fact that anyone survived is a miracle. I didn’t quite understand before that Stalin was so involved with the killing of all these people, but the book did a fantastic job of explaining the involvement. Despite being such a fantastic story, I felt that the middle dragged a little for me, and I think some unnecessary details that didn’t really add to the story, should have been left out. Keeping things had been his profession. The main weapon of his war against fascism had been his collection of everything that the Nazis published and a record of all they had done and said. The Wiener Holocaust Library (thriving still in Russell Square) became the world’s leading centre of documentation of the Nazis.

Daniel’s grandfather was a German Jewish intellectual leader who warned the holocaust was coming. He relocated his family to Amsterdam for safety where they became close with Anne Frank’s family. They were eventually separated. This story is one of ingenuity, bravery, and coincidences.

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So by keeping these little things from my own life, I am merely maintaining family tradition, staying true to my inheritance.

I had always known that my maternal grandfather, Alfred Wiener, liked to keep things, especially books. My mother used to recount seeing him off on a book-shopping trip and sighing with relief when he returned in a cab with a single carrier bag. Only for another taxi to pull up, this one with all the books in it. I had fondly imagined this story to be Mum’s little joke. But as I learned more about Alfred, I understood it was just what had actually happened. Alfred Wiener's role as a German Jewish intellectual leader who recognized the impending Holocaust and became an archivist of Nazi crimes is both inspiring and chilling. His determination to safeguard his family and relocate them to safety in Amsterdam, where they formed a connection with Anne Frank's family, is a testament to the power of hope and human connection.It is an important book and joins the contemporary Holocaust books of Philippe Sands and Jonathan Freedland. In fact there is a recording of a conversation between Daniel Finkelstein and Philippe Sands at the Hay Festival talking about the book this summer on Hayplayer. Danny Finkelstein has written an elegant, moving account of the history of one family, and in doing so shines light on the history of the 20th century. If you want to understand Hitler and Stalin, read this book about people whose lives were upended by both of them’ ANNE APPLEBAUM, author of Gulag: A History, winner of the Pulitzer Prize Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad is a deeply moving and powerful memoir about persecution, survival, love and loss, man's inhumanity, and the almost unimaginable bravery of two ordinary families. Mirjam, as an adult and survivor, also emerges as a woman of remarkable wisdom, someone who has seen the worst of humanity and chosen to represent the best. For instance, there is an ongoing controversy over the decision taken by the leadership of the Dutch Jewish community to work with the Nazis so as to avoid immediate retribution. Her response is the correct one: it was the Nazis’ fault. There is no value in blaming the victims for making one impossible choice over another.Likewise when Justin Bieber created global outrage for commenting in the visitors’ book at Anne Frank’s house that he hoped “ she would have been a belieber”, Mirjam defends him. The whole point about Anne was her ordinariness, someone who absolutely would have been a fan of a teen idol. In a world of perpetual outrage such calm reason from someone who had every right to play the victim is a balm.

Jwes were not getting sufficiant amount of food there,everything were countable and people were getting weak. later on what happened every one were started thinking bout food,talking about food dreamt about food,even Grete has jotted down her favourite reciepe in paper. When Grete's birthday came in March 26, 1944,and she turned 49 year old lady then one of her friends gave her three potatoes in gift. One theme in Finkelstein’s work is the futility of intellectual reasoning in the face of rabid irrationality. From 1919 onwards, Finkelstein’s maternal grandfather, Alfred Wiener, worked tirelessly to use logic to combat antisemitism, writing pamphlets and speeches that, among other things, “attempted to expose the contradictions of antisemites who blamed Jews for capitalism while simultaneously characterising them as communists”. You’re made to understand how even deeply intelligent and politically attuned people were caught unawares by war and genocideWhile personal drama drives the story, there is much of contemporary relevance. The author tells us that the global turmoil of the last decade has shaken his former confidence that we are perpetually safe from the fate that befell his parents. When he writes that their tormenters, both Nazi and Soviet, “believed the will of the people was being thwarted by elites, and that the individuals who made up the elites needed to be eliminated by force”, it’s not hard to hear the echoes today. Nevertheless, the extent, the thoroughness, of my family’s collecting habit startled me when I set out to tell their story. Not simply momentous documents — the piece of paper telling the family that they were to be sent to Belsen, for instance, or the last letter of my great aunt before she was sent to Sobibor — these anyone might keep. But little things. An old passport, long expired. Or the dining room coupons from the liner that took my mother and her sisters on the last leg of the journey from Belsen to New York. Or the letters congratulating Alfred on his daughter’s engagement.