Solly Ganor

Lithuania.

Ganor's Holocaust narrative takes place primarily in villages and ghettos, providing a useful contrast to memoirs that primarily describe life in the camps. Ganor has some access to the outside world and at many points is able to comment on the relations between the Jewish captives and the communities within or near which their confinement takes place. Though most of the non-Jewish citizens in his account are not sympathetic, there are more than in many Holocaust narratives. Ganor frames his otherwise chronological and straightforward story with two meetings with the U.S. Nisei (2nd generation Japanese) soldier who rescued him. He also punctuates his own story with this soldier's. It's the first book I've read by a Jewish Holocaust survivor that names the existence of U.S. internment camps for citizens of Japanese ancestry or origin. I appreciated reading a Jewish narrative that also accounted for a Japanese-American soldier's, though from a purely literary perspective it wasn't as successful as it might have been.

Recently I've read a number of accounts of genocide in Asia, Africa, South America, and Oceania. In conjunction with Ganor, these remind me that we are all ready to dehumanize and kill each other with little provocation; the unique horrors of the Nazi approach are its scale and mechanized, sanitized nature.

Read with Gilbert Tuhabonye's [b:This Voice in My Heart: A Runner's Memoir of Genocide, Faith, and Forgiveness|539051|This Voice in My Heart A Runner's Memoir of Genocide, Faith, and Forgiveness|Gilbert Tuhabonye|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175631883s/539051.jpg|526439] to compare an African genocide to the European, and with Lauren Kessler's excellent [b:Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family|1439350|Stubborn Twig Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family|Lauren Kessler|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183601119s/1439350.jpg|1429941] to learn more about internment and its effects on one Japanese-American family.
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My first thought when I began to read this book was of James Frey and his book A Million Little Pieces. He talks about having a root canal without novocaine. It seems unbelievable and it was...it was all a sham. So when I read Solly Ganor's memoir of his horrific experiences as a Jewish person during World War II, I had a hard time with it. In one scene, a Jewish hospital is surrounded, barricaded, and set on fire. How could someone kill people this way.. And it just went on and on...Could he, just one person, have really seen or experienced all these attrocities or is it a compilation of many experiences? I haven't done any research on this memoir, but I believe it could have happened to him and he was just one person. I can't imagine this magnified.
My typical Holocaust memoir is Anne Frank. Well clearly now that is just a child's version compared to this. I'm glad I read it. It was difficult to read but should be read by everyone. The writing is very good and not only the descriptions of people and events but also his descriptions of the physical surroundings are very heartfelt. It is rare to find the two combined so well.… (meer)