My Dear Boy
A World War II Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $17.65
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kate Mulligan
-
Traber Burns
About this listen
After the death of Joanie Holzer Schirm's parents in 2000, she found hundreds of letters, held together by rusted paperclips and stamped with censor marks, sent from Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, China, and South and North America, along with journals, vintage film, taped interviews, and photographs. In working through these various materials documenting the life of her father, Oswald "Valdik" Holzer, she learned of her family history through his remarkable experiences of exile and loss, resilience and hope.
In this posthumous memoir, Schirm elegantly recreates her father's youthful voice as he comes of age as a Jew in interwar Prague, escapes from a Nazi-held army unit, practices medicine in China's war-ravaged interior, and settles in the United States to start a family. Introducing us to a diverse cast of characters ranging from the humorous to the menacing, Holzer's life story is an inspirational account of survival during wartime, a cinematic epic spanning multiple continents, and ultimately a tale with a twist-a book that will move listeners for generations to come.
©2019 Joanie Holzer Schirm (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Night
- By: Elie Wiesel
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Gold Medal, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel offers an unforgettable account of Hitler's horrific reign of terror in Night. This definitive edition features a new translation from the original French by Wiesel's wife and frequent translator, Marion Wiesel.
-
-
This book consumed me
- By Ella on 01-24-06
By: Elie Wiesel
-
The Warmth of Other Suns
- The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
- By: Isabel Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
-
-
Superior non-fiction
- By Lila on 05-20-11
By: Isabel Wilkerson
-
Crossing the Borders of Time
- A True Story of War, Exile, and Love Reclaimed
- By: Leslie Maitland
- Narrated by: Leslie Maitland
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leslie Maitland is an award-winning former New York Times investigative reporter whose mother and grandparents fled Germany in 1938 for France, where, as Jews, they spent four years as refugees—the last two under risk of Nazi deportation. In 1942 they made it onto the last boat to escape France before the Germans sealed the harbors. Then, barred from entering the United States, they lived in Cuba for almost two years before immigrating to New York.
-
-
I didn't want it to end..absolutely wonderful!
- By Ellen on 05-07-12
By: Leslie Maitland
-
The Girl with Seven Names
- A North Korean Defector’s Story
- By: Hyeonseo Lee, David John
- Narrated by: Josie Dunn
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told, 'the best on the planet'?
-
-
Did not like narrator
- By Linda H. Andreae on 10-09-19
By: Hyeonseo Lee, and others
-
I Am Malala
- The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
- By: Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb - contributor
- Narrated by: Archie Panjabi
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York.
-
-
One Book Can Change the World
- By Cynthia on 10-13-13
By: Malala Yousafzai, and others
-
A Long Way Gone
- Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
- By: Ishmael Beah
- Narrated by: Ishmael Beah
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is how wars are fought now by children, hopped up on drugs, and wielding AK-47s. In the more than fifty violent conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But it is rare to find a first-person account from someone who endured this hell and survived.
-
-
Author's voice
- By B. Bunt on 11-01-13
By: Ishmael Beah
-
Night
- By: Elie Wiesel
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Gold Medal, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel offers an unforgettable account of Hitler's horrific reign of terror in Night. This definitive edition features a new translation from the original French by Wiesel's wife and frequent translator, Marion Wiesel.
-
-
This book consumed me
- By Ella on 01-24-06
By: Elie Wiesel
-
The Warmth of Other Suns
- The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
- By: Isabel Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
-
-
Superior non-fiction
- By Lila on 05-20-11
By: Isabel Wilkerson
-
Crossing the Borders of Time
- A True Story of War, Exile, and Love Reclaimed
- By: Leslie Maitland
- Narrated by: Leslie Maitland
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leslie Maitland is an award-winning former New York Times investigative reporter whose mother and grandparents fled Germany in 1938 for France, where, as Jews, they spent four years as refugees—the last two under risk of Nazi deportation. In 1942 they made it onto the last boat to escape France before the Germans sealed the harbors. Then, barred from entering the United States, they lived in Cuba for almost two years before immigrating to New York.
-
-
I didn't want it to end..absolutely wonderful!
- By Ellen on 05-07-12
By: Leslie Maitland
-
The Girl with Seven Names
- A North Korean Defector’s Story
- By: Hyeonseo Lee, David John
- Narrated by: Josie Dunn
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told, 'the best on the planet'?
-
-
Did not like narrator
- By Linda H. Andreae on 10-09-19
By: Hyeonseo Lee, and others
-
I Am Malala
- The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
- By: Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb - contributor
- Narrated by: Archie Panjabi
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York.
-
-
One Book Can Change the World
- By Cynthia on 10-13-13
By: Malala Yousafzai, and others
-
A Long Way Gone
- Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
- By: Ishmael Beah
- Narrated by: Ishmael Beah
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is how wars are fought now by children, hopped up on drugs, and wielding AK-47s. In the more than fifty violent conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But it is rare to find a first-person account from someone who endured this hell and survived.
-
-
Author's voice
- By B. Bunt on 11-01-13
By: Ishmael Beah
-
Facing the Mountain
- A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II
- By: Daniel James Brown
- Narrated by: Louis Ozawa
- Length: 17 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the days and months after Pearl Harbor, the lives of Japanese Americans across the continent and Hawaii were changed forever. In this unforgettable chronicle of war-time America and the battlefields of Europe, Daniel James Brown portrays the journey of Rudy Tokiwa, Fred Shiosaki, and Kats Miho, who volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and were deployed to France, Germany, and Italy, where they were asked to do the near impossible. Brown also tells the story of these soldiers' parents, immigrants who were forced to submit to life in concentration camps on U.S. soil.
-
-
Wow
- By Tbone McCoy on 06-13-21
-
Between Shades of Gray
- By: Ruta Sepetys
- Narrated by: Emily Klein
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lina is just like any other 15-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys - until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia.
-
-
Sunlight Through the Cracks
- By FanB14 on 03-27-13
By: Ruta Sepetys
-
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
- A Novel
- By: Jamie Ford
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.
-
-
Engaging and Lovely. Highly recommend.
- By Robert on 02-06-09
By: Jamie Ford
-
The German Wife
- A Novel
- By: Kelly Rimmer
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson, Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Berlin, 1930—When a wave of change sweeps a radical political party to power, Sofie von Meyer Rhodes’s academic husband benefits from the ambitions of its newly elected chancellor. Although Sofie and Jürgen do not share the social views growing popular in Hitler’s Germany, Jürgen’s position with its burgeoning rocket program changes their diminishing fortunes for the better. But as Sofie watches helplessly, her beloved Berlin begins to transform, forcing her to consider what they must sacrifice morally for their young family’s security, and what the price for their neutrality will be.
-
-
Awkward Narrative
- By Terri S. on 07-14-22
By: Kelly Rimmer
-
Wild Swans
- Three Daughters of China
- By: Jung Chang
- Narrated by: Joy Osmanski
- Length: 22 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular best seller which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed history of China; a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty and an uplifting story of bravery and survival.
-
-
Accurate, moving and chilling
- By David on 12-15-12
By: Jung Chang
-
The Girl They Left Behind
- By: Roxanne Veletzos
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a freezing night in January 1941, a little Jewish girl is found on the steps of an apartment building in Bucharest. With Romania recently allied with the Nazis, the Jewish population is in grave danger, undergoing increasingly violent persecution. The girl is placed in an orphanage and eventually adopted by a wealthy, childless couple who name her Natalia. As she assimilates into her new life, she all but forgets the parents who were forced to leave her behind. They are even further from her mind when Romania falls under Soviet occupation.
-
-
I cried and cried...
- By IamLOVE on 01-23-19
By: Roxanne Veletzos
-
Broken Angels
- By: Gemma Liviero
- Narrated by: Nico Evers-Swindell, Emily Foster
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto, Elsi discovers her mother's desperate attempt to end her pregnancy and comes face-to-face with the impossibility of their situation. Risking her own life, Elsi joins a resistance group to sabotage the regime. Blonde, blue-eyed Matilda is wrenched from her family in Romania and taken to Germany, where her captors attempt to mold her into the perfect Aryan child. Spirited and brave, she must inspire hope in the other stolen children to make her dreams of escape a reality.
-
-
Best Book I've Read in a Long Time
- By Aubrey on 09-07-16
By: Gemma Liviero
-
The Inextinguishable Symphony
- A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany
- By: Martin Goldsmith
- Narrated by: Martin Goldsmith
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 1933, more than 8,000 Jewish musicians, actors, and other artists were expelled from their positions with German orchestras, opera companies, and theater groups. Later that year, the Jüdische Kulturbund, or Jewish Culture Association, was created to allow Jewish artists to perform for Jewish audiences.
-
-
An incredible story
- By Stanner on 04-20-22
By: Martin Goldsmith
-
I Must Betray You
- By: Ruta Sepetys
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Ruta Sepetys
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He’s left with only two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves—or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil dictator in Eastern Europe.
-
-
Brilliant, dramatic, heartbreaking
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 02-04-22
By: Ruta Sepetys
-
First They Killed My Father
- A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
- By: Loung Ung
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of seven children of a high-ranking government official, Loung Ung lived a privileged life in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh until the age of five. Then, in April 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the city, forcing Ung's family to flee and, eventually, to disperse. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, her siblings were sent to labor camps, and those who survived the horrors would not be reunited until the Khmer Rouge was destroyed.
-
-
Brutal, Heartbreaking
- By Gillian on 01-27-15
By: Loung Ung
-
Forty Autumns
- A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
- By: Nina Willner
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family - of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than 40 years and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall. A personal look at a tenuous era that divided a city and a nation and continues to haunt us, Forty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and love.
-
-
Excellent look into the divided Germanys
- By Mary Aalgaard on 01-18-18
By: Nina Willner
-
Those Who Save Us
- By: Jenna Blum
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trudy, a college history professor, is collecting oral histories from World War II survivors (both German and Jewish). Her mother, Anna, refuses to talk to her, but Anna's story is revealed in flashback. She conducted an affair with a Jewish baker who was summarily killed. Afterward, Anna caught the eye of a high-ranking Nazi officer.
-
-
engaging
- By Taryn on 01-26-11
By: Jenna Blum
Related to this topic
-
Destined to Witness
- Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany
- By: Hans Massaquoi
- Narrated by: Peter Jay Fernandez
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What would life be like for a Black boy growing up in Nazi Germany? This unprecedented autobiography answers that question with the spellbinding true story of Hans J. Massaquoi’s life in Hamburg during the height of Hitler’s regime. Hans is the son of a Black Liberian diplomat father and a white German mother. His father returns to Africa at the beginning of the war, leaving them behind in poverty without the means to flee. Within this tense atmosphere, increasingly violent Nazi policies and Allied bombing raids make Hans and his mother’s lives a day-to-day survival struggle.
-
-
An important story, marred by lackluster writing.
- By Christopher on 03-04-15
By: Hans Massaquoi
-
Dancing with the Enemy
- My Family's Holocaust Secret
- By: Paul Glaser
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster, Christa Lewis
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The gripping story of the author's aunt, a Jewish dance instructor who was betrayed to the Nazis by the two men she loved, yet managed to survive WWII by teaching dance lessons to the SS at Auschwitz. Her epic life becomes a window into the author's own past and the key to discovering his Jewish roots.
-
-
Amazing Unique
- By Nordic Artisan on 05-11-19
By: Paul Glaser
-
Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden
- Two Sisters Separated by China’s Civil War
- By: Zhuqing Li
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scions of a once-great southern Chinese family that produced the tutor of the last emperor, Jun and Hong were each other’s best friends until, in their twenties, they were separated at the end of the Chinese Civil War. One became a model Communist, the other a model capitalist. On Taiwan, Jun married a Nationalist general, established a trading company, and emigrated to the United States. On the Communist mainland, Hong built her medical career under a cloud of suspicion about her family and survived two waves of “re-education” before she was acclaimed for her achievements.
-
-
Wonderful Story of a Family’s Survival Through Political Change…
- By Marie G. on 04-12-23
By: Zhuqing Li
-
The Last Palace
- Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House
- By: Norman Eisen
- Narrated by: Jeff Goldblum
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Norman Eisen moved into the US ambassador’s residence in Prague, returning to the land his mother had fled after the Holocaust, he was startled to discover swastikas hidden beneath the furniture in his new home. These symbols of Nazi Germany were remnants of the residence’s forgotten history, and evidence that we never live far from the past. From that discovery unspooled the twisting, captivating tale of four of the remarkable people who had called this palace home. Their story is Europe’s....
-
-
Great book despite goldblum’s narration
- By Fernando Ferrante on 01-19-19
By: Norman Eisen
-
Midnight in Broad Daylight
- A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds
- By: Pamela Rotner Sakamoto
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After their father's death, Harry, Frank, and Pierce Fukuhara - all born and raised in the Pacific Northwest - moved to Hiroshima, their mother's ancestral home. Eager to go back to his own land - America - Harry returned in the late 1930s. Then came Pearl Harbor. Despite being sent to an internment camp, Harry dutifully volunteered to serve his country. Back in Hiroshima, his brothers, Frank and Pierce, became soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army.
-
-
A must listen
- By Jon on 02-01-16
-
50 Children
- One Ordinary American Couple's Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany
- By: Steven Pressman
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In early 1939, few Americans were thinking about the darkening storm clouds over Europe. Nor did they have much sympathy for the growing number of Jewish families that were increasingly threatened and brutalized by Adolf Hitler's policies in Germany and Austria. But one ordinary American couple decided that something had to be done. Despite overwhelming obstacles - both in Europe and in the United States - Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus made a bold and unprecedented decision to travel into Nazi Germany in an effort to save a group of Jewish children.
-
-
I didn't want it to end
- By David Shear on 05-07-14
By: Steven Pressman
-
Destined to Witness
- Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany
- By: Hans Massaquoi
- Narrated by: Peter Jay Fernandez
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What would life be like for a Black boy growing up in Nazi Germany? This unprecedented autobiography answers that question with the spellbinding true story of Hans J. Massaquoi’s life in Hamburg during the height of Hitler’s regime. Hans is the son of a Black Liberian diplomat father and a white German mother. His father returns to Africa at the beginning of the war, leaving them behind in poverty without the means to flee. Within this tense atmosphere, increasingly violent Nazi policies and Allied bombing raids make Hans and his mother’s lives a day-to-day survival struggle.
-
-
An important story, marred by lackluster writing.
- By Christopher on 03-04-15
By: Hans Massaquoi
-
Dancing with the Enemy
- My Family's Holocaust Secret
- By: Paul Glaser
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster, Christa Lewis
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The gripping story of the author's aunt, a Jewish dance instructor who was betrayed to the Nazis by the two men she loved, yet managed to survive WWII by teaching dance lessons to the SS at Auschwitz. Her epic life becomes a window into the author's own past and the key to discovering his Jewish roots.
-
-
Amazing Unique
- By Nordic Artisan on 05-11-19
By: Paul Glaser
-
Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden
- Two Sisters Separated by China’s Civil War
- By: Zhuqing Li
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scions of a once-great southern Chinese family that produced the tutor of the last emperor, Jun and Hong were each other’s best friends until, in their twenties, they were separated at the end of the Chinese Civil War. One became a model Communist, the other a model capitalist. On Taiwan, Jun married a Nationalist general, established a trading company, and emigrated to the United States. On the Communist mainland, Hong built her medical career under a cloud of suspicion about her family and survived two waves of “re-education” before she was acclaimed for her achievements.
-
-
Wonderful Story of a Family’s Survival Through Political Change…
- By Marie G. on 04-12-23
By: Zhuqing Li
-
The Last Palace
- Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House
- By: Norman Eisen
- Narrated by: Jeff Goldblum
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Norman Eisen moved into the US ambassador’s residence in Prague, returning to the land his mother had fled after the Holocaust, he was startled to discover swastikas hidden beneath the furniture in his new home. These symbols of Nazi Germany were remnants of the residence’s forgotten history, and evidence that we never live far from the past. From that discovery unspooled the twisting, captivating tale of four of the remarkable people who had called this palace home. Their story is Europe’s....
-
-
Great book despite goldblum’s narration
- By Fernando Ferrante on 01-19-19
By: Norman Eisen
-
Midnight in Broad Daylight
- A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds
- By: Pamela Rotner Sakamoto
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After their father's death, Harry, Frank, and Pierce Fukuhara - all born and raised in the Pacific Northwest - moved to Hiroshima, their mother's ancestral home. Eager to go back to his own land - America - Harry returned in the late 1930s. Then came Pearl Harbor. Despite being sent to an internment camp, Harry dutifully volunteered to serve his country. Back in Hiroshima, his brothers, Frank and Pierce, became soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army.
-
-
A must listen
- By Jon on 02-01-16
-
50 Children
- One Ordinary American Couple's Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany
- By: Steven Pressman
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In early 1939, few Americans were thinking about the darkening storm clouds over Europe. Nor did they have much sympathy for the growing number of Jewish families that were increasingly threatened and brutalized by Adolf Hitler's policies in Germany and Austria. But one ordinary American couple decided that something had to be done. Despite overwhelming obstacles - both in Europe and in the United States - Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus made a bold and unprecedented decision to travel into Nazi Germany in an effort to save a group of Jewish children.
-
-
I didn't want it to end
- By David Shear on 05-07-14
By: Steven Pressman
-
The Train to Crystal City
- FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II
- By: Jan Jarboe Russell
- Narrated by: Andrea Gallo
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The dramatic and never-before-told story of a secret FDR-approved American internment camp in Texas during World War II, where thousands of families - many US citizens - were incarcerated.
-
-
I didn't know...
- By Graham Emslie on 02-27-17
-
Forty Autumns
- A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
- By: Nina Willner
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family - of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than 40 years and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall. A personal look at a tenuous era that divided a city and a nation and continues to haunt us, Forty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and love.
-
-
Excellent look into the divided Germanys
- By Mary Aalgaard on 01-18-18
By: Nina Willner
-
Behind Enemy Lines
- The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany
- By: Marthe Cohn, Wendy Holden
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marthe Cohn was a young Jewish woman living just across the German border in France when Hitler rose to power. Her family sheltered Jews fleeing the Nazis, including Jewish children sent away by their terrified parents. But soon her homeland was also under Nazi rule. As the Nazi occupation escalated, Marthe's sister was arrested and sent to Auschwitz and the rest of her family was forced to flee to the south of France. Always a fighter, Marthe joined the French Army and became a member of the intelligence service of the French First Army.
-
-
Amazing story of a fighter and survivor
- By Magalie Busch on 05-06-19
By: Marthe Cohn, and others
-
The Home That Was Our Country
- By: Alia Malek
- Narrated by: Alia Malek
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the Arab Spring's hopeful start, Alia Malek returned to Damascus to reclaim her grandmother's apartment, which had been lost to her family since Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970. Its loss was central to her parents' decision to make their lives in America. In chronicling the people who lived in the Tahaan building, past and present, Alia portrays the Syrians—the Muslims, Christians, Jews, Armenians, and Kurds—who worked, loved, and suffered in close quarters, mirroring the political shifts in their country
-
-
Syria as never read before
- By rami hachwi on 09-17-18
By: Alia Malek
-
Desert Queen
- The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia
- By: Janet Wallach
- Narrated by: Jean Gilpin
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Turning her back on her privileged life in Victorian England, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), fired by her innate curiosity, journeyed the world and became fascinated with all things Arab. Traveling the length and breadth of the Arab region, armed with a love for its language and its people, she not only produced several enormously popular books based on her experiences but became instrumental to the British foreign office. When World War I erupted, and the British needed the loyalty of the Arab leaders, it was Gertrude Bell's work and connections that helped provided the brain for T. E. Lawrence's military brawn.
-
-
Great beginning, then gets boring
- By Msz on 03-31-16
By: Janet Wallach
-
Golden Bones
- An Extraordinary Journey from Hell in Cambodia to a New Life in America
- By: Sichan Siv
- Narrated by: David Thorn
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Cambodia in the 1960s, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge declared war on their own people, enslaving and slaughtering anybody who disagreed with them. Sichan Siv knew he would soon be a target - ending up, perhaps, as one of the millions of anonymous human skeletons buried in his nation's Killing Fields - so he heeded his mother's pleas and ran. Captured and forced to perform slave labor, Siv feared that he'd be worked to death or killed. But he never abandoned hope or his improbable dream of freedom - a dream that liberated him.
-
-
Misleading Publisher’s Summary
- By Chris on 05-01-18
By: Sichan Siv
-
Gertrude Bell
- Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
- By: Georgina Howell
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 18 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
She has been called the female Lawrence of Arabia, which, while not inaccurate, fails to give Gertrude Bell her due. She was at one time the most powerful woman in the British Empire: a nation builder, the driving force behind the creation of modern-day Iraq. Born in 1868 into a world of privilege, Bell turned her back on Victorian society, choosing to read history at Oxford and going on to become an archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author, poet, photographer, and legendary mountaineer.
-
-
Shattering The Glass Ceiling in Britain
- By Nostromo on 08-05-18
By: Georgina Howell
-
The Invitation-Only Zone
- The True Story of North Korea's Abduction Project
- By: Robert S. Boynton
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Throughout the late 1970s and early '80s, dozens of Japanese citizens were abducted from coastal Japanese towns by North Korean commandos. In what proved to be part of a global project, North Korea attempted to reeducate the abductees and train them to spy on the state's behalf. When the project faltered, the abductees were hidden in a series of guarded communities known as "Invitation-Only Zones" - the fiction being that these were exclusive enclaves, not prisons.
-
-
Over enthusiastic reader!
- By AJW on 02-14-16
-
A Kim Jong-Il Production
- The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power
- By: Paul Fischer
- Narrated by: Stephen Park
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before becoming the world's most notorious dictator, Kim Jong-Il ran North Korea's Ministry for Propaganda and its film studios. Conceiving every movie made, he acted as producer and screenwriter. Despite this control, he was underwhelmed by the available talent and took drastic steps, ordering the kidnapping of Choi Eun-Hee (Madam Choi) - South Korea's most famous actress - and her ex-husband Shin Sang-Ok, the country's most famous filmmaker.
-
-
Absolutely terrifying
- By Anonymous on 02-19-15
By: Paul Fischer
-
The General's Son
- Journey of an Israeli in Palestine
- By: Miko Peled
- Narrated by: Miko Peled
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The journey that Peled traces in this groundbreaking memoir echoed the trajectory taken 40 years earlier by his father, renowned Israeli general Matti Peled. In The General's Son, Miko Peled tells us about growing up in Jerusalem in the heart of the group that ruled the then-young country, Israel. He takes us with him through his service in the country's military and his subsequent global travels...and then, after his niece's killing, back into the heart of Israel's conflict with the Palestinians.
-
-
Thought Provoking and Powerful
- By FatherRobC on 05-10-16
By: Miko Peled
-
Wild Swans
- Three Daughters of China
- By: Jung Chang
- Narrated by: Joy Osmanski
- Length: 22 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular best seller which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed history of China; a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty and an uplifting story of bravery and survival.
-
-
Accurate, moving and chilling
- By David on 12-15-12
By: Jung Chang
-
The Aquariums of Pyongyang
- By: Chol-hwan Kang, Pierre Rigoulot
- Narrated by: Stephen Park
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amid escalating nuclear tensions, Kim Jong-un and North Korea's other leaders have kept a tight grasp on their one-party state, quashing any nascent opposition movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration camps for "re-education". Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of one of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life in North Korea.
-
-
Riveting!!
- By Iread on 11-12-20
By: Chol-hwan Kang, and others
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Unlikely Friends
- By: Julie Salamon
- Narrated by: Julie Salamon
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who am I? Who were these people who made me who I am? And, what was this place? Was it ever what I thought it was? For celebrated journalist and author Julie Salamon, these recently became central questions. Salamon spent the first 18 years of her life Seaman, Ohio, a town that is part of the American heartland, a repository of mythology and misunderstanding.
-
-
Great story until it got political
- By Lisa E on 06-11-21
By: Julie Salamon
-
The Last Jew of Treblinka
- A Survivor’s Memory, 1942-1943
- By: Chil Rajchman, Samuel Moyn - preface, Solon Beinfeld - translator, and others
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quickly becoming a cornerstone of Holocaust historiography, this is a devastatingly stark memoir from one of the lone survivors of Treblinka. Why do some live while so many others perish? Tiny children, old men, beautiful girls - in the gas chambers of Treblinka, all are equal. The Nazis kept the fires of Treblinka burning night and day, a central cog in the wheel of the Final Solution.
-
-
A Human Story of Selflessness and Resilience
- By David Haynes on 08-30-20
By: Chil Rajchman, and others
-
The Color of Love
- A Story of a Mixed-Race Jewish Girl
- By: Marra B. Gad
- Narrated by: Marra B. Gad
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1970, three-day-old Marra B. Gad was adopted by a white Jewish family in Chicago. For her parents, it was love at first sight - but they quickly realized the world wasn’t ready for a family like theirs. Marra’s biological mother was unwed, white, and Jewish, and her biological father was Black. While still a child, Marra came to realize that she was “a mixed-race, Jewish unicorn”. In Black spaces, she was not “Black enough” or told that it was okay to be Christian or Muslim but not Jewish.
-
-
Beautiful, honest , heartfelt
- By dave block on 09-16-21
By: Marra B. Gad
-
Jewish Comedy
- A Serious History
- By: Jeremy Dauber
- Narrated by: Jeremy Dauber
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a major work of scholarship both erudite and very funny, Jeremy Dauber traces the origins of Jewish comedy and its development from Biblical times to the age of Twitter. Organizing his book thematically into what he calls the seven strands of Jewish comedy - including the satirical, the witty, and the vulgar - Dauber explores the ways Jewish comedy has dealt with persecution, assimilation, and diaspora through the ages. He explains the rise and fall of popular comic archetypes such as the Jewish mother, the JAP, and the schlemiel and schlimazel.
-
-
Not funny
- By supermantwo on 08-31-20
By: Jeremy Dauber
-
The Kosher Capones
- A History of Chicago’s Jewish Gangsters
- By: Joe Kraus
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Kosher Capones tells the fascinating story of Chicago’s Jewish gangsters from Prohibition into the 1980s. Author Joe Kraus traces these gangsters through the lives, criminal careers, and conflicts of Benjamin “Zukie the Bookie” Zuckerman, last of the independent West Side Jewish bosses, and Lenny Patrick, eventual head of the Syndicate’s “Jewish wing.”
-
-
Kind of scattered
- By joey carbo on 10-04-21
By: Joe Kraus
-
Anne Frank
- Her Life and Legacy
- By: Jemma J. Saunders
- Narrated by: Joanna Daniel
- Length: 2 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anne Frank is the most well-known victim of the Holocaust. In 1945, at the age of 15, she died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, becoming one of the six million Jews who were murdered in Europe under the Nazi regime. But through her writing, her memory lives on. Jemma Saunders goes beyond Anne Frank's diary to fill in the gaps about her family history, her life before she went into hiding, and her final months at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. A sobering tale, Anne Frank's story is one that will continue to inspire for decades to come.
-
-
Beautiful
- By Andrew Glenn on 11-26-20
-
Unlikely Friends
- By: Julie Salamon
- Narrated by: Julie Salamon
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who am I? Who were these people who made me who I am? And, what was this place? Was it ever what I thought it was? For celebrated journalist and author Julie Salamon, these recently became central questions. Salamon spent the first 18 years of her life Seaman, Ohio, a town that is part of the American heartland, a repository of mythology and misunderstanding.
-
-
Great story until it got political
- By Lisa E on 06-11-21
By: Julie Salamon
-
The Last Jew of Treblinka
- A Survivor’s Memory, 1942-1943
- By: Chil Rajchman, Samuel Moyn - preface, Solon Beinfeld - translator, and others
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quickly becoming a cornerstone of Holocaust historiography, this is a devastatingly stark memoir from one of the lone survivors of Treblinka. Why do some live while so many others perish? Tiny children, old men, beautiful girls - in the gas chambers of Treblinka, all are equal. The Nazis kept the fires of Treblinka burning night and day, a central cog in the wheel of the Final Solution.
-
-
A Human Story of Selflessness and Resilience
- By David Haynes on 08-30-20
By: Chil Rajchman, and others
-
The Color of Love
- A Story of a Mixed-Race Jewish Girl
- By: Marra B. Gad
- Narrated by: Marra B. Gad
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1970, three-day-old Marra B. Gad was adopted by a white Jewish family in Chicago. For her parents, it was love at first sight - but they quickly realized the world wasn’t ready for a family like theirs. Marra’s biological mother was unwed, white, and Jewish, and her biological father was Black. While still a child, Marra came to realize that she was “a mixed-race, Jewish unicorn”. In Black spaces, she was not “Black enough” or told that it was okay to be Christian or Muslim but not Jewish.
-
-
Beautiful, honest , heartfelt
- By dave block on 09-16-21
By: Marra B. Gad
-
Jewish Comedy
- A Serious History
- By: Jeremy Dauber
- Narrated by: Jeremy Dauber
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a major work of scholarship both erudite and very funny, Jeremy Dauber traces the origins of Jewish comedy and its development from Biblical times to the age of Twitter. Organizing his book thematically into what he calls the seven strands of Jewish comedy - including the satirical, the witty, and the vulgar - Dauber explores the ways Jewish comedy has dealt with persecution, assimilation, and diaspora through the ages. He explains the rise and fall of popular comic archetypes such as the Jewish mother, the JAP, and the schlemiel and schlimazel.
-
-
Not funny
- By supermantwo on 08-31-20
By: Jeremy Dauber
-
The Kosher Capones
- A History of Chicago’s Jewish Gangsters
- By: Joe Kraus
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Kosher Capones tells the fascinating story of Chicago’s Jewish gangsters from Prohibition into the 1980s. Author Joe Kraus traces these gangsters through the lives, criminal careers, and conflicts of Benjamin “Zukie the Bookie” Zuckerman, last of the independent West Side Jewish bosses, and Lenny Patrick, eventual head of the Syndicate’s “Jewish wing.”
-
-
Kind of scattered
- By joey carbo on 10-04-21
By: Joe Kraus
-
Anne Frank
- Her Life and Legacy
- By: Jemma J. Saunders
- Narrated by: Joanna Daniel
- Length: 2 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anne Frank is the most well-known victim of the Holocaust. In 1945, at the age of 15, she died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, becoming one of the six million Jews who were murdered in Europe under the Nazi regime. But through her writing, her memory lives on. Jemma Saunders goes beyond Anne Frank's diary to fill in the gaps about her family history, her life before she went into hiding, and her final months at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. A sobering tale, Anne Frank's story is one that will continue to inspire for decades to come.
-
-
Beautiful
- By Andrew Glenn on 11-26-20
-
One Hundred Saturdays
- Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World
- By: Michael Frank
- Narrated by: Michael Frank
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With nearly a century of life behind her, Stella Levi had never before spoken in detail about her past. Then she met Michael Frank. He came to her Greenwich Village apartment one Saturday afternoon to ask her a question about the Juderia, the neighborhood in Rhodes where she’d grown up in a Jewish community that had thrived there for half a millennium. Probing and courageous, candid and sly, Stella is a modern-day Scheherazade whose stories reveal what it was like to grow up in an extraordinary place in an extraordinary time—and to construct a life after that place has vanished.
-
-
Excellent book
- By Daphne on 09-14-22
By: Michael Frank
-
All-Night Pharmacy
- A Novel
- By: Ruth Madievsky
- Narrated by: Moniqua Plante
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the night of her high school graduation, a young woman follows her older sister Debbie to Salvation, a Los Angeles bar patronized by energy healers, aspiring actors, and all-around misfits. After the two share a bag of unidentified pills, the evening turns into a haze of sensual and risky interactions—nothing unusual for two sisters bound in an incredibly toxic relationship. Our unnamed narrator has always been under the spell of the alluring and rebellious Debbie and, despite her own hesitations, she has always said yes to nights like these. That is, until Debbie disappears.
-
-
Good enough listen but not quite there
- By Caroline on 09-02-23
By: Ruth Madievsky
-
The Netanyahus
- An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family
- By: Joshua Cohen
- Narrated by: Joshua Cohen, David Duchovny, Ethan Herschenfeld
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Corbin College, not quite upstate New York, winter 1959-1960: Ruben Blum, a Jewish historian—but not an historian of the Jews—is co-opted onto a hiring committee to review the application of an exiled Israeli scholar specializing in the Spanish Inquisition. When Benzion Netanyahu shows up for an interview, family unexpectedly in tow, Blum plays the reluctant host to guests who proceed to lay waste to his American complacencies. Mixing fiction with nonfiction, the campus novel with the lecture, The Netanyahus is a wildly inventive comedy of blending, identity, and politics.
-
-
Phillip Roth would certainly listen!
- By Martin on 01-17-22
By: Joshua Cohen
-
My Mother's Wars
- By: Lillian Faderman
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A story of love, war, and life as a Jewish immigrant in the squalid factories and lively dance halls of New York’s Garment District in the 1930s, My Mother’s Wars is the memoir Lillian Faderman's mother was never able to write. The daughter delves into her mother's past to tell the story of a Latvian girl who left her village for America with dreams of a life on the stage and encountered the realities of her new world: the battles she was forced to fight as a woman, an immigrant worker, and a Jew with family left behind in Hitler’s deadly path.
-
-
Outstanding in all areas
- By Lisbeth on 11-17-14
By: Lillian Faderman
-
Our Crime Was Being Jewish
- Hundreds of Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Stories
- By: Anthony S. Pitch
- Narrated by: Malk Williams, Fenella Fudge
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our Crime Was Being Jewish contains 576 vivid memories of 358 Holocaust survivors. These are the true, insider stories of victims, told in their own words. They include the experiences of teenagers who saw their parents and siblings sent to the gas chambers; of starving children beaten for trying to steal a morsel of food; of people who saw their friends commit suicide to save themselves from the daily agony they endured.
-
-
Shocking, sad, a real eye opener!!
- By Jim on 08-31-17
By: Anthony S. Pitch
-
The Great Escape
- Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World
- By: Kati Marton
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The stunning story of the breathtaking journey of nine extraordinary men from Budapest to the New World, what they experienced along their dangerous route, and how they changed America and the world. In a style both personal and historically groundbreaking, acclaimed author Kati Marton (born in Budapest) tells the tale of their youth in Budapest's Golden Age of the early 20th century, their flight, and their lives of extraordinary accomplishment, danger, glamour, and poignancy.
-
-
very interesting, well-narrated
- By D. Littman on 12-17-06
By: Kati Marton
-
The Same Sea
- By: Amos Oz
- Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
- Length: 4 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We meet the middle-aged Albert; his wife, whom he has lost to cancer; his prodigal son, who wanders the mountains of Tibet hoping to find himself; and his son's enticing young girlfriend, with whom Albert becomes infatuated and who in turn sleeps with her boyfriend's close friend. In this human profusion is a fever dream of chaos and order, love and eroticism, loyalty and betrayal, and ultimately an extraordinary energy.
By: Amos Oz
-
Cold Crematorium
- Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz
- By: József Debreczeni, Paul Olchváry - translator, Jonathan Freedland
- Narrated by: Laurence Dobiesz
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
József Debreczeni, a prolific Hungarian-language journalist and poet, arrived in Auschwitz in 1944; had he been selected to go “left,” his life expectancy would have been approximately forty-five minutes. One of the “lucky” ones, he was sent to the “right,” which led to twelve horrifying months of incarceration and slave labor in a series of camps, ending in the “Cold Crematorium”—the so-called hospital of the forced labor camp Dörnhau, where prisoners too weak to work awaited execution.
-
-
Learned so much more about the Holocaust
- By Jerseygirl on 02-03-24
By: József Debreczeni, and others
-
Country of Ash
- A Jewish Doctor in Poland, 1939-1945
- By: Edward Reicher, Magda Bogin - translator
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Country of Ash is the starkly compelling, original chronicle of a Jewish doctor who miraculously survived near-certain death, first inside the Lodz and Warsaw ghettoes, where he was forced to treat the Gestapo, then on the Aryan side of Warsaw, where he hid under numerous disguises. He clandestinely recorded the terrible events he witnessed, but his manuscript disappeared during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. After the war, reunited with his wife and young daughter, he rewrote his story.
-
-
Excellent
- By valia on 07-12-15
By: Edward Reicher, and others
-
"Our Crowd"
- The Great Jewish Families of New York
- By: Stephen Birmingham
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 19 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They immigrated to America from Germany in the nineteenth century with names like Loeb, Sachs, Seligman, Lehman, Guggenheim, and Goldman. From tenements on the Lower East Side to Park Avenue mansions, this handful of Jewish families turned small businesses into imposing enterprises and amassed spectacular fortunes. But despite possessing breathtaking wealth that rivaled the Astors and Rockefellers, they were barred by the gentile establishment from the lofty realm of "the 400," a register of New York's most elite, because of their religion and humble backgrounds.
-
-
Finance heavy
- By Shayla on 03-28-21
-
The Secret Holocaust Diaries
- The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister
- By: Nonna Bannister, Denise George, Carolyn Tomlin
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gallagher
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For half a century, a terrible secret lay hidden, locked in a trunk in an attic... photos, official documents, and scraps of a diary written by a young girl. "The time has come when I must share my life story... some facts from the past that could make a contribution, however small it may be, to the history of mankind." The Secret Holocaust Diaries is a haunting eyewitness account of Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister, a remarkable Russian-American woman who saw and survived unspeakable evils as a young girl.
-
-
I respect Nonna
- By Susan on 12-26-11
By: Nonna Bannister, and others
-
The Executioner's Song
- By: Norman Mailer
- Narrated by: Maxwell Hamilton
- Length: 42 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning and unforgettable classic about convicted killer Gary Gilmore now in audio. Arguably the greatest book from America's most heroically ambitious writer, The Executioner's Song follows the short, blighted life of Gary Gilmore who became famous after he robbed two men in 1976 and killed them in cold blood. After being tried and convicted, he immediately insisted on being executed for his crime. To do so, he fought a system that seemed intent on keeping him alive long after it had sentenced him to death.
-
-
Pulitzer-winner spoiled by numskulled narration
- By W Perry Hall on 05-21-18
By: Norman Mailer
What listeners say about My Dear Boy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Linda Jo Burt
- 05-31-21
Riveting, Incredible historical story!
Linda Jo Burt
This is a story that absorbed me completely. Dr. Holzer’s experiences are amazing and filled with so much history-not only about the Halocaust but of the horrors of war in many countries. This was one of the best books I have listened to and the readers added so much to it’s impact. I highly recommend it!!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Linda
- 12-11-20
Excellent book
Excellent book for those of us fascinated by the stories of individuals during WWII. Good writing and an engrossing story both heartbreaking and uplifting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sue J. Warrick-smith
- 05-22-22
A story all should hear
This book touched me deeply with its truth, sincerity, humanity, and family love and respect. It was a pleasant way to review the historical events of that time rather than sitting in a classroom. I loved the description of the beauty of prewar China and the many places that Dr. Holzer lived. It was precious to hear of the innocence and purity of their love and the civility of the interactions of friends and relatives in that period. The contrast between their affectionate behavior toward one another and the horror of the holocaust was heartbreaking. Such barbarity and cruelty inflicted on the Jews and others are unfathomable. It haunts me that it could be repeated here in the United States or elsewhere, where hatred is again raising her Hydra Head.
Joanie Holzer Schirm gave an honorable and loving tribute to her admirable father by publishing his memoirs, adding her excellent research.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kate
- 11-29-20
My dear boy is a fascinating insight
A great addition to the story of the 2 nd world war. When paired with the little Dutch girl. And other books about queen elizabeth, Churchill, Roosevelt and others one begins to understand how freedom from tyranny hangs by a thread!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- H. Rob Frohne
- 08-27-21
Escape to China in WWII
Amazing story! It's a well written and well narrated WWII adventure. It's is going on my favorite books list
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 02-08-23
Thoroughly educational
I wasn’t aware of what happened in Czechoslovakia during WWII. This book gave appreciated illumination.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- toni
- 03-29-19
The sides of WWII you might never have read
The author Joanie Schirm, has taken us on a journey from Moravia/ Bohemia from the First World War through the journey of her father’s life in escaping the Nazis, to wartime China, to the United States. His life
Of service
And continuing to attempt to volunteer or seek employment continually being rejected while maintaining a positive attitude is remarkable. His wife is a pivotal component in his life that keeps the plates spinning all along.
Remarkably engaging and well worth the time. A fast
Read even though it is filled with facts and detail.
Loved it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Janie Evans
- 02-05-21
My Dear Boy
Well- written and narrated! This was a story of romance, beauty, and family resilience in the face of Hitler’s attempt to distort and destroy elements of our human race. It was simultaneously inspiring and overwhelming to hear of hatred and its impact- knowing we are not yet free of this monster.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Monica Mitchell
- 07-17-22
Fascinating
Well written and read that I felt I was there in the story. Many of us think we know the story of the Holocost but personal stories such as this really bring home the reality of the suffering that took place.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John
- 09-24-20
Should be required reading in schools
Book puts grim pictures and statistics of Nazi death camps in a family context. Very inspirational a man who lost over 40 of his family mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, aunts and uncle’s wanted to spend the rest of his life serving others.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful