| A Time to Speak | 
 enlarge | Author: Helen Lewis
Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy New: £3.11
You Save: £3.88 (56%)
New (18) Used (9) from £3.11
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 141741
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 0.5
ISBN: 0786704861
Dewey Decimal Number: 921
EAN: 9780786704866
ASIN: 0786704861
Publication Date: January 30, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW and IN STOCK - dispatched within 48 hours from the UK
|
| Customer Reviews:
Unforgettable August 24, 2008
I couldn't put this book down.
Helen Lewis is a remarkable woman, who has risen above feelings of revenge and animosity, which would be completely understandable after all she went through.
After suffering unimaginable terror, hardship and loss along with all those millions of others who were victims of the holocaust, Helen still found it possible to tell of the humane side of 'the enemy' whenever it appeared, as well as the fears and feelings she experienced throughout her ordeal as a young woman at the mercy of the nazis.
In telling her own personal story, Helen also manages to answer the often asked questions of how the persecution of the Jews insidiously crept up on the European world of the 1930-40s, and how it became possible for such hatred to grow to such an extreme that entire communities were transported away from their homes without any apparent opposition from their erstwhile friends and colleagues.
This book gives the feeling that the author has not set out to shock you or to make you feel sorry for her suffering, but just wants to tell the story in order to lay her ghosts to rest.
A remarkable memoir from a remarkable woman September 22, 2004
39 out of 39 found this review helpful
I knew Helen Lewis back in the early 60s, when she taught us dance at drama school, and with the exception of my wife, I have never known anyone with that same energy, determination, joie de vivre, and pluckiness. She remains one of the most remarkable people I have ever known. I still remember the time when she rolled up her sleeves in class and I saw the numbers tattooed on her arm. It gave me such a jolt, even though I'd known she'd been in a camp. In those days, she never talked openly about her experiences. But years later she wrote this eloquent memoir that tells us all we have to know. If she'd been an ordinary person, I doubt if she could have survived such terrible treatment. But having seen her in action, I never for a moment doubted that, if anyone could have got through it, she could. If you've read Primo Levi and the rest, this will complete your understanding of the depravity of the camps. It should be made compulsiry reading for anyone who claims the camps never existed.
A stunningly frank account of ordinary people in extremis December 19, 2001
30 out of 30 found this review helpful
This book should be mandatory reading for all of us who have become complacent in the comfort of our freedom. I recently had the honour of meeting Mrs Lewis and her prose writing style is exactly the same as the way she speaks in conversation. Her story is all the more shocking for the mundane nature of the tortures to which Jewish people of all classes were subjected by the Nazi regime. The personal beauty of this woman shines through and has not been dimmed by her experiences. This book is humbling in it's freedom from bitterness and it's stark contrast with predictable life in the freedom of our post-Holocaust world. No one can deny the voracity of Lewis's experience, no one can remain unmoved or unchanged by it's reading. Read this book and never let this happen again.
An inspiring tale of courage and suffering. June 16, 2001
28 out of 29 found this review helpful
A moving and inspiring tale of courage and suffering by a Holocaust survivor. Mrs Lewis reflects on the devastating effect of the Final Solution on her own life and those she loved. He story is even more remarkable when one considers that the eloquent honesty evident on every page comes from someone whose mother tongue is not, of course, English. Her account of learning what befell her husband left me reeling. Right up there alongside Schindler's Ark and The Diary of Anne Frank - a must-read.
|
|
|
