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Summary
Summary
In a stirring chronicle, Doreen Rappaport brings to light the courage of countless Jews who organized to sabotage the Nazis and help other Jews during the Holocaust.
Under the noses of the military, Georges Loinger smuggles thousands of children out of occupied France into Switzerland. In Belgium, three resisters ambush a train, allowing scores of Jews to flee from the cattle cars. In Poland, four brothers lead more than 1,200 ghetto refugees into the forest to build a guerilla force and self-sufficient village. And twelve-year-old Motele Shlayan entertains German officers with his violin moments before setting off a bomb. Through twenty-one meticulously researched accounts -- some chronicled in book form for the first time -- Doreen Rappaport illuminates the defiance of tens of thousands of Jews across eleven Nazi-occupied countries during World War II. In answer to the genocidal madness that was Hitler's Holocaust, the only response they could abide was resistance, and their greatest weapons were courage, ingenuity, the will to survive, and the resolve to save others or to die trying.
Back matter includes a pronunciation guide, a list of important dates, source notes, a bibliography, a bibliography by chapter, and an index.
Author Notes
Doreen Rappaport is the author of numerous award-winning nonfiction books for young readers. Beyond Courage, her most ambitious project to date, took five years to research and write. She lives in upstate New York.
"How Jews organized themselves in order to survive and defy their enemy is an important but still neglected piece of history. I present a sampling of actions, efforts, and heroism with the hope that I can play a role in helping to correct the damaging and persistent belief that Jews 'went like sheep to the slaughter.' " -- Doreen Rappaport
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In a thoroughly researched project far more ambitious and expansive than her acclaimed picture-book nonfiction, Rappaport (Lady Liberty: A Biography) has assembled more than 20 stories of Jewish resistance to the Holocaust, some never before told. From all corners of Nazi-occupied Europe, these harrowing accounts are heart-wrenching and hopeful as they pay tribute to the brave thousands who defied their oppressors in ways large and small. In one, 12-year-old Mordechai Shlayan sneaks explosives in his violin case and blows up a hotel where German officers are dining. In another, 22-year-old Marianne Cohn is caught smuggling children into Switzerland; she turns down an offer to escape to remain with some of the imprisoned children and is executed soon after. Introductions preceding each of the book's five sections provide historical context; numerous photographs are sometimes graphic and often painfully poignant. Also included are maps, a pronunciation guide, bibliography, source notes, and index. These true stories, while at times hard to stomach, honor the incredible human spirit in the face of unimaginable suffering and torment. Ages 10-up. Agent: Faith Hamlin, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Even as a Jew, growing up in a Jewish household, I had only ever heard that Jews went like lambs to the slaughter during the war. When Rappaport looked into the matter as an adult, however, she uncovered numerous stories of Jewish resistance, ranging from subtle acts of defiance (forging documents, writing poetry) to outright fighting (the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising) and escape (the Sobibor death camp). Here she profiles twenty of those efforts, grouped by theme and introduced with brief essays. Collectively, they present a comprehensive portrait of Jewish resistance, a wide-ranging cross-section; but the parade of names and places makes it challenging to forge a more intimate connection with the subjects. Nevertheless, the power of Holocaust literature derives, in large part, from the double witness of the horror and brutality of Hitlers Final Solution and the fortitude and resiliency of humankind in the face of that atrocity, and that remains true here as well. The narrative is complemented by many black-and-white and sepia photographs that further develop the subjects and setting. A pronunciation guide, timeline, bibliography, source notes, and index are appended. jonathan hunt (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* With all the shelves of Holocaust books about the millions lost in the genocide, this is one of the few histories to focus in detail on Jewish resistance across Europe those who fought back and saved others. The intricate deceptions are as compelling as the confrontations, and the underground escape stories make for thrilling adventure. The horror of what was left behind is always present: the ghettos, the camps, the transports, the Jews who did not support armed resistance, and those who did not get away, including some who fled to forests and starved to death or were murdered by their anti-Semitic neighbors. In addition to the chapters on the Warsaw Ghetto and Theresienstadt, there are also lots of lesser-known accounts of incredible resistance. In the Vilna Ghetto, arms were hidden in the library, the cemetery, in walls, and in wells. Always there are stories of the survivors' guilt, as with a man who left his mother to die alone. The uncluttered book design helps make the detailed history accessible, with spacious type on thick, high-quality paper and portraits, photos, and prints on every page, all meticulously documented in extensive chapter notes and a bibliography. That many young people played important roles in the resistance is a special draw for YAs. An important addition to the Holocaust curriculum.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
EARLIER this year, a British publisher told me something that made me especially proud to write nonfiction. Nowhere else in the world, he said, is nonfiction for young people written as it is in the United States, where authors often select their own subjects rather than have them handed down by a publisher; find their own images rather than farm the job out to a photo researcher; and work closely with designers to lay out each page. He is right: American nonfiction for children and teenage readers is often a labor of love. Two new books about war, Steve Sheinkin's "Bomb" and Doreen Rappaport's "Beyond Courage," offer particular excellence - vivid writing and original research inspired by personal passion - in a field that all too often is invisible. Sheinkin won many fans last year with the award-winning "Notorious Benedict Arnold." From the eye-catching first chapter, he told a dynamic story, offering a style reminiscent of the beloved Landmark history series. "Bomb" follows a similar structure - with a dramatic opening, as the atom spy Harry Gold races ahead of the F.B.I, pounding at his door - into an ever-widening circle of atomic experiment, threat, test, world war and cold war, crosscutting from eccentric scientists in Los Alamos to deathdefying partisans in Norway, and from top secret physics to the tradecraft of Soviet spies. Sheinkin has an architect's sense of form: how much to say here, when to jump there, and how cantilevered parts work together to create a deft and seemingly effortless whole. His tale is a lively one, peppered with arresting first-person quotations, and it never takes too long to immerse readers in what he calls, with considerable understatement, "a big story." This is pulse-pounding history for Alex Rider fans. Because Sheinkin is so good, I couldn't help wishing for more. At times, especially when dashing through a précis of background events, he settles for rushed and anachronistic language: J. Robert Oppenheimer, who "lucked into" a crucial moment in physics; Nazis "tossing" opponents into concentration camps and "kicking" Jews out of jobs. Doubtless this offhand tone will appeal to some readers, but I find it more sloppy than welcoming. Sheinkin also blurs some facts - for example, the Soviets stopped Hitler in the rubble of Stalingrad, not "just short" of the city; and he is uninterested in the cut and thrust of historical interpretation. He cites sources for individual quotations, but never alerts us to historical debates or competing views - which is especially disappointing since new common core educational standards adopted by 46 states encourage readers to look for the juxtaposition of historical points of view. Still, vivid writing, a terrific sense of form, a riveting and important story, apt illustration - that's quite a lot to get into one book, and Sheinkin succeeds. He also opens the door for adults to guide young readers to other books that may help shade historical controversies. "BEYOND COURAGE" offers a different species of excellence. Rappaport, who has a long history of writing books for younger readers about justice and injustice in such arenas as the civil rights movement and women's history, has written the kind of narrative that can change readers' perceptions; her commitment to recovering stories of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust is not only powerful but also historically significant By gathering and carefully organizing accounts from throughout the Nazi era, she is able to relate the entire tragedy and at the same time to challenge us to see it anew: instead of the inexorable slide into death, we witness the choice to fight. At each beat of the familiar story of extermination, she finds examples of almost inconceivable courage, and actual success in resisting the Nazis. For some, this came in flight, as with the Bielski brothers and their community hidden in the Belarussian forests; for others, in combat, as in the Warsaw ghetto; and for yet others, in the assertion of belief and identity, as with the drawings made by the children in Theresienstadt. Rappaport's devotion to uncovering these instances, whether issuing from academic papers, museums, interviews or memoirs, and her care with narrative structure, locating the rare archival images and using them generously throughout, is truly magnificent. On each page you sense that it meant everything to her to track down the truth and get it exactly right. As she says in her introduction, "These people and their stories are a seed inside me that keeps growing." How much did these resisters actually accomplish? One answer is, their survival: Rappaport includes many contemporary photographs of resisters gathered in their kibbutzim or participating in reunions, while the Nazi Reich lives on only in history books. But as I read it, this book is not about these victories. Rather, its importance lies in bringing us into those moments of agonizing personal choices under impossible conditions, for example when Walter Süskind of the Jewish Council in Amsterdam realizes that he cannot protect Jewish adults, but that "he might save children" and so creates an elaborate system that fools Nazi guards at a day care center, ultimately bringing 385 children to safety. Rappaport's attention to decisions like this is the reason her book belongs in every library and home where we ask young people to learn about historical change, where it should stand with books like Elizabeth Partridge's "Marching for Freedom," Ann Bausum's "Freedom Riders," Phillip Hoose's "Claudette Colvin," Jacob Boas's "We Are Witnesses" and even Peter Godwin's adult memoir "Mukiwa" - all stories of choice in the face of crisis: the choice to maintain hope, the choice to compromise, the choice to resist. The line-by-line writing and the recounting of individual incidents in "Beyond Courage" lack the sizzle of "Bomb." Though it feels churlish to point out, it's fair to say that the many modest declarative sentences like "The extra rations did not stave off hunger" diminish the reader's engagement. And both authors might usefully have listed related books for the same age group, perhaps Edward T. Sullivan's "Ultimate Weapon: The Race to Develop the Atomic Bomb," or selected diaries and testimonies by Holocaust survivors. But these are two very fine books, one characterized by its engaging pace, the other by the subject's historical weight and the author's passion, both excellent examples of the kind of handcrafted nonfiction available to young readers today. A child laborer in the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania; from "Beyond Courage. "Marc Aronson is a co-author, with Lee Berger, of "The Skull in the Rock: How a Scientist, a Boy, and Google Earth Opened a New Window on Human Origins."
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6 Up-Well-researched, informative, and inspiring, Rappaport's book presents 21 true stories of defiance and heroism in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. Hearing the accounts of the survivors during the Holocaust will inspire and inform students of the struggles and choices people had to make in order to survive. Divided into five chapters-"The Realization," "Saving the Future," "In the Ghettos," "In the Camps," and "Partisan Warfare"-the book presents an account of Jewish resistance attempts by courageous children and adults, from the well known Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the Bielski brigade in the Polish forest to the heroic actions of French resistance which led to the killing of over 3,000 Germans to an all-girl fighting unit in Greece. The narration by Emily Beresford and Jeff Crawford is clear and easy to understand, but the unaccented voices sound too modern to be authentic. A bonus CD includes the black-and-white archival photos from the book which are an essential, valuable visual aid for the audiobook.-Ellen Frank, Jamaica High School, NY (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In a book that is the very model of excellence in nonfiction, Rappaport dispels the old canard that the Jews entered the houses of death as lambs led to the slaughter. Although "[t]he scope and extent of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust cannot possibly be contained in one book," Rappaport offers an astonishing and inspiring survey. By shining a spotlight on individuals and their involvement in given situations--Kristallnacht, deportations, guerrilla resistance, among others--throughout Europe, she creates intimate personal snapshots of the years of the Nazi occupation. She tells of people who committed acts of destruction as well as those whose resistance was in the simple act of celebrating and maintaining their faith in impossible conditions. Well-known events--the escape from Sobibor, the battle for Warsaw--share space with less-familiar ones. Short biographies introduce readers to those involved, some of whom the author has interviewed. Archival images of people and places help readers envision the people and places that are mentioned: partisan forest hideaways, concentration camps, the ovens, barracks, groups of people on their way to death, diagrams of camps and more. Thorough, deeply researched and stylistically clear, this is a necessary, exemplary book. (pronunciation guide, chronology, notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
