Return to Havana: The Decline of Cuban Society Under Castro

Customer Reviews:

A must read! Castro must go!.......1999-06-26

The onset of the Cuban Revolution brought about the prospect of reform. Instead the result was a total destruction of a great and unique society. The book chronicles the destruction and will serves as a guide for those unaware of Cuba's declined status.

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The second volume of Victor Klemperer's searing diary, kept in secret during the 12 years he suffered under the Nazi regime, covers the period from 1942 to 1945. The humiliations visited on even such "privileged" Jews as Klemperer (whose wife was Aryan) grew increasingly severe, with house searches, arbitrary arrests, and brutal beatings becoming virtually routine. The 60-year-old historian is forced to shovel snow despite his heart condition; hunger gnaws at him as rations are mercilessly cut. Yet he clings to an intellectual life, continuing his reading and making notes on the lies and obfuscations of official Nazi discourse that would become his postwar masterpiece, Lingua Tertii Imperii. "The Russians, who have only just been annihilated, are tremendous and quite inexhaustible opponents," he notes sardonically after reading a mendacious fascist article in 1942. His lengthy account of his escape with his wife from Dresden after the Allied bombings of 1945 unforgettably captures the chaos of World War II's final days and the mixed feelings of a Jew who could never wholeheartedly gloat over the defeat of the nation that had persecuted him. Above all, his unflinching depiction of human nature and society in extremis amply justifies his cherished belief that even the Nazis "cannot prevent language from testifying to the truth." --Wendy Smith

Book Description

Destined to take its place alongside The Diary of Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night as one of the great classics of the Holocaust, I Will Bear Witness is a timeless work of literature, the most eloquent and acute testament to have emerged from Hitler's Germany. Volume Two begins in 1942, the year the Final Solution was formally proposed, and carries us through to the Allied bombing of Dresden and Germany's defeat.

Customer Reviews:

Final Journey to freedom.......2007-09-03

One should read this book only after the first volume covering the years 1933-41. The story of Victor & Eva's survival of detention in the Jews' house, the Dresden bombing and subsequent wanderings stunned me. But Victor's courage in continuing his secret diary for 12 years comes through - as does his humanity ad personal growth.

The diary jotting sryle means you pick it up and read a section at a time, but you will most likely be drawn into finishing it within a short time.

Great Book.......2007-02-09

And I will get the other years of this author's diary. This is not a fast paced WWII battle book; this is the diary of a poor soul who had to live through every moment of a terrible regime, to endure even more when he thought he'd reached his limit. If you're interested in what it was like to live day to day in Hitler's Germany (as a Jew or a gentile)--to understand what it was like to watch it begin and grow and eventually implode--this is an excellent read. I would say it is for those deeply interested in the psychology of the times; not a passing interest. I'll get the other books and read them in order of the years they cover. I really want to understand how the Third Reich could ever BE.

A Courageous, One-of-a-Kind View Inside Nazi Germany.......2006-07-04

This is actually the second volume of Klemperer's diaries, published in two volumes. I highly recommend that you buy both volumes as a set and read from the beginning how a bureaucratic mindset advanced towards ultimate evil.

In the end, Klemperer's diary doesn't fully answer the haunting question, "How could it have happened?" But you will find some definitive answers here to questions that Holocaust scholars have debated over the years.

For example, Klemperer's experience answers the charge that virtually all Aryan Germans knew from the beginning exactly what the Third Reich's intentions were towards the Jews. Klemperer's actual interactions stand as refutation of this blanket indictment. Often when he visited Aryan acquaintances to conduct business - he would then jovially be invited to come back that evening for schnapps. Klemperer had to explain that he couldn't come back later for schnapps - that as a Jew, he was prohibited from boarding any vehicle of public transportation after 6:00 PM, that he had a general curfew, and that of course, he had long since been banned from owning his own car.

Klemperer was always circumspect in recounting these laws he labored under to his "Semitophile" acquaintances. (That's an awkward translation of the German phrase Klemperer probably used to refer to Aryans who were sympathetic to Jews. But it is perhaps the only word that was available to Martin Chalmers, who otherwise has produced a generally fluid translation of Klemperer's journals.) At any rate, Klemperer was careful never to appear too whining or too critical of the restrictions placed on him. He didn't want to alienate these Aryan allies. Nevertheless, he repeatedly found himself in the position of having to enlighten them about the government's latest round of restrictions. And his listeners were almost always genuinely surprised to hear about these laws. Their ignorance in the face of all the anti-Semitic propaganda blared daily from radios, blazoned from the newspapers, seemed to be more a function of people's tendency towards plodding self-preoccupation than an indication of any active complicity with the advancing evil.

I think you'll find that Klemperer's account also carries a very relevant warning to us in our current pursuit of terrorists at all costs. Klemperer survived the early rounds of call-ups for the concentration camps because he was a decorated World War I hero, and because he was married to an Aryan. For these reasons, he was given some initial grudging dispensation from the worst Nazi reprisals. However as the War progressed, his past service to Germany and his Aryan affiliation came to count for less and less. Finally his number was up and he, along with the last handful of Jews remaining around Dresden, were scheduled for transport. The only thing that saved him was the Allied bombing of Dresden. Most local Nazi records were destroyed in this notorious bombardment. So Klemperer and his wife, having survived the bombing, were also able to survive those last most brutal months of the Nazi regime by assuming new identities and wandering through the German countryside from town to town, passing themselves off as a typical displaced Aryan couple. If the Nazis' meticulous records (documenting family lineages and confirming who was where) had remained intact, Klemperer would certainly have been deported to the gas chambers.

So if you don't already have doubts about the increasing surveillance measures being taken in the U.S., presumably to guard against terrorists and other "evildoers" - reading these journals will give you pause. One of the lessons of Klemperer's journal is how tyranny proceeds by little increments of paperwork. Its power is in keeping tabs.

Klemperer risked his life to write the entries in these journals, because it eventually became a capital crime for a Jew to possess paper or any pen/pencil. So it feels almost sacrilegious to make any criticism of this supremely brave and literate account. However I do have one small criticism. And that is Klemperer's common masculine tendency to put his wife in the background of his life. Eva Klemperer comes off in the diary as a shadowy adjunct to the importance of Victor's work producing these pages.

She is mentioned, more frequently in the first volume of the diaries, but this mention is usually limited to reports of the fact that she had another hysterical fit that day, or that she engaged Victor in another round of angry lamentation, or that she suffered some physical malady. He does acknowledge her collaborative bravery. She also risked her life every time she smuggled the pages of his work out of their small assigned apartment into the hands of friends for safekeeping. But we never directly hear Eva's voice in all this. The reader is only left to guess at the actual substance of her outbursts.

You will probably feel impelled to read between the lines to flesh her out. Perhaps Eva wasn't the prettiest girl in school, so she took the one marriage proposal that came her way. She married the intellectually accomplished Victor. Victor was available because Aryan prejudice, even in those early years, already limited him socially. We can imagine her outbursts of recrimination as the Nazi noose grew tighter around their yoked necks. Why did you have to be Jewish? Why have you dragged me down with you? I could have led such a happy life. And instead, look at me - scrounging for rotten potatoes, under constant threat of beatings and death - and all because of you!

If only Eva had written her own diary, we might have had some additional fascinating insights into why and how a couple stays together under such trying circumstances. We might have gained a greater understanding of the ties of love and the chains of having nowhere else to go. As it is, we have only Victor's side of the story. But that is a powerful, must-read insight into how tyranny grows, brick-by-brick, petty edict by petty edict.

The most compelling book I have ever read.......2006-03-22

Because my friends all know what a book-hound I am, people often ask me what my all-time favorite book is. Admittedly the answer to this would change over time, but, at present, "I Will Bear Witness" is the one that first pops into my mind.

I found this very personal account of the days and nights of a German Jewish man--an inoffensive and formerly rather conservative German nationalist academic married to a Gentile--during the Nazi terror regime to be absolutely breathtaking. Indeed, I was so caught up in his account that I took an unexpected day of vacation from work just to not interrupt my reading once I had started.

Further, I found myself sprawled on my bed, as is sometimes customary with me, surrounded by ancillary books, atlases, and maps --a behavior that signifies I'm reading a book that has utterly gripped me and a book that is expanding my horizons.

Klemperer was (just barely) saved from being sent to a concentration camp due to his marriage to a non-Jew. However, he lived every day under the threat of torture and deportation to a camp and his journal tells of the years of grinding anxiety over his fate and the fate of his wife, friends, and relatives-many of whom were taken. It also speaks to the minutiae of life under the Nazi's--such things as their penchant for legalisms to justify their treatment of the Jews embodied in his incessant embroilment in Nazi demands that he take part in the legalisms of their confiscation of his property. Moreover, as the war draws to a close, he draws a stunning portrait of life as a war refugee--a picture that applies to war refugees the world over throughout time.

Kudos to those who elevated this book to number one among the history choices-it deserves it and in my mind deserves even more.

Life-Affirming, Edge-of-your-seat, Nonstop Reading.......2006-01-30

Victor Klemperer's diary of the years of the Hitler dictatorship and his recording of the day-to-day lives of the Jews of Dresden, his thoughtful and insightful commentary on the methods (particularly the language of the propaganda) of the Third Reich, the heart-wrenching stories of those who were taken away never to be seen again, his experience in the firebombing of Dresden in 1945 and his miraculous journey home should be required reading for everyone about the horrors of tyranny and war. It is also a tribute to the true human spirit and the power of the intellect. Klemperer never lost his determination to live, despite all the blows of terror that were aimed at him, his family, and his friends. That he believed there was something to live for--in the midst of utter barbarity--should inspire all of us to work for a better world. It did me.

A remarkable record of a dark time. Reading it gives one the courage to carry on in the dark times that have come again.

Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary Under Stalin

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Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary Under Stalin
Jochen Hellbeck
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0674021746

Book Description

Revolution on My Mind is a stunning revelation of the inner world of Stalin's Russia. We see into the minds and hearts of Soviet citizens who recorded their lives during an extraordinary period of revolutionary fervor and state terror. Writing a diary, like other creative expression, seems nearly impossible amid the fear and distrust of totalitarian rule; but as Jochen Hellbeck shows, diary-keeping was widespread, as individuals struggled to adjust to Stalin's regime.

Rather than protect themselves against totalitarianism, many men and women bent their will to its demands, by striving to merge their individual identities with the collective and by battling vestiges of the old self within. We see how Stalin's subjects, from artists to intellectuals and from students to housewives, absorbed directives while endeavoring to fulfill the mandate of the Soviet revolution--re-creation of the self as a builder of the socialist society. Thanks to a newly discovered trove of diaries, we are brought face to face with individual life stories--gripping and unforgettably poignant.

The diarists' efforts defy our liberal imaginations and our ideals of autonomy and private fulfillment. These Soviet citizens dreamed differently. They coveted a morally and aesthetically superior form of life, and were eager to inscribe themselves into the unfolding revolution. Revolution on My Mind is a brilliant exploration of the forging of the revolutionary self, a study without precedent that speaks to the evolution of the individual in mass movements of our own time.

Diaries: Volume 1, 1939-1960 (Isherwood, Christopher Diaries)

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The truth is plain
Moving and instructive
I thought this was a fascinating acount of Isherwood's life
Puh-lease, Spare Me
Malicious, self-serving account of questionable gossip.

Diaries: Volume 1, 1939-1960 (Isherwood, Christopher Diaries)
Christopher Isherwood
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Christopher Isherwood is noted for his novels and autobiographical writings, especially The Berlin Stories (the basis for the film, Cabaret) and Christopher and His Kind. But Isherwood put at least as much of his genius in his Diaries as he did in his writings intended for immediate publication. The first volume follows Isherwood as he emigrates from England to the United States where he became a Hollywood scriptwriter. This volume continues with his lifelong affair with Don Bachardy to his establishment as a major writer in the early 1960s. Isherwood's Diaries are beautifully written, gossipy, and indispensable for anyone who cares about writing, the creative process, and gay history.

Book Description

At times pious, at times profane but always unashamedly honest, The Diaries of Christopher Isherwood provide an inside look at the life and times of one of the most celebrated writers of the century. Chronicling Isherwood's life from 1939, when he emigrated to the United States, until 1960, these entries cover some of the most turbulent years of his career and give readers unprecedented insight into the major turning points in his life. Here, Isherwood relates the spiritual crisis he went through as World War II began, his discipleship (along with Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard) with the Hindu monk Swami Prabhavananda and his decision to become a pacifist. Here also are his accounts of his intense social life in Hollywood, his career as a screenwriter and his many sexual affairs. Readers will be particularly fascinated by his revealing anecdotes and gossip about the literary greats (such as W. H. Auden, Thomas Mann, E. M. Forster, and Tennessee Williams) and movie stars (such as Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin and Sir Laurence Olivier) of the time.

Customer Reviews:

The truth is plain.......2000-06-25

I found this book compelling for a number of reasons. Like at least two reviewers here, as an Isherwood fan, I found his accounts of the early years fascinating. More interesting perhaps, one of the reasons I found them fascinating was because they were often banal, tedious, (but were they ever malicious?) full of frality and the soft vanities of an aging man. Surrounded by vain and often shallow people, his struggle to find spirituality in his work and in his friends was admirable, even if at times it did shock. In the end it is the humility of some of these entries that struck me, the fear that the best was behind, that ahead lay only decline and darkness. Finally, the genre of the diary is a peculiar entity. I am not sure it can be read like a book. It requires to be read in small bits, and always with an eye to the odd disjuncture of privacy and the public domain. Isherwood would not have been ashamed by this work, he might well have seen it as a parody of St Augustine: please make me celebite, but not yet.

Moving and instructive.......2000-05-16

As an ardent fan of Isherwood's novels, I am, perhaps, the ideal consumer for these lengthy diaries. I left the book on my bedside table, only to be read at night, and for three months enjoyed the author's observant, witty, spiritual, intelligent and sometimes banal entries with thankful adoration. Covering as they do a span of time that allows for great personal change, as well as an ever-shifting political climate, the Diaries open a window into a beloved author's day-to-day, while painting a fascinating backdrop that moves from Hollywood glamour to Pennsylvannia Quakerism to Eastern Spirituality and back. Isherwood's writing is always crisp, and wise without condescension. Through his devotion to searching out self-awareness, I found myself re-examining my own creative production levels. Put simply, the book is truly inspirational. I can't wait for the next installment.

I thought this was a fascinating acount of Isherwood's life.......1999-04-23

This title should be read by all fans of Isherwoods' novels and stories for insight into the man's character and life-style during his middle years after he emigrated to the United States. I was particularly interested in his committment to Vedanta and how that developed during these years, as well as the gradual development of his relationship with the very young Don Bachardy about whom we have so little information otherwise. Bachardy was and is a very private person. Isherwood emerges as a complex man and, like most diaries, this book shows him with all his personality warts as well as the ups and downs of his daily life. He suffered acutely at various times from very human maladies; boredom, writers' block, lonliness and hypochondriacal concerns. I think this has to be remembered when reading someone's diaries or letters. It's like seeing a person undressed; you get to view the good, the bad and the ugly. There is surprisingly little of Isherwood's sexual views or life included here however; certainly not much that is explicit, and his occasional bitchy remarks about Hollywood personalities is refreshingly candid. I would compare these diaries to those of Evelyn Waugh although Isherwood was far less the curmudgeon that Waugh was and lacked Waugh's crusty mean spiritedness.

Puh-lease, Spare Me.......1999-01-20

This was the most astoundingly boring read I've ever (and I read ALL the time) set myself up for. Full of self-absorbed nonsensical verbage which could easily be called "garbage" for all it's content and readability, this book was impossible to finish, despite my hoping that something interesting would happen just around the next page. Isherwood could have described the era, his life and lifestyle, his celebrity friends, the movie business, with so much more panache... instead, he sounds as bored as the reader will undoubtedly be in trying to get through this parody of a book. In my lifetime, I've only come across 3, maybe 4, unreadable books - this is one of them. An utter waste of time and money. And a shame, since this man's life MUST have been more interesting than this collection of diary entries. I'd recommend The Warhol Diaries if you are interested in a diarist's view of life in an interesting time. Unfortunately, the Isherwood Diaries is vague, ill-defined, faux-philosophical, pseudo-intellectual and pretentious in its language. Ick!

Malicious, self-serving account of questionable gossip........1998-07-20

Admirers of Isherwood's novels will be outraged by this venomous assault aimed at many of the people, including writers, who championed the author during his lifetime. Whether or not intended for publication when written--and it's possible the author himself would be appalled--this posthumous journal does a great disservice to the author, who will now be remembered at least in part for this distorted account. Much of what is here would be more appropriate in trashy tabloids. It dishonors the memory of a wonderful stylist.

Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945 (Rev)

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Artistic, insightful and brilliant. An amazing first hand account of the bombing!
Very moving account of the Hiroshima bombing
How the Japanese overcome despair- educational and touching
Interesting first-hand account from survivor.

Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945 (Rev)
Michihiko Hachiya
Manufacturer: University of N. Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807845477

Customer Reviews:

Artistic, insightful and brilliant. An amazing first hand account of the bombing!.......2007-03-13

In "Hiroshima Diary," Dr. Michihiko Hachiya recounts his experience as both a victim of the atomic bomb and a first-responder of aid.
Hachiya's account graphically depicts the confusing, terrible weeks that followed the atomic attack on Hiroshima. His matter-of -fact interpretation revels how little modern portrayals of the bombing compare with reality.
The destruction wrought upon the Japanese people at Hiroshima is not to be underestimated, however, Hachiya bares facts that today seem unbelievable in light of the vast devastation.
For all his suffering and all he has been witness to, Hachiya demonstrates little resentment towards the Americans who completely altered his way of life.
A profound book that is both troubling in its imagery and beautiful in its language. No less poignant today than so many years ago.
REVIEW EVERY BOOK YOU READ! AUTHORS DESERVE YOUR OPINIONS!

Very moving account of the Hiroshima bombing.......2004-02-27

I read this book when I was in college, as a chemistry/chemical engineering major. As a young scientist, I was enamored of the sheer power contained with atoms, and was intrigued by atomic/nuclear weapons. My goal was to earn a PhD in nuclear engineering and to pursue a career at a National Laboratory such as Los Alamos or Sandia, where I hoped to work in the development of these sort of weapons.

This book changed my life. The personal accounts of the doctor in this book had a profound effect on me, both intellectually and emotionally. I was horrified by the effects of this technology. I changed my career plans and now pursue the development of much more helpful materials. I highly recommend reading this book.

How the Japanese overcome despair- educational and touching.......2000-12-12

This is an accurate and first-hand account of the bombing of Hiroshima as well as the Japanese attitude during World War II. Although medical in nature, I did not find this book at all overwhelming or too scientifically detailed. It was a quite easy read and allowed me to relate the Japanese citizens of this traumatic period.

More than a medical documentation, this was a dramatic tale of real people, real situations and real feelings. Surprisingly, it was not depressing and did not leave me riddled with guilt over being an American. I was impressed by the heroic acts of regular Japanese citizens and dumbfounded over their undying allegience to thier plight and country; AT the same time they did not express morosness or hatred twords the incoming American soldiers- instead they welcomed them as notable collegues and almost friends. Despite the disparity of thier people and thier country they were able to see past all feelings of disdain and recogize that the most important thing was family, love and friendship. In addition to it being a beutiful story, I also gained vast knowledge of the effects of radiation and the Atomic bomb-- a seemingly gaurded secreat amoungst American history lessons.

Interesting first-hand account from survivor........1999-02-01

This book was written by a Japanese doctor who lived in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. It was interesting reading an account from a survivor. Since it comes from a diary and not just memories, in the beginning the people were not even aware of the nature of the bomb. There is more of a technical medical nature than the average reader would prefer, but it's still worth the read. Most surprising to me was the attitude of the people once they knew what kind of bomb it was.

Christopher Isherwood DIARIES, Vol. One:1939-1960

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Christopher Isherwood DIARIES, Vol. One:1939-1960
Katherine, edited by Bucknell
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publ.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000V8VMVW

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Diaries, Volume One - 1939-1960
Christopher; Edited and introduced by Bucknell, Katherine Isherwood
Manufacturer: Harper Flamingo/M. Di Capua
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IX7UCU

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Diaries, Volume One: 1939-1960.
Christopher Isherwood
Manufacturer: Publisher Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UY7PLS

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DIARIES: VOLUME ONE, 1939-1960
Christopher Isherwood
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers London
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IWQ2PC

Ivan Bunin: The Twilight of Emigre Russia, 1934-1953: A Portrait from Letters, Diaries, and Memoirs (Ivan Bunin)

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Ivan Bunin: The Twilight of Emigre Russia, 1934-1953: A Portrait from Letters, Diaries, and Memoirs (Ivan Bunin)
Thomas G. Marullo
Manufacturer: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1566634334

Book Description

In this third and concluding volume of his acclaimed portrait, Mr. Marullo relates the struggle of the writer and of the emigre Russian artistic community in Europe to keep alive the memory of patriarchal Russia against a backdrop of personal suffering, poverty, war, and longing for the homeland.

Christopher Isherwood Diaries: 1939-1960

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Christopher Isherwood Diaries: 1939-1960
Christopher Isherwood , and Katherine Bucknell
Manufacturer: Methuen Publishing Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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