My Just War: The Memoir of a Jewish Red Army Soldier in World War II - Hardcover

Temkin, Gabriel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0891416455 ISBN 13: 9780891416456

Publisher: Presidio Press, 1997

Synopsis

A remarkable story of the resilience, courage, and perseverance of a stranger in a strange land.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

YA-Unlike many books in this genre, this one tells the story of a man who did not meekly go to the gas chambers, but who fought back. Temkin fled Poland for the Soviet Union after its partition in 1939. He was drafted into the Red Army and served initially in a labor battalion, but was soon captured by the Germans. After a harrowing escape, he was rescued by the Red Army, which he joined again. During the next two years he fought in many of the campaigns that helped liberate the Ukraine, Romania, and Hungary from the Nazis. This book is not intended as an overview of the battles, but is confined to one man's observations of the cataclysmic events that would shape the world for the next 50 years. It is not for the faint-hearted, for the author describes in great detail the horrors he witnessed and the hardships he endured. His story is easy to read and is more of an oral history than a memoir. However, Temkin tends to ramble on in places and often the chapters are more stream-of-consciousness than organized narrative. A good addition to Holocaust collections.
Robert Burnham, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

As an 18-year-old Polish Jew from Lodz, Temkin fled to Soviet-controlled Poland after the Nazi invasion. After the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Temkin was drafted into the Red Army. His memoir traces his experiences as he fought the Nazis across Eastern Europe until the taking of Vienna in April 1945. This is essentially a straightforward recounting of a common soldier's perceptions of one of the most massive and heroic military campaigns in modern history. Temkin's prose is somewhat stilted at times, and he writes with a curious detachment, particularly when he reports on atrocities committed against Jews. It is as if Temkin, whose entire family was wiped out during the Holocaust, is deliberately pulling his punches in the interest of "objectivity." Still, the sheer scope of the violence and horror of war on a gigantic scale comes through clearly in this rather unique and frequently stunning chronicle. Jay Freeman

About this edition

• Publisher: Presidio Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0891416455
• ISBN 13: 9780891416456
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272