rachels_booknook 's review for:

The Goddess of Warsaw by Lisa Barr

5.0

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I don’t read many Holocaust books anymore. I love the movement towards Jewish joy in fiction, recognizing the Holocaust is not the only Jewish story. Recently there’s discussion that if you’re going to read a Holocaust book, which is obviously important, it should be written by a Jewish author and the story told properly. 

In my opinion, no one does it better than Lisa Barr. The Goddess of Warsaw is another brilliant book by the author of Woman on Fire. From the Warsaw Ghetto to the glamour of Hollywood, The Goddess of Warsaw tells the story of Bina Blonski/Lena Browning, who survived the Holocaust with the help of her looks and acting ability. 

Lisa Barr humanizes her characters. Yes, they are living through the Holocaust and life in the Ghetto, but they still have human emotions. While playing various roles during and after the war, the moments when Bina/Lina is her true self are vital to the story. This book not only details Bina’s story and the various ways Jews tried to document the war and fight back, but also the effects it continued to have on her decades later and how part of her would always be at war.  

I knew that many Nazis escaped to other countries to live peaceful lives after the war, but I learned from this book about “Operation Paperclip, a top secret intelligence program in which sixteen hundred high-ranking Nazi scientists, engineers, and technicians, were rescued from Nazi Germany, their criminal pasts wiped clean, and given U.S. government employment after the war.” 

Post-October 7, this book hits hard. Bina says about the Jewish people: “if the world is indifferent to us now, just imagine how it will be in the future.” She also says: “now more than ever, showing pride in our Judaism matters.” As we watch the current rise in antisemitism, we too know that showing pride in our Judaism is the most important thing we can do.