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A review by falconerreader
The Avengers: A Jewish War Story by Rich Cohen
3.0
My roots are Lithuanian, and I've spent five years living in the Baltics. I find it deeply uncomfortable that the Holocaust was at its most lethal in this corner of Europe. All the more reason to read this book. I can't help remembering visiting the site of a concentration camp in Latvia. There is some powerful (Soviet) statuary and a sign reading, "Behind this gate, the earth moans." Yet the place is always strangely deserted. Local friends told me that after fifty years of having Communist propaganda shoved down their throats, including (but obviously not limited to) "The Soviets stopped the evil Fascists," Balts took EVERYTHING the Russians said about history with a grain of salt. So--fertile ground for Holocaust denial. Besides, every Latvian has relatives who were killed and/or exiled to Siberia by the Russians, so that part of history is very much alive. On the other hand...virtually no Jews are left as living reminders of what happened. Very troubling.
I liked how Cohen kept referring to the protaganists as "kids." They obviously had left childhood far behind, but it's a very effective way of reminding us of how much they were facing at a very young age. I think maybe the most moving part of the book is towards the end, when he summarizes Abba's message as "...If you struggle, then win or lose, you win...(and) those who fought often survived." A lesson you rarely hear from the Holocaust.
I liked how Cohen kept referring to the protaganists as "kids." They obviously had left childhood far behind, but it's a very effective way of reminding us of how much they were facing at a very young age. I think maybe the most moving part of the book is towards the end, when he summarizes Abba's message as "...If you struggle, then win or lose, you win...(and) those who fought often survived." A lesson you rarely hear from the Holocaust.