"But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate you're bound to get irate, yeah
Madness is what you demonstrate
And that's exactly how anger works and operates
Man you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love y'all"
-- will.i.am, et al. "Where is the Love?"
Approximately six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.
"The long-term after-effects of Holocaust traumatization are far-reaching.
More than half a century after the war, the Holocaust continues to make
its presence felt on survivor families and others in a variety of ways.
Like an atom bomb that disperses its radioactive fallout in distant places,
often a long time after the actual explosion, the Holocaust continues to
contaminate everyone who was exposed to it in one way or another.
When retiring from work or experiencing deteriorating health, terrifying nightmares
and flashbacks reappear in aging survivors who over the years had kept
themselves excessively busy in order to repress their painful memories.
Survivors who were children during the war continue to struggle with their basic
insecurities and prolonged mourning for parents they hardly or ever knew."
-- from "The Long-term Psychological Effects and Treatment of Holocaust
Trauma" (2001) by clinical psychologist Natan P.F. Kellermann, PhD.
Growing up in Commack, on Long Island, I had a lot of friends who were
Jewish. So many had lost -- a decade before we were born -- distant- or
not-so-distant relatives in the Nazi death camps. Our community was also home
to Jews who were among the survivors of the Holocaust.
Adolf Eichmann organized and oversaw the movement of millions of Jews to
the death camps where they were systematically murdered. He was very good
at organizing and overseeing these tasks. Clearly, he did not learn that
one must not to do to someone that which you wouldn't want done to you...or
your mother...or your daughter. If there is a lesson for the world in the
life of Adolf Eichmann, it is that one cannot justify morally unjustifiable
behavior through claims of having merely been following orders.
"The agents had mentally prepared themselves for the risks of holing up at
the house -- possibly even having to face an assault from the police or
from Eichmann's sons and associates if they were located. But not one of
them had anticipated the soul-hollowing effect of inhabiting the same space as
Adolf Eichmann."
THE NAZI HUNTERS by Neal Bascomb is an adaptation for young people ofBascomb's book about the locating, surveillance, capture, and bringing to
justice of Adolf Eichmann, who had succeeded in changing his identity and
escaping to Argentina at the end of WWII. It is an oft-tense spy thriller of a
true story. Pretty much all of those involved in tracking him down,
capturing him, and getting him from Argentina to Israel for trial, had deep
emotional involvement in the mission, having lost distant- or not-so-distant
relatives in the Holocaust thanks, in large part, to Eichmann.
Six million Jews murdered remains a difficult number to get my head
around. That is the equivalent of 15 Woodstock audiences. Or, out here in
California where I live now, it is the number of people who collectively live
in San Francisco plus Oakland plus San Jose plus San Mateo County plus the
rest of Alameda County plus Contra Costa County plus Marin County plus Sonoma
County (my county).
It took a lot of organizing to kill that many people. Eichmann got it
done. It took a lot of work to catch up with Eichmann. Fifteen years after
the war, the people we meet in this book got it done. The capture and
trial of Adolf Eichmann helped educate the modern world about what had taken
place under Hitler.
Now, two-thirds of a century after the end of that war, I continue to hope
for the discovery of an avenue to lasting peace and harmony in the Middle
East. I'm hoping that, someday soon, someone can get it done, and I can
write about those people, too.
"If you never know truth
Then you never know love
Where's the love y'all?"
256 pages Ages 10 and up 9780545-43099-9
Recommended by: Richie Partington, MLIS
See more of his recommendations: Richie's Picks _https://richiespicks.com
*******
World War II will always be remembered as the war that carved death and destruction throughout Europe. The Jewish people were the main target of this "Final Solution" and weren't safe in any country Germany overcame.
The men that played pivotal parts in the "Final Solution" were a group of high-ranked Nazis, given the task to eradicate the Jews. Adolf Eichmann was one of those faces burned into survivors' memories. As head of operations for the "Final Solution, he showed no emotion as he lied to Jews and sent them to be killed
At the end of the war, Eichmann went into hiding and was never seen again...until thirteen years later...
Once Eichmann was identified, Israel began an incredibly detailed plot to find, capture and bring him to justice on Israeli soil. This is their story.
This is one of those non-fiction books that will reach out to YA readers and keep them riveted until the last page. And when they're done reading, this story will take them online to find out more. HIGHLY recommended.
Full review on YA Books and More ( www.naomibates.blogspot.com<https://www.naomibates.blogspot.com> )
Recommended by: Naomi Bates, Librarian, Texas USA