Lyn Smith

Utterly heartbreaking and well arranged so that we are taken on a journey into the hell of nazism and see all around us death and yet somehow, inconceivably, we survive. This books highlights the sheer unlikeliness, the luck of survival. This is counter to how most of us think about ourselves and history. This book is also an important testimony. Within a couple of years from now there will be no-one left who can say This Happened I Saw It and it will become easier to say that it didn't happen. Even today, lies are told about the Holocaust, by deniers who pretend it didn't happen, and by people who say for various reasons that it didn't happen the way it did. These can only be countered by facts, testimonies, and historical study. A fine book.… (plus d'informations)

The Friends Ambulance Unit was formed in 1914 and re-established in 1939 providing an opportunity for over 1300 young men and women with pacifist convictions to undertake non-military service in WW2. The author draws on the experience of a wide range of FAU members who have provided her with personal accounts of their involvement with the FAU together with their thoughts on the lasting effects these experiences had upon their lives. Smith assesses these interviews within an historical context and in so doing reveals significant lessons for the modern world

Lyn Smith works for the Imperial War Museum’s Sound archive and has worked on a major project of anti-war movements. She is tutor in International Politics at the OU and has published many academic articles.… (plus d'informations)

This is a great collection of examples of humanity in times of trial. Those who risked livelihoods and lives to save their fellow human beings from terror, these Brits are examples of the best in humanity. It was interesting to see how people from a nation that was never invaded by ground troops but was hammered from the sky put themselves at risk for others not of their own nation.

Most of the people detailed in this book I was familiar with from reading on Righteous Gentiles before that were recognized by Yad Vashem. I liked this volume, however, as it collected people from one nation into one work and some of which were not recognized by Yad Vashem for whatever reason. These are people that were recognized by Britain with their own Heroes of the Holocaust medal.

From diplomatic halls to occupied British soil to the very bowels of Auschwitz itself, this work covers a wide range of rescue and its arenas. It shines a light on people who would have most likely stayed ordinary under regular circumstances; but with tyranny and evil taking power, they became saviors and people of incredible bravery. I think that’s why I like reading about those who rescued others during the Holocaust. It brings light to how ordinary people can make a difference and be such a bright light of humanity amongst such inhumanity.

I liked how the author presented the information as well. Nonfiction works that present their information in personal story format with each chapter being a different person’s story is something I love. It makes the information very easy to digest, each chapter being one person’s story. Not a format that works for all non-fiction, it works great for works like this, telling us about multiple people over one broad theme. It also makes it very readable, giving it readability to a wider audience and even the casual reader who might not look at a non-fiction otherwise.

I personally loved this work. It presents a lot of information in a format that makes it readable by a wide audience, reaching more people with stories that relate in the modern age and give us examples of how even the ordinary can make a difference. Definitely recommended!!… (plus d'informations)

At first I found this book a little hard to read, because rather than present a complete case study it broke them all up into sections so the snippet of case study related to the chapter topic (such as the ghetto or the camps) but soon I found as I read I picked up familiar threads of people’s stories. Once I finished it, I saw how powerful this was of structuring it was and wouldn’t have it any other way.
The structure and the voices of the survivors took me through an emotional journey. There was raw emotion in the words, and I don’t mean from flowery language. The most moving entry I found was one line long and very blunt. I could hear it being said in my head, flat and without feeling, yet those twelve words brought me to tears.
It was still a hard book to read, not for the reason I first mentioned but because of the emotion that poured out of the pages. That said, I think this is a book everybody NEEDS to read and I am very glad I have read it.… (plus d'informations)