REVIEWS OF THE ENGLISH BOOK

"WE ARE GOING TO PICK POTATOES" - NORWAY AND THE HOLOCAUST, THE UNTOLD STORY

"The story of the effort and extent to which the Nazi war machine would reach out in order to annihilate even the most remote Jewish family. The story of indifference and courage, of despair and hope, of silence and action. A very Jewish and very human story which should be told and listened to."

-Michael Melchior, Chief Rabbi of Norway, Former Cabinet Minister of Israel

"Irene [Levin] Berman tells an important and-for most Americans-unknown story about the destiny of the Norwegian Jews during WW II. Being herself a Holocaust survivor, her style is emotionally very strong, though factual and sober. This comprehensive, moving and heart-rending book, with a welcome underlying optimism in spite of traumatic experiences, deserves a wide circle of readers in the U.S.A, far beyond those of Norwegian descent."

-Arnfinn Moland, Director, Norway's Resistance Museum

"Irene Levin Berman has written a powerful, deeply moving book about a people, a place, and a time unfamiliar to many Americans. It is a story that should be widely known and remembered by all."

-Edward P. Gallagher, President, The American-Scandinavian Foundation

"We Are Going to Pick Potatoes": Norway and the Holocaust, The Untold Story by Irene Levin Berman (Hamilton Books) fills in a little-known chapter in Holocaust history. While in recent years, the story of the rescue of Danish Jews has come to light, little has been written about the Jews of Norway. Berman, who was born in Norway, escaped as a young child in 1942 - just days ahead of Nazi arrests - with her immediate family to Sweden, with the help of the Norwegian Resistance movement.  A pilot carried the 4-year-old girl in a knapsack through the forest and across the border.  Members of her extended family did not manage to escape and were among the more than 700 Norwegian Jews deported to Auschwitz. Based on extensive research into her own family's history and that of the Jewish community, she writes about Jewish life in Norway, before and after the war. She tells of those who returned to Norway to rebuild their lives and surrounded their wartime experiences with silence."

-Sandee Brawarsky, The Jewish Week (New York), April 15, 2010

"Levin's narrative is poignant . . . Yet her story rings true when she describes how groups of Jews were smuggled out of the country, referred to euphemistically as "potatoes," whence comes her book's title. Levin is also acute in describing the story of Denmark's King wearing a Jewish star out of sympathy with his Jewish subjects -- a total myth, albeit a beloved one."

-Benjamin Ivry. "The Arty Semite." The Jewish Daily Forward. June 4, 2010.

http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/128563/