Review by Jon Terje Groenli
Gjengangeren.no
"In this powerful and extensive book the author tells us about her extended
family’s destiny during the war – and she does this thoroughly – with a detailed story of several other
members of her family –"
The book contains self-experienced–
despite her age – scenarios, but also a number of conversations with others who survived in Sweden and in the most dreaded
concentration camps. Most of all it deals with people’s self-experienced dramatic experiences, but the author
is able to draw logical conclusions – and therefore the text to a great extent acquires an “internal” cohesion.
Review – Norsk Telegrambyraa
(Similar to
the Associated Press, which gives newspapers in the entire country access to the material. 63 papers took advantage
of this)
"She was never in Hitler’s extermination camps. Still she calls herself a survivor from the
Holocaust –she got away. A large part of her family was not that fortunate."
This has finally – sixty-three years after the end of the war – resulted in a captivating story about
her family, which to a great extent was exterminated during the war. The dramatic, but simultaneously human story is
being published by Orion Publishers.
Review –
Nytti Uka
Aalesund, October 2008
Reidar Skarboe
"Powerful,
important and pertinent."
"In this powerful and extensive
book the author writes about her extended family’s destiny during the war – and she does this thoroughly
– with a detailed story of several other members of her family –"
"She was never in Hitler’s extermination camps. Still she calls herself a survivor from the Holocaust
– she got away. A large part of her family was not that fortunate."
"One asks oneself if
there really is anything more to write about, when a new book comes out. It does turn out that there is indeed. This
author really has something to tell."
"Most
people are more or less familiar with the destiny of the Jews during the Third Reich so it should be superfluous to say that
the material which the writer conveys is powerful. In this book it seems even more powerful, since Irene Levin Berman
expresses herself to such an extent in a matter-of-fact and down-to-earth manner. The almost total absence of powerful
adjectives places the horrendous events, for that reason, in an even more evident depiction. It might be interesting
to find out if this is done deliberately or if this quite frankly is the author’s way of expressing herself. Regardless,
it is extremely effective."
"We owe Irene Berman a thank
you for taking on and completing this impressive project. She has written an important book – a book that we can
learn from and gain wisdom, especially in a world where it appears that more and more people are forced to be on the run,
and thereby looking for new places to establish a life for themselves."
"And dramatic is exactly the word to describe the story by Irene Levin Berman, a Norwegian-American Jew who
this week presented the book "We are going to pick potatoes", The Escape from the Holocaust."
"But when Berman tells us a story about her close relatives, the Steinfeld family
in Ålesund, then the victims get faces and identities, that’s when we realize that some of them were Norwegians
just like you and me, only with a minor difference that they were also Jews."
"Lea and Israel Steinfeld and their two children, Reidun and Morten were brutally murdered in Auschwitz.
Irene Berman can only remember that they were mentioned one time, it was said that they “disappeared”. That
was the expression that was used, that they "disappeared" – nothing more was said – it was too painful."
Verdens Gang, Versto on a Saturday
(The largest newspaper in Norway with the largest circulation)
– SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2008
By Olav Versto
Dramatic story
"It’s extremely important that we also
document the destiny of the Norwegian Jews during the war and that we are given books of great value like the one Irene Levin
Berman has written."
"When I read stories like the one Berman
has given us, I quiver in rage over those eccentric hermits who have the audacity to claim that the Holocaust never took place
and that they whole story is thing is fabrication."
"But
why didn’t more people try to get away? Many felt that something horrendous was about to happen, even if no one
could imagine annihilation, but who can? Many met this threat with silence. The author describes the silence in
this way: By failing to say anything out loud to other people they perhaps felt that they could avoid accepting the
reality. They managed to a certain extent to postpone this intense pain by quite simply not allowing it to get too close."
"The library which accommodates the stories about the survivors of the Holocaust
has gradually taken on enormous dimensions and continues to grow each year. But the book written by Irene Levin Berman
does not fit totally into the survival genre, even if the primary title is “The Escape from the Holocaust."
Gudbransdoelen
Dagningen, Lillehammer –
Egil Ulateig
(this reviewer
is also a well-known author of Norwegian books)
Problems related to survival.
"Irene Levin Berman’s book is just about free of horrendous descriptions.
It’s a chase – a sort of a detective story where she attempts to find relatives who have survived – and
who did not survive, and at the same time, she finds herself."
"Her
family history is just as rich and swarming as a Russian novel, but the center of the book is her father, Marcus Levin, who
in the 1930s had confronted discriminating Norwegian refugee politics and who after the war contributed with an enormous amount
of work in trying to save the surviving Jews who were floating around Europe as shipwrecked sailors from a sunken ship."
"The book is actually surprisingly free of hatred, revenge and accusations
against Hitler’s many volunteers or involuntary helpers. It also divulges an open and refreshing view on the Jewish
environment, both in Norway and the USA where Irene Levin Berman now lives. But she has gained insight into how important
it is to hold on to the uniqueness, even the rituals that perhaps seem anachronistic and contribute to create divisions."
"This is a family chronicle based on the annihilation which also affected her own family greatly – indeed
what Norwegian Jew avoided this destiny? I feel that I’ve come close to a tragedy and an environment as well as
a vision of oneself which has given me additional insight."
