Average customer rating:
|
The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany
Martin Goldsmith Manufacturer: Wiley ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0471350974 |
Amazon.com
Writing this book must have required enormous courage; reading it is overwhelming, especially for anyone personally connected to the events it describes. Martin Goldsmith, best known as the host of NPR's Performance Today, is the American-born son of two German-Jewish musicians who escaped the Holocaust. He anchors the Holocaust to the story of his own family, whom he never knew because most of them perished in Hitler's death camps. Goldsmith accompanies them through their lives in Nazi Germany, with its ever-tightening persecution and repression of the Jews, and on their nightmarish journey to the gas chambers. He follows his parents through their early musical training, their blossoming love, courtship, and marriage--making them seem like a normal, happy young couple--to their miraculous rescue and escape to America.The book's linchpin is the Jewish Culture Association ("Jüdische Kulturbund"), in whose Berlin orchestra his parents met. Established by prominent Jewish leaders in 1933, after a "purge" of all Jewish Civil Servants, the Kulturbund flourished for eight years, with the permission and under the constant, increasingly repressive surveillance of the Nazis, who exploited it as a propaganda tool. Spreading from Berlin to other cities, its musical and theatrical presentations, lectures, and films offered employment to thousands of Jewish artists and the only cultural oasis to its Jewish audiences. In 1941, Germany's preoccupation with the war and the "Final Solution" rendered it superfluous, and it was dissolved.
But Goldsmith also furnishes the proper historical context for his uniquely individual, human account of the 20th century's most inhuman period. After a chillingly detailed description of the grass-roots rise of Nazism, he focuses on particularly horrifying events: the infamous 1935 Nuremberg Laws and the devastating 1938 pogrom, "Kristallnacht." The tragedy of the 937 refugees, including Goldsmith's grandfather and uncle, who were refused disembarkation first in Cuba, then in Miami, illustrates the world's customary indifference to "other" people's misfortunes. Nobody paid attention when, as early as 1922, Hitler declared that his first priority on coming to power would be the extermination of the Jews.
Goldsmith's factual, reportorial style increases the sickening horror, and he reminds us frequently that he is writing about his own family. Though his story's outcome is never in doubt, he generates real suspense--a measure of his skill, despite his unfortunate habit of hinting at the future. The Kulturbund has been accused of encouraging the Jews to ignore the desperate circumstances outside the theater, and therefore the imminence of their danger. Goldsmith refutes this. For most of them, emigration was impossible because, apart from the natural fear of pulling up roots, leaving everything behind, and starting a new life, they had nowhere to go. Moreover, how could anyone foresee the depth of the impending horror? It was, and still is, beyond the human imagination.
Goldsmith writes with insight and aching honesty about the survivors' guilt and its numbing effect even upon the next generation. But his parents also taught him to love music and appreciate its meaning in people's lives, and he talks about it with real knowledge and understanding. (However, someone should have corrected his opening reference to Siegmund's sword in Die Walküre, which is made of steel, not gold.) This is a brilliantly written, important, unforgettable book. --Edith Eisler
Book Description
Advance Praise for the Inextinguishable Symphony "A Fascinating Insight into a Virtually Unknown Chapter of Nazi Rule in Germany, Made all the More Engaging through a Son's Discovery of His Own Remarkable Parents." -Ted Koppel, ABC News "An Immensely Moving and Powerful Description of those Evil Times. I couldn't Put the Book Down." -James Galway "Martin Goldsmith has Written a Moving and Personal Account of a Search for Identity. His is a Story that will Touch All Readers with Its Integrity. This is not about Exorcising Ghosts, but Rather Awakening Passions that no One Ever Knew Existed. This is a Journey Everyone should Take." -Leonard Slatkin, Music Director National Symphony Orchestra "For Years I've been Familiar with Martin Goldsmith's Musical Expertise. This Book Explains the Source of His Knowledge and His Passion for the Subject. In Tracking the Extraordinary Story of His Parents and the Jewish Kulturbund, Martin Unfolds a Little-Known Piece of Holocaust History, and Finds Depths in His Own Heart that Warm the Hearts of Readers." -Susan Stamberg, Special Correspondent National Public Radio "[A] Strong and Painful Book, Well-Written, Well-Researched, Moving, and Very Instructive." -Ned Rorem, Pulitzer Prize-Winning ComposerCustomer Reviews:
Beautifully Haunting ... .......2007-09-28
A different Holocaust story.......2005-10-26
A son's voyage of discovery of his parents' nightmarish past.......2004-01-06
Such, in the lives of author Martin Goldsmith's parents, were the years from 1933 through 1941; so much so, in fact, that Goldsmith likens that time to the massive ash tree in the house of Germanic warlord Hunding, the setting of the first scene of Richard Wagner's opera "Die Walkuere:" Something looming large, yet never openly acknowledged. Because before George Gunther Goldsmith, furniture and home decorating salesman of Cleveland, Ohio, and his wife Rosemary, a violinist with the St. Louis Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra, became American citizens in 1947, they had lived a whole other life - the hunted life of Jews in Adolf Hitler's Germany. And only years after his mother's death, on a trip to his father's home town of Oldenburg, did Goldsmith catch the first glimpses of what was hidden behind that massive ash tree, and George Goldsmith began to talk about the events which his, the Goldschmidt family had witnessed there; as well as the early life of Rosemarie nee Gumpert in Duesseldorf, the couple's first meeting in Frankfurt, and their later life in Berlin until their lucky escape to the United States. Beginning with this visit, Martin Goldsmith retraced his family's path to the early years of the 20th century, when his paternal grandfather Alex Goldschmidt took residence in Oldenburg, and his maternal grandfather Julian Gumpert settled in Duesseldorf.
How intensely personal this voyage into the past must have been becomes clear in the account of Goldsmith's visit to Oldenburg prison, as a participant in a march retracing the path taken by the Jews - among them the author's grandfather - driven through the streets of Oldenburg in 1938 by Nazi thugs, to later be shipped off (at least temporarily) to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. But although he writes about his very own family, and now in full knowledge of their fate, Goldsmith's narrative is in no way sentimental. With a journalist's detachment he talks about Guenther and Rosemarie, Alex, Julian and their wives and other children; turning a nonfiction account whose outcome is clear from the very start into a heartstopping tale few would be able to believe if presented with it under colors other than that of the plain historic truth.
Prominently featured in Goldsmith's account is the Jewish Culture Association, or Juedischer Kulturbund; as of 1933 the German Jews' only permitted artistic organization, in whose orchestra Guenther and Rosemarie had met and which had formed the center of their life until they finally left the country. One of the most controversial institutions of Nazi Germany, it reunited what was left of the country's Jewish musicians, artists, writers and composers - providing a modicum of shelter in an increasingly hostile environment, but also a convenient tool in the Nazi propaganda machine. Were the members of the Kulturbund instrumentalized to deceive public opinion, at home and abroad, about the true intentions of Hitler's government? By giving their Jewish audience a sense of comfort and "belonging," did they also prevent some of them from rescuing themselves when there still would have been time? The surviving members of the "Kubu" and their families, interviewed by Goldsmith, come down on both sides of the issue; and the fate of the survivors is probably as symptomatic as that of the many who ultimately did perish in Nazi concentration camps - chiefly among those the Kulturbund's charismatic founder Dr. Singer, who not only let himself deceive into returning to Germany after already having reached the safe shores of the U.S. but saw a mark of distinction even in his deportation to the "model" concentration camp of Theresienstadt.
Yet, for Guenther and Rosemarie the years with the Kulturbund were dominated, above all, by the musical companionship they experienced. What does seem to have haunted them most for the rest of their lives, however, was their very escape to America, while their remaining family members were stuck in Europe and, one way or another, died in Hitler's concentration camps - and the feeling that with a little effort they just *might* have saved at least some of them. The letters of Alex Goldschmidt and his younger son Helmut, written to Guenther from captivity in France after their own unsuccessful attempt to flee to Cuba, are among the most chilling testimonials contained in this book; and the decision to translate and include them conceivably cannot have been an easy one for Goldsmith. Indeed, it apparently was the knowledge of his family's fate that, all talent and love of music aside, eventually compelled George Goldsmith to forever retire the flute which, in his life as Guenther Goldschmidt, had been the only item of true importance besides his beloved wife Rosemarie; thus punishing himself in a way no outsider could have done. Yet, the couple's gift for music lives on in their son, who in his own way has brought many hours of joy to radio listeners all over the U.S.
Martin Goldsmith's "Inextinguishable Symphony" - named for Danish composer Carl Nielsen's Fourth Symphony, which sets music, as a parable for life itself, against war, terror and destruction - is as much a personal journey of discovery as a journalist's account of historic facts; seeking to understand rather than to judge. It deals with a time in which morality was thoroughly upset by a profoundly immoral regime, which cannot possibly have remained without effect on anybody who witnessed those events. In applying our own values to those facts, I think we would all do well in being careful to, likewise, make a thorough effort to understand before we judge. Goldsmith's insightful account is a great place to begin such a process.
A Very Moving Book.......2003-09-01
Wow.......2003-06-09
Average customer rating: |
The Inextinguishable Symphony A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany
Martin Goldsmith Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000J0XKN0 |
Average customer rating: |
The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany (Special Edition)
Martin Goldsmith Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000VVABO8 |
Average customer rating: |
The Inextinguishable Symphony, A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany, Martin Goldsmith (345 pp., John Wiley and Sons, HB $24.95).(Review) (book review): An article from: Sensible Sound
Kevin East Manufacturer: Sensible Sound ProductGroup: Book Binding: Digital ASIN: B0008I5KTK Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Sensible Sound, published by Sensible Sound on June 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1077 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Average customer rating: |
The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000H6ALDI |
Average customer rating:
|
Galicia Division: The Waffen-SS 14th grenadier Division 1943-1945
Michael O. Logusz Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0764300814 |
Book Description
This new book is a historical account of the 14th Waffen-SS Galicia Division (also known as the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army). In 1943/1944 a determined group of young men and women in Galicia volunteered to serve in a combat division destined for eastern front combat. Their goal: to engage and destroy the Soviet hordes menacing their homeland and to counter Nazi Germany's subjugation of their country. Although initially Galicia's Volunteers would serve in a German sponsored military formation, in actuality the volunteers of the Galicia division wanted to engage all hostile ideologies-both from the east and west-in order to secure a free independent Ukraine. The division's history is presented along with a human aspect of what the soldiers endured during the brutal battles on the eastern front., over 50 b/w photographs, 6" x 9"
Customer Reviews:
Galicia Division: The Waffen-SS 14th grenadier Division 1943-1945.......2007-01-16
read Sol Litmans work.......2006-05-11
A NAZI IS A NAZI NO MATTER WHAT OTHER NAME YOU GIVE HIM.......2005-02-25
They wanted to fight for their homeland.......2004-10-10
Welcome addition to the literature.......2004-01-06
Average customer rating:
|
The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age
Walter A. McDougall Manufacturer: Johns Hopkins University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0801857481 |
Book Description
This highly acclaimed study approaches the space race as a problem in comparative public policy. Drawing on published literature, archival sources in both the United States and Europe, interviews with many of the key participants, and important declassified material, such as the National Security Council's first policy paper on space, McDougall examines U.S., European, and Soviet space programs and their politics. Opening with a short account of Nikolai Kibalchich, a late nineteenth-century Russian rocketry theoretician, McDougall argues that the Soviet Union made its way into space first because it was the world's first "technocracy" -- which he defines as "the institutionalization of technological change for state purpose." He also explores the growth of a political economy of technology in both the Soviet Union and the United States.
"Once every decade or so, a book comes along that stands by itself as a remarkable contribution to the literature of a field. Such a work is Walter A. McDougall's... the Heavens and the Earth." -- Technology and Culture
"[A] boldly conceived, elegantly written, and unfailingly provocative history of the new age of space." -- Science
"[An] immensely readable and elegant book" -- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Customer Reviews:
The Entire Scope of the Space Age.......2007-05-22
It is no wonder that McDougall won a Pulitzer Prize!.......2007-01-08
Thorough and Easy to Follow.......2006-12-24
Up, up and beyond.......2006-03-22
Insightful, Revealing and Ahead of its Time.......2006-03-08
Average customer rating: |
The Heavens & the Earth: Political History of the Space Age (ISBN:046502887X)
Walter A. McDougall Manufacturer: Basic Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000MONDIU |
Average customer rating: |
The heavens and the Earth. A political history of the space age.
Walter A. ... McDOUGALL Manufacturer: Basic ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000ORCG9W |
Average customer rating: |
. . . The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age
Walter A. McDougall Manufacturer: The Easton Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Leather Bound ASIN: B000O7NH2M |
Average customer rating: |
...The Heavens & the Earth, A Political History of the Space Age
Walter A. McDougall Manufacturer: New York: Basic Books, Inc. 1985 ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000NX44XI |
Average customer rating: |
Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age.
Manufacturer: 0 ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000IBG8QG |
Average customer rating: |
Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age.
Walter A. McDougall Manufacturer: McDougall, Walter A. The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age. NY: Basic Books, Inc., 1985. 555pp. Hardcover. VG / VG dj. ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000SJKY2M |
Average customer rating: |
Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age.
Walter A. McDougall Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000M3UB3G |
Average customer rating: |
Down to the Waterline Boundaries, Nature, and the Law in Florida
Warner Sara Manufacturer: University of Georgia Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000UEWU22 |
Average customer rating: |
Down To The Waterline: Boundaries, Nature, And The Law In Florida
Sara Warner Manufacturer: University of Georgia Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0820327034 |
Books:
Recommended Books