Below is a summation of the members' reactions to this work as reported by Leslie Nord, who was standing in as facilitator for Janine Myers.
· They were all glad to read the book even though it was not an “enjoyable” book due to subject matter. They thought it was a wonderful story (although the writing was not very good). It was hard to get into at first, then got really good, but the ending was not strong. The present tense was hard to follow at times, it did not flow.
· One member had the Jewish man as a professor in undergrad and graduate school both. Despite his strong accent she never had any problem understanding him. She liked him a lot. The undergrad students were not interested in his history, but the grad students were.
· They all commented that there were a lot more camps and a lot more people were killed than they realized.
· We talked about how survivors of intense trauma survive – They felt that the key is to not “keep the pot stirred” by ruminating about it. It is good to talk about it, but then let it go and think positive and move on with your life. They thought it was easier for the men to move on once they moved here because it was so much nicer than what they had experienced. It was amazing how they learned to trust people again – although we felt they did lose faith in God, law enforcement and the ability of government to protect you. We talked about how only the strong survived the concentration camps.
· Major themes were that we need to understand what happened with the Holocaust – and what people are able to do under a stressful situation.
