Justus RosenbergRecensioni

I wasn't left with entirely positive feelings about this book. I chose to read it because the area of France where I used to live was a Resistance hot-spot, and I was keen to understand more. But somehow, this account never got into the detail of what being in the Resistance really entailed. This non-observant Jewish boy was sent to Paris by his parents when it became clear that staying in Danzig (now Gdansk) was no longer a safe option. He completed his school education and entered the Sorbonne before the German occupation of France really kicked in. When it did, his career as a Resistance worker began, and saw him in various locations, in various roles at different times. His linguistic skills and Aryan appearance stood him in good stead, and he finished the war unscathed, his path to a future in American mapped out.

I realise Rosenberg was very elderly when he wrote this book, but the story seemed to lack telling detail. And though his achievements were many, and deserve to be recognised and celebrated, he did rather spell them out. There's a fuller story here that deserves to be recorded.

Very disappointed.

Very disappointed.

Interesting look at WWII from a resistor of the Nazis in France.½

autobiografía de un joven judío de Danzig, que los padres mandan a Francia para protegerlo del nazismo. Se mezcla con la operación de mandar refugiados a EEUU para luego unirse a la resistencia. Muy bueno, en algunos tramos parece un Zellig por su mezcla con personajes famosos. EN ningún momento pierde la humanidad y la sencillez. excelente

The Prologue of this book is the best part of the whole book. Justice Rosenberg had slipped out of one line at a Nazi internment camp and wandered over to a very long time. He found out that it was for prisoners who wanted to see a doctor for their ailments. He thought maybe it would be an easier way to escape! He questioned a young woman who was able to tell him what kind of diseases are so serious that he would have to be admitted. He knew how to heat up a thermometer and he had acting experience to feign pain. It worked. But the next morning, he woke up to find that the doctor had operated on him for appendicitis!

The next part on the one page prologue was even more exciting and surprising. I think I read the Prologue four times!

Unfortunately the rest of the book winds around and around his story. I was very interested in his parents but not so much in his social life with his friends in college. There was much of that in his book and not enough depth about his feeling of not knowing it his parents were still alive. The author has had a very long and meaningful life. I just wish that he had a good writer alongside him to ask questions. His experiences in the French Resistance were amazing but I think more questions from another person at his side would made his experiences much more memorable. His life is amazing but his story meanders.

I received an Advanced Review Copy from the publisher as a win from FirstReads. My thoughts and views are entirely my own.

Fascinating look into his experiences during WWII as a resistance fighter. The story flows effortlessly, like words on ice. It was a "confluence of circumstances" that led him into that life and out of it as well.

The At of Resistance offers an interesting, if somewhat rambling, look into life in World War II France. The author originally traveled to France to attend the Sorbonne, but found himself working to help "decadent" (aka surrealist) artists and left-wing writers escape France to safer locations.

This title lacks the narrative power of novels set in occupied France, but that is clearly a result of its being based in fact, with a goal of recording actual happenings, rather than entertaining readers with imagined happening set in the same locale and time period.