I don't know why but in the last few days I've been seeing a lot of wartime poetry, written by women across the experiences of war, and have been loving it. I remember in high school and undergrad literature at uni, thinking women just didn't write poetry during the war (or at any other time). I always questioned this because I didn't believe it could be in any way true. I'm so glad that these women are getting some recognition now. It's so important to understand that war isn't only about men and the battles.

Intriguing and enveloping, this book will take readers on a multi varied courses with the main characters. It’s a book that will definitely fill up an entire’s afternoon worth of reading.

Interesting read, but it was hard to follow at times. It was informative, and haunting at the same time,

Powerfully written. I could only do a bit at a time, but it is worth the read to learn from one person's perspective.

This is truly an amazing look into the life, feelings and fears of mother, artist, and wife trying to survive and understand the hatred that is surrounding her and her family. The letters, and poems of Ilse Weber give a different look and understanding of the those that lived, and died in the Holocaust. What more this woman may have accomplished if she had survived we will never know, but she left behind a legacy that people can learn from. The emotions in the letters and poems paint the picture of a woman that was trying to understand the changing world, that seemed to have gone mad. The poems give a different understanding to what those who lived in the ghettos, and camps went through. For anyone that studies or is interested in this time in history, should read this book.

Told through letters sent by Ilse to a childhood friend, her son, and others written during the World War II, this book book is masterful in the conveyance of historical information as well as through her poetry. A beautifully written account of life during Hitler's reign and a woman's dedication and passion for her craft.

Thanks to Netgalley/publisher for the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review. Quite unlike many other Holocaust readings I have encountered (with the exception of Anne Frank's Diary) this is a collection of letters which is just as harrowing as other writings about this tragedy in history, and as a mother myself I found it heartbreaking. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the Holocaust for further insight. The book contains letters and poems that were hidden in a ghetto shed in the latter part of the war; they were written by a German Jewish woman to her young son whom she sent from Czechoslovakia for safety, and to his carers in England and Sweden, before and during World War 2 in the 1930s as well as poems she had written in Thereseinstadt

I find books about the Holocaust so fascinating (and horrifying) and Dancing on a Powder Keg is no exception. Emotive and haunting.

This is not the first time that I've read a book that is about the Holocaust; there was memoirs of the survivors and those victims who died in that unfortunate and horrifying event. The most notable Holocaust victim is Anne Frank, and I can't help compare what happened to her to to Ilse Weber. This book contains the correspondence of Ilse to her friend, Lilian; reading these letters will drawn readers to what she and her family experienced before and during the Holocaust era.

Moreover, there are poems/ode of Ilse that were both beautifully written and heart-rending. Ilse wrote these poems as a secret way to inform Lilian on what's really happening to her and her family in the ghetto. Through her words, I was able to imagine how hard it was to endure the suffering inflicted on them. This book provides another glimpse to that dark part of the world history; reading this reminds us not only to remember the victims and what happened to them, but also to prompt readers that we should try to prevent this from happening again.

A touching, intimate and unique perspective on a harrowing time. This isn't an easy book to read, knowing the outcome before going in, but it's definitely worth reading.

Dancing on a Power Keg by Ilse Weber
WWII books are one topic I read regularly, always looking for another side of the story. I was thinking this book would be a dairy of Ilse and in a way it was. The story is told thru letters that Ilse sent to Lillian, a childhood friend of hers, also sent to her son and other letters she had written during the war years. I was a little disappointed in the letters, they did not actually go thru her daily life of what they endured, but she was mainly asking for assistance.
Ilse and Willi decided to send their oldest son away during the war years for safety and education, the letters were asking of his well-being and any information she could receive about him. Also, the letters are rather vague on daily life as the war progressed, they didn’t go into as much detail as I had expected, most of the time Ilse said they were all fine and were eating. On the other hand, the book also has a lot of background on the war and Ilse and Willi’s early years, featuring letters from survivors that had met Ilse and Willi in the ghetto or the war camps. I was most impressed with Ilse’s poetry, it was beautiful, if you read the book for nothing other than her poetry, it would be well worth it. I am giving this book 5 stars for the poetry, the WWII information and for Ilse’s story. She was an exceptional, talented person who accomplished many things in the short time she was here. I’m sure she blessed the lives of many people she encountered.
I thank NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book for my review.

This book is a collection of poems and letters written by the author. It begins with a brief synopsis of the authors life and then you read the letters. After the letters, you then read how the author went to the Ghetto and then poems. Finally, a few pages of what had happened after the Holocaust.
I liked the story, however the book felt like it was just crammed in. I think the book could have been better if they had they told her story in a timeline order,,,with the letters, a narrative, and poems.
Otherwise is was a good Holocaust narrative. Sad and left the reader wanting to yell at the book....NO! RUN!

<b>**I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**</b>

<b>Introduction</b>
I know it sounds cliche, but I know of no other way to say it: the humanity of this book will haunt you. Isle Weber's story, pieced together through records from Yad Vashem and her personal letters and poems, is one of the most moving Holocaust accounts you will ever read.

<b>The story</b>
Ilse Weber was a brilliant, creative, artistic soul. She was a doting wife, a loving mother, and a loyal friend. She wrote beloved radio programs for children, as well as musicals and poetry. She was also a Jew. As such, her fate was sealed when Hitler tore through her homeland. She loved Germany and the German language, which was her native tongue. The book opens with her letters mostly to her friend, Lilian. As the years progress, Ilse's letters are more and more emotional as she watches the world around her devolve into evil. She describes how former neighbors and friends ignore or even verbally attack her in public. She is confused by the political changes that seem to drive personality changes in almost everyone she knows.

Eventually, Ilse and her husband (Willi) make the heart-wrenching decision to send their oldest son, Hans, to live with friends in England. Hans arrives safely via Kindertransport and spends the rest of the war bouncing around England and Sweden. Meanwhile, Ilse and Willi bounce around Czechoslovakia and Poland with their younger son, Tomas. Ilse and Willi find it increasingly hard to find work and they both begin to suffer from various chronic illnesses. They find comfort in their community and Ilse's poems. As the Jews are thrown together in the ghetto of Theresienstadt, Isle volunteers to work in the children's hospital, playing her illegal guitar to cheer up the suffering children. Eventually, Ilse heroically refuses to abandon the children as they are rounded up for transportation. She was killed along with all the children, including her son Tomas, in a gas chamber at Auschwitz. Willi is taken to the camps too, but not before he is able to bury Ilse's poems. He survived and was able to retrieve them after the war. Hans survived as well and helped publish this account of his mother's last days.

<b>Literary analysis</b>
At first I wasn't sure I would be able to get into a book comprised of personal letters, especially as it is only from Ilse's perspective. I'm also not usually a huge fan of poetry. I was blown away by everything in this book. The letters drew me in with their simple, honest, emotional accounts of Ilse's daily life. She talks about being a mother, caring for her household, trying desperately to hold her family together as the world around her fell apart. This book read like Anne Frank meets Sophie's Choice. It tore my heart out. I cannot fathom sending my child away. I cannot imagine what must have been going through her mind on that last trip with all those children. I cannot even begin to know what would have gone through her mind standing in that gas chamber, clutching her son, sensing that the end had come...

Any grammatical errors were original to Ilse, and honestly are few and far between (possibly attributed to her efforts to learn and write in new languages). This book was difficult to read on an emotional level, but incredibly moving.

<b>Conclusion</b>
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is unique in a way similar to Anne Frank, but from the perspective of a courageous and loving mother and wife. <u>I want the world to read this book and never, ever forget Ilse Weber, her family, and the other 6 million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.</u>

<b>**Special note: If you ever have the opportunity to visit Israel, you <i>must</i> make the trip to Yad Vashem. It is breathtaking and unforgettable. It is absolutely worth your time. It forever changed my perspective on the Holocaust and the Jewish people.**</b>

This book, which is a collection of letters and poems, written by Ilse Weber from pre-war Moravia in 1933 to February 1942, when Ilse and her younger son are deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz in 1944. A professional writer, Ilse wrote scripts for radio, children’s books and songs. As life for Czech Jews became increasingly dangerous, she sends her eldest son to live with an old friend in England. Her letters detail the slow chiseling of her country by the Nazis and the family’s futile attempts to leave the country.

Throughout her narrative, there is always hope and the belief that things can never get worse. As things do grow worse, she displays an outward resilience. As a nurse on the children’s ward at the Theresienstadt concentration camp she sings to the children, writes poetry and encourages the children to draw. The camp writings are secreted in a shed and later retrieved by her husband after the war.

Ilse’s eldest son, Hanuš, does not understand why he is separated from his family. Her letters to him are filled with benign daily routine and gentle reminders to be a good boy. He does not learn the full truth of his family’s nightmare until he is an adult, which makes this first-hand account of the holocaust by someone who did not survive is all the more poignant.

Ilse Weber was a gifted writer of children's plays, poetry and music. Her plays were broadcast on German radio often supported by a cast of children. Her broadcast days were numbered as Anti-Semitism took hold in her adopted town of Witkowitz, Czechoslovakia. Ilse loved her homeland passionately. The town residents, German as well as Czech, were now waiting until Hitler came, whether out of fear or fervor.

In 1933, Ilse started writing frequent letters to her Swedish friend Lilian von Lowenalder. The letters recorded the struggles faced by Ilse, husband Willi, and children Hanus and Tomas as Hitler's rise to power corresponded with the de-Jewification process to obliterate Jewish art, music and literature. Her fears, frustrations and struggles to safeguard her family were conveyed to Lilian. In 1937, a letter recounted the story of a Jewish restaurant owner, a convert for 30 years. By shooting a drunken farmer in self defense, riots and looting abounded with terrible consequences for Polish Jewish residents. As boycotts of Jewish shops and refusal to employ Jewish workers escalated, Ilse and Willi determined that they must apply for emigration to Palestine. Fears for the safety of the children forced Ilse to make an uneasy, heartbreaking decision. Nine year old Hanus was sent on the Sir Nicholas Winton transport to London to stay with Lilian. Hanus later traveled to Sweden and was hosted by Lilian's mother, Gertrude.

Travel visas to Palestine and Sweden were now no longer being issued. Ilse indicated that correspondence from Lilian, Gertrude and Hanus gave her hope and encouragement. The letters provided distraction and happiness. Music was a comforter as well. When the Webers were sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1942, she volunteered to work as a nurse in the children's hospital. Although music was not allowed, a guitar was smuggled into the hospital.

From 1942-44, Ilse told sick children stories and sang them lullabies. She wrote 60 poems in Theresienstadt, poems that were recovered after the war. One poem called "A Satchel Speaks" described an abandoned suitcase looking for his traveling companion, a gentle man.The satchel wanted to be reunited with it's owner. "Blue Hour at the Children's Ward" addressed the gnawing pangs of hunger. One child dreamed of living in a land offering nothing to do except eat. Another child wished he could eat the food he left on his plate. The poems are a testament of the harrowing, life and death struggles played out in Theresienstadt.

"Dancing on a Powder Keg: The Intimate Voice of a Young Mother and Author, Her Letters Composed in the Lengthening Shadow of the Third Reich; Her Poems from the Theresienstadt Ghetto" by Ilse Weber is a haunting, chilling record of a world at war, where peace descended into chaos and genocide. Weber's letters and poems are vital to promoting further understanding of the Holocaust.

Thank you Smith Publicity, Bunim & Bannigan, and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Dancing on a Powder Keg".

The book to me was slow but it was a good book. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in poems written by those who suffered with the Holocaust. I am not sure if the book would be set up differently than the kindle edition but that made it hard to read when it seemed to be broken up in spots that shouldn't have been. The book is about a woman who wrote letter and poems about her life when she felt she had nothing to fear and when she did.

Heartfelt, heartbreaking and tragic. Remembering these events happened, while reading. I highly recommend this book.

This book is not quite what I expected it to be. The letters from Ilse to her friend discussed everyday life or family members/friends. To me, these were very tedious and of little interest. I found this book to be very superficial. I wanted more meat to the story.