IN THE WARSAW GHETTO - Glenn Haybittle

I fully enjoyed the book, found it difficult to put down and highly recommend it. I received to my Kindle from Net Galley.com for the purpose of review.

WOW. Written for the period of 1940-1943 in WWII, I was captivated by Ala, the teen ballerina with her ideas and thoughts about being an outstanding ballerina for Madame and her community. The book captures well the emotions of Ala as she sees her entire life changing, tries to add some joy to peoples lives during Warsaw's worst nightmare.

Our other main character is Max, Ala's uncle. Max is probably 30 and wants to find a wife and uses his wealth helping others in need. He has an under estimation of himself probably due to lack of peace with his father. Max also deeply loved in college but wasn't very courageous as it related to Sabrina. Imagine his surprise when she comes back to Warsaw with two young daughters

We follow the historical fiction characters through the truth of the war and the complete savagery of the Germans toward the Jews. Max, though wealthy cannot stop the German aggression in Warsaw but is not giving up easily. His love, Sabrina, becomes a catalyst to continue implementing plans to help each person in the ghetto that German soldiers have created.

The brutality and genuine hatred was obvious but handled well. There are some scenes where the author describes sexual frustrations of Ala, Max, Sabrina, Madame and others. If uncomfortable reading those few references, skip them. They are there to show the emotion and frustration each person was suffering and trying to make the immediate pain mitigated. They do not detract from the story.

Stories like IN THE WARSAW GHETTO should be continually written and published lest we forget the atrocities of WWII.

Readers looking for solid WWII historical fiction may want to skip this one and leave it for those who enjoy young adult drama. While I quit reading this one fairly quickly, I did not see that this one would bring me the depth of emotion and dismay over the horrific treatment of so many during Hitler’s reign of terror. Thanks for allowing me to preview this one so I could make informed purchasing decisions, NetGalley.NetGalley.

Historical fiction, particularly the Holocaust and WWII, is probably my favorite genre of literature. I toured Auschwitz, the remnants of the Warsaw ghetto, the POLIN museum and the Krakow ghetto in November 2018. This book takes far too many liberties with history. Create all the characters you like. I can read about sex obsessed teenagers and middle aged men who don’t seem to be able to get over their own narcissistic whims and desires in the face of starvation, depravation, and Nazi atrocities, but I can’t take it seriously. and I found it offensive. Ana moons about wondering which of three young men she should give her virginity to and Max’s obsession with Sabine is delusional. And here we are in the Warsaw Ghetto as it is liquidated.

The most egregious problem with the book is that the author takes liberties with the Holocaust itself, massaging the facts to better suit the story. The ending is a tragedy. It would never have happened as written. There are far better books, both fiction and non-fiction, detailing the horrors of the Holocaust and the Warsaw Ghetto. Thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to read the ebook version just before it was published.

I did not finish this book. The more I read, the more sexual, crude references, the book became. The subject could have been addressed without the crudeness.

I rarely leave a one-star review for any book, but this book--I couldn't make myself find enough redemption within the pages to do anything else. This is a book full of blatant misogyny and unnecessary and at times revolting sexual situations.

I tend to read a lot of books about Jewish history, both fiction and non-fiction. Many of these books are naturally difficult to read, but this one pushed the expected norm beyond the limit. I felt like the author managed to take away from the point in most books about the Ghettos and the Shoah, by making this less about what the people actually suffered and more about a young girl's sexual fantasies and those of the people who surround her. This book is a coming of age story, but not the kind that I would have expected from reading the blurb.

The ending really sealed it for me. After going through the motions of reading this book and trying to feel sympathetic to the characters, the ending killed the entire thing for me. Perhaps, if you are a total nihilist, it might be for you, but it was not for me.

This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher, through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Many thanks to Cheyne Walk, Glenn Haybittle, and #NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. What follows is my honest review.

Many years ago I read and was fascinated by the book Mila 18 by Leon Uris which through fiction gave me insight into what life was like in the Warsaw ghetto and how some chose to fight rather than give in to the demands of the Nazis. About two years ago I had the opportunity to visit Warsaw myself - to walk on Mila and see the stone markers in memory of those who fought. This book - In The Warsaw Ghetto by Glenn Haybittle is equally compelling.

The two main characters in the story are Ala, a teenager who loves to dance and Max, her thirty something uncle who has never married and who converted to Catholicism as an act of rebellion against his father. I struggled a little with the first chapter as the author chose to use the present tense to describe what was happening and I find that challenging, but that feeling wore off pretty quickly and it wasn't long before I felt as if I was right there watching what was happening to Ala and Max as their worlds became ever increasingly circumscribed by the rules and regulations of the German war machine. I finished the book in just under 24 hours.

It should be no secret to readers that during the war all the Jewish people from Warsaw and other surrounding areas were forced to relocate into a ghetto which was relatively small, and that conditions became incredibly harsh ultimately leading to the German decision to "relocate" the Jews by sending them to Treblinka which was a death camp. The author made that become real for me. The descriptions of the horrors and bullying that people faced brought me to tears. To quote from the book: “The newspapers are relentless in their attacks on the Jews. They blame Jews for the war, for stealing the jobs of native Poles, for every human disease. There’s no question people are beginning to get brainwashed. The policy of the Germans seems to be to bring every base emotion to the fore – spite, covetousness, ignorance, jealousy, mindless prejudice. It’s as if the Nazis are set on ripping the heart from human interaction.”

The story is told in three parts. Book One begins as war is looming on the horizon for Ala and Max. It finally arrives on their doorstep and the reader watches as the ghetto is established in 1940.Book Two is set in 1942 and Book Three is set in 1943 when the days of the ghetto and its inhabitants are clearly numbered. When I first saw how many chapters were in the book it looked rather overwhelming to me but the chapters are short and the pace of the story moves quickly.

Ala’s story is that of a young girl who is just discovering who she is. She struggles in her relationship with her mother as she yearns to move into adulthood and greater independence. She is learning about her body, both as a dancer and as a young woman who has yet to learn what love is and can be. She sees the young men around her and wonders (in the way that many teens do) if she will ever find a love and intimacy of her own. Max on the other hand fell in love in young adulthood but it failed to be returned and he has never been able to move on. He is torn between his Jewish roots and his need to move away from what his father seemed to want to pressure him into becoming. He and Ala find in their relationship the ability to emotionally support each other in a time when that is very much needed. Both of them come from what has been a prominent family. Ala’s father is a member of the Judenrat. Max’s home was already in the area which was to become the ghetto and he lives in what is relative luxury and isolation in the early days of the ghetto. The ghetto is a place where there is little beauty. The author describes it as being a place with no grass, no trees, no birds – very stark and depressing. Each and every day they are forced to witness atrocities taking place around them and in front of them. The Germans force Ala and her mother to clean toilets using their underwear and then to put them back on. I don’t think it is unrealistic to say that they faced hell on earth. Each character is faced with choices that they have to make in order to survive and those choices often make them think less of themselves. I can only imagine the horror of being constantly faced with decisions on how to act that can result in their death if they make the wrong choice and to be faced with this day after day after day.

Glenn Haybittle is an incredibly good writer. His ability to describe a scene is impeccable. I can’t finish this review without sharing a particularly vivid passage from early in the book. “The sirens have stopped wailing. The air has stopped screaming. There are no more earthquakes. When she and her mother venture out into the street Ala asks herself if she shouldn’t be more frightened, more shocked. Perhaps, she thinks, she is taking the lead from her mother who appears to be taking this momentous moment of history in her stride. It’s like everyone else she sees on the street has overnight stopped looking at themselves in mirrors. AS if appearance has ceased to matter. As if everyone has abandoned all thought of decorum. Her mother, on the other hand, is, as always, impeccably made up, groomed and dressed.
Now it is Ala’s eyes which have to withstand the unprecedented. Life has overnight ceased to be continuous. She keeps staring as if by force of will she might return all the devastation to its former reassuring order. This part of Warsaw has always been an extension of home for her, part of her shape, a responsive intimate part of her identity. So much that she was attached to, so much that lent her footholding weight is now obliterated. It’s as if one of the mirrors by which she recognizes herself has ceased to reflect her. The teetering balancing act of unsupported walls makes her feel unsteady on her own legs. Buildings taken for granted are no longer standing. There are voids where previously history stood. Feathers like snowflakes rise up into the smoke infested air as if she is inside a macabre snow globe.”

This is an important book. While it is a novel, real people lived as Ala and Max did and it is vital that we as a society never forget that they lived and experienced lives like these. We need to remember and learn how easy it is for life to change almost in the blink of an eye. Only if we learn these lessons can we keep it from happening again and again and again.

I received a complimentary copy of In the Warsaw Ghetto from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
I am of two minds on this one. If you can ignore random, peculiar and unnecessary mentions of sex and carnal thoughts-- which were likely not terribly accurate for the time--you may be able to appreciate this book. I almost put it down a few times because those things were so prevalent and distracting. It is a shame though, because it seems that the storyline was based on real people and I would bet that his grandmother would be pretty upset by the previously mentioned items if she had read the book...since they REALLY DETRACTED from the weight of the actual events. As for the historical part of the book, it was surprisingly well researched and believable (excluding all sexually intimate events). All things considered, if those items were removed, it would be a pretty amazing book.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Glenn Haybittle writes a story of the Holocaust in which the Nazi concentration camps are more horror story and supposition than reality. But the reality of the Holocaust is brought home in what happens in the ghetto and what the Jewish people imagine and have heard happens to those Jews packed onto cattle cars and taken away, never to return.

"In the Warsaw Ghetto" follows the stories of Ala, a girl training as a ballet dancer, and Max, her uncle who is estranged from his father and who has converted to Catholicism (although he still considers himself a Jew). Their stories are told in alternating chapters, and they tell us other stories about the friends and family members who people their lives.

Ultimately, the story is about the decimation of the Jews by the Nazis, the complicity of the Polish people and the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

"In the Warsaw Ghetto" often is powerfully written but is bogged down in places with weak dialog and an emphasis on seemingly unimportant things. I noticed that some of our minor characters sometimes seemed to disappear without any notice or attention. At first, I thought that was a writer's mistake, but then I realized that those overlooked disappearances mirrored what really happened. Jewish neighbors would disappear, and others might not even notice or know how or when it happened.

This is definitely worth a read.

(This review has been shared on my personal Facebook wall, on Goodreads and on 52 Books and The Book Club Girls Facebook groups.)

There are certain books that are harder to read than others. In the Warsaw Ghetto by Glenn Haybittle was one of those books. Books, like In the Warsaw Ghetto, must be read though to ensure that we remember and never forget the horrific acts of the Holocaust. They must be recognized and shared with others so that there can never be another Holocaust again. Glenn Haybittle, brilliantly led the reader through the occupation of Poland and the formation of the Warsaw Ghetto. In his grandmother's words, "the Nazis didn't conjure up antisemitism out of thin air. It was a poison in the collective mind of almost every nation and had been for centuries." The Nazis just took antisemitism to another level, delivering death, terror and cruelty in their harsh and inhuman ways. There has not been a book written about the Warsaw Ghetto in a long time and this one deserves unbiased praise. I could not put this book down.

The hardships of living in Warsaw, Poland at the onset of the German occupation and then during the formation of the Warsaw Ghetto were told through the voices of Ala, a young teenage, Jewish girl aspiring to be a brilliant ballerina and her uncle Max a Jewish man in his late thirties. Up until the Nazi invasion, Ala had lived a life of privilege, being from a wealthy Jewish family. Max had converted to Catholicism prior to the Nazi
infiltration of Warsaw. He had never married but still often thought of his girlfriend, Sabina, from University days, who he was still in love with. Through Ala and Max, their friends and important people to them were introduced. As rations were reduced and more restrictions were instated, their frustrations, anger, terror and hardships were felt. The ultimate goal was survival as their conditions got worse and cattle cars began taking droves of Jewish men, women and children to Treblinka. Survival meant that the survivors could report and witness punishment for the heinous crimes the Nazis were committing. Ala witnessed the inhuman treatment of her father as he was forced onto one of the cattle cars, only to be sent to his death. She witnessed brutality and purposeful embarrassment the Nazis made the Jews of Warsaw feel. Ala and her mother were forced to clean toilets with their underwear and then made to put the filthy underwear back on. Perhaps the hardest aspect to accept was the way the Jewish police treated their own people. Ala also had to witness the death of own mother as the Nazis shot her in the back. Both Ala and Max joined different political parties and fought the Nazis. This led to Ala and Max's involvement in the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and to their ultimate deaths.

In the Warsaw Ghetto by Glenn Haybittle was an intense, sad and tragic story spanning the years of 1940-1943. The scenes, circumstances and occurrences were vivid and painstakingly easy to visualize. The postscript answered most of the unanswered questions. The novel was well researched and really portrayed the hardships and brutalities the Jewish people experienced in the Warsaw Ghetto. Each character was portrayed in a believable way. I was brought to tears several times throughout the book. I would recommend In the Warsaw Ghetto very highly.

Many thanks to the publisher, Glenn Haybittle and Netgalley for this advanced copy of In the Warsaw Ghetto in exchange for my honest review.

Ala is an aspiring ballerina during WWII who is trapped in the war-torn city of Warsaw. This is where I had hoped to watch the dancing become an integral part of how she coped with the occupation and found a way to rise above what she was experiencing. There was some dance, but it never lead to anything inspiring or substantial.

Instead it was a rather disjointed telling of the Warsaw uprising. We hear the story from different characters and I didn’t particularly like Max or Ala. Both characters were selfish, a bit clueless and didn’t feel authentic at all. I didn’t particularly care for most of the characters, which is a shame, as I’m sure there were plenty of wonderful Jews in that ghetto.

There were also so many sexual scenes in the book that didn’t mesh well with the story. It was almost like it was thrown in as an afterthought- a poor one at that. The ending was poorly done as well. Should have just been left off completely.

I think the story of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising could be an amazing and inspiring tale. Unfortunately that is not what we get with this one. I am sad, as there is so much potential!!

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book for me to read and review!

I can not recommend this book. I am typically an enthusiastic fan of historical fiction, but In the Warsaw Ghetto left me cold. I thought the story dragged, weighted by the overwritten prose of the telling. The characters felt two-dimensional, and by the time I was about one quarter of the way through the book I felt cheated by disparities between the book and the promotional description.

If I had to sum up my entire review into two words, I believe I would have to go with "devastatingly beautiful". This story is absolutely haunting, but the writing is absolutely incredible. I found myself in tears often. Each time I thought there might be a light at the end of the tunnel or that things may turn better, it was completely extinguished. All hope dashed. Yet, you find yourself still with that tiny spark.

I cannot stress enough how great I thought the writing was. The author did an incredible job keeping me completely captive throughout the entire book. There is a lot of action, a lot of horror, and a lot of hope. In the Warsaw Ghetto really makes the reader take a step back. Each character, both the main characters and supporting characters, was wonderfully done. The traits were believable. Not to mention, the characters complimented the story and helped it move at the perfect pace. The author gave just enough detail for you to paint a clear picture on the settings and what was going on.

The ending, oh the ending. I could not put this book down and wound up finishing it at work. Which may not have been my brightest idea because I spent a solid hour and a half fighting back tears. In fact, I told at least half a dozen coworkers about the book encouraging them to read it.

This book will be one that I do not forget.

I really wanted to love this book since it is set in my favorite time period but the writing style is just not for me.

This story follows the lives of Ala and Max, niece and uncle, as they attempt to survive the Warsaw Ghetto in World War II. Moving from home to home, bunker to bunker, Max, Ala, and their loved ones attempt to survive the only way they know how. As those around them become prisoners, succumb to hunger and deteriorating conditions, or become victims of the SS, Max, Ala, and the family they form around them continue to do everything it takes to survive.

This book encapsulated the humanity of the ghetto. We hear over and over in history classes the horrible things that happened to Jews and other undesirables during the Holocaust. However, we often forget the day to day humanity that many still endured. Haybittle paints the picture of going through everyday human emotions against the backdrop of the Jewish Ghetto. Nostalgia, sexual desire, the need for nurturing, human flaws are lain out for the reader to take in. As the war progresses, the characters are stuck balancing these human needs with the basic instincts of survival. The desire for a kiss from your crush, while thinking of where you can run if your home is destroyed.

While all the characters are based on real people, some were more believable than others. One character I had difficulty connecting to was that of Marcel. I felt his presence and advances towards Ala were unrealistic and overdone. While this may have been to demonstrate the personalities of individuals who joined the Jewish Police, I felt his behaviors at times were not realistic given the time and behaviors of humans. However, many of the other characters were easier to understand. I felt myself empathizing with these human beings who had done nothing but try to live their lives before everything was uprooted.

I did not enjoy this book. I picked it because the description made it sound interesting; however, the description was deceptive because that is not the story I got. Yes, it is about a young Jewish dancer and her family in the ghetto, but the telling of the story was not as advertised. This book was written about sexual discovery during a time of tragedy and mourning. Every single chapter had some type of sexual reference that, at many times, was uncomfortable and inappropriate within the premise advertised about the book. I am terribly bothered by the fact that in chapters that should have been about the connections made during times of heartache the author turned them into sexual things. While I understand there were probably some real people behaving as these characters were during that time, I cannot help but feel that writing this story, in this way, dishonors the memory of the people who lived and died during these actual historical and tragic events. I did try with this book; gave it many chances to get better, but it only made me feel worse each time I read even more.

This is an intense story spanning three years of life in the Warsaw ghetto from 1940-1943. The story is told from both Ala’s point of view and her uncle Max’s, chapters alternating between both characters. Ala is a 19 year old aspiring ballerina who has up until the invasion of Poland by the German army lived a mainly privileged life in a wealthy Jewish family. Max, her uncle, converted to Catholicism in his youth, mainly to spite his father and continues to pine for a woman who he courted years before during his time in college. Their entire family ends up being forced into the Warsaw ghetto, witnessing the horrors of the Nazis first hand from the first days of the ghetto to the last days of the uprising.

The prose is somewhat bloated at times, leading to some frustration while reading as it can sound stilted rather than poetic, but it’s not so much of an issue as the book advances. I found the first few chapters a little tough to get into but it does get better after a while.

The story itself is well researched and written however the constant sexual references that appear all over the place, for no specific reason, ruined the story for me. Yes, Ala is at an age where she is discovering her sexuality, and feels trapped in the ghetto and in her life, but many of the references read like a male fantasy rather than actual teenage/young adult thoughts/actions. I found these references distracted from the story itself which conveys the time, the plot, the fear, and the uncertainties very well. It’s painfully obvious from most of the scenes depicted that the author is a male writing about female sexuality, and I found myself rolling my eyes every time Ala’s nakedness or fantasies or Sabina’s body and sudden interest in Max’s penis were mentioned. I would have found this book to be a good read without any of those scenes, and in my opinion they are unnecessary, and actually diminished the importance and intensity of the story for me. They really feel like you are entering into some guy’s wet dream amidst death and tragedy. I had the same issues years ago while reading Leon Uris’ novel Mila 18, and this novel feels kind of like a rehash of the same.

For those interested in learning more about the Warsaw Uprising I suggest reading some memoirs or non-fiction. I read this book until the end because I wanted to see some kind of closure on the characters, but the last few pages really hammered home the author’s misogyny that runs through the book. I don’t want to add spoilers, but there was really no need for the last page of the main story (before the post script). It just made me feel sick.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this novel.

The author did a brilliant job of capturing the time period in this novel. The characters and plot were also well written. This was a great piece of historical fiction!

Eighteen-year-old Ala Silberman wants to be a dancer, but her dreams are dashed when she and her family are forced into the Warsaw ghetto. Since her family is wealthy and has connections, her life is not immediately impacted and much continues as normal; in fact, she struggles with feelings of guilt because of “her privileged position”: “amidst all this squalor, her nice clothes, her clean hair, her scented healthy body, make her stand out in a way that causes her discomfort.”

Ala’s uncle Max is a middle-aged bachelor who still has feelings for a woman from his youth. In the ghetto he meets Sabina again, along with her daughters Ora and Eugenia. Max hopes to rekindle their romance. Because he too has access to money, he, like his niece, does not suffer unduly at first. Of course, conditions worsen and then deportations to Treblinka begin so no one escapes brutalities.

Chapters alternate between Ala and Max. Max hopes to win Sabina’s love and to protect her and her children from what is happening around them. Ala’s story is very much a coming-of-age tale. She has a difficult relationship with her mother and struggles to understand her sexual desires. As her world falls apart, her feelings about sex change.

Ala’s characterization is inconsistent. At times she seems like a very young girl embarrassed to talk to her mother about menstruation and having to shave her pubic hair when she joins a ballet corps. At other times, her thoughts and dialogue suggest a much older person: “’You, like me, are the sum of everything you remember. The problem is, memories perhaps are no less subject to change than the world of surfaces which might mean we never quite know who we are.’”

In general, dialogue is problematic throughout the novel. It often sounds too formal and stilted, not like natural conversation between people. Another issue is that there is so much exposition and so much less dialogue. The chapters are short, but there are many that have almost no conversation. In other words, more showing and less telling should have been used.

Max’s attraction to Sabina is not convincing. At one point, he questions her love for him; he feels she “has been surreptitiously collecting evidence against him from day one. . . . As if she has kept a part of herself secret and apart, as if she has continually conducted an argument with herself about him.” This is exactly the case, but he ends up feeling “ashamed of himself for doubting her.” One minute he sees their relationship clearly and the next his love for her is blind once again.

Another problem is that characters appear and disappear. The three young men in whom Ala has an interest show up without explanation at different times. Then they are not mentioned again for several chapters until they again show up. Sabina’s aunt is another such character as is Adam, an acquaintance who flirts with Sabina. He is mentioned periodically just to add suspense: can he be trusted?

Of course, the question of who can be trusted becomes very important in the novel. Several times it is mentioned that it is “the Jewish police and not Germans who are rounding people up” and these Jewish police are described as “vile. Hitting people with their truncheons like they had become Nazis.” One man gives examples of Jews who have betrayed neighbours in order to protect their own families: “’To what degree should we extend our loyalty from our loved ones to our race as a whole?’” And the will to survive is strong; one Jewish man betrays twenty Jews to the Germans. Max thinks, “He doesn’t understand the logic of this man. The Germans will surely kill him anyway. And yet he has sentenced twenty Jews to death in order to say alive for another half hour.”
The role of the Polish people in the mistreatment of Jews is also emphasized. For example, Max converted to Catholicism for career purposes because of “how prejudiced Poles are against Jews.” One man points out, “’The Germans have little idea who’s Jewish and who’s not. It’s we Poles who point out the Jews for them. Every Jew in the entire district has been betrayed by a fellow Pole.’” I could not but think of the Polish government’s passing of legislation in 2018 that attempted to restrict discussion of anti-Semitism in Poland and of the culpability of some Poles in the Holocaust.

This book sheds light on life in the Warsaw ghetto. It is not an easy, comfortable read because of its subject matter. That subject matter is something with which everyone should be familiar. Unfortunately, this book, though it does have important information, lacks qualities that would make it exceptional literary fiction.

Note: I received a digital galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley, Cheyne Walk Publishing and the author Mr. Glenn Haybittle for the opportunity to read this Advanced Readers Copy of "The Warsaw Ghetto".

Publishing July 30, 2019

This is a haunting, deeply poignant story, that screams about the dark horrors of life in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupied rule of World War II.

The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto in Nazi occupied Europe. This story takes us inside the walls of one of the most horrendously inhumane moments our history has ever lived.

Ala Silberman is a young aspiring ballet dancer when the Nazis come to Poland. Her life, her dreams and that of her family change forever as they all fight to stay alive and find some humanity in a world gone mad.

Max Silberman, Ala's uncle battles his own demons and the Nazi Occupation as he too fights to live.

With a cast of characters that make you feel like you are standing with them, as they fight to survive each horrendous moment, this book is tragically beautiful.
This is storytelling that will stay with you long after you close the book. The horrors they lived through, in the Warsaw Ghetto, come frightening alive in this outstanding book.

5 strong stars

I have read a lot of WW II books and I am amazed at the writing of Glenn Haybittle’s In the Warsaw Getto. I felt like I was in the book as I felt, smelled, suffered, loved, Max and Ala’s stories. At times, it was torture to read what was endured in the Ghetto. Man’s inhumanity to man! I am emotionally wrecked after reading this book and I am in awe of the courage of so many. Thank you NetGalley and Chayne Welk for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.