NEVER AGAIN! I haven't been so moved about fascism and Nazism since visiting the national holocaust museum in Washington DC several years ago. This little book tells the story of one town in Poland and how it was impacted by World War 2. One of the things that makes this book so compelling is that it is about the town that Fresno's very own Ellie Bluestein's family came from.

We learn about life before and after the Nazis invade Strzegowo by hearing from the survivors. Their stories give a glimpse into what life was like and how the Jewish community reacted as life was forever changed for everyone in that town. Today, there are no Jews in Strzegowo. All but a handful were killed by Hitler's "final solution" and those who survived did not return. It is hard to imagine the atrocities committed by the German fascists but this book takes you one step at a time through that period of history.

All of the Jews were sens to the death camps were not sent at once. There was a long process that included making them virtual slaves for the ethnic German population in Strzegowo, establishing ghettos where they were forced to live, and executions for offences like possessing a loaf of bread. The brutalization continued for years until most of the population was shipped by train to Auschwitz. There, one of the young men was forced to work piling bodies into the ovens. The experience was worse than death itself and he decided to voluntarily join the line to the gas chambers. These images are hard to imagine but impossible to forget.

Gene Bluestein has produced a testimonial that I will always remember.

Review by:

Mike Rhodes Editor Labor/Community Alliance Newsletter P.O. Box 5077 Fresno Ca 93755...

Although Professor Bluestein establishes a new area of study called poplore, this book is not new. Rather it reflects the author's many years of study and work as a modern folklorist. His efforts to bridge the gap between committed folksinging activists and folklore should inspire considerable scholarship although I have read that the book went unnoticed by the academic folklore circles in the states. It's a shame because by reconsidering the life and work of artists such as Pete Seeger and Jean Ritchie, Bluestein reacquaints with the essence of people's song in the US context. Just as Huddie Ledbetter's opus, both in prison and beyond, served to establish an American genre in Lomax, the work of Bluestein's "poplorists" shows us how Leadbelly's legacy will live on. The introductory section on Herder, Whitman and Emerson is fascinating. This is very interesting study and I found it invaluable for my own PhD dissertation research at a Spanish university.

A good friend of mine was very intrigued with her Jewish heritage and wanted to learn Yiddish; I thought I'd try to locate an English/Yiddish dictionary for her birthday. When I found this book instead, I struck gold.

Bluestein has done more than simply provide a handy guide to common -- and not-so-common -- Yiddish and Yiddish-influenced terms and phrases. He has given all readers a chance to learn a little about Jewish-American culture and a little about their own. Each entry includes notes on common usage, probable origins, and best of all, humor. Anecdotes, quotes, and dialogues illustrate these words and phrases in use or in principle, and grant what I have always seen as the surest insight into any culture: what makes them laugh. When neighbors can laugh together, they often find that there are other great values they share, in spite of whatever differences seem to seperate them. You may be surprised to find just how much your own sense of humor owes to Jewish culture -- from Bugs Bunny to the Marx Brothers and far, far more. Indeed, you may be surprised just how much of your common speech is glorious Yinglish. I know I was.

Well, eventually I did hand the book over to that friend, but not before learning something about her heritage, and, inevitably, my own; and not before having some of the heartiest laughs in a long time. And I think I can safely say that she enjoyed it as much as I.