It is seldom that one can view the depth of a human soul written by such a talented author. The book reads like a novel but has the pull of truth. I found it difficult to put down and wanted to share the incredible experience with others. It is worth the time to find a copy of the book. But, I warn you, you will want to own the book after reading it.

In addition to 6 million Jews, approximately 3 million Polish gentiles were also murdered by the Germans during World War 2. Poland was the only country with an automatic death sentence for the slightest assistance to Jews. Polish-Jewish author Nechama Tec does a valuable service in this study of Poles who assisted Jews. When it comes to analyzing the "why" of such assistance, however, her book has the shortcoming of using too small a sample for this purpose. Nevertheless, her book is both inspiring and informative. It is clear that Polish assistance was the norm, if only because many Poles were involved in the rescue of a single Jew. Tec's book is also a powerful rebuke to much educational Holocaust material, which either virtually ignores Polish aid to Jews, or even maliciously portrays Poles as being in cahoots with the German Nazis.

Although there are other books that cover the subject of Christians who helped Jews during the Holocaust, this one filled some gaps that the others didn't - to my mind, anyway. The author, Nechama Tec, looks at people who helped for all the right reasons - and also those who helped in spite of their semitism. She tries to find the "why" behind all the altruism and also explores how class and politics affected the decision to help the Jews. I found the writing style to be a bit dry for my taste at times but I still couldn't stop reading this book. Recommended!

If you want to discover the the true humanity that lies hidden through all classes of society then this book is the one to read. It views the holocaust from the noble within humanity and helps one to think about what their own responses would be in a similar circumstance. Besides this, the writer is very skilled and a pleasure to read.

This is a thrilling tale of a charismatic, compassionate leader who saves Jewish lives from certain death by establishing a partisan base in the Forest of Belorussia. However, there are many questions left unanswered. Is it the hero that steps out from history to save the people (as the author seems to suggest)‚ or is it circumstance and coincidence? Bielski was a peasant living on the edge of the forest: he was perfectly positioned to do what he did. Where does these turns of events stand in relation to the Holocaust or the Partisan Movement? These questions are not really answered, but it was a lucky few survivors, geographically well-placed in local towns who managed to make it to the safety of the forest and Bielski's partisan band. The vast majority of Jews were not that fortunate, and their story is often less than heroic. With that in mind "The Bielski Partisans" can be recommended as a fine his-story of a small localized group of individuals, but not as History in any wider sense.

This book tells the largely unkown story of the Bielski Partisans. The only Jewish partisans that fought against the Germans in WWII. There are 30,000 Jews alive today from the 1,200 that were saved and fought with them in the forests. To get into the group, one had to kill a German by hand to get his weapon! This book relates the absolutely true story, that showed what happened when Jews were not victims, but organized, guerilla fighters.

Being the son of Aron Bielski the youngest of the 12 Bielski children I must say Ms.Tec did a wonderful and accurate job.Since Defiance was published there has been a great amonut interset raised on the Bielski Brothers.The book is informative and suspensful, it tell stories previously only known to the family and members of The Bielski Brigrade.

Dry Tears is an unforgettable Holocaust memoir and coming-of age story. Tec is a gifted writer and her comments about her experiences are deeply insightful.

Tec was hidden during the war---disguised as a Polish Christian, she lived with a variety of families before settling with a working-class family who also took in her parents (neither of whom spoke Polish well enough to "pass") and her sister.

What is most interesting (and depressing) about Tec's story is her slow realization that the family who took her in was anti-semetic. As a child, she experiences deep confusion about this and wonders how she should feel when the family compliments her by telling her that she is not "like a Jew." Her conflicted feelings about this family (she grows to love and respect them while at the same time being appalled by their prejudice) illustrate one of the greatest paradoxes regarding prejudices (***). The sad truth is that when one looks behind the stereotype one always discovers individuals who defy the stereotype (Tec herself experiences this---she assumes that one of the woman who takes them in---Stella--is a typically stupid and lazy member of the working class but when Stella is tortured by the Nazis and refuses to eveal any information, Tec is forced to look beyond the stereotype todiscover a very real and very complicated individual).

Tec's story also explores an aspect often not found in books dealing with adults under the Holocaust. As a hidden child who could "pass" as a Polish Christian, Tec spent her days as Krysia, a Polish Gentile. Not surprisingly, this caused her to become deeply confused about who she was---like all pre-teens and adolescents, Tec was struggling to discover her own identity but unlike her peers, Tec was forced to hide this identity.

I have read a great number of Holocaust memoirs---and this is not the "typical" memoir (as far as one can say there is a "typical" memoir). Several factors make this book unique---Tec's age at the time of the Holocaust, her insights into her own experiences (not surprising as Tec later became a scholar specializing in this period) and her openness about her struggle to assume an identity at a time when she was forbidden to assume her true identity.

"Dry Tears" is a memoir of the author during the years she and her family struggled for survival in occupied Poland. After many attempts to escape Nazi officials, they find shelter in a small town under the protection of a peasant Polish family, in exchange for financial benefits. The story is a lesson on faith, of compliance to ever adjusting circumstances in an environment filled with prejudice and ignorance. Well written, with no high literary aspirations, but with a high moral content. This is a must for adolescents and pre-adolescents, and for anyone who is not aware of what it really means to face adverse circumstances in life.

"Dry Tears" is an autobiographical recollection of life in wartime Poland, during the Holocaust. Not only did the author and her sister have to "pass" as non-Jews and live in constant terror of being caught, they also had to worry about their parents, who couldn't "pass" and who lived in hiding.

I've read perhaps a dozen books by Holocaust survivors. This may be the first time that I thought about each individual murder as that: an individual murder, and not as genocide. What happened to the girls' governess in the early pages of the book left me more sleepless than anything since "Anne Frank."

Sometimes, however, there are the occasional winners in a war. The author's family survived as an intact unit. That, dear readers, is a victory.

This book belongs in every historian's library, be it public or personal. Deeply moving, it's not too much for a mature teen to read, and I will be suggesting it to a friend's young adults.

"Dry Tears" will haunt me for a long time.