City of Life, City of Death: Memories of Riga
4/5
()
About this ebook
Michelson had a serene boyhood in an upper middle-class Jewish family in Riga, Latvia--at least until 1940, when the fifteen-year old Michelson witnessed the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union. Private properties were nationalized, and Stalin's terror spread to Soviet Latvia. Soon after, Michelson's family was torn apart by the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. He quickly lost his entire family, while witnessing the unspeakable brutalities of war and genocide.
Michelson's memoir is an ode to his lost family; it is the speech of their muted voices and a thank you for their love. Although badly scarred by his experiences, like many other survivors he was able to rebuild his life and gain a new sense of what it means to be alive.
His experiences will be of interest to scholars of both the Holocaust and Eastern European history, as well as the general reader.
Related to City of Life, City of Death
Related ebooks
Out Of The Ashes: The Story Of A Survivor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTestaments from Kiev Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTaboo Genocide: Holodomor 1933 & the Extermination of Ukraine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFragments of My Life: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiving Memory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStones Under the Scythe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhetto of Hell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsXenophobe's Guide to the Estonians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Fingers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJoseph Gavi: Young Hero of the Minsk Ghetto Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Legendary Locals of Moscow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMemories, Dreams, Nightmares Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Through the Eyes of a Child: ''Diary of an Eleven Year Old Jewish Girl'' Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5No Time to Mourn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5FINDING THE UNEXPECTED: Searching Utian Roots in Lithuania Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Violette & Ginger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mommy, What’s That Number on Your Arm?: A-6374 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwo Pieces of Cloth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRiva and Yehuda Life Story: Tancman, Mohel, Tracz and Ben Eliezer Families Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Worlds Torn Asunder: A Holocaust Survivor's Memoir of Hope and Resilience Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTears in the Rain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Next Chapter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMimi of Nový Bohumín, Czechoslovakia: A Young Woman’S Survival of the Holocaust Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHoly Week: A Novel of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waiting for Mama Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHimmler’S Mistress Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVoices from the Bialystok Ghetto Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBerlin for Jews: A Twenty-First-Century Companion Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Escape from the Third Reich: Folke Bernadotte and the White Buses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Forgotten Land: Journeys Among the Ghosts of East Prussia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
European History For You
Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History that Inspired Game of Thrones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Violent Abuse of Women: In 17th and 18th Century Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mein Kampf: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kamphf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mein Kampf: The Original, Accurate, and Complete English Translation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCeltic Mythology: A Concise Guide to the Gods, Sagas and Beliefs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Victorian Lady's Guide to Fashion and Beauty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origins Of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jane Austen: The Complete Novels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A History of Magic and Witchcraft: Sabbats, Satan & Superstitions in the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of English Magic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for City of Life, City of Death
5 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I thought this memoir only average, and quite self-indulgent. Fully half of the book is about the author's genealogy and his life before the war began. He devoted a chapter to each of his relatives. This section should have been cut by two-thirds. Things got more exciting when he finally started talking about the Nazi invasion, but I wish he would have written more about his feelings during that time and how he was able to survive when so many died. Meh.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It is a well written and balanced text, despite describing horrific events passed in Latvia, the deaths and suffering in the concentration camps. I'm very impressed with the details about the war in Riga. We can't forget the atrocities that men are capable of.