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A Guest at the Shooters' Banquet: My Grandfather's SS Past, My Jewish Family, A Search for the Truth
In prose as beautiful as it is powerful, Rita Gabis follows the trail of her grandfather’s collaboration with the Nazis--a trail riddled with secrets, slaughter, mystery, and discovery.
Rita Gabis comes from a family of Eastern European Jews and Lithuanian Catholics. She was close to her Catholic grandfather as a child and knew one version of his prior to immigration he had fought the Russians, whose brutal occupation of Lithuania destroyed thousands of lives before Hitler’s army swept in.
Decades later, Gabis discovered an unthinkable dimension to her family from 1941 to 1943, her grandfather had been the chief of security police under the Gestapo in the Lithuanian town of Švencionys, near the killing field of Poligon, where eight thousand Jews were murdered over three days in the fall of 1941. In 1942, the local Polish population was also hunted down. Gabis felt compelled to find out the complicated truth of who her grandfather was and what he had done.
Built around dramatic interviews in four countries, filled with original scholarship, and mesmerizing in its lyricism, A Guest at the Shooters’ Banquet is a history and family memoir like no other, documenting “the holocaust by bullets” with a remarkable quest as Gabis returns again and again to the country of her grandfather’s birth to learn all she can about the man she thought she knew.
Rita Gabis comes from a family of Eastern European Jews and Lithuanian Catholics. She was close to her Catholic grandfather as a child and knew one version of his prior to immigration he had fought the Russians, whose brutal occupation of Lithuania destroyed thousands of lives before Hitler’s army swept in.
Decades later, Gabis discovered an unthinkable dimension to her family from 1941 to 1943, her grandfather had been the chief of security police under the Gestapo in the Lithuanian town of Švencionys, near the killing field of Poligon, where eight thousand Jews were murdered over three days in the fall of 1941. In 1942, the local Polish population was also hunted down. Gabis felt compelled to find out the complicated truth of who her grandfather was and what he had done.
Built around dramatic interviews in four countries, filled with original scholarship, and mesmerizing in its lyricism, A Guest at the Shooters’ Banquet is a history and family memoir like no other, documenting “the holocaust by bullets” with a remarkable quest as Gabis returns again and again to the country of her grandfather’s birth to learn all she can about the man she thought she knew.
464 pages, Paperback
First published April 14, 2015
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690 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
September 24, 2015
I was waiting for a long time to receive this book from the library. Now I can't wait to return it. I did not finish it. It's way too long. I read about one hundred thirty pages and called it quits. Yes, it's lyrical (the author is a poet), but after a while that became tedious and there's too much extraneous information. It would have been helpful if the author had a key for the pronunciation of the Lithuanian language and I found this lack off putting.
April 29, 2016
I've often wondered what happened to the men who perpetrated mass murders during WW2. I'm not talking about the Hitlers, the Eichmanns, or the Hans Franks. I'm referring to the men with the guns who murdered Jews and other undesirables in the killing pits of Eastern Europe. And the men who dropped the Zyklon B tablets in the gas chambers, and those who drove the sealed gas trucks, killing the people inside. These men who did the actual hands-on killing. It takes a certain mentality and amorality to kill others, and as many historians have pointed out, a lot of alcohol releases the inhibitions. How did these men function when they returned to civilian life? So many were never caught or prosecuted after the war; they slipped through the cracks of justice and went unpunished for their deeds.
American author Rita Gabis explores this subject - personal to her - in her ambitious book, "A Guest at the Shooters Banquet: My Grandfather's SS Past, My Jewish Family, A Search for the Truth". The "Shooters' Banquet" referred to in the title was an actual dinner with music and alcohol served in celebration of the murder of the thousands of Jews of a small Lithuanian town in the killing pits of Poligon. The murderers were local Lithuanian Catholics who ate and drank in honor of their great deeds. (They also shot to death two local musicians who were performing for them because they spoke Polish!)
This topic is personal for Rita Gabis because her maternal grandfather was a police chief in the Lithuanian city of Svencionys. He fled with his family after WW2 and ended up in the United States, where he lived until his death. Rita's mother married a Jewish man; I can't imagine her family approved. As Rita grew up, nothing was said in the family about her grandfather's duties in Svencionys. It was not a topic anyone felt comfortable bringing up. The grandfather was known as a loving family man, and Rita's mother and aunts loved him. But Rita began to wonder what her grandfather did in the war and whether he participated in the killings at Poligon and other murders during his tenure under the Nazis in their occupation of Lithuania. About 15 years ago she started to look into his life and traveled to Lithuania and Israel and Poland in search of answers. Answers she might not want to learn.
Rita Gabis's book is a look at both the Catholic and Jewish life during WW2. Lithuania had had an uneasy past as the two religious groups coexisted in the same villages and cities. In addition to tracing her mother's family, she also follows three Lithuanian Jews who had survived the war. Their stories of the casual cruelties and killings they were subjected to in both the ghettos and the camps were, of course, horrifying. Their own random choices - like jumping off a train going to another ghetto - often saved their lives.
You'll have to read Gabis's book to see if she found the answers to her questions about her family and their past in Lithuania. It's an ambitious work, but extremely well-written. It doesn't quite answer my original question about whether these killers carry their deeds into the rest of their lives, but it gives a hint.
American author Rita Gabis explores this subject - personal to her - in her ambitious book, "A Guest at the Shooters Banquet: My Grandfather's SS Past, My Jewish Family, A Search for the Truth". The "Shooters' Banquet" referred to in the title was an actual dinner with music and alcohol served in celebration of the murder of the thousands of Jews of a small Lithuanian town in the killing pits of Poligon. The murderers were local Lithuanian Catholics who ate and drank in honor of their great deeds. (They also shot to death two local musicians who were performing for them because they spoke Polish!)
This topic is personal for Rita Gabis because her maternal grandfather was a police chief in the Lithuanian city of Svencionys. He fled with his family after WW2 and ended up in the United States, where he lived until his death. Rita's mother married a Jewish man; I can't imagine her family approved. As Rita grew up, nothing was said in the family about her grandfather's duties in Svencionys. It was not a topic anyone felt comfortable bringing up. The grandfather was known as a loving family man, and Rita's mother and aunts loved him. But Rita began to wonder what her grandfather did in the war and whether he participated in the killings at Poligon and other murders during his tenure under the Nazis in their occupation of Lithuania. About 15 years ago she started to look into his life and traveled to Lithuania and Israel and Poland in search of answers. Answers she might not want to learn.
Rita Gabis's book is a look at both the Catholic and Jewish life during WW2. Lithuania had had an uneasy past as the two religious groups coexisted in the same villages and cities. In addition to tracing her mother's family, she also follows three Lithuanian Jews who had survived the war. Their stories of the casual cruelties and killings they were subjected to in both the ghettos and the camps were, of course, horrifying. Their own random choices - like jumping off a train going to another ghetto - often saved their lives.
You'll have to read Gabis's book to see if she found the answers to her questions about her family and their past in Lithuania. It's an ambitious work, but extremely well-written. It doesn't quite answer my original question about whether these killers carry their deeds into the rest of their lives, but it gives a hint.
December 11, 2015
I was not impressed with this book during the first one-third to half. The focus seemed to be more on the author, her process, somewhat irrelevant family details, etc. The writing style was also not what I am used to for non-fiction. The style is definitely more organic, more literary in nature. I may not have been used to the style at first, or liked it even, but I can say that it was very effective. I believe the feel of this book, if not all the specific facts, will stay with me for some time.
Around the middle of the book, I became completely engrossed in the material, especially the individual stories of the survivors she interviewed. The details start rolling in around that point. If you are struggling through the initial portions, skip through a bit and I promise you won't regret it. The story of the Lithuanian portion of WWII is not often told. I was surprised to read that there was never really a formal process of indicting those involved with the Nazis in Lithuania as there was in other countries such as Poland.
This is not an easy book to read in a lot of respects and is extremely emotionally impactful. I am glad I read it, though.
Around the middle of the book, I became completely engrossed in the material, especially the individual stories of the survivors she interviewed. The details start rolling in around that point. If you are struggling through the initial portions, skip through a bit and I promise you won't regret it. The story of the Lithuanian portion of WWII is not often told. I was surprised to read that there was never really a formal process of indicting those involved with the Nazis in Lithuania as there was in other countries such as Poland.
This is not an easy book to read in a lot of respects and is extremely emotionally impactful. I am glad I read it, though.
July 24, 2024
The question of familial guilt lies at the core. Gabis is smart enough to pair her search for her grandfather’s doings and deeds during WWII with the testimonies of victims, which prevents this from becoming a “woe is me for learning the truth about my grandfather” type story.
April 27, 2016
-Very powerful endeavor by the the author to determine if her grandfather was complicit in the killing of Jews and others during World War II in his native Lithuania. It's an especially jarring project because of the fact that, while her mother was a Catholic from that country, her father was a Jew.
-Where normally, the tales of survivors are of those who were in the camps, Ms. Gabis' research takes her to those who mainly suffered through the war outside the camps. We follow the first hand accounts of many of these survivors as their humanity was slowly taken away from them. They were shuttled from one ghetto to another. Sometimes, they just missed being transferred to a location where their relatives were, only to find out that every single person who had gone to that other location was killed.
-We follow the young teenagers and adults, who helped organize a resistance, all the while with the fear that even another Jew may reveal to the authorities of what they doing.
-Within Lithuania was the infamous Poligny, where Jews were rounded up and the Germans, who only set the process going and merely watched, were aided in their bloodthirsty plans by the willing hands of the local population. Local Lithuanians were the ones who coldly shot and killed thousands of Jews, whose bodies tumbled in open pits in the forest. After, the shooters would have a meal and the name of the book is taken from that situation. Was the author's grandfather responsible for the atrocities, especially as he was the head of the security police under the Gestapo? And was he a witness to or even an organizer of the mass killing?
-The author repeatedly goes back to Lithuania, to Poland, to Israel. She interviews many people, both subjects of the killings and those that risked their lives to save others, and it's painful to read of what people in that country went through. There was a hierarchy in the country because Lithuania was once independent, then the Russians took over and killed; then the local people thought the Germans would save them from the Russians, but they were worse; then the Russians came back, and it was worse still.
-You read of the torture that was inflicted. The author's grandmother, after surviving the Germans, was taken by the Russians and tortured, the skin on her arms being ripped out with pliers. Others, young Jews, were tortured horribly to reveal their plans of resistance, but the Jews withstood their suffering so that others would be saved, even though the torture included being buried alive.
-It's a difficult book to read, because it consists of stories of never ending cruelty. Through it all, the author keeps trying to find records that would reveal secrets of her grandfather that would show his innocence, but all the evidence she uncovers shows just the opposite.
-It's a must read book to give you a picture of the suffering that people went through, a suffering whose effects never left them throughout not only their lives, but the lives of the next generation.
-Where normally, the tales of survivors are of those who were in the camps, Ms. Gabis' research takes her to those who mainly suffered through the war outside the camps. We follow the first hand accounts of many of these survivors as their humanity was slowly taken away from them. They were shuttled from one ghetto to another. Sometimes, they just missed being transferred to a location where their relatives were, only to find out that every single person who had gone to that other location was killed.
-We follow the young teenagers and adults, who helped organize a resistance, all the while with the fear that even another Jew may reveal to the authorities of what they doing.
-Within Lithuania was the infamous Poligny, where Jews were rounded up and the Germans, who only set the process going and merely watched, were aided in their bloodthirsty plans by the willing hands of the local population. Local Lithuanians were the ones who coldly shot and killed thousands of Jews, whose bodies tumbled in open pits in the forest. After, the shooters would have a meal and the name of the book is taken from that situation. Was the author's grandfather responsible for the atrocities, especially as he was the head of the security police under the Gestapo? And was he a witness to or even an organizer of the mass killing?
-The author repeatedly goes back to Lithuania, to Poland, to Israel. She interviews many people, both subjects of the killings and those that risked their lives to save others, and it's painful to read of what people in that country went through. There was a hierarchy in the country because Lithuania was once independent, then the Russians took over and killed; then the local people thought the Germans would save them from the Russians, but they were worse; then the Russians came back, and it was worse still.
-You read of the torture that was inflicted. The author's grandmother, after surviving the Germans, was taken by the Russians and tortured, the skin on her arms being ripped out with pliers. Others, young Jews, were tortured horribly to reveal their plans of resistance, but the Jews withstood their suffering so that others would be saved, even though the torture included being buried alive.
-It's a difficult book to read, because it consists of stories of never ending cruelty. Through it all, the author keeps trying to find records that would reveal secrets of her grandfather that would show his innocence, but all the evidence she uncovers shows just the opposite.
-It's a must read book to give you a picture of the suffering that people went through, a suffering whose effects never left them throughout not only their lives, but the lives of the next generation.
April 28, 2016
A poet, Gabis felt driven to research the dueling pasts of her ancestors, one a beloved grandfather who had perhaps served as a member of the political police in wartime Lithuania. As the book unfolds, Gabis unflinchingly pursues the brutal realities of her father's complicity with the genocide of the Lithuanian jews, especially at a place called Poligon. Part of my life was spent with research and oral history. That alone made this beautiful and terrifying book worth reading. Her questioning of moral responsibility for massacre is increased by her interviews with the victims of Shoah. We destroy people when we hate and fear. But we also destroy ourselves and the unborn who will live with our vileness. Gabis suffers for her grandfather's sin. All with a shred of empathy will suffer with her.
October 12, 2015
This was an investment to read, but I'm glad I finished it. The author is the child of a Jew, and a Lithuanian immigrant whose father worked for the SS in wartime Lithuania. The book is the author's attempt to determine just how guilty (or not) her grandfather was of the murders of Poles and Jews in his district during the war. It rambles, sometimes a lot, but I think this is an expression of how the author experienced her long search. I'm kind of glad, too, that it didn't come to conclusions that were too pat and perfect. This would probably be tough going for people who aren't fascinated by the Holocaust.
April 23, 2016
This is an oddly unsatisfying book, in ways that may in fact be exactly what the author intended. We want closure from her quest to discover the truth about her grandfather's role in WWII genocide. Her several years' quest for an accurate accounting of that time in Lithuania is really compelling, and the picture that emerges of how partisans, collaborators, Lithuanians, Poles, Jews navigated the insanity of the war is wonderfully nuanced. Most striking are the ways in which memory shapes interpretation - and inevitably hides as much truth as it reveals. There is no certainty at the end - though strong suggestions - and perhaps that's exactly right.
December 28, 2016
A dreadful story, badly written.
A stream of consciousness non-fiction wherein the author spends much time discussing contemporary weather, foodstuff, research method, and so forth. Endless 'perhaps', 'maybe', 'possibly'…. Eventually- well towards the end of the book- we read the almost incontrovertible truth that her grandfather was deeply involved in organising and attending mass murders.
How did the author feel about this? The one stream of consciousness which has gone missing…..sigh.
A stream of consciousness non-fiction wherein the author spends much time discussing contemporary weather, foodstuff, research method, and so forth. Endless 'perhaps', 'maybe', 'possibly'…. Eventually- well towards the end of the book- we read the almost incontrovertible truth that her grandfather was deeply involved in organising and attending mass murders.
How did the author feel about this? The one stream of consciousness which has gone missing…..sigh.
August 17, 2019
I was very excited to read this book, because of the subject matter and the premise, but I ended up very disappointed. The book jumps around between many different subjects, and it's hard to follow. The content is very repetitive. The author's narrative is weak and doesn't hold the story together.
March 8, 2025
I found this book a while ago and was pretty excited to read it. My great grandmother, who I’m named after, is from Švenčionys. Her siblings, parents, and grandparents were also born there. I started reading this book but the writing threw me off so much I stopped reading it.
A few months ago I was working on my family tree - specifically my great grandmother’s side. I knew some of her cousin’s had died in the Holocaust but wasn’t sure of how or what happened. I did some looking around and found out that they were k!lled at the Poligon. I decided to try and read this book again.
It’s obvious that a lot of research has gone into this book, but I didn’t like the writing at all. As another person said, a lot of “perhaps” “possibly” “maybe” which, with this book being about something so heavy, that felt unnecessary. The book also jumped around A LOT, making it very hard to follow.
A few months ago I was working on my family tree - specifically my great grandmother’s side. I knew some of her cousin’s had died in the Holocaust but wasn’t sure of how or what happened. I did some looking around and found out that they were k!lled at the Poligon. I decided to try and read this book again.
It’s obvious that a lot of research has gone into this book, but I didn’t like the writing at all. As another person said, a lot of “perhaps” “possibly” “maybe” which, with this book being about something so heavy, that felt unnecessary. The book also jumped around A LOT, making it very hard to follow.
May 30, 2018
This book, ah, this book. A tiny slice of WWII and the slaughter of the Jewish population. Not by the Germans, but by the Lithuanians, who exterminated the entire Jewish population of their Country and a substantial portion of the Polish citizens. Written by a descendent of a Lithuanian war criminal, the book outlines her research, her heartbreak, and casts another light on who the real criminals are and why.
June 13, 2025
A fascinating personal family history plagued by a messy, scattered narrative. It was all over the place chronologically and with new characters. It was difficult to follow so while I enjoyed the topic, it made for miserable reading. She also needed a better editor; there were typos and one glaring incorrect translation from Polish to English (I’m Polish, so I picked it up immediately). It’s unfortunate because the topic is incredibly interesting.
March 14, 2017
Intriguing family mystery that got entirely derailed by the author's focus on her own dramatic monologue about every discovery, which was far less interesting than her family's history.
May 25, 2017
Skim read to the end. Too much detail, too many names, too little to hold my attention. Shame.
December 9, 2016
I didn't finish this book. It didn't hold my interest.
February 29, 2024
I gave it a 4 because I was impressed with the amount of research the author did. But it could have been much shorter.
May 19, 2016
Just finished this book, I had found it through some search on Amazon and immediately wanted to read it; there is a dearth of books about the perpetrators of the Holocaust, about the everyday people who helped the Nazi's with the Final Solution. It is now common knowledge that without the aid of the local population in the areas the Nazi's took over (especially Eastern Europe), the Nazi's would not have been able to do what they did. I wanted to see what Gabis would find out, would there be any contrition or sorrow for her grandfather's role in the Lithuanian police and working with the SS?
Unfortunately the answer is no, her grandfather never admitted to what he had done and there was never any apologies.
The premise of this book was really good but I think it definitely could have used a ghost writer or someone more experienced in writing historical non-fiction. Part of the reason I couldn't give this book higher marks is that it was difficult to read; Gabis is all over the place, she starts a story, telling of someone's fate and than diverges on some other point. Almost like reading someone's blog or journal. It made it very confusing to follow. Plus she had numerous different threads in this story, I think it would have been better to have just stuck with her search for her grandfather's past.
This is another issue with the book, while Gabis says that she wants to find out about her Lithuanian grandfather during WWII, I got the impression in the book that as she got closer to the truth or if she saw the truth she didn't want to believe it or wanted to search further to find something that said explicitly what her grandfather did; when to me it was beyond clear that her grandfather had participated in the Jewish massacre at Poligny and the Polish massacre after German commander Beck's death. It is also beyond clear that her grandfather had no issue with violence and killing what he thought was not pure (see the story of the fish, egads).
What did disturb me most was that the grandfather was allowed to come to America; like a thief in the night (in this instance a killer in the night), he, like other Nazi collaborators, blended right back into polite society. He was never held to account for what he did.
Not sure if I would recommend this book, it was interesting but so very difficult to follow; maybe for a book club, as there is lots of themes here to discuss. Or if you are studying WWII or that period in history.
Unfortunately the answer is no, her grandfather never admitted to what he had done and there was never any apologies.
The premise of this book was really good but I think it definitely could have used a ghost writer or someone more experienced in writing historical non-fiction. Part of the reason I couldn't give this book higher marks is that it was difficult to read; Gabis is all over the place, she starts a story, telling of someone's fate and than diverges on some other point. Almost like reading someone's blog or journal. It made it very confusing to follow. Plus she had numerous different threads in this story, I think it would have been better to have just stuck with her search for her grandfather's past.
This is another issue with the book, while Gabis says that she wants to find out about her Lithuanian grandfather during WWII, I got the impression in the book that as she got closer to the truth or if she saw the truth she didn't want to believe it or wanted to search further to find something that said explicitly what her grandfather did; when to me it was beyond clear that her grandfather had participated in the Jewish massacre at Poligny and the Polish massacre after German commander Beck's death. It is also beyond clear that her grandfather had no issue with violence and killing what he thought was not pure (see the story of the fish, egads).
What did disturb me most was that the grandfather was allowed to come to America; like a thief in the night (in this instance a killer in the night), he, like other Nazi collaborators, blended right back into polite society. He was never held to account for what he did.
Not sure if I would recommend this book, it was interesting but so very difficult to follow; maybe for a book club, as there is lots of themes here to discuss. Or if you are studying WWII or that period in history.
February 27, 2016
Lithuania is a small country, which has disappeared many times in modern history, getting to be part of Russia, Poland or Germany in the last hundred years, with small moments of independent existence. The crazy history of the country before, during and just after WW II has been described by Sofi Oksanen (When the Doves Disappeared) and reading this book gave me the same feeling of lack of reference points. How do you describe a country caught between three other nations, occupied and liberated, to be occupied again by the ex-liberators, and again with the previous ones in less than 10 years?
Here, the author digs into Lithuanian history to understand her family history, which is almost as tangled. As a child, nothing much was said about the past in the Gabis family. One would think this silence was strange, in a part-Jewish, part-Catholic family, who had been part of he Lithuanian sharing and preying done by UdSSR and Nazi Germany. The author's grandmother was sent to a labor camp by the Soviets and the whole family seemed to have fought against Russian occupants. She knew her grandfather was in the police, but the real questions only come to her in her early fifties. Her grandfather had to work under Nazis orders, all the Jews remaining in Lithuania in !940 were gone by the end of the war and never seen again, some massive deportations had taken place between 1941 and 1944. What part had her grandfather played in that? Ms Gabis gets obsessed with the problem and cannot get answers from her family. "Don't listen to what she says" whispers her aunt Agnes about her aunt Karina. To understand what happened, the author will have to dig in the past through paper archives, interviews of Lithuanian Holocaust survivors and contradictory hints from her family. The interviews bring totally opposite results, her grandfather killed Jews, or protected them, depending on the person she spoke to. And we must not forget the author is a poet, before being a writer. Some of her lyrical prose begins with "perhaps, they went here or there", or maybe hat happened".
At the end, I'm not sure of anything. I just believe he world and the people living in it, are not black or white. They are shades of gray, and no one on earth is able to judge.
February 16, 2017
Author Rita Gabis was born to a Jew & a Catholic. Her family comes from Eastern Europe & Lithuania. She knows basic things about her family & was pretty close to her grandfather. She knew that he had fought the Russians, who destroyed thousands in Lithuania, even before Hitler came into the picture.
Then, she finds out that between 1941 & 1943, her grandfather was in the secret police for the Gestapo. She now wants to find out the truth about the grandfather that she thought she knew. Had he been a Nazi?
She travels & interviews many in four different countries. Could her grandfather have been involved in the helping out in the murders of 8, 000 Jews? It is very interesting how the family on both sides viewed him. Interesting read.
Then, she finds out that between 1941 & 1943, her grandfather was in the secret police for the Gestapo. She now wants to find out the truth about the grandfather that she thought she knew. Had he been a Nazi?
She travels & interviews many in four different countries. Could her grandfather have been involved in the helping out in the murders of 8, 000 Jews? It is very interesting how the family on both sides viewed him. Interesting read.
June 15, 2015
a very interesting book, about unthinkable conflicts in a family. How do you feel, if raised in a half catholic, half jewish environment, you learned your grandfather might have been a Nazi, following Hitler's orders to purify Lithuania during the second world war? The answers from your family contradict themselves. So, the author goes to Lithuania, and starts investigating. But the answers there are just as ambiguous, some remember him as a protector of the Jews, some as a goon willing to kill them. Of course, this kind of research 70 years after he facts is quite difficult. What does a witness remember after so much time?
The author is more famous as a poet than as a novel author,and her lyrical talents makes the differences between truth and half truths. She learns the world is not black and white and opposite truths may exist. Her parents married, I suppose in the US and it would have been interesting to see if she could have unraveled them.
I believe the book would have been more gripping if it ha been a bit shorter, bu it is not meant to be read in one sitting. You slowly get into the atmosphere of a country torn by wars and occupation, hundreds of years of i, and the lines get a bit blurred. What is true?
The author is more famous as a poet than as a novel author,and her lyrical talents makes the differences between truth and half truths. She learns the world is not black and white and opposite truths may exist. Her parents married, I suppose in the US and it would have been interesting to see if she could have unraveled them.
I believe the book would have been more gripping if it ha been a bit shorter, bu it is not meant to be read in one sitting. You slowly get into the atmosphere of a country torn by wars and occupation, hundreds of years of i, and the lines get a bit blurred. What is true?
February 14, 2016
I found this book difficult to read, not only because of it's dark content, but also because of the author's disjointed way of presenting it. Perhaps she wrote it as she experienced it. Her quest for understanding her grandfather's role in the persecution of the Jews and Poles certainly was a long, complicated, and disjointed process.
Another difficulty for me was the difficulty in keeping the many, many names straight, especially since I am not good at sounding out the various names of peoples and places from that area.
I thought that the author demonstrated remarkable perseverance and faith in continuing her quest for as long and as rigorously as she did.
Certainly, power changed hands multiple times and most of the time it was used punitively. For those living there, you never knew how or when you might be blind sighted and be facing a firing squad or worse and yet, some survived, and they might never understand how that happened either.
Another difficulty for me was the difficulty in keeping the many, many names straight, especially since I am not good at sounding out the various names of peoples and places from that area.
I thought that the author demonstrated remarkable perseverance and faith in continuing her quest for as long and as rigorously as she did.
Certainly, power changed hands multiple times and most of the time it was used punitively. For those living there, you never knew how or when you might be blind sighted and be facing a firing squad or worse and yet, some survived, and they might never understand how that happened either.
October 12, 2015
I have long been drawn to Holocaust memoirs. As news reminds me of our dwindling resource of WWII vets and their actuarially assured disappearance soon. Now comes a second generation review of the Holocaust in Lithuania and especially its impact on her family. I am certain this is not the first, but I am sure it is the flavor of the future of this literature. As such, Gabis has guiding material for others considering such a project. She talks about what it is like talking to family and approaching them, not just the material they offer as primary history sources. Ditto for archives and archivists. Gabis has gathered a significant amount of witness testimony and detail around the Poligon massacre and Beck reprisals during the German occupation.
(I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.)
(I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.)
August 26, 2015
Rita Gabis' tale of her search into her family history and her grandfather's life is a fascinating tale of the period spanning the Nazi Germany time frame. Ms. Gabis searches records and conducts interviews to find out exactly what happened.
She finds out the startling information that her grandfather served under the Gestapo as a police chief, and since a lot of her family are Jewish, she continues researching to get at the truth.
As a reader, I found her trips back to her grandfather's home in Svencionys (do not ask me how to pronounce that!) fascinating to read about and the descriptive phrases were amazing.
If you care about history and have a interest in it, this book is very well-written and interesting. I definitely recommend reading this one!
I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways, thank you, I really enjoyed it.
She finds out the startling information that her grandfather served under the Gestapo as a police chief, and since a lot of her family are Jewish, she continues researching to get at the truth.
As a reader, I found her trips back to her grandfather's home in Svencionys (do not ask me how to pronounce that!) fascinating to read about and the descriptive phrases were amazing.
If you care about history and have a interest in it, this book is very well-written and interesting. I definitely recommend reading this one!
I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways, thank you, I really enjoyed it.
November 29, 2015
A woman tries to find out the truth about her Catholic Grandfather who worked for the SS in Lithuania and immigrated to the US. She had heard he fought the Russians, but as she delves into his past, she learns there is much more and this impacts her history, as she is half Eastern Jew and half Lithuanian Catholic. A very interesting and at times, heart breaking journey.
February 26, 2016
To tell you the truth I didn't fully read the whole book. It was just too long, that basically, I just decided to skim through it after 200 and something pages. First, the author does not give a way for us to pronounce the Lithuanian words she uses. Second, she goes on and on too much on certain stories she tells. I just wanted to get to the part about her grandfather.
December 28, 2016
Tough read for many reasons... somewhat autobiographical as author is writing about her own family. Shockingly real, she narrates her own journey of discovery which includes interviews of family and strangers as she tries to figure out whether her grandfather was the man she thought he was or something altogether different, At times, the "research" is overwhelming but her journey was amazing.
September 22, 2016
A most informatve but distresing book. So much of what ocurred during and after WWII in Germany seemed not the will of many German people. Yet they were either caught up in it and/or had no way to remove themselves from it. Informative and insightful.
June 23, 2016
Fascinating book!
June 15, 2016
Extraordinary. Powerful.
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