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The Tree of Life: A Trilogy of Life in the Lodz Ghetto #3
The Tree of Life, Book Three: The Cattle Cars Are Waiting, 1942-1944
The third volume in this powerful trilogy, The Cattle Cars Are Waiting follows the tragic fate of the inhabitants of the ghetto. Chava Rosenfarb, herself a survivor of the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen, draws on her own history to create characters who struggle daily to retain a sense of humanity and dignity despite the physical and psychological effects of ghetto life. Although the novel depicts horrendous experiences, the light of faith in the human spirit shines through every page.
Winner, Georges Bugnet Award for Best Novel, Writers Guild of Alberta
Winner, Georges Bugnet Award for Best Novel, Writers Guild of Alberta
376 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
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378 people want to read
About the author
Chava Rosenfarb
11 books17 followersHolocaust survivor and Jewish-Canadian author of Yiddish poetry and novels
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 17, 2014
This third book in the trilogy of Holocaust fiction and this book stands beside the other two as the final chapters in the story of some of the inhabitants of the Lodz ghetto. The work as a whole is a masterpiece in writing. The story telling is powerfully simple. The expression of the human condition is insightfully poetic. The message is clearly hopeful despite the dire expectations. Reality in fiction is achieved. A holocaust museum, The World At War, Schindler List, The Pianist.. these books by Chava Rosenfarb are far more telling of that incomprehensible experience of being in the ghetto. If you want to know as much as you can, if you want to understand some of it, you read these books. Question: Why? Answer: Never Again.
August 13, 2022
I spent a good chunk of the summer reading Chava Rosenfarb’s “The Tree of Life” trilogy, and I can’t think of any book that has moved me as profoundly as Book Three of the series. I gave Book One 4 stars, and 5 to Book Two, and I wish there was a higher rating available because Book Three certainly earns it.
Reading all three books in succession is definitely the way to go here; the continuity makes the brutal culmination of Book Three incredibly powerful. This book is the antidote to every “feel-good” Holocaust novel ever written. There are no morality lessons, no miraculous escapes from death, no attempts to make the reader feel better about anything that happens. This is a searingly vivid, excruciating, intimate look at the destruction that was the Holocaust. Yet it is also indescribably beautiful, full of memorable, complex characters with whom the reader has gotten acquainted over the previous two volumes.
Chava Rosenfarb, herself a survivor of the Łódź Ghetto, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen, wrote this as a novel but based some of the characters on real people. Most notable is Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, “Leader of the Jews,” who is perhaps best (and most infamously) known for his speech in which he implores the mothers in the ghetto to give up their children for deportation, in order to save the rest of the population. Rosenfarb is not gentle in her depiction of Rumkowski, but she does a stellar job of portraying him as an incredibly complicated man—narcissistic, needy, hopelessly naive—but also someone who, in his own twisted way, does what he thinks will ensure that some of the Jews of Łódź survive.
What kept gnawing at me throughout all three books, but especially Book Three, is that none of the characters know what we, the readers, do know. They had no idea of the full scope of horror that awaited them, and the inevitability of that horror. It’s stunning to think about what it must have been like for people in the moment, who could not even have conceptualized the sadism and brutality they would face.
Given that Rosenfarb’s books are not well known by the general public, I suspect they will never achieve the level of fame that some other seminal works of Holocaust literature have. But they absolutely should. These books tell it like it was, which is almost never how we wish it had been. Everyone should read them, in order, start to finish. You’ll feel wrung out at the end, but it’s a journey worth taking.
Reading all three books in succession is definitely the way to go here; the continuity makes the brutal culmination of Book Three incredibly powerful. This book is the antidote to every “feel-good” Holocaust novel ever written. There are no morality lessons, no miraculous escapes from death, no attempts to make the reader feel better about anything that happens. This is a searingly vivid, excruciating, intimate look at the destruction that was the Holocaust. Yet it is also indescribably beautiful, full of memorable, complex characters with whom the reader has gotten acquainted over the previous two volumes.
Chava Rosenfarb, herself a survivor of the Łódź Ghetto, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen, wrote this as a novel but based some of the characters on real people. Most notable is Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, “Leader of the Jews,” who is perhaps best (and most infamously) known for his speech in which he implores the mothers in the ghetto to give up their children for deportation, in order to save the rest of the population. Rosenfarb is not gentle in her depiction of Rumkowski, but she does a stellar job of portraying him as an incredibly complicated man—narcissistic, needy, hopelessly naive—but also someone who, in his own twisted way, does what he thinks will ensure that some of the Jews of Łódź survive.
What kept gnawing at me throughout all three books, but especially Book Three, is that none of the characters know what we, the readers, do know. They had no idea of the full scope of horror that awaited them, and the inevitability of that horror. It’s stunning to think about what it must have been like for people in the moment, who could not even have conceptualized the sadism and brutality they would face.
Given that Rosenfarb’s books are not well known by the general public, I suspect they will never achieve the level of fame that some other seminal works of Holocaust literature have. But they absolutely should. These books tell it like it was, which is almost never how we wish it had been. Everyone should read them, in order, start to finish. You’ll feel wrung out at the end, but it’s a journey worth taking.
February 12, 2022
Nie ma słów, które oddadzą znaczenie i wielkość tego dzieła w literaturze. Każdy z trzech tomów jest niezwykły. Książka to niesamowita skarbnica wiedzy o rozmaitych postawach ludzi, organizacjach, umysłowości, przemianach wewnętrznych, życiu codziennym w getcie łódzkim (Łodzi) od 1939 do 1944 roku. Nie ma drugiego takiego utworu, który w tak dogłębny sposób oddawałby ducha tego okresu. Polecam serdecznie, każdy powinien to przeczytać.
October 1, 2022
Words fail to describe this trilogy. Tragic. Beautifully written. Intense. Painfully sad. The most important book about the holocaust I’ve ever read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews