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Day After Night
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Just as she gave voice to the silent women of the Hebrew Bible in The Red Tent, Anita Diamant creates a cast of breathtakingly vivid characters—young women who escaped to Israel from Nazi Europe—in this intensely dramatic novel.
Day After Night is based on the extraordinary true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than two hundred prisoners from the Atlit internment camp, a prison for “illegal” immigrants run by the British military near the Mediterranean coast south of Haifa. The story is told through the eyes of four young women at the camp who survived the Holocaust: Shayndel, a Polish Zionist; Leonie, a Parisian beauty; Tedi, a hidden Dutch Jew; and Zorah, a concentration camp survivor. Haunted by unspeakable memories and losses, afraid to hope, the four of them find salvation in the bonds of friendship and shared experience even as they confront the challenge of re-creating themselves in a strange new country.
Diamant’s triumphant novel is an unforgettable story of tragedy and redemption that reimagines a singular moment in history with stunning eloquence.
294 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
711 people are currently reading
12733 people want to read
About the author
Anita Diamant
30 books4,809 followersAnita Diamant is the author of thirteen books -- including THE RED TENT. Based on the biblical story of Dinah, THE RED TENT became a word-of-mouth bestseller in the US and around the world, where it has been published in more than 25 countries.
Her new book, a work of nonfiction. PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE. A NEW CHAPTER IN THE FIGHT FOR MENSTRUAL JUSTICE will be published in May 2021., As different as they are, this book returns to some of the themes of THE RED TENT -- including the meaning and experience of menstruation.
Anita has written four other novels: GOOD HARBOR, THE LAST DAYS OF DOGTOWN, DAY AFTER NIGHT, and THE BOSTON GIRL. She is also the author of six non-fiction guides to contemporary Jewish life, which have become classic reference books: THE JEWISH WEDDING NOW, THE JEWISH BABY BOOK, LIVING A JEWISH LIFE, CHOOSING A JEWISH LIFE, HOW TO RAISE A JEWISH CHILD, and SAYING KADDISH..
An award-winning journalist, Diamant's articles have appeared in the Boston Globe, Real Simple, Parenting Magazine, Hadassah, Boston Magazine and Yankee Magazine. PITCHING MY TENT, a collection personal essays, is drawn from twenty years worth of newspaper and magazine columns.
Her new book, a work of nonfiction. PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE. A NEW CHAPTER IN THE FIGHT FOR MENSTRUAL JUSTICE will be published in May 2021., As different as they are, this book returns to some of the themes of THE RED TENT -- including the meaning and experience of menstruation.
Anita has written four other novels: GOOD HARBOR, THE LAST DAYS OF DOGTOWN, DAY AFTER NIGHT, and THE BOSTON GIRL. She is also the author of six non-fiction guides to contemporary Jewish life, which have become classic reference books: THE JEWISH WEDDING NOW, THE JEWISH BABY BOOK, LIVING A JEWISH LIFE, CHOOSING A JEWISH LIFE, HOW TO RAISE A JEWISH CHILD, and SAYING KADDISH..
An award-winning journalist, Diamant's articles have appeared in the Boston Globe, Real Simple, Parenting Magazine, Hadassah, Boston Magazine and Yankee Magazine. PITCHING MY TENT, a collection personal essays, is drawn from twenty years worth of newspaper and magazine columns.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,904 reviews
August 26, 2019
A beautifully written and hard to put down narrative of four remarkable Jewish girls each of whom survived the Holocaust in Europe in their own way. Imprisoned in Atlit internment camp , near Haifa, in 1945, by the British determined to stop Jewish immigration into the Land of Israel in order to appease Arab opinion and in line with the British government's betrayal of the Jewish national aspirations.
This was Britain's greatest hour of shame.
Imagine Holocaust survivors being reinterned behind barbed wire in concentration camps to prevent them settling in their own ancient homeland. That's what really happened.
Shayndel, the committed Polish Zionist who fought in the forests of Eastern Europe with partisans, the Blond and tall Tedi, a Dutch Jewess hidden during the war and who later was captured but escaped from the train to Auschwitz, the French beauty Leonie who had to sell her body to survive the Nazi death machine and the Auschwitz survivor Zorah. All these girls carry their own scars and have their own stories, as the narrative further develops in Atlit. Tirzah the cook, has a romantic relationship with a British officer and uses this to help her people.
(Spoiler Warning)
An former SS woman, is discovered hiding among the survivors, and is dealt with by the girls in their own way.
Eventually the four girls and other inmates at Atlit are broken out of the camp by the Palmach, based on true events of the time, in which this heroic rescue operation was undertaken. Future Israeli Yitzhach Rabin was involved in these events, a a Palmach officer.
while we a wealth of holocaust literature, there is much less written about the internment of survivors heading for the Holy Land, after World War II.
An incredibly rewarding read, this tells part of their story.
This was Britain's greatest hour of shame.
Imagine Holocaust survivors being reinterned behind barbed wire in concentration camps to prevent them settling in their own ancient homeland. That's what really happened.
Shayndel, the committed Polish Zionist who fought in the forests of Eastern Europe with partisans, the Blond and tall Tedi, a Dutch Jewess hidden during the war and who later was captured but escaped from the train to Auschwitz, the French beauty Leonie who had to sell her body to survive the Nazi death machine and the Auschwitz survivor Zorah. All these girls carry their own scars and have their own stories, as the narrative further develops in Atlit. Tirzah the cook, has a romantic relationship with a British officer and uses this to help her people.
(Spoiler Warning)
An former SS woman, is discovered hiding among the survivors, and is dealt with by the girls in their own way.
Eventually the four girls and other inmates at Atlit are broken out of the camp by the Palmach, based on true events of the time, in which this heroic rescue operation was undertaken. Future Israeli Yitzhach Rabin was involved in these events, a a Palmach officer.
while we a wealth of holocaust literature, there is much less written about the internment of survivors heading for the Holy Land, after World War II.
An incredibly rewarding read, this tells part of their story.
July 21, 2024
In 1948, when I was a very young child, Israel was granted statehood. I remember the joy and the celebration among my family and community. Certainly much has been written about the Holocaust, about the efforts of traumatized Jews to reach Israel and the turmoil that has occurred since it became a recognized country (by some, not all). In this novel, many events have been either omitted or lacked much attention. Diamant has written an account of an internment camp for "illegals" in Israel in 1945, following WW II. This story is apparently gleaned from true events.
The story is told through the eyes of four young women who are imprisoned there. Each recounts her experience through the war. This camp, Atilit, was dreary, barren and depressing, completely enclosed by barbed wire. Can you imagine surviving the horrors and barbarism of a concentration camp, or spent in hiding with constant fears for safety, only to be caged again with armed guards surrounding you? To add further insult, the travel to Israel was grueling, miserable, difficult and protracted. The only redeeming factors of the camp were real beds, a semblance of clothing, food and the comfort of human relationships.
I had looked forward to reading this book because I had enjoyed Diamant's The Red Tent and I have an avid interest in literature of this period of history. However, much of this novel seemed superficial and did not stress many of the true painful and intense events that the characters endured. In some instances there were mere suggestions of occurrences and hardships. No mention was made of the difficult trials in travel to "The Promised Land". It was also difficult throughout this recounting to keep the characters straight, due to the style of shifting from one to another and trying to recall all of the foreign sounding names. More input regarding historical events surrounding this time would have added a greater dimension to the book.
Despite the aforementioned criticisms, Diamant capably developed most of her characters. A thread of tension was present throughout, especially for the hope and expectation that these people would finally gain their freedom. The denouement was a further element of suspense for the reader, although I felt that the climax was rather hasty.
The story is told through the eyes of four young women who are imprisoned there. Each recounts her experience through the war. This camp, Atilit, was dreary, barren and depressing, completely enclosed by barbed wire. Can you imagine surviving the horrors and barbarism of a concentration camp, or spent in hiding with constant fears for safety, only to be caged again with armed guards surrounding you? To add further insult, the travel to Israel was grueling, miserable, difficult and protracted. The only redeeming factors of the camp were real beds, a semblance of clothing, food and the comfort of human relationships.
I had looked forward to reading this book because I had enjoyed Diamant's The Red Tent and I have an avid interest in literature of this period of history. However, much of this novel seemed superficial and did not stress many of the true painful and intense events that the characters endured. In some instances there were mere suggestions of occurrences and hardships. No mention was made of the difficult trials in travel to "The Promised Land". It was also difficult throughout this recounting to keep the characters straight, due to the style of shifting from one to another and trying to recall all of the foreign sounding names. More input regarding historical events surrounding this time would have added a greater dimension to the book.
Despite the aforementioned criticisms, Diamant capably developed most of her characters. A thread of tension was present throughout, especially for the hope and expectation that these people would finally gain their freedom. The denouement was a further element of suspense for the reader, although I felt that the climax was rather hasty.
October 11, 2009
I have spent much of 2009 reading excellent novels that relate different perspectives of the horror that was WW II and the effects of the Holocaust on people from different countries. In Sarah's Key, I read what happened at the Vélodrome d'Hiver in France, in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Random House Reader's Circle), I discovered what happened during the war on an island I'd never heard of, in Skeletons at the Feast: A Novel, I accompanied a family fleeing westward ahead of the advancing Russians, in Those Who Save Us, I read what desperate men and women did in occupied Germany. This novel is another wonderful testament to the strength of the human spirit in the face of unspeakable guilt -- the guilt of being a survivor of the ravages of the Nazis and the Final Solution.
This story takes place in Atlit -- the internment camp south of Hafia, Israel, after the war is over when thousands of Jews escaped Europe for their promised land, only to be imprisoned and held by the British military instead of being allowed to join the kibbutzes established there. Four remarkable young women from different backgrounds meet there and attempt to adjust to life and to deal with the consequences of what they did to survive the fates that claimed the lives of their friends and families.
I loved the women -- Shayndel, a Polish Zionist with a heroine's reputation; Zorah, the concentration camp survivor who hides the tattoo on her arm; Tedi, a Dutch girl who escaped most of the ravages of war by being hidden; and Leonie, from France, who avoided the roundup due to her looks and her wartime occupation. The experiences that the girls had during the war are revealed in vignettes as we get to know each one and her secrets very slowly as they suffer a day to day existence in the camp. The jobs they do, the contacts they have, and the relationships that manage to thrive despite the collective horror are heartwarming and inspiring. Both realistic and desperately hopeful, the girls do whatever they can to find some explanation or reason why they did not perish.
Anita Diamant is a superb writer whose prose rings true in every sense. This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. (ARC)
This story takes place in Atlit -- the internment camp south of Hafia, Israel, after the war is over when thousands of Jews escaped Europe for their promised land, only to be imprisoned and held by the British military instead of being allowed to join the kibbutzes established there. Four remarkable young women from different backgrounds meet there and attempt to adjust to life and to deal with the consequences of what they did to survive the fates that claimed the lives of their friends and families.
I loved the women -- Shayndel, a Polish Zionist with a heroine's reputation; Zorah, the concentration camp survivor who hides the tattoo on her arm; Tedi, a Dutch girl who escaped most of the ravages of war by being hidden; and Leonie, from France, who avoided the roundup due to her looks and her wartime occupation. The experiences that the girls had during the war are revealed in vignettes as we get to know each one and her secrets very slowly as they suffer a day to day existence in the camp. The jobs they do, the contacts they have, and the relationships that manage to thrive despite the collective horror are heartwarming and inspiring. Both realistic and desperately hopeful, the girls do whatever they can to find some explanation or reason why they did not perish.
Anita Diamant is a superb writer whose prose rings true in every sense. This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. (ARC)
November 22, 2018
Uncovering History Through Fiction: My Book(Spoilery) Review of Day After Night
I was in an absolute state of glee upon randomly opening up this book to its phenomenal epigraph:
This exact phrase is one my mom reads to my sister and I every Shabbat; we know and recite it by heart. I always craved to see it written somewhere as an opening quote, so this was like a personal wish coming true.
I started the first chapter with the tiniest of hesitation. I was thinking back on how impressed I was by the epigraph, and even the prologue captivated me, so surely the first chapter will be the hindrance. But as I read on, it's to uncover an enchanting storyteller in Anita Diamant. It's reading a book, knowing that you surely won't regret doing so. It's ending a chapter only to want more. This is an author who knows the power her writing holds and how to wield her magic pen. What a journey this book took me on.
Day After Night is based on the extraordinary true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than 200 prisoners from the Atlit internment camp - a prison for illegal immigrants run by the British military near the Mediterranean coast north of Haifa. The story is told through the eyes of four young women at the camp.
It's the first book in a while that made me excited to read it during the week, stealing time here and there to dive in, instead of settling for a binge-read on Shabbat. Something about that epigraph and that masterful character building on the very first page (pictured below) made me stand still and reappraise what I was getting into.
Rounded characterization on page one means: nightmares we can only imagine. They hold so much sorrow in their young lives already. The "military-issue pillows that smell of disinfectant" that are the bare-minimum when compared to what they had growing up, but after all they've been through it's a luxury. Set against the unmoving background of Atlit's Detainee Camp ruled by the British military, this is a part in European Jewish history I personally hadn't known of before.
“Everyone who is locked up in Atlit waits for an answer to the same questions: When will I get out of here? When will the past be over?”
I like reading historical fiction for the simple act of being educated on a topic completely unheard of before through a story. It humanizes history and makes me remember details long afterward. Like with Sarit Yishai-Levi's The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, which delivered both on the historic events of those that tried to detain Jews from coming into Israel, as well as the many romances that still have me worked up. So much of the time period before the founding of the state of Israel holds me enthralled. I recently watched the 2017 film An Israeli Love Story that tackled similar issues in that time frame while residing on the kibbutz.
Following four young women, Day After Night starts with introspective and self-aware Tedi Pastore, who craves nothing more than to assimilate and forget all her horrible memories as soon as her brain lets up, though those memories will sneak up on you as soon as you let your defenses down. My heart connected to her instantly with her quiet nature and this brilliant phrase:
“She wondered if she could fill her head with enough Hebrew to crowd out her native Dutch.”
Yes; though when Dutch peaks its way back into your life down the road (sooner than you'd like), it'll come flooding back. I feel this so deeply.
We leave her to follow Zorah Weitz, who's quite the opposite with her scorn and quiet rage at her surroundings. So much of her anger is just, obviously, but because we arrive into her chapter coming from Tedi's point of view, it became quite jarring to experience such a different tough-to-crack perspective. It became interesting to see how the author would weave their stories together to make Zorah a more multidimensional character. I never doubted for a minute that she wouldn't succeed. Any author that can character build on the very first page of the first chapter has my full trust.
“She knew they were reluctant to tell their own stories because all of them began and ended with the same horrible question: Why was I spared?”
And Shayndel and Leonie whose specialties include daydreaming and people-watching. They invent stories in their head to escape from their current reality and remain sane under the heinous circumstances thrown their way. They grow close and cling onto each other as people that go through wartime experiences only can.
It's interesting then to connect and reflect on their stories of coming to Israel to my own Aliyah and how I was more of a Zorah at the very beginning (this realization occurred while writing made me far more forgiving when reading her harsh words after): I felt so helpless with my surroundings and how these circumstances I was in weren't even of my choice. There was just so much (too much) anger pent-up that I feel so sorry looking back to ten-year-old me. And so came the gradual change of coming to terms with your reality and quietly turning into a Tedi with wanting to forget as quickly as possible all the good and the bad on the tail end. I have the hardest time remembering stuff from the past now, which is why I'm so particular with writing everything down as soon as I complete reading or watching or listening anything.
“It was unspeakable, so they spoke of nothing.”
It makes for an interesting phenomenon when shedding those layers of European culture and reconnecting back to your own Jewish roots. It's a loss of a comfortable layer and the growth of one that's been waiting for generations. It's realizing that the "loss" of your mother tongue isn't your real mother tongue. The culture of "cold politeness" you've become accustomed to isn't where your heart belongs (“leaving behind the whole poisoned graveyard that was Europe”). The warm connection between the people in our own homeland is one that cannot be replicated.
I felt this distinctly in the piercing moment when all the characters come together to light the candles and say the blessing for Rosh Hashanah, after years and years of hell on earth. The quiet strength echoed throughout this scene felt so real I could almost reach out and grasp it.
“Anschel lifted a cup above his head and glared around the room, waiting for others to do the same. Around each table, the men eyed each other and silently determined which one would stand for the blessing. As they raised their cups, he began, “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe.” The piercing nasal drone of his voice held everyone in thrall at first, but then others joined, creating a baritone jumble of melodies and accents that conjured a congregation of absent fathers and grandfathers. Tears flowed as the goblets were emptied, but Tirzah gave them no time to mourn, banging the door open wide with a tray piled with golden loaves of challah. She was greeted with applause and chatter, which continued through the brief blessing for bread, which was passed and devoured.”
Something slipped over me in reading this that I couldn't shake off. We're alive. Our people lived through this hell and multiple others to make it to Israel. I won't forget.
The one thing that remains alive in that moment is reciting the passages of the past, the same words they heard countless times before the war, only to quietly realize that here they are repeating it in the heart of Israel. Our prayers as a nation are the only thing keeping the past alive and our hope ablaze in the future.
And as much as Zorah resents these moments that bring on memories long repressed, I can only think of this truthful passage from David Bezmozgis's Natasha and Other Stories: “So what am I supposed to do, let the bastards win? Because who wins if a Jew doesn't go to synagogue? I’ll tell you who: Hitler.”
With each new description in the book, I stop cold at how masterfully Anita Diamant constructs her characters. I personally enjoy exploring little individual moments that make up somebody’s life, and reading about the day-to-day in that unmoored timeline of 1945 through this group of lost individuals is riveting to revisit.
“It seemed impossible that these could be the same stars she had looked up at six months ago, impossible that she was seeing them through the same eyes.”
This had the potential to be a new favorite with all the elements I love in one: Jewish-Israeli characters, survivors arriving in Israel after the Holocaust which is rarely explored, the prime time of Zionism, and displacement. Day After Night operates on so many levels.
Plus, I'm a known fool for the name Noah (read: My Appreciation For the Name Noah in Old Men at Midnight by Chaim Potok), so Shayndel's brother piqued my interest... Only to be crushed in this brutal reality of Polish antisemitism and pogroms. Lest anyone forget:
“The Poles had been just as monstrous as the Germans. The Nazis did not require her neighbors to spit on her family the day they were taken away. They had spit again when she returned, after the war, to see if anyone else had survived.”
The sad reality is that the Poles are already trying to erase history by making themselves seen as innocent and blame it all on the German Nazis. History will never fully wrap all the horrors and pogroms they inflicted upon the Jews.
On another note, here are some points I want to highlight:
• The few hints of romance in here I came to appreciate because sometimes it's a necessary component in feeling alive, feeling seen. This book drew the important distinction between realizing whether your feelings are for that particular individual and simply for the rush of hormones they provide. This phrase puts the idea together well:
“I guess I wanted to be in love with someone. But not him.”
This explains so much on settling for the wrong guy. And how we look into book-romances to project our own desires on the particular couple to get together. We seek that intoxicating rush of feeling without actually doing something that can hurt like being close with another human. It's predictable, safe, and follows a script, unlike real life.
• Throw all that away when it comes to Meyer Meyer Meyer, the boy who brings Zorah back from the brink of cynicism. I hung onto his every word. Something about his air of kind honesty left me laser focused on the task at hand: Seeing him interact with Zorah. Their dynamic was so full of promise. He's the kind-hearted soldier with a sharing packet of Chesterfields, and she's the rugged girl that loves to say no. I thought at first that the author was pulling us along with an exquisitely outdrawn slow-burn, and it did work at first because I nearly jumped like a cat when he finally arrived in a scene with Zorah after way too long.
“I never heard you sing before,” said a familiar voice at her ear.
Zorah did not turn around. Meyer moved closer and asked, “Did you miss me?”
“Only when I was dying for a smoke,” she said.
“I thought about you all the time,” said Meyer.”
Likewise. Also: why did this make my heart skip a beat?
“I wish I could send you cigarettes,” Meyer said, slipping a packet into her hand. “But they would only get stolen. Still, whenever you get a letter, you should know that I was thinking about sending a whole carton of Chesterfields. I am a romantic, right?”
Zorah fought the urge to face him, to wish him well, to say good-bye.
“Pray a little for my safety, will you, Zorah?” said Meyer. “I will kiss you good night wherever I am.”
Zorah heard him walk away and counted to thirty before she turned. He had reached the gate. Without turning or looking back, he raised his hand to wave. As though he knew she would be watching.”
He's so damn charismatic.
You know Zorah has it bad when she starts talking to herself in his voice. “Worthy opponent or suitor?” I personally really enjoy seeing this switch happen in books like I mentioned in my review for The Great Alone. There's something so powerful when you start viewing a person in a different light.
But I guess the author had other things in mind when it came to Meyer, since I can count on one hand the number of times he showed up after, and then never again till the epilogue that I'm not ready to discuss.. (I'm still in the stage of denial, as evidenced by my refusal to even write it down). And I'm too stubborn to let something as powerful as Zorah with Meyer dissipate simply like that. I wanted to see them T A L K deep into the night and share secrets and grow old together... And I got none of that.
• Speaking of loose ends, there are so many that my mind is busy thinking over... What happens with Tirzah and Danny? Did the group of four ever reunite? WHAT ABOUT THE PICTURE?? Who's the lucky man that married Shayndel? What happened to Lillian aka the running gag of the book with being put in her place by multiple people?
Like a movie, it ends on a group snapshot of the four young women that made this book shine with tiny inscriptions telling us where they all ended up. The epilogue really made the story feel so vividly real that I was tempted to look up the names of the characters, knowing full well that even if they were based on real woman their full names wouldn't have been used... I JUST NEED THE PICTURE. I tried hunting for it on my own with zero results. The descriptions of it in the book feels too real. It's these telling signs that tell the whole story of Day After Night . Like Shayndel and Leonie standing so close together in the photograph led the author to chronicle a close friendship in her mind. And the details of their matching white outfits in that shot then rings similarity in the story when people thought them to be the same even though on the outside they were opposites.
“Leonie and Shayndel grinned at each other, knowing these same girls sometimes called them “peas in a pod” and “the Siamese twins” even though they were a pair of contrasts, too.”
Taking notice of these telltale signs made me feel like a tiny Sherlock. First came the picture, then the story. And now I'm pretty desperate to uncover what came first. Does the picture even exist?
I'd had hoped to see them thrive after Atlit, but since it's so real the end sequence bears too many loses to feel like closure. The epilogue in itself should've been more elaborated on, instead of dropping new information that I have no idea how to take in since the book is already over. All I can say is Tedi deserved to have seen that picture.
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June 11, 2017
It is 1945 and the war has just ended. Those released from the concentration camps must now decide what the remainder of their lives, devoid of loved ones and homes, will be. This is the story of some of those displaced women who opt to go to Israel, which is being governed by the British. They find themselves in another camp, and although this one is not the cruel and deadly ilk of the ones they have already known, it is still ringed with barbed wire and it still feels like a prison.
The story centers on four of the women and explores their backstories as well as their experiences in adjusting to a new life in Zion. It is the best Diamant I have found since falling in love with The Red Tent, which I count as her signature work. I did feel involved with each of the women, mourn their losses, and care about their futures. It was a quick read with a satisfying ending. What you want most for these women is a chance to live a life of happiness that will negate some of the pain and horror that they have experienced in their young lives. The first step for them is being able to connect with one another and those connections are believable in Diamant’s hands.
The story centers on four of the women and explores their backstories as well as their experiences in adjusting to a new life in Zion. It is the best Diamant I have found since falling in love with The Red Tent, which I count as her signature work. I did feel involved with each of the women, mourn their losses, and care about their futures. It was a quick read with a satisfying ending. What you want most for these women is a chance to live a life of happiness that will negate some of the pain and horror that they have experienced in their young lives. The first step for them is being able to connect with one another and those connections are believable in Diamant’s hands.
August 24, 2019
A great read about how hundreds of Jewish people went to settle in Israel after WW2. Highly recommend if you want to learn more about this period in time!
December 30, 2009
Just finished this book and loved it! It was at various times touching, brutal and raw. I have read other memoirs about The Holocaust but this one was different. I had no idea that such a thing as Illegal Immigrant camps existed for survivors of the concentration camps in Isreal after the war. It was disturbing to read of the conditions those poor people were exposed to after having just survived the greatest atrocity in history. Diamant's writing is vivid and prosaic. The women of the narrative jump off the page and the reader grows to love and hate them at various points in the story, but ultimately respecting them and their sacrifices in the end. The story weaves historical detail within a tapestry of survivorship and loss. Great read!
May 2, 2011
After the Ottoman empire lost WWI, the British governed Palestine/Israel. There were larger and larger influxes of European Jews to the area, trying to escape the pogroms and Nazis. To appease the upset Arabs of the region, the British agreed to limit the number of Jewish immigrants. One of the ways they achieved this was to detain and confine these immigrants (expecting to deport those who were not claimed by family) in various internment camps in the land that was to become Israel. It is against this backdrop that the novel “Day After Night” tells the story of six Jewish women living in Atlit detention camp just after the liberation of Europe from the Nazis in 1945. Tirzah is a local woman from a nearby kibbutz who is the kitchen supervisor for the camp. The other five women (Tedi, Shayndel, Zorah, Leonie and Esther) are all survivors of the holocaust who have escaped Europe; they have arrived in Israel without papers, deemed illegal immigrants, and thus are thrown into Atlit. After escaping from concentration camps, they sought freedom in their spiritual homeland of Zion, only to face the barbed wire and armed guards of Atlit. Can you imagine that?
Their stories are not similar, yet have a thread that ties them all together: surviving the horrors of anti-Semitism and liberating themselves from oppression. Each woman deals with the past in a different way, but they cannot run from it. It’s because of their shared history and in spite of their initial distrust of each other that these 6 women form a bond of friendship. For me, the novel was the strongest when it concentrated on the histories of the women: their stories. The book’s weakest point was the climax of the story. There should have been a bigger build-up to it. Furthermore, the unfolding of the “high point” (I really don’t want to say what it was…I don’t want a spoiler here), I just did not get a sense of the events unfolding: the emotions, observations, and tensions that could have been so suspensefully described, but weren’t. That part read like a retelling from a history book, rather than from eyewitness accounts. It could have been much, much more.
All in all, I would recommend this book for its subject matter and length; I did enjoy it. The story just came up a little short for me. 3 stars.
Their stories are not similar, yet have a thread that ties them all together: surviving the horrors of anti-Semitism and liberating themselves from oppression. Each woman deals with the past in a different way, but they cannot run from it. It’s because of their shared history and in spite of their initial distrust of each other that these 6 women form a bond of friendship. For me, the novel was the strongest when it concentrated on the histories of the women: their stories. The book’s weakest point was the climax of the story. There should have been a bigger build-up to it. Furthermore, the unfolding of the “high point” (I really don’t want to say what it was…I don’t want a spoiler here), I just did not get a sense of the events unfolding: the emotions, observations, and tensions that could have been so suspensefully described, but weren’t. That part read like a retelling from a history book, rather than from eyewitness accounts. It could have been much, much more.
All in all, I would recommend this book for its subject matter and length; I did enjoy it. The story just came up a little short for me. 3 stars.
October 18, 2015
Good historical audio....review to follow
I have had The Red Tent on my TBR list for a while and have wanted to read Anita Diamant for a while. When I was looking for a new audio they had this one and I grabbed it. So glad I did. The audio was done wonderfully and may have even brought this story to life for me more that reading it would have. I loved hearing the accents and the changes in voice and tone that the narrator did. Excellent.
I had not heard of Atlit, which was a camp for Jewish detainees at the end of WW2. These were Jewish people who had immigrated to Palestine for the hopes of beginning a new life and leaving the horrors of the war behind them. The paths these people took to get this far was horrific only to be "held" prisoner yet again. This was not a gruesome prison, but a camp, but it was still a prison for these people none the less. This is the story of the days leading up to and the actual escape that these detainees made to their freedom.
The story is told in four main voices of four young girls who have arrived here by very different paths. But once at Atlit, their secrets and their pasts bond them together. They are survivors, each in their own way. They have seen tragedy, experienced losses and yet somehow they still have hopes and dreams. They are each strong in their own way....some loudly, some very quietly. They are each unique and a wonderful depiction of the people you would meet in such a place. Each with their own story, their own strengths, their own demons, yet bound together by fate.
The story builds these women characters slowly, revealing pieces of their past a little at a time, showing the reader why they are who they are now. This is a sad story as they were heroes, yet no one seemed to know it. I will say I knew nothing of this piece of history and I was glad to learn something new as I imagined these women and their fight to continue hoping when all was lost to them. Diamant could have depicted much more of the horrors I am sure, yet instead she chose to focus on the characters. There were terrible scenes of all that happens in war, but the beauty of these characters is what I will carry away with me.
4.5 up to 5 for the wonderful audio narration.
I have had The Red Tent on my TBR list for a while and have wanted to read Anita Diamant for a while. When I was looking for a new audio they had this one and I grabbed it. So glad I did. The audio was done wonderfully and may have even brought this story to life for me more that reading it would have. I loved hearing the accents and the changes in voice and tone that the narrator did. Excellent.
I had not heard of Atlit, which was a camp for Jewish detainees at the end of WW2. These were Jewish people who had immigrated to Palestine for the hopes of beginning a new life and leaving the horrors of the war behind them. The paths these people took to get this far was horrific only to be "held" prisoner yet again. This was not a gruesome prison, but a camp, but it was still a prison for these people none the less. This is the story of the days leading up to and the actual escape that these detainees made to their freedom.
The story is told in four main voices of four young girls who have arrived here by very different paths. But once at Atlit, their secrets and their pasts bond them together. They are survivors, each in their own way. They have seen tragedy, experienced losses and yet somehow they still have hopes and dreams. They are each strong in their own way....some loudly, some very quietly. They are each unique and a wonderful depiction of the people you would meet in such a place. Each with their own story, their own strengths, their own demons, yet bound together by fate.
The story builds these women characters slowly, revealing pieces of their past a little at a time, showing the reader why they are who they are now. This is a sad story as they were heroes, yet no one seemed to know it. I will say I knew nothing of this piece of history and I was glad to learn something new as I imagined these women and their fight to continue hoping when all was lost to them. Diamant could have depicted much more of the horrors I am sure, yet instead she chose to focus on the characters. There were terrible scenes of all that happens in war, but the beauty of these characters is what I will carry away with me.
4.5 up to 5 for the wonderful audio narration.
April 11, 2017
A heartbreaking true story, excellently narrated, but that ends on a note of hope. Another great book from master storyteller, Anita Diamant.
January 20, 2010
At first sad, but ultimately hopeful. Life does go on, whether we want it to or not. We must join with others in making it meaningful, even after great loss.
We think a lot about the many millions who died in the Holocaust, perhaps less often about those who were left standing. They were told they were "lucky" to be alive. But how do you find joy again, or even the desire for joy, after you've lost every person and thing you loved? When you've witnessed and been subjected to incomprehensible atrocities and humiliations? How do you dare to hope and to trust again?
Many of the Jews who survived World War II found themselves entirely alone in the world. Families completely obliterated, no home to return to. Some of them fled to Palestine hoping for a new start far from the scenes of their nightmares. At that time their presence in Palestine was illegal, so they were immediately transported to the British-run Atlit detainment camp. They were well cared for, not abused. But they were still prisoners, not free to move ahead---still "unwelcome."
This story follows a group of young women from all over Europe who are thrown together in the Atlit barracks in 1945. At first they are mistrustful, bitter, and hiding their guilty secrets. Slowly they begin to forge new bonds and rely on each other. As they act on their impulses to nurture others who have suffered, they find they are able to begin healing the broken places within themselves.
We think a lot about the many millions who died in the Holocaust, perhaps less often about those who were left standing. They were told they were "lucky" to be alive. But how do you find joy again, or even the desire for joy, after you've lost every person and thing you loved? When you've witnessed and been subjected to incomprehensible atrocities and humiliations? How do you dare to hope and to trust again?
Many of the Jews who survived World War II found themselves entirely alone in the world. Families completely obliterated, no home to return to. Some of them fled to Palestine hoping for a new start far from the scenes of their nightmares. At that time their presence in Palestine was illegal, so they were immediately transported to the British-run Atlit detainment camp. They were well cared for, not abused. But they were still prisoners, not free to move ahead---still "unwelcome."
This story follows a group of young women from all over Europe who are thrown together in the Atlit barracks in 1945. At first they are mistrustful, bitter, and hiding their guilty secrets. Slowly they begin to forge new bonds and rely on each other. As they act on their impulses to nurture others who have suffered, they find they are able to begin healing the broken places within themselves.
May 24, 2018
This is another really good story about happenings after World War II that were little known to the public. The people in this story were all in concentration camps during the war and when they were released that were taken to another "camp" by the British who did not know what to do with them. It was a better "camp" in that they had better food and places to sleep, etc, but they still could not leave. Then there was a night where it was arranged for everyone to escape. Then in the story we find out what happened to all the main characters. This is a group of strong women in this story. Excellent story. Definitely recommend.
March 4, 2019
I thought the story was powerful and one can’t help but empathize with the characters and what they had to go through as Jews during World War II. It was well written and an interesting story of life for some who came to Israel, still in its infancy, after the war. But somewhere along the line, the narrative got to be repetitive, and I longed for a plot that would have followed the characters after they continued their lives in Israel.
October 24, 2009
I suppose since this novel was compared to Diamant's bestselling 'THE RED TENT', which to this very day remains my favourite book of all time, I might have unknowningly set myself up for disappointment. This story was not at all what I expected, nor did I feel Diamant's writing was on par with THE RED TENT. However, having said that, I did enjoy it for the most part, but felt it just went on and on and on a little too much. It was like she was stalling for time so she could figure out where and with whom the story was going next.
From dust jacket:
Just as she gave voice to the silent women of the Old Testament in the THE RED TENT, Anita Diamant creates a cast of heartbreakingly vivid characters - young women who escaped to Israel from Nazi Europe - in this intensely dramatic novel.
DAY AFTER DAY is based on the extraordinary true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than two hundred prisioners from the Atlit internment camp, a prison for "illegal" immigrants run by the British military near the Mediterranean coast north of Haifa. The story is told through the eyes of four young women at the camp with profoundly different stories. All of them survived the Holocaust: Shayndel, a Polish Zionist; Leonia, a Parisan beauty; Tedi, a hidden Dutch Jew; and Zorah a concentration camp survivor. Haunted by unspeakable memories and lossess, afraid to begin to hope, Shayndel, Leonie, Tedi, and Zorah find salvation in the bonds of friendship and shared experience even as they confront the challenge of re-creating themselves in a strange new country.
This is an unforgettable story of tragedy and redemption, a novel that reimagines a moment in history with such stunning eloquence that we are haunted and moved by every devastating detail. DAY AFTER NIGHT is a triumphant work of fiction."
From dust jacket:
Just as she gave voice to the silent women of the Old Testament in the THE RED TENT, Anita Diamant creates a cast of heartbreakingly vivid characters - young women who escaped to Israel from Nazi Europe - in this intensely dramatic novel.
DAY AFTER DAY is based on the extraordinary true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than two hundred prisioners from the Atlit internment camp, a prison for "illegal" immigrants run by the British military near the Mediterranean coast north of Haifa. The story is told through the eyes of four young women at the camp with profoundly different stories. All of them survived the Holocaust: Shayndel, a Polish Zionist; Leonia, a Parisan beauty; Tedi, a hidden Dutch Jew; and Zorah a concentration camp survivor. Haunted by unspeakable memories and lossess, afraid to begin to hope, Shayndel, Leonie, Tedi, and Zorah find salvation in the bonds of friendship and shared experience even as they confront the challenge of re-creating themselves in a strange new country.
This is an unforgettable story of tragedy and redemption, a novel that reimagines a moment in history with such stunning eloquence that we are haunted and moved by every devastating detail. DAY AFTER NIGHT is a triumphant work of fiction."
September 26, 2012
Although The Red Tent is her more famous novel, the first Anita Diamant book I’ve read is Day After Night. And that’s really only because I saw it in the library the day after my mom realized the author had gone to the same Jewish camp (or youth group, or something).
Day After Night takes place in Israel after World War II at the Atlit internment camp where illegal immigrants here held. If you’re like me, you’re going, “Huh? Where?” That is precisely what made this book so interesting. There is already a lot of literature on the Holocaust and the plight of the Jews, but I can honestly say that I have never read anything about the Jews who then immigrated to Israel and were held by the British. I appreciated this new insight into that era and the aftermath of the horrific war.
Diamant uses several female characters to show the reader what it was like in Atlit. Through these women, we learn about how they managed to survive the war and how their attitudes about the future were formed. I did not find them particularly compelling as characters and truth be told, I had a really hard time keeping the characters straight.
The climax of the book is when the prisoners escape (rather, are rescued) from Atlit and are moved to various kibbutzim around Israel. Or at least, I think that was supposed to be the climax. I didn’t find Diamant’s conclusion to the book very creative. In fact, it was pretty cliche.
Since The Red Tent got so much hype, I figured I had to read that. But after finishing this novel, I’m not sure that Diamant and I click well as author and reader…
Day After Night takes place in Israel after World War II at the Atlit internment camp where illegal immigrants here held. If you’re like me, you’re going, “Huh? Where?” That is precisely what made this book so interesting. There is already a lot of literature on the Holocaust and the plight of the Jews, but I can honestly say that I have never read anything about the Jews who then immigrated to Israel and were held by the British. I appreciated this new insight into that era and the aftermath of the horrific war.
Diamant uses several female characters to show the reader what it was like in Atlit. Through these women, we learn about how they managed to survive the war and how their attitudes about the future were formed. I did not find them particularly compelling as characters and truth be told, I had a really hard time keeping the characters straight.
The climax of the book is when the prisoners escape (rather, are rescued) from Atlit and are moved to various kibbutzim around Israel. Or at least, I think that was supposed to be the climax. I didn’t find Diamant’s conclusion to the book very creative. In fact, it was pretty cliche.
Since The Red Tent got so much hype, I figured I had to read that. But after finishing this novel, I’m not sure that Diamant and I click well as author and reader…
January 15, 2011
This is Diamant's second book that I've read. I enjoyed The Red Tent, and also this one. The Red Tent had a broader sense of place and history, and I think better language and character. Then again, having just finished this one, I may appreciate it more as I reflect on it. I think the strength of this novel lies in the concise and honest portrayal of the characters in how they mask and express their experiences. I got the sense that had she revealed more about the character's backstory (and really any novel about the Holocaust survivor is about the backstory), it would have added the pathos and schmaltz that no Holocaust novel should have. She was terse in the dialogue, while giving a sense of how these fictional survivors were trying to normalize while dealing with pain, guilt, doubt and deep sorrow. This novel (as I think all historical fiction should) helped me place myself in their experience and gain some human understanding of a place and time far away (or not so far away) from my own experience.
September 17, 2009
Okay, so I LOVED the Red Tent, by the same author. This one--not so much. It's about a group of women who are kept together in a "camp" in Palestine post WWII. While it's an interesting look at the relationship between the Jews and Palestinians pre-Israel, I never really "felt" any of the characters. The perspective shifts so much that I had difficulty feeling "close" to any of the characters. I was disappointed to not have loved this book, as my expectations were high from The Red Tent. Maybe if I hadn't read that first, I would have like this better?
September 10, 2010
When pondering the horrors of the Holocaust, it is not often that one considers what occurred after the Germans lost the war. I may envision families reuniting, people starting over, or at the least relief over sudden freedom. In truth however, many Jewish citizens became "illegal" immigrants and were imprisoned in internment camps run by the British military.
Much like a concentration camp, Atlit prison was surrounded by barbed wire fences. This vision alone was enough to remind many prisoners of their time spent in horrible places such as Aucshwitz.
This is the true story of an escape of over 200 prisoners, planned with the help of four young Holocaust survivors. Four women, seeking freedom, true freedom not only from their haunting memories, but freedom from being other another human beings orders. Freedom they would eventually find.
Much like a concentration camp, Atlit prison was surrounded by barbed wire fences. This vision alone was enough to remind many prisoners of their time spent in horrible places such as Aucshwitz.
This is the true story of an escape of over 200 prisoners, planned with the help of four young Holocaust survivors. Four women, seeking freedom, true freedom not only from their haunting memories, but freedom from being other another human beings orders. Freedom they would eventually find.
July 2, 2023
3.5 stars
January 23, 2023
Objektivan roman o posljedicama II svj.rata koji prati sudbinu Jevreja zatvorenih u prijemni logor u Palestini. Integracija Jevreja u društvo nakon oslobođenja iz logora je tema o kojoj se slabije pisalo.
Roman ne glorifikuje žrtve, odaje im dužnu počast, ali ih ne diže u zvijezde nego ih prikazuje kao ljudska bića sklona pohlepi, izadaji, zavisti i sl.
Roman ne glorifikuje žrtve, odaje im dužnu počast, ali ih ne diže u zvijezde nego ih prikazuje kao ljudska bića sklona pohlepi, izadaji, zavisti i sl.
October 20, 2009
This novel (based on a true event) about four wounded and damaged Jewish women in the internment camp of Atlit has a gripping storyline but was disappointing overall. Of the four women, I was only able to keep two of them straight. The others I had to keep checking the book flap to identify their character. This is not to say that their back stories were not compelling. Mostly, I just wanted more information overall about each character.
In terms of her writing craft, Anita Diamant continues to dazzle. I liked that the pace of camp life was reflected in the telling of the story and that threaded throughout the novel was the question "why did I survive, while others did not?"
It's a damn good question.
In terms of her writing craft, Anita Diamant continues to dazzle. I liked that the pace of camp life was reflected in the telling of the story and that threaded throughout the novel was the question "why did I survive, while others did not?"
It's a damn good question.
June 21, 2017
My least favorite thing about historical fiction is that it's all either about the Tudors or WWII in France. Or it's romance. So there's that. So when I find a book that's blatantly not about the same old historical ground that's been trod into the mud, I get excited. I get especially excited if it's about a piece of history I know nothing about.
Enter Day After Night. I picked it up because I loved Diamant's The Red Tent and Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers, so I wanted to relive the magic of these gorgeous novels about badass Jewish ladies and the history of Israel Palestine. And friends, I was not disappointed.
The book follows the lives of four young women--European Holocaust survivors, all--who have emigrated to Palestine to start new lives after the war. When we meet them, they're housed in a "displaced persons center" guarded by English troops. In other words, they're treated less like the traumatized refugees they are and more like dangerous illegal immigrants. And while they're no longer hiding from Nazis and fighting for their lives in concentration camps, they're still... in a camp... surrounded by barbed wire... and far from any kind of home.
As the story unfolds, we learn about the girls' pasts (and the pasts of others in the camp). Diamant intentionally chose a number of very different backstories for the girls, based of course on the real life stories of Jewish survivors after WWII. One of them managed to survive in a concentration camp. One was a victim of sex trafficking and forced into prostitution at the age of 15. One was a machine gun-wielding resistance fighter hiding in the woods and harrying Nazis. And one spent the war in hiding and on the run, raped and abused by her protectors while everyone she knew was killed. There are many other examples of survivors in the camp, but they all have one thing in common: they survived while others did not. They went through hell, literally, and they're all dealing with PTSD and survivor's guilt.
In spite of myself, I fell in love with the characters. They're all young enough to be resilient in the face of the horrors of the Holocaust, and it was deeply moving to watch them unfold like flowers over the course of the story as their armor fell away and they became themselves again. Their friendships with each other were clearly a coping mechanism (for they had all lost every single family member and friend they had), but no less strong and tender for that.
This may sound like a book about waiting. And indeed, it starts that way. After the residents of the camp make it into Palestine, they're stuck, waiting interminably for the proper paperwork to get them out of the camp and into a Kibbutz or another more permanent home. But if you think they waited quietly and docilely with their comrades for an English-sanctioned placement, you know jack shit about Israelis. Intrigue! Commandos! Plotting! Murder! Espionage! Escape! Shit got real exciting toward the end when the detainees and the local militant group took matters into their own hands.
And I'm just sitting here gaping. Because... these people survived The Motherfucking Holocaust. They all saw horrible, tragic things. They endured unimaginable torture. And the British government tried to stand in their way? It boggles the mind that anyone expected them to sit quietly and do what they were told. I don't understand why the rest of the word didn't just go, "Oh, you're a Holocaust survivor? Here's whatever you fucking want for the rest of your life."
Instead, the reality is that anti-Semitism was alive and well after the war, and no one felt particularly compassionate toward the survivors. Except for, of course, those who could've easily been among them if they had been unlucky enough to be in Europe at the time. Other Jews, that is. One story was particularly horrific: a character remembers seeing a Jewish boy return to his home in Poland after making it through a concentration camp. And he was beaten to death by the local Poland Christians, who the bragged about it. Somehow, I have no doubt that story is based on reality.
Diamant is a master of her craft. Her writing is just... lyrical. It's lovely. If you're not moved by the fascinating part of history the book explores, or the sensitive characterization of everyone on its pages, read Day After Night for the poetry. It's really beautiful.
Oh, and I do hope this should go without saying: it has a happy ending.
Enter Day After Night. I picked it up because I loved Diamant's The Red Tent and Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers, so I wanted to relive the magic of these gorgeous novels about badass Jewish ladies and the history of Israel Palestine. And friends, I was not disappointed.
The book follows the lives of four young women--European Holocaust survivors, all--who have emigrated to Palestine to start new lives after the war. When we meet them, they're housed in a "displaced persons center" guarded by English troops. In other words, they're treated less like the traumatized refugees they are and more like dangerous illegal immigrants. And while they're no longer hiding from Nazis and fighting for their lives in concentration camps, they're still... in a camp... surrounded by barbed wire... and far from any kind of home.
As the story unfolds, we learn about the girls' pasts (and the pasts of others in the camp). Diamant intentionally chose a number of very different backstories for the girls, based of course on the real life stories of Jewish survivors after WWII. One of them managed to survive in a concentration camp. One was a victim of sex trafficking and forced into prostitution at the age of 15. One was a machine gun-wielding resistance fighter hiding in the woods and harrying Nazis. And one spent the war in hiding and on the run, raped and abused by her protectors while everyone she knew was killed. There are many other examples of survivors in the camp, but they all have one thing in common: they survived while others did not. They went through hell, literally, and they're all dealing with PTSD and survivor's guilt.
In spite of myself, I fell in love with the characters. They're all young enough to be resilient in the face of the horrors of the Holocaust, and it was deeply moving to watch them unfold like flowers over the course of the story as their armor fell away and they became themselves again. Their friendships with each other were clearly a coping mechanism (for they had all lost every single family member and friend they had), but no less strong and tender for that.
This may sound like a book about waiting. And indeed, it starts that way. After the residents of the camp make it into Palestine, they're stuck, waiting interminably for the proper paperwork to get them out of the camp and into a Kibbutz or another more permanent home. But if you think they waited quietly and docilely with their comrades for an English-sanctioned placement, you know jack shit about Israelis. Intrigue! Commandos! Plotting! Murder! Espionage! Escape! Shit got real exciting toward the end when the detainees and the local militant group took matters into their own hands.
And I'm just sitting here gaping. Because... these people survived The Motherfucking Holocaust. They all saw horrible, tragic things. They endured unimaginable torture. And the British government tried to stand in their way? It boggles the mind that anyone expected them to sit quietly and do what they were told. I don't understand why the rest of the word didn't just go, "Oh, you're a Holocaust survivor? Here's whatever you fucking want for the rest of your life."
Instead, the reality is that anti-Semitism was alive and well after the war, and no one felt particularly compassionate toward the survivors. Except for, of course, those who could've easily been among them if they had been unlucky enough to be in Europe at the time. Other Jews, that is. One story was particularly horrific: a character remembers seeing a Jewish boy return to his home in Poland after making it through a concentration camp. And he was beaten to death by the local Poland Christians, who the bragged about it. Somehow, I have no doubt that story is based on reality.
Diamant is a master of her craft. Her writing is just... lyrical. It's lovely. If you're not moved by the fascinating part of history the book explores, or the sensitive characterization of everyone on its pages, read Day After Night for the poetry. It's really beautiful.
Oh, and I do hope this should go without saying: it has a happy ending.
September 17, 2009
Anita Diamant’s Day After Night is a fictionalized account of the 1945 rescue of the prisoners being held in the Atlit internment camp near Hafia, close to the Mediterranean coast. Fresh from their memories of Nazi concentration camps, illegal immigrants crossing the borders, most often in their attempt to reach Palestine and Israel, have been taken into custody by the British military and placed in eerily similar surroundings: barbed wire fences, barracks separating men from women, delousing stations, showers. The only difference, as our protagonists insist upon the frightened and bewildered newcomers arriving almost every day, is that here, all will be fed and taken care of; the showers are real showers.
But the prisoners are angry, angry because they survived one war only to become pawns in another power struggle where one nation seeks to impose authority on another and they’ll risk everything they have to be free.
Told primarily from the point of view of four women, Tedi, Zorah, Shayndel, and Leonie (with a fifth, Tirzah, thrown in for the contrasting perspective), Day After Night explores what it could mean to be happy in a place like Atlit, so incongruous in appearance with what really goes on behind the enclosure. As much a jail as a safehouse, these women struggle through their personal demons in the weeks leading up to the October rescue. Diamant imagines Atlit being something like a therapeutic nightmare in which the women find solace in each other, getting to know one another as much as they try to keep their distance, too hurt by their own haunting pasts to confide their true stories to one another.
Together, the women remain strong and support one another, finding spirit in the small miracles of the everyday: fresh fruit, full meals, showers, clean clothes, pillows and blankets at night, doctors that are there to be doctors and not experiment, burgeoning romance, scandalous affairs. In the limbo of Atlit, Tedi is reminded that “...everything was coming back to her in Palestine” (p. 7), even her sense of smell long thought lost, another victim of the war. Ironically, her imprisonment, like the other women, has turned into a type of healing in the between of being frightened before the end of the war, and true freedom after it.
In Atlit, the woman are “in the land of milk and honey…” (p. 90), a type of heaven where they are allowed a chance to heal their scars in preparation for the real world, a beautiful nightmare slumber, a peaceful and restful night before the day of their true freedom. I thought the prologue was particularly lovely, setting the mood for the story like an overture, touching the title and bringing it back to us as much as the epilogue brought the story to reality and back to fiction again.
Day After Night is a novel of hope, wishful thinking on the part of the author in like-minded sentiment with Gershon, “I hope she was happy. I hope all of them were” (p. 292). If the narrative at times made me forget the seriousness of the women’s situation, it only serves to remind me the intent of the author to wish this same feeling on the women who did stay there, who were forced to relive the phantom reminders of their past at the same time as they were trying to move forward. In the context of the novel, the women found a kind of peace in Atlit, smothering their hated pasts in the sheets of their nightmare, tossing the pillow aside as they walked outside, never to return.
I thought Day After Night was a good book. Diamant has a lot of talent in writing about dynamic women and their relationships to one another. If you’re a fan of her work, I recommend this one. If you’ve never read anything by her, I still recommend it. Overall, it was a touching, powerful read.
But the prisoners are angry, angry because they survived one war only to become pawns in another power struggle where one nation seeks to impose authority on another and they’ll risk everything they have to be free.
Told primarily from the point of view of four women, Tedi, Zorah, Shayndel, and Leonie (with a fifth, Tirzah, thrown in for the contrasting perspective), Day After Night explores what it could mean to be happy in a place like Atlit, so incongruous in appearance with what really goes on behind the enclosure. As much a jail as a safehouse, these women struggle through their personal demons in the weeks leading up to the October rescue. Diamant imagines Atlit being something like a therapeutic nightmare in which the women find solace in each other, getting to know one another as much as they try to keep their distance, too hurt by their own haunting pasts to confide their true stories to one another.
Together, the women remain strong and support one another, finding spirit in the small miracles of the everyday: fresh fruit, full meals, showers, clean clothes, pillows and blankets at night, doctors that are there to be doctors and not experiment, burgeoning romance, scandalous affairs. In the limbo of Atlit, Tedi is reminded that “...everything was coming back to her in Palestine” (p. 7), even her sense of smell long thought lost, another victim of the war. Ironically, her imprisonment, like the other women, has turned into a type of healing in the between of being frightened before the end of the war, and true freedom after it.
In Atlit, the woman are “in the land of milk and honey…” (p. 90), a type of heaven where they are allowed a chance to heal their scars in preparation for the real world, a beautiful nightmare slumber, a peaceful and restful night before the day of their true freedom. I thought the prologue was particularly lovely, setting the mood for the story like an overture, touching the title and bringing it back to us as much as the epilogue brought the story to reality and back to fiction again.
Day After Night is a novel of hope, wishful thinking on the part of the author in like-minded sentiment with Gershon, “I hope she was happy. I hope all of them were” (p. 292). If the narrative at times made me forget the seriousness of the women’s situation, it only serves to remind me the intent of the author to wish this same feeling on the women who did stay there, who were forced to relive the phantom reminders of their past at the same time as they were trying to move forward. In the context of the novel, the women found a kind of peace in Atlit, smothering their hated pasts in the sheets of their nightmare, tossing the pillow aside as they walked outside, never to return.
I thought Day After Night was a good book. Diamant has a lot of talent in writing about dynamic women and their relationships to one another. If you’re a fan of her work, I recommend this one. If you’ve never read anything by her, I still recommend it. Overall, it was a touching, powerful read.
April 3, 2009
This book deals with an handful of women at Atlit "displaced persons" camp in Palestine just after World War II. A quota had been set for how many Jews could immigrate to the new Eretz Yisrael, but of course hundreds of thousands more were trying to get in. They got rounded up and sent to these camps, run by the British, which were heartbreakingly similar in appearance to the concentration camps that many of them had just gotten out of. The treatment was far better, but they were still prisoners held behind barbed wire and sleeping in huge dormitories with separate men and women's areas. One particularly
jarring moment was when a woman become hysterical at the sight of that barbed wire as she stepped off the bus--that really just cut me to the bone. These people have to stay at the camps until their paperwork is found or created and space on a kibbutz is made for them or family already in the country come to get them.
The women that Diamant introduces us to are varied in personality and life experience, how they coped with the war and who they are trying to be in it's aftermath. Survivors guilt and and fierce will to live, starting over yet again, grief like a new appendage for most and so much more make this a rich tapestry of humanity in a situation I had
never heard a word about until now. With Isreal so much in the news today, I think this is a thoughtful and timely book that will open new areas of understanding--knowing what happened at the beginning helps to inform the now. These women will linger in your head
for long after you finish this book. Diamant is truly a master at writing memorable and amazing female characters who resonate in the minds of her readers.
jarring moment was when a woman become hysterical at the sight of that barbed wire as she stepped off the bus--that really just cut me to the bone. These people have to stay at the camps until their paperwork is found or created and space on a kibbutz is made for them or family already in the country come to get them.
The women that Diamant introduces us to are varied in personality and life experience, how they coped with the war and who they are trying to be in it's aftermath. Survivors guilt and and fierce will to live, starting over yet again, grief like a new appendage for most and so much more make this a rich tapestry of humanity in a situation I had
never heard a word about until now. With Isreal so much in the news today, I think this is a thoughtful and timely book that will open new areas of understanding--knowing what happened at the beginning helps to inform the now. These women will linger in your head
for long after you finish this book. Diamant is truly a master at writing memorable and amazing female characters who resonate in the minds of her readers.
January 24, 2010
I don't generally give a book five stars, but this book really touched me. I enjoyed the two previous books by Anita Diamant that I have read--The Red Tent and The Last Days of Dogtown, but this book moved me in a different way. The story is about the growing friendship between four Jewish women from different parts of Europe who meet in a British detention camp for illegal Jewish refugees in Palestine. The story takes place between August and October 1945 as the world is trying to come to terms with the horrors of the camps in Nazi Germany and the responsibility of the Allies toward the Jews in light of the Balfour Declaration and the White Paper both issued by Great Britain. In Atlit, an actual camp and based on a true incident, "Not one of the women in Barrack C is 21, but all of them are orphans." In October 1945, Jewish partisans help over 200 refugees escape into the territory that will become Israel in 1948. This book deals with the painful memories each woman carries, but focuses on the hope that can follow some of life's most horrible cruelities. The essence of the story is the redemptive power of humans to help each other heal and the belief in the future that kept each of these women alive. A powerful book and one that I will not soon forget.
November 17, 2010
This is an excellent example of a historical novel that successfully develops about a dozen characters (four in depth), each with their own personalities and fits them into a significant historical event. The event in this case was the successful escape of about 200 detainees from an internment camp for illegal immigrants in the British Palestinian Mandate in the 1945 pre-Israel era. The detainees were made up of holocaust survivors each with their own story. Their families had been wiped out, and they didn't feel comfortable staying in the Europe that had treated them so badly. They want to live in a country with others of their own kind. Thus ending up as prisoners was an emotional thing for them. And in the end when they escaped it was doubly emotional.
It is a story that deserves to be remembered and appreciated. However, the book ended up coming across to me much as a tale of coed dormitory life. I believe the author did a good job in the way she developed the story. But it just wasn't my kind of book.
It is a story that deserves to be remembered and appreciated. However, the book ended up coming across to me much as a tale of coed dormitory life. I believe the author did a good job in the way she developed the story. But it just wasn't my kind of book.
July 6, 2010
Life is a journey filled with people, places and events over which we often have no control. In spite of the circumstances that bring these young women together, they have all survived the Holocaust. They cautiously bond and create a family to replace the families they have lost and together find hope for the future.
I read this book in 2 days. I could not put it down. At the end, I was sobbing! How can we not be touched and appalled by the tragedy of this period of history? How can we not be inspired by the strength of those who courageously survived and endured the injustice? How can we not weep for their losses and and rejoice in their perseverance? How can we not count our blessings?
Read this book. It will change your life.
I read this book in 2 days. I could not put it down. At the end, I was sobbing! How can we not be touched and appalled by the tragedy of this period of history? How can we not be inspired by the strength of those who courageously survived and endured the injustice? How can we not weep for their losses and and rejoice in their perseverance? How can we not count our blessings?
Read this book. It will change your life.
October 5, 2009
Had never heard of the Atlit Detention Camp before, and found the entire history fascinating. The stories of the four main women were well-drawn and well-interwoven.
I'm glad that so many books are now being published about the aftermath of WWII and how the modern state of Israel came into being. It's quite easy to look at the current situation and judge the Palestinians and Israelis by their immediate actions. Entirely different to try to put together the very complicated history of snafus, conundrums, political posturing, etc. that led us to today's stalemate.
I'm glad that so many books are now being published about the aftermath of WWII and how the modern state of Israel came into being. It's quite easy to look at the current situation and judge the Palestinians and Israelis by their immediate actions. Entirely different to try to put together the very complicated history of snafus, conundrums, political posturing, etc. that led us to today's stalemate.
October 8, 2009
I had no idea that the Jews were interned as illegal immigrants in a Btritish camp on their way to their promised land. Diamaont tells a story of 5 women detained in the British camp Atlit, surrounded by barbed wire not too different looking than the concentration camps that some had been freed from. Although it was confusing to move to a different woman in each chapter, the story captured me and I read it quickly.
As so often happens after reading a good historical novel, I am motivated to research more about the story of real women and their experiences trying to get to Israel.
As so often happens after reading a good historical novel, I am motivated to research more about the story of real women and their experiences trying to get to Israel.
October 15, 2010
WWII continues to be a very rich and diverse source of material for novels both entirely fictional and those based on historical incidents. One such incident was the escape in 1945 of 200 refugee immigrants in a British illegals displacement camp in Israel with the help of Jewish settler partisans. The escape happens towards the end of the story, but the escape is not really what the book is about. It is about four young Jewish women, none older than 21, who have all been displaced by the war in Europe. Polish-born Shayndel was orphaned during the war and ended up fighting with partisans; Dutch-born Tedi is half-Jewish and spends most of the war in hiding until she is betrayed and sent off to a camp; Leonie is Parisian who is saved by brothel keeper, and has a miserable time trying to stay alive as a prostitute; and finally Zorah, also Polish who manages to survive the horrors of the concentration camp. All very damaged emotionally and physically, they find themselves in Israel as there is really nowhere else for them to go and they are promised that Israel will finally be the home they are looking for.
The girls are just four of the couple of hundred men, women and children in the camp where they have to learn to live a normal life again, to trust people and build relationships and friendships. There are nightmares to get through, symbols such as the barbed wire of the camps reminding the internees of the concentration camps, physical health to rebuild.
The establishment of the state of Israel by the British and the United Nations forms the background to the story, the displacement of the Palestinians barely rates a mention, and the British come across as the enemy with the exception of a few of the the British running the immigrant camp.
So is it a good book? Well, good plot, interesting characters, plenty of action and tension, but something is missing. I felt like I was reading a narrative: he said, then she said, then she said. It just felt a bit too one dimensional. The richness of writing that made 'The Red Tent' so special and memorable, for me, just is not there. Maybe it is not supposed to be there, the subject matter of internment camps and the tragedies of the people who find themselves there perhaps do not lend themselves to rich, beautiful writing. Still it is book worth reading simply for the history it chronicles.
The girls are just four of the couple of hundred men, women and children in the camp where they have to learn to live a normal life again, to trust people and build relationships and friendships. There are nightmares to get through, symbols such as the barbed wire of the camps reminding the internees of the concentration camps, physical health to rebuild.
The establishment of the state of Israel by the British and the United Nations forms the background to the story, the displacement of the Palestinians barely rates a mention, and the British come across as the enemy with the exception of a few of the the British running the immigrant camp.
So is it a good book? Well, good plot, interesting characters, plenty of action and tension, but something is missing. I felt like I was reading a narrative: he said, then she said, then she said. It just felt a bit too one dimensional. The richness of writing that made 'The Red Tent' so special and memorable, for me, just is not there. Maybe it is not supposed to be there, the subject matter of internment camps and the tragedies of the people who find themselves there perhaps do not lend themselves to rich, beautiful writing. Still it is book worth reading simply for the history it chronicles.
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