'We Are Going to Pick Potatoes': Norway and the Holocaust, The Untold Story

by Irene Levin Berman

Irene Levin Berman was born, raised, and educated in Norway. Her first conscious recollection of life goes back to 1942, when as a young child she escaped to Sweden, a neutral country during World War II, to avoid annihilation. Germany had invaded Norway and the persecution of two thousand Norwegian Jews had begun. Seven members of her father's family were among the seven hundred and seventy-one unfortunate persons who were deported and sent to Auschwitz.
In 2005, Irene was forced to examine the label of being a Holocaust survivor. Her strong dual identity as a Norwegian and a Jew led her to explore previously unopened doors in her mind. This is not a narrative of the Holocaust alone, but the remembrance of growing up Jewish in Norway during and after WWII. In addition to the richness of both her Norwegian and Jewish cultures, she ultimately acquired yet another identity as an American.

Genres: Holocaust, Nonfiction, History, Family, Biography, Autobiography

200 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 2010

Reviews

[Janice Kittelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend shared this book with me after I had read We Were The Lucky Ones. This book is of a Norwegian Jewish Family who had loved ones that”disappeared" during the Holocaust. The author was very young when they escaped to Sweden. She visits relatives and goes back to Norway to learn more about her family and some were among the persecution of 2000 Norwegian Jews.

[Sandy Brehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

There could be no more authoritative source for the story of what happened to Jewish families in Norway during the German occupation than this. The author's note revealing how and why she was determined to write it are equally powerful. At a time when literally millions of European Jews were being tortured and murdered in Hitler's calculated genocide machine, the small population in Norway was not overlooked.
In fact, in the effort to make Norway the German "Fortress in the North", the total elimination of Jews from that country was an achievable goal that became a source of pride for the occupying forces. By the end of the war when Germany's meticulously documented numbers were tallied, Norway's death rate of the original Jewish population neared 40%, one of the two highest of all the countries affected.
Berman's extensive documentation of her family's lives before, during, and after the occupation achieve far more than a family memoir. There is pain in the process, and not all survived. That any did is a story worth reading. The accuracy and verification resources make this a reliable primary source and one that reads with sensitivity and strength.
You don't have to be Norwegian nor Jewish (I am neither) to feel shaken and changed by this book.

[Kat Noble · Rating 4 out of 5]

Berman tells the story of her family and their escape to Sweden during World War II.

Berman also tells of the fate of the Norwegian Jews who did not make it to safety, including a branch of her family and recovers memories of the ‘disappeared’.

Berman grounds the story in her own experiences, and it is a story of the generations that came before her and made Norway their home, and the aftermath of the loss of so many in the Jewish community.
There is a contrast of how different countries in the Scandinavian group experienced the war. Sweden stayed neutral, allowing Nazis to travel through their lands but also taking in Jewish refugees, while the Norwegian police helped the Nazis in Norway and the Danish police resisted and aided Jews to escape to Sweden.

It was a harrowing but enlightening read about the fate of this small Jewish community and the impact of their loss on Berman’s generation. There was a legacy of silence and sorrow, with families unable to fully reckon with the losses they had suffered or be able to talk about them to their children and grandchildren.

[Katie Laugen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was introduced to this nonfiction work at a Holocaust Teachers workshop and Ms. Irene Levin Berman spoke to us about her experiences. Her story and voice are so authentic, that you feel captivated in both her speaking and writing. In my classroom, I read this book alongside my 8th graders who were reading a variety of Holocaust books in Literature Circles, and they were quickly engaged with Ms. Berman's story, too.

At times, I was confused by the organization of her memories, but by the end of the book I came to appreciate her walking us through her journey of rediscovering her past and identity. This book not only explains the historical background of WWII and the Holocaust in Norway, but her personal journey then and now. She has other themes that hopefully we can relate to, such as discovering our own identities as she has reflected and discovered her own.

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book accomplishes much: in less than 200 pages the author is able to cover the little-known story of the Holocaust in Norway, her own family's Holocaust story (some escaped to Sweden, some were killed), the postwar years, and what it's like to have the triple identity of a Jewish Norwegian-American. And she's able to pull this off seamlessly where a lesser writer wouldn't have been able to hold all those elements together.

[Andrea Floris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up when traveling in Norway. Although I found it a bit repetitive towards the end, I really liked how this book was written. The author shared a very personal part of her family's history, and it was interesting learning about this little known part of the holocaust through her and her family.

[Jennifer]

(The author's daughter is in my book group)

[Marla · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a second generation Norwegian, I appreciated reading a true story about Norway's actions before and during WWII.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a very interesting book, did get a bit slow and repetitive in parts