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Einhundert Samstage: Stella Levi und die Suche nach einer verlorenen Welt
Als Michael Frank die heute hundertjährige Stella Levi zufällig kennenlernt, nimmt eine große Geschichte ihren Anfang. Sie lädt ihn in ihr New Yorker Apartment ein, und bald wird aus den Besuchen ein An hundert Samstagen erzählt Levi dem Schriftsteller ihr Leben. Gemeinsam suchen und erkunden die beiden eine fast märchenhafte, verlorene Welt. Levi, geboren 1923, wuchs auf im jüdischen Viertel La Juderia auf der Mittelmeerinsel Rhodos – eine Kindheit und Jugend zwischen sephardischer Tradition und Moderne, inmitten einer Vielfalt von Kulturen und Sprachen zwischen Orient und Okzident. Stella eifert der Schwester Felicie nach, die Freud und Henri Bergson liest; sie selbst träumt vom Studium in Italien. Schließlich aber werden diese Welt und die Familie grausam zerrissen, und Stella Levi erzählt auch Im Herbst 1943 besetzen die Deutschen die Insel, für Levi der Anfang eines Leidenswegs, der sie bis nach Auschwitz führt. Sie überlebt – und beginnt ein ganz neues Leben in den USA. Stella Levis Geschichte ist ein faszinierendes historisches Zeugnis. Sie erzählt von einer einzigartigen Welt, die zerstört wurde – und setzt ihr zugleich ein Denkmal, das die Vielfalt und Fülle des Lebens zeigt.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 6, 2022
601 people are currently reading
13441 people want to read
About the author
Michael Frank
51 books66 followersMichael Frank’s essays, articles, and short stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Slate, The Yale Review, Salmagundi, The TLS, and Tablet, among other publications. His fiction has been presented at Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story, and his travel writing has been collected in Italy: The Best Travel Writing from The New York Times. He served as a Contributing Writer to the Los Angeles Times Book Review for nearly ten years. A recipient of a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives with his family in New York City and Liguria, Italy.
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September 23, 2022
One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World
by Michael Frank, Maira Kalman (Illustrator)
In her nineties, Stella Levi shares her story and that of her family and community, over a time span of six years. I've seen a video of her speaking and even in her late 90s, she is a vibrate, fascinating woman. As a young girl, she learned about her family and the history of her people, through the story telling of her elders. Stella learned well and she has the knack of passing on the stories told to her and the stories of what she has experienced. When Stella and Michael Frank met, they developed a friendship and came together over the next six years so Stella could tell her stories and Michael could record those stories. Included in the book, One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World, are colorful illustrations that meant more to me as I followed Stella through time and came to know her family and all that they endured, the good and the bad.
We get to know her community, on the Island of Rhodes, and then, in September 1943, the Germans seize control of the island. All 1700 Jewish residents of the island are rounded up the next July and sent to Auschwitz, Ninety percent of those 1700 people were executed on arrival at the camp. We learn of Stella's time in that camp and other camps, until she is liberated and then has to navigate a world that is missing so much of her former life, people, home, all that had been so familiar to her in her first two decades of life.
I'm touched by Stella, her memories, her extreme hardships, and her determination to make a meaningful and remarkable life that isn't defined by the horrors of her past. I'm amazed by this intelligent young lady who wanted to learn so much, to study and travel, only be one of the few to survive concentration camps. And then to come out of that time and to go on to find her place in her new world, a different person from the Stella of the Island of Rhodes or the Stella of the concentration camps. Stella had the strength to change, to adapt, to see herself as a different person, so she could go on and search for her place as a changed person in a changed world.
Pub September 6th 2022
Thank you to Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for the print version of this ARC.
by Michael Frank, Maira Kalman (Illustrator)
In her nineties, Stella Levi shares her story and that of her family and community, over a time span of six years. I've seen a video of her speaking and even in her late 90s, she is a vibrate, fascinating woman. As a young girl, she learned about her family and the history of her people, through the story telling of her elders. Stella learned well and she has the knack of passing on the stories told to her and the stories of what she has experienced. When Stella and Michael Frank met, they developed a friendship and came together over the next six years so Stella could tell her stories and Michael could record those stories. Included in the book, One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World, are colorful illustrations that meant more to me as I followed Stella through time and came to know her family and all that they endured, the good and the bad.
We get to know her community, on the Island of Rhodes, and then, in September 1943, the Germans seize control of the island. All 1700 Jewish residents of the island are rounded up the next July and sent to Auschwitz, Ninety percent of those 1700 people were executed on arrival at the camp. We learn of Stella's time in that camp and other camps, until she is liberated and then has to navigate a world that is missing so much of her former life, people, home, all that had been so familiar to her in her first two decades of life.
I'm touched by Stella, her memories, her extreme hardships, and her determination to make a meaningful and remarkable life that isn't defined by the horrors of her past. I'm amazed by this intelligent young lady who wanted to learn so much, to study and travel, only be one of the few to survive concentration camps. And then to come out of that time and to go on to find her place in her new world, a different person from the Stella of the Island of Rhodes or the Stella of the concentration camps. Stella had the strength to change, to adapt, to see herself as a different person, so she could go on and search for her place as a changed person in a changed world.
Pub September 6th 2022
Thank you to Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for the print version of this ARC.
September 6, 2022
Happy Publication Day! (September 6, 2022)
At the age of fourteen, Stella Levi, the youngest of seven children born to Miriam and Yehuda Levi, leaves a packed suitcase near the door of her family home in the Juderia, the Jewish Quarter on the Island of Rhodes. The suitcase was symbolic of her aspirations - to finish school and attend university in Italy, to travel and learn and see the world beyond her sheltered life. But life had other plans for her. Seven years later, on July 23, 1944, she is one of the 1,650 Jewish population of Rhodes who are rounded up by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz, along with her parents and immediate elder sister Renee. It was one of the longest journeys (in terms of both time and distance) of any deportation during the Holocaust. Ninety percent of her fellow Rhodeslis would not survive the concentration camps.
In 2015, author Michael Frank meets ninety-two-year-old Stella in Greenwich Village. Over a hundred Saturdays spanning six years, Stella shares her story with Mike who views Stella as “a Scheherazade, a witness, a conjurer, a time traveler” who shares her journey with him.
Stella extensively details her early life in Rhodes including the history of the Sephardic Jews- their language, customs and traditions and the way of life in the Juderia. She also talks about the changing political landscape of the region and how it impacted the lives of residents of the island- both inside and outside the Juderia. More than half of the book is devoted to Stella’s life before deportation – her family, her dreams and how life changed for her and her family with the promulgation of racial laws in 1938 and the persecution of Jews that followed. Though her family followed the news of the war on the radio (which was prohibited), they had never known about the concentration camps until they were sent to Auschwitz. Initially, she is reluctant to talk much about her experiences in the concentration camps as she does not those experiences to define her story. However, having established a level of trust with the author , she eventually gives him a glimpse into the horrific period she spent in the camps , having been shuttled from Auschwitz- Birkenau to Dachau and the satellite camps before the camps were liberated by the Allied Forces. Stella goes on to share how she rebuilt her life in the aftermath of WWII- dealing with the loss of those who perished in the camp, the difficult choices she had to make, her journey from Italy to the United States with the memories of the home she left behind and the uncertainty that lay ahead. As we follow Stella's life through the years we see how she refuses to be defined by her tragic past but chooses to live life as she sees fit- constantly reinventing herself as the situation demanded.
“Very early on, almost from the beginning, something curious happened. I detached myself from the Stella who was in Auschwitz. It was as if everything that was happening to her was happening to a different Stella, not the Stella I was, not the Stella from Rhodes, the Stella I knew. I watched this person, this other Stella, as she walked through this desert, but I was not this person.” After a moment she adds, “There was no other way.”
Michael Frank's “One Hundred Saturdays” is a well-written, moving and insightful biography. The narrative is structured in the order of the conversations he has with Stella Levi. Stella's story gives us a glimpse into the history of the former Jewish Quarter of Rhodes, Greece. Her decision to share her story largely stems from her desire to preserve the history of her community. I had no knowledge of the history of the Jewish community of Rhodes before reading this book. The descriptions of the culture and customs were both interesting and informative. Maira Kalman's beautiful full-color illustrations depicting scenes from Stella's life are a lovely addition to the narrative. Stella's story , though heartbreaking, is ultimately one of courage, survival and resilience, and commands both respect and admiration. Overall, this beautifully penned biography is an absorbing read that I would definitely recommend.
Many thanks to Avid Reader Press, Michael Frank and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
March 22, 2024
In this book, Michael Frank records Stella Levi's memories of her childhood and young years spent in the Juderia, as the main Jewish quarter on the island of Rhodes was called.
Rhodes was back then a place where different languages, such as Greek, Turkish, Hebrew, old Spanish, and Italian, coexisted and mixed.
Stella is a Holocaust survivor. Her recollections bring to life the vanished world of the Jewish community of Rhodes. The book makes us feel and smell the fabric of that society. Their traditions and cuisine, everyday life, communications between neighbors, and the beautiful nature of that small corner of the earth leap off the page.
Then their lives were interrupted. Nazism was on the rise. The island of Rhodes was governed by Italy under Mussolini. In 1938 the Italian racial laws were introduced. Their consequences were to be felt by the inhabitants of the island.
When the Germans invaded and took control of the island, all of its Jewish inhabitants were rounded up and deported. For those few who managed to survive, life would be divided into Before and After.
Stella and her family were sent to Auschwitz in 1944.
Her parents were killed immediately after they arrived at the camp. She and her sister survived. Having survived several camps, they were eventually liberated by the Allies. Levi is quite reticent about the time she spent at the Nazi camps. Probably, for that reason, a large part of the book does not deal directly with the tragic events in her life. But Frank's insistence and desire to know makes her open up and speak.
The text is accompanied by Maira Kalman's colorful illustrations. They perfectly fit the lost world of the Juderia as it was portrayed by Stella.
Stella has not allowed her traumatic past to define her life and her identity. The joy and sorrow have both been present in her long life. And this is reflected in the stories she chooses to tell.
Some thoughts on history, memory, and life stood out to me. I will give just a few examples.
I’ve never said this before to anyone, but when you arrive at a certain age, you’re no longer afraid of being ridiculous.
It’s not how one dies that’s important but how one lives.
Memory is not history; it is one individual human being’s grasp, in an individual moment, of what she has lived, and this book is offered with this understanding and in this spirit.
This book reminds us once again how big politics can affect the lives of ordinary people and how harrowing and nuclear the scale of this influence can be.
Rhodes was back then a place where different languages, such as Greek, Turkish, Hebrew, old Spanish, and Italian, coexisted and mixed.
Stella is a Holocaust survivor. Her recollections bring to life the vanished world of the Jewish community of Rhodes. The book makes us feel and smell the fabric of that society. Their traditions and cuisine, everyday life, communications between neighbors, and the beautiful nature of that small corner of the earth leap off the page.
Then their lives were interrupted. Nazism was on the rise. The island of Rhodes was governed by Italy under Mussolini. In 1938 the Italian racial laws were introduced. Their consequences were to be felt by the inhabitants of the island.
When the Germans invaded and took control of the island, all of its Jewish inhabitants were rounded up and deported. For those few who managed to survive, life would be divided into Before and After.
Stella and her family were sent to Auschwitz in 1944.
Her parents were killed immediately after they arrived at the camp. She and her sister survived. Having survived several camps, they were eventually liberated by the Allies. Levi is quite reticent about the time she spent at the Nazi camps. Probably, for that reason, a large part of the book does not deal directly with the tragic events in her life. But Frank's insistence and desire to know makes her open up and speak.
The text is accompanied by Maira Kalman's colorful illustrations. They perfectly fit the lost world of the Juderia as it was portrayed by Stella.
Stella has not allowed her traumatic past to define her life and her identity. The joy and sorrow have both been present in her long life. And this is reflected in the stories she chooses to tell.
Some thoughts on history, memory, and life stood out to me. I will give just a few examples.
I’ve never said this before to anyone, but when you arrive at a certain age, you’re no longer afraid of being ridiculous.
It’s not how one dies that’s important but how one lives.
Memory is not history; it is one individual human being’s grasp, in an individual moment, of what she has lived, and this book is offered with this understanding and in this spirit.
This book reminds us once again how big politics can affect the lives of ordinary people and how harrowing and nuclear the scale of this influence can be.
February 10, 2023
Stella Levi — 100 years old this year! — is a Judeo-Spanish-speaking Sephardic Italian Jew from the (now Greek) island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea.
Truly the antithesis of the “little old lady,” Stella is the last born and last living of seven children.
Over a span of six years, Stella and Michael Frank met in her Greenwich Village apartment where she regaled him with stories of her youth in the vibrant close-knit Juderia — smelling of “jasmine and rosemary, lavender and roses and rue” — living in peaceful camaraderie yet separate from their Turkish and Greek neighbors.
One Hundred Saturdays paints a picture of a very distinct Jewish culture and community of people who, sadly, we will never hear from.
In 1943 the Germans seized Rhodes from the Italians and the following year deported the 1,650 members of the Juderia to Auschwitz, where 90 percent (including her parents, aunts, and uncles) were immediately murdered.
Stella spent nine months in Auschwitz and three other concentration camps before being liberated in 1945 by the Americans.
A lost world of rituals and customs — like whitewashing all homes, inside and out, each year before Passover — are preserved in the memories captured within these pages.
Survivor, wife, mother, grandmother, and now storyteller, Stella Levi shares the stories that have sustained and nourished her throughout her long life and we readers are certainly the richer for them.
Truly the antithesis of the “little old lady,” Stella is the last born and last living of seven children.
Over a span of six years, Stella and Michael Frank met in her Greenwich Village apartment where she regaled him with stories of her youth in the vibrant close-knit Juderia — smelling of “jasmine and rosemary, lavender and roses and rue” — living in peaceful camaraderie yet separate from their Turkish and Greek neighbors.
One Hundred Saturdays paints a picture of a very distinct Jewish culture and community of people who, sadly, we will never hear from.
In 1943 the Germans seized Rhodes from the Italians and the following year deported the 1,650 members of the Juderia to Auschwitz, where 90 percent (including her parents, aunts, and uncles) were immediately murdered.
Stella spent nine months in Auschwitz and three other concentration camps before being liberated in 1945 by the Americans.
A lost world of rituals and customs — like whitewashing all homes, inside and out, each year before Passover — are preserved in the memories captured within these pages.
Survivor, wife, mother, grandmother, and now storyteller, Stella Levi shares the stories that have sustained and nourished her throughout her long life and we readers are certainly the richer for them.
August 23, 2022
“Knowing is remembering. Reading is remembering. Naming is remembering.”
(Michael Frank)
This is an important book, certainly because it’s about the Holocaust and it is imperative that we bear witness to what happened to 6 million Jews during WWII and to not forget so it doesn’t happen again. It’s also important because it is the story of a Holocaust survivor and now that it has been over 75 years since the war was over and the liberation of Auschwitz, there are fewer survivors left to tell their stories. We need to hear their voices . I also found it interesting because it tells the story of a group of Jews from Rhodes, occupied by Italy and then Germany, now a Greek Island, a place I knew nothing about, and how over 1600 Jews, nearly every Jew on the island, were deported and sent to Auschwitz in 1944. I’m always amazed at how much there is to learn about that war .
Stella Levi ,now in her late nineties , tells her memories to Michael Frank who writes about her life. Reflecting on her life before the camp was a good way to help me reflect on the horrors that did occur and to remember that this happened to ordinary people who happened to be Jewish just living their lives. While this part of the story wasn’t very exciting perhaps, I found it interesting to read of the culture, the rituals, the day to day life and when it is compared to the horrific life in the camps and the loss of lives depicted in the last third of the book, this life on the island before the deportation is a beautiful thing .
I can’t say that the telling of Stella’s story was perfect. There were times when I would have preferred to hear more of Stella’s own words from their conversations rather than the author telling the story. Having said that, it was a worthy read learning about an amazing woman of courage and I’m grateful that Michael Frank has told her story and the story of those Jews from Rhodes who were murdered at Auschwitz. I did find Stella in her own words here in this YouTube clip and some others . I loved hearing her voice.
https://youtu.be/fS6L5N5oiwE
I received a copy of this book from Simon & Schuster through Edelweiss.
September 25, 2022
I know that technically I'm reviewing the book and not Stella's experiences, but it's hard for me to separate the two. I feel as if I'm rating her life. Doesn't quite feel right. There is no way I can read anything on the Holocaust and not wonder how people can be so inhumane. Almost an entire country looked away and let it happen. Maybe a warning we here in the states need to take to heart
Reading about Stella and her family, the Jewish population in Rhodes, the closeness, their lives, was so interesting. Makes what happens afterwards even more heartbreaking, if that's even possible. She didn't want to talk about her life in the camps, but at nearly 100, and due to the authors continuing interest, she eventually does so. She was in many camps, many of which I had never heard. I found a commonality, besides the horrors evidenced, between Stella's experience and those of Frankel and Primo Levy's experiences in camps. At wars end when the Americans were making their way liberating camps, a very ill Frankel and Levy, lives were saved because they were in the camps infirmary. Stella's was saved because though ill, she was sent away from the infirmary. The next day, all those in the infirmary were killed. Fate or luck if one can even use that word.
Reading about Stella and her family, the Jewish population in Rhodes, the closeness, their lives, was so interesting. Makes what happens afterwards even more heartbreaking, if that's even possible. She didn't want to talk about her life in the camps, but at nearly 100, and due to the authors continuing interest, she eventually does so. She was in many camps, many of which I had never heard. I found a commonality, besides the horrors evidenced, between Stella's experience and those of Frankel and Primo Levy's experiences in camps. At wars end when the Americans were making their way liberating camps, a very ill Frankel and Levy, lives were saved because they were in the camps infirmary. Stella's was saved because though ill, she was sent away from the infirmary. The next day, all those in the infirmary were killed. Fate or luck if one can even use that word.
September 15, 2022
Having first been introduced to this novel from Angela on Goodreads—(thank you Angela), I knew I wanted to read this book.
Clearly….I wasn’t expecting perfection — (it’s not) — but it’s an important book worth reading.
The U.S. Atlantic Times recently reported that the U.S. Holocaust Survivors dipped to 50,000. The youngest survivors are now in their 70’s. More than one-third are estimated to live below the poverty line.
Think about that—that means around 18,000 - 70 year- old Holocaust survivors are ‘still’ struggling (poverty isn’t exactly what I’d call quality living).
So….
although I’ve read more than my share of Holocaust stories — both fiction and non-fiction (I generally prefer ‘non-fiction’ when it comes to the forgotten Jews, the horrors, and memorial reflections), this was a story I didn’t want to miss. (also non-fiction).
The question I sat with was….
“Who wouldn’t be interested to hear what ANY ‘ninety-nine-year-old’ has to share about their life—let a alone Holocaust survivor?” I certainly can’t be so arrogant (even in our - ha- advance age of modern technology and our advance-educations to think I DON’T have things to learn from 90 year olds…(excuse me: 99)…I MOST DEFINITELY DO!
So….
in the similar spirit — that Mitch Albom met with Morrie Schwartz weekly (on Tuesday’s: 14 Tuesdays to be exact) before writing “Tuesday’s with Morrie”, ……a book that teaches lessons about regret, emotions, family, forgiveness, death, marriage, money, fear of aging, etc…….
author Michael Frank met with Stella Levi, in her Greenwich Village apartment, for 100 Saturday’s over the course of six years, (Stella was hoping Michael might help her with her grammar, and English writing ….(of course he said yes)…..
And….
Guess what?….
this book also teaches lessons about regret, emotions, family, forgiveness, death, marriage, money, fear of aging, etc…..!!!
Stella Levi was a Judeo-Spanish-speaking Sephardic Italian Jew from the island of Rhodes (an island in the eastern Aegean), when she first arrived in Auschwitz. She didn’t speak Yiddish, German, or Polish. She ‘did’ speak French……(a language-that saved her life because they needed translators)….
There were seven siblings in Stella’s family. She was the youngest — and last to survive.
Stella’s stories chronicles the experiences of her parents, grandparents, siblings, and ancestors.
…..We learn about the worse moments—‘horrors’—over a three week period….traveling by boat, then train to Auschwitz—weeks of unbearable conditions (1700 hundred Jews were ordered to travel to Auschwitz), where 90 percent were murdered before arrival. (of those 90% were her parents, and other family members).
…..We also learn more intimate things — growing up on a gorgeous island - about her parents - grandparents- siblings friends….and all of ‘their’ stories which were passed down to Stella….
I enjoyed hearing about the personality differences between she and Renee, the sister she was closest in age. Stella was the curious, bold, determined ‘with-strong-opinions’, sister.
The feisty passionate reader, 14-year old Stella had a suitcase packed ready to flee…travel and see the world. We witness her bigness at an early age.
There was a lot of yummy cooking in Stella’s family…..
unique complicated desserts too: with figs, apples, and apricots…Stella’s mom made delicious sounding pastries… or candies from the fruit.
Stella said…..
“desserts were taken so seriously in our family, it’s surprising that none of us had diabetes”.
Other notes of interest — besides the devastations of war
….were family superstitions…gossiping, trips to the Turkish Bath houses (I’ve been myself- they were heavenly), stories of attending synagogue (the anchor of their lives)….
and we got an experience of a ‘time’ when the Jews, Italians, Greeks, and Turks lived peacefully with each other ….until the German’s seized control in 1943.
So….
with a mixture of devastating history— a remarkable woman who never wanted to be thought of as a victim—and a wonderful compassionate author — we - as readers —are active spectators in hearing these stories while also witnessing a beautiful friendship between Stella and Michael. (many thanks go to Michael).
These FOUND — LOST STORIES — give me feelings of belonging - and honoring my ‘tribe’.
Sure, there were parts less interesting, than others parts …but overall ….I ask again….
….how can we not be interested in hearing from a 99 year woman who survived one of the most devastating times in history?/!
A life that stretches and stretches….
Stella piercingly claims our hearts.
About 3.5 to a 3.7 rating - rating up to 4 stars
Clearly….I wasn’t expecting perfection — (it’s not) — but it’s an important book worth reading.
The U.S. Atlantic Times recently reported that the U.S. Holocaust Survivors dipped to 50,000. The youngest survivors are now in their 70’s. More than one-third are estimated to live below the poverty line.
Think about that—that means around 18,000 - 70 year- old Holocaust survivors are ‘still’ struggling (poverty isn’t exactly what I’d call quality living).
So….
although I’ve read more than my share of Holocaust stories — both fiction and non-fiction (I generally prefer ‘non-fiction’ when it comes to the forgotten Jews, the horrors, and memorial reflections), this was a story I didn’t want to miss. (also non-fiction).
The question I sat with was….
“Who wouldn’t be interested to hear what ANY ‘ninety-nine-year-old’ has to share about their life—let a alone Holocaust survivor?” I certainly can’t be so arrogant (even in our - ha- advance age of modern technology and our advance-educations to think I DON’T have things to learn from 90 year olds…(excuse me: 99)…I MOST DEFINITELY DO!
So….
in the similar spirit — that Mitch Albom met with Morrie Schwartz weekly (on Tuesday’s: 14 Tuesdays to be exact) before writing “Tuesday’s with Morrie”, ……a book that teaches lessons about regret, emotions, family, forgiveness, death, marriage, money, fear of aging, etc…….
author Michael Frank met with Stella Levi, in her Greenwich Village apartment, for 100 Saturday’s over the course of six years, (Stella was hoping Michael might help her with her grammar, and English writing ….(of course he said yes)…..
And….
Guess what?….
this book also teaches lessons about regret, emotions, family, forgiveness, death, marriage, money, fear of aging, etc…..!!!
Stella Levi was a Judeo-Spanish-speaking Sephardic Italian Jew from the island of Rhodes (an island in the eastern Aegean), when she first arrived in Auschwitz. She didn’t speak Yiddish, German, or Polish. She ‘did’ speak French……(a language-that saved her life because they needed translators)….
There were seven siblings in Stella’s family. She was the youngest — and last to survive.
Stella’s stories chronicles the experiences of her parents, grandparents, siblings, and ancestors.
…..We learn about the worse moments—‘horrors’—over a three week period….traveling by boat, then train to Auschwitz—weeks of unbearable conditions (1700 hundred Jews were ordered to travel to Auschwitz), where 90 percent were murdered before arrival. (of those 90% were her parents, and other family members).
…..We also learn more intimate things — growing up on a gorgeous island - about her parents - grandparents- siblings friends….and all of ‘their’ stories which were passed down to Stella….
I enjoyed hearing about the personality differences between she and Renee, the sister she was closest in age. Stella was the curious, bold, determined ‘with-strong-opinions’, sister.
The feisty passionate reader, 14-year old Stella had a suitcase packed ready to flee…travel and see the world. We witness her bigness at an early age.
There was a lot of yummy cooking in Stella’s family…..
unique complicated desserts too: with figs, apples, and apricots…Stella’s mom made delicious sounding pastries… or candies from the fruit.
Stella said…..
“desserts were taken so seriously in our family, it’s surprising that none of us had diabetes”.
Other notes of interest — besides the devastations of war
….were family superstitions…gossiping, trips to the Turkish Bath houses (I’ve been myself- they were heavenly), stories of attending synagogue (the anchor of their lives)….
and we got an experience of a ‘time’ when the Jews, Italians, Greeks, and Turks lived peacefully with each other ….until the German’s seized control in 1943.
So….
with a mixture of devastating history— a remarkable woman who never wanted to be thought of as a victim—and a wonderful compassionate author — we - as readers —are active spectators in hearing these stories while also witnessing a beautiful friendship between Stella and Michael. (many thanks go to Michael).
These FOUND — LOST STORIES — give me feelings of belonging - and honoring my ‘tribe’.
Sure, there were parts less interesting, than others parts …but overall ….I ask again….
….how can we not be interested in hearing from a 99 year woman who survived one of the most devastating times in history?/!
A life that stretches and stretches….
Stella piercingly claims our hearts.
About 3.5 to a 3.7 rating - rating up to 4 stars
December 30, 2022
Moving!
Sephardic Jews first came to the Greek island of Rhodes after their expulsion from Spain at the end of the 15th century. They formed a vibrant community and, for 500 years, lived amicably with the Greeks, Turks, and later the Italians. Then, on July 24,1944, the 1650 Jews of Rhodes were transported to Auschwitz, and just 155 survived. Seventy-one years later, writer Michael Frank encountered one of the survivors, Stella Levi, age 92, at a lecture in New York City. She agreed to share her memories, and over the next six years, they met regularly for one hundred Saturdays at her Greenwich Village apartment. In his book, One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World, Frank incorporates her story with historical research to create a moving account of the Jews of Rhodes and paint a vivid portrait of a spirited, resilient woman.
Stella Levi was born in 1923, the seventh and youngest child of Miriam and Yehuda Levi, a businessman who, with his Turkish partner, supplied wood and coal to the local islands. The Levis lived in the Juderia, a twelve-square-block neighborhood inside a walled city. The Sephardic Jews brought their traditions, food, folkways, and language, Judeo-Spanish, to Rhodes. A system of folk medicine with cures for physical and psychological problems co-existed with modern medicine. Consequently, someone suffering from migraines could receive a traditional treatment (head wrapped in cloth filled with thinly sliced lemons or potatoes) or visit a trained physician or a pharmacy. Frank describes the folkways and traditions with humor and compassion and paints vivid pictures of the world of Stella's grandparents and parents.
However, this traditional lifestyle began to change when the Italians, who acquired Rhodes after the first World War, began solidifying their power in the 1920s. They sought to "Europeanize" Rhodes, closing the Turkish Bazaar and slicing off minarets. They also brought electricity, running water, paved roads, and introduced the Italian education system. All of Stella's classes were conducted in Italian, and because she was an excellent student, she was admitted to the selective girls' Catholic High School outside the Juderia. At first, she was enamored of all things Italian. Always a bit of a bohemian, she dreamed of attending University in Italy and, at 14, packed a bag in anticipation. However, the rise of the fascists and the racial laws of 1938 changed this. Stella was no longer allowed to attend school, and when the Germans took over military command of the island, she took her first journey off the island to Auschwitz.
Stella was hesitant to discuss this time of her life, and here Frank's skill as a writer comes to the fore as he allows the reader to experience the gradual nature of her opening and reflections on this period. By focusing on this painful time, she can reflect and connect its impact on her life. Frank chronicles her post-Holocaust journey, marriage, divorce, and career in the import /export business. In addition, he describes her return trips to Rhodes and her work to build a memorial to its Jewish inhabitants and a museum of the Juderia.
Stella is introspective in nature and a keen observer of the human condition. Frank is a gifted writer, researcher, and astute listener. Their unique collaboration works to preserve the lost world of the Juderia with humanity and dignity. Maira Kalman's beautiful artwork enhances the reader's understanding. It is a remarkable book.
Sephardic Jews first came to the Greek island of Rhodes after their expulsion from Spain at the end of the 15th century. They formed a vibrant community and, for 500 years, lived amicably with the Greeks, Turks, and later the Italians. Then, on July 24,1944, the 1650 Jews of Rhodes were transported to Auschwitz, and just 155 survived. Seventy-one years later, writer Michael Frank encountered one of the survivors, Stella Levi, age 92, at a lecture in New York City. She agreed to share her memories, and over the next six years, they met regularly for one hundred Saturdays at her Greenwich Village apartment. In his book, One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World, Frank incorporates her story with historical research to create a moving account of the Jews of Rhodes and paint a vivid portrait of a spirited, resilient woman.
Stella Levi was born in 1923, the seventh and youngest child of Miriam and Yehuda Levi, a businessman who, with his Turkish partner, supplied wood and coal to the local islands. The Levis lived in the Juderia, a twelve-square-block neighborhood inside a walled city. The Sephardic Jews brought their traditions, food, folkways, and language, Judeo-Spanish, to Rhodes. A system of folk medicine with cures for physical and psychological problems co-existed with modern medicine. Consequently, someone suffering from migraines could receive a traditional treatment (head wrapped in cloth filled with thinly sliced lemons or potatoes) or visit a trained physician or a pharmacy. Frank describes the folkways and traditions with humor and compassion and paints vivid pictures of the world of Stella's grandparents and parents.
However, this traditional lifestyle began to change when the Italians, who acquired Rhodes after the first World War, began solidifying their power in the 1920s. They sought to "Europeanize" Rhodes, closing the Turkish Bazaar and slicing off minarets. They also brought electricity, running water, paved roads, and introduced the Italian education system. All of Stella's classes were conducted in Italian, and because she was an excellent student, she was admitted to the selective girls' Catholic High School outside the Juderia. At first, she was enamored of all things Italian. Always a bit of a bohemian, she dreamed of attending University in Italy and, at 14, packed a bag in anticipation. However, the rise of the fascists and the racial laws of 1938 changed this. Stella was no longer allowed to attend school, and when the Germans took over military command of the island, she took her first journey off the island to Auschwitz.
Stella was hesitant to discuss this time of her life, and here Frank's skill as a writer comes to the fore as he allows the reader to experience the gradual nature of her opening and reflections on this period. By focusing on this painful time, she can reflect and connect its impact on her life. Frank chronicles her post-Holocaust journey, marriage, divorce, and career in the import /export business. In addition, he describes her return trips to Rhodes and her work to build a memorial to its Jewish inhabitants and a museum of the Juderia.
Stella is introspective in nature and a keen observer of the human condition. Frank is a gifted writer, researcher, and astute listener. Their unique collaboration works to preserve the lost world of the Juderia with humanity and dignity. Maira Kalman's beautiful artwork enhances the reader's understanding. It is a remarkable book.
November 6, 2022
I read a hardcover edition and enjoyed reading a “real” book. I’ve been reading a lot of e-editions. I bring only paper books with me when I’m out and about and I like being able to always have a book with me.
This is a good addition to Holocaust literature. I particularly appreciated Stella’s description of how and why women often fared better than men throughout the ordeal.
My favorite parts though were learning about life on Rhodes before the deportation.
There were parts of the story that took place in NYC that I also found fascinating.
The part of the story that is about the camps was relatively brief but for me offered some details new to me, even though I’ve read many Holocaust books.
I applaud the inclusion of all sorts of memories during the various times and settings and how all sorts of emotions were felt, humor included.
Stella annoyed me when she was cryptic and in interviews instead of answering would say that is for another day, something that occurred a lot but I guess it’s the author I’m irked with because he could have just written what she did actually tell him vs. including what she said she wouldn’t tell him or wouldn’t tell him yet.
Stella has had an interesting life and in many ways was a remarkable girl and is a remarkable woman but I think I might have enjoyed this book more if its focus had not been on only/mostly Stella. If it had been written about the Jews of Rhodes and what had happened to all of them perhaps I’d have found the narrative more compelling. That said, hearing this story from one person’s point of view had its advantages.
“I do believe that as we travel through life we become a different person in every situation, or context, or phase.”
A useful selected bibliography is included in the back of the book.
3-1/2 stars
This is a good addition to Holocaust literature. I particularly appreciated Stella’s description of how and why women often fared better than men throughout the ordeal.
My favorite parts though were learning about life on Rhodes before the deportation.
There were parts of the story that took place in NYC that I also found fascinating.
The part of the story that is about the camps was relatively brief but for me offered some details new to me, even though I’ve read many Holocaust books.
I applaud the inclusion of all sorts of memories during the various times and settings and how all sorts of emotions were felt, humor included.
Stella annoyed me when she was cryptic and in interviews instead of answering would say that is for another day, something that occurred a lot but I guess it’s the author I’m irked with because he could have just written what she did actually tell him vs. including what she said she wouldn’t tell him or wouldn’t tell him yet.
Stella has had an interesting life and in many ways was a remarkable girl and is a remarkable woman but I think I might have enjoyed this book more if its focus had not been on only/mostly Stella. If it had been written about the Jews of Rhodes and what had happened to all of them perhaps I’d have found the narrative more compelling. That said, hearing this story from one person’s point of view had its advantages.
“I do believe that as we travel through life we become a different person in every situation, or context, or phase.”
A useful selected bibliography is included in the back of the book.
3-1/2 stars
August 20, 2022
3 stars - Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free copy to review. Publishes September 6, 2022.
This book is the life story of Stella Levi - a Jewish girl - who lived through World War II in Europe, doing her time in Auschwitz's death camp. The book is unique in the way it is written. Stella told her life story to Michael Frank over 100 Saturdays starting in 2015, when she was in her ninety's.
She reminisced about her home island of Rhodes and how peaceful and ideal that part of Europe was. Then in her teen years the invasion of Italy and following the German take over and life under Mussolini's rule. She stressed how naive they all were in ignoring their danger - living as Jewish - and not thinking that they would be harmed. By 1938 Judism was being extinguished, and her island paradise was targeted.
Stella followed up with her time in the German prison camps, the day to day struggle and how she coped and how she was moved around to many camps, ending up in Allach - a lessor known camp - and her release by American troops.
I cannot deny I had to keep reminding myself that this was nonfiction - the true account of someone's life. There were places in the story that I felt were pretty dry, but I hoped that the information being given was in preparation of other parts of her story. It is hard to rate a biography. Who am I to say whether or not the way a person sees their own life is worthy of a book? In this case Stella definitely suffered a great harmful experience and had the strength to go through it. But was it told in the most expert way? Pick it up and read the book, you tell me...
This book is the life story of Stella Levi - a Jewish girl - who lived through World War II in Europe, doing her time in Auschwitz's death camp. The book is unique in the way it is written. Stella told her life story to Michael Frank over 100 Saturdays starting in 2015, when she was in her ninety's.
She reminisced about her home island of Rhodes and how peaceful and ideal that part of Europe was. Then in her teen years the invasion of Italy and following the German take over and life under Mussolini's rule. She stressed how naive they all were in ignoring their danger - living as Jewish - and not thinking that they would be harmed. By 1938 Judism was being extinguished, and her island paradise was targeted.
Stella followed up with her time in the German prison camps, the day to day struggle and how she coped and how she was moved around to many camps, ending up in Allach - a lessor known camp - and her release by American troops.
I cannot deny I had to keep reminding myself that this was nonfiction - the true account of someone's life. There were places in the story that I felt were pretty dry, but I hoped that the information being given was in preparation of other parts of her story. It is hard to rate a biography. Who am I to say whether or not the way a person sees their own life is worthy of a book? In this case Stella definitely suffered a great harmful experience and had the strength to go through it. But was it told in the most expert way? Pick it up and read the book, you tell me...
August 20, 2022
Nope. This did not work at all for me. Giving it one extra star for Stella Levi's life that was so terribly archived by Michael Frank. Told over 100 Saturdays, Stella slowly reveals her traumatic past, growing up in a Juderia on the island of Rhodes, who was shipped off to Auschwitz along with 1,650 other Jews from her island.
This was so boring up until the part that would break any person open. I wish someone else captured this story in a way that made more sense. I think Michael inserted himself onto Stella's story too much and took away from the powerful woman behind this book.
Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review.
This was so boring up until the part that would break any person open. I wish someone else captured this story in a way that made more sense. I think Michael inserted himself onto Stella's story too much and took away from the powerful woman behind this book.
Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review.
July 26, 2022
Ever since I read Dara Horn's collection of essays, People Love Dead Jews, I have been on the look-out for books that highlight how Jews lived, not just how they died. And when a book does depict the Jewish experience before and during World War II, I want it to include rich descriptions of Judaism, Jewish practice, and Jewish culture. Well, this new book fits the bill perfectly. One Hundred Saturdays is the remarkable story of ninety-nine-year-old Stella Levi whose conversations with the writer Michael Frank bring to life the vibrant world of the Jewish community on the Greek island of Rhodes, the deportation to Auschwitz that extinguished ninety percent of them, and the resilience and wisdom of the woman (one of the last Jewish survivors) who lived to tell the tale. Full-color gouache paintings by Maira Kalman beautifully depict Stella’s life with her family and friends. One Hundred Saturdays was the 2022 recipient of the Jewish Book Council’s Natan Notable Book Award this past spring.
March 30, 2024
I am not going to be able to convey what makes this book so special, so unique among all the Holocaust literature I've read. Michael Frank met Stella Levi by accident at a lecture at NYU’s Casa Italiana. It was an encounter like countless others that surely happen everyday in Manhattan, but this one led to something extraordinary. Over a period of 100 Saturdays -- 6 years -- Michael Frank met with Stella Levi to listen to her talk about her life.
Or not quite ‘listen to her talk,’ for Stella was at first a very reluctant chronicler of her life. It took a long time for her to trust Michael enough to begin to open up. In fact, even after 6 years there were many moneys when he could see her holding back. Not willing to share, perhaps. Or not willing to look back.
Stella Levi is (as I write this at the end of March 2024 she is still alive) 99 years old. She was born on the Greek island of Rhodes. For the first years of her life she lived in La Juderia, a tiny Sephardic Jewish community on the island. It was not a ghetto — Jews lived elsewhere on the island — but this was the heart of Rhodes Judaism. It was a place where traditions and songs and family connections that went back hundreds of years persisted, vital and alive — stories, superstitions, remedies, religious practices, customs — but where modernity was also making itself known. Over the years some people left Rhodes to go to Italy or America, Palestine or Africa, to see the world, seek different ways of living. Others stayed and lived their lives... until they no longer could.
On July 23, 1944, the Juderia ceased to exist. The men, women, and children -- some 1,700 people, a vanishingly small number, given that by that time the Germans knew they were losing the war -- were all deported by the Nazis. They were taken first to an SS-operated transit camp on mainland Greece and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
"One Hundred Saturdays" is a powerfully moving chronicle of the conversations Levi and Frank had. Slowly, as her trust in Frank grew, Stella began to talk: about her youth, her family (immediate and extended) — she lived with and those who moved elsewhere — the streets she wandered, the open doors and windows she passed through which the scents of cooking wafted, the friends she went to school and beach with, the teachers she had, the conversations about art and philosophy that lasted into the night, the cultural mores. About life under Italian and then German rule. And then about the awful days-long ride in a cattle car that took them to a place in Poland they’d never heard of before. About loss, survival, kindness and cruelty, liberation, returning to the world.
What makes “One Hundred Saturdays” is hard to describe because the manner of its unfolding is so unique and vivid. Ms Levi’s life story is, of course, extraordinary in its own right. But like Michael Frank, we learn the details over time. A small part of her life here, an anecdote, a bit of background about this part of the family, that neighbor, then a little more next week or the week after. Or the week after that. La Juderia, the one that no longer exists, is brought to life as Stella recalls it to her interlocutor. For his part, Frank learns when to ask a question in the hope of getting her to elaborate and when to remain silent.
I listened to the audio version of the book. It was narrated (very well, as it happens) by the author, but from time to time we hear Stella herself — singing a snippet of a song, giving voice to what she is feeling. Experiencing "One Hundred Saturdays” this way gives it an immediacy that reading words on a page likely could not. Hearing the words spoken rather than seeing them as letters on a page was powerful. But I gather that the printed edition has features an audio version cannot — watercolor depictions of, well, I’m not certain what because I’ve seen only a few of them: street scenes, pictures of daily life. I remember seeing the book jacket when "One Hundred Saturdays” first came out. The picture on the cover was clearly Mediterranean, bright and sunlit, the sky clear and blue. I took the book to be something whimsical: a love story, perhaps, or something like Lawrence Durrell might have written. So I paid it no attention. I don’t recall now what brought it back to my attention — something here on Goodreads maybe? — but I’m very glad I looked into it this time.
Or not quite ‘listen to her talk,’ for Stella was at first a very reluctant chronicler of her life. It took a long time for her to trust Michael enough to begin to open up. In fact, even after 6 years there were many moneys when he could see her holding back. Not willing to share, perhaps. Or not willing to look back.
Stella Levi is (as I write this at the end of March 2024 she is still alive) 99 years old. She was born on the Greek island of Rhodes. For the first years of her life she lived in La Juderia, a tiny Sephardic Jewish community on the island. It was not a ghetto — Jews lived elsewhere on the island — but this was the heart of Rhodes Judaism. It was a place where traditions and songs and family connections that went back hundreds of years persisted, vital and alive — stories, superstitions, remedies, religious practices, customs — but where modernity was also making itself known. Over the years some people left Rhodes to go to Italy or America, Palestine or Africa, to see the world, seek different ways of living. Others stayed and lived their lives... until they no longer could.
On July 23, 1944, the Juderia ceased to exist. The men, women, and children -- some 1,700 people, a vanishingly small number, given that by that time the Germans knew they were losing the war -- were all deported by the Nazis. They were taken first to an SS-operated transit camp on mainland Greece and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
"One Hundred Saturdays" is a powerfully moving chronicle of the conversations Levi and Frank had. Slowly, as her trust in Frank grew, Stella began to talk: about her youth, her family (immediate and extended) — she lived with and those who moved elsewhere — the streets she wandered, the open doors and windows she passed through which the scents of cooking wafted, the friends she went to school and beach with, the teachers she had, the conversations about art and philosophy that lasted into the night, the cultural mores. About life under Italian and then German rule. And then about the awful days-long ride in a cattle car that took them to a place in Poland they’d never heard of before. About loss, survival, kindness and cruelty, liberation, returning to the world.
What makes “One Hundred Saturdays” is hard to describe because the manner of its unfolding is so unique and vivid. Ms Levi’s life story is, of course, extraordinary in its own right. But like Michael Frank, we learn the details over time. A small part of her life here, an anecdote, a bit of background about this part of the family, that neighbor, then a little more next week or the week after. Or the week after that. La Juderia, the one that no longer exists, is brought to life as Stella recalls it to her interlocutor. For his part, Frank learns when to ask a question in the hope of getting her to elaborate and when to remain silent.
I listened to the audio version of the book. It was narrated (very well, as it happens) by the author, but from time to time we hear Stella herself — singing a snippet of a song, giving voice to what she is feeling. Experiencing "One Hundred Saturdays” this way gives it an immediacy that reading words on a page likely could not. Hearing the words spoken rather than seeing them as letters on a page was powerful. But I gather that the printed edition has features an audio version cannot — watercolor depictions of, well, I’m not certain what because I’ve seen only a few of them: street scenes, pictures of daily life. I remember seeing the book jacket when "One Hundred Saturdays” first came out. The picture on the cover was clearly Mediterranean, bright and sunlit, the sky clear and blue. I took the book to be something whimsical: a love story, perhaps, or something like Lawrence Durrell might have written. So I paid it no attention. I don’t recall now what brought it back to my attention — something here on Goodreads maybe? — but I’m very glad I looked into it this time.
August 10, 2022
The time to hear the survivors of Shoah is fast dwindling. Soon, there will be no new stories to record. So, a big shout out to Frank, who met the 99 year old Holocaust survivor from Rhodes,Stella Levi, and produced an all too familiar glimpse of the horrors and displacement in her life. Stella grew up on the island of Rhodes in a district where Judea-Spanish speaking Sephardic Italian Jews lived. When Frank met Stella in 2015, over 100 Saturdays and 6 years, he spells out her life history to the best of her recollections. The cultural and historical information about Rhodes was fascinating and I loved learning about old customs and the closeness of community and family. However, in 1944 the Jews of Rhodes were rounded up by the Germans and in 3.5 weeks they arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Having read a great deal of prisoners' experiences at the camps, I did not find that her experience added to the breadth of what I was familiar with. From there Frank goes on to describe her passage to Landsberg, the Camp with No Name, Allah, Bolzano, Modena ,Bologna, Florence and finally the United States. I had really wanted to like this book but the writing felt somewhat staid and stale. Rather than an engaging story it felt like a straight chronicle from reporter to subject. Tons of names were mentioned that became quite confusing as one continued in the book. All told though, it was an enlightening picture of a stubborn, gutsy and independent lady whose story needs to be shared.
Thank you to the publisher, Edelweiss and Net Galley for an ARC in return for an honest review.
Thank you to the publisher, Edelweiss and Net Galley for an ARC in return for an honest review.
September 4, 2022
A beautiful and compelling biography/memoir told by Michael Frank about Stella Levi. Over 6 years he met with Stella each Saturday and listened as she told her story. It is rich with history. I learned so much. I enjoyed the beginning in which she described the culture, traditions, and life in Juderia, a Jewish neighborhood in Rhodes.
When the Germans seized and then rounded up over 1700 residents of Juderia, the story takes a dark turn as she recalls the scary, heartbreaking, and unimaginable deportation to Auschwitz and eventual time in various camps.
Stella is a courageous and honest woman. A Holocaust survivor. This is an important story to read. "Knowing is remembering. Reading is remembering. Naming is remembering." - Michael Frank. It's more than about her time in the deportation camps, it's about how life was hard even after the liberation. How the entire Jewish community of Juderia was extinguished (most were murdered upon their arrival in Auschwitz).
This story offered a perspective different than others. It shows how the racial laws affected Stella all her life. It shows the affect this hatred had on her and the Jewish community even afterwards. How other countries helped with the deportation of their own citizens. She has so many legitimate questions. She wanted to tell her story and share the world she came from, the world in which she was forced into, and how she built her life in the end. Telling her story seemed to also help her heal and discover things about herself as well.
My favorite quote:
"You don't need to believe to be a Jew. You are a Jew because you are born into a tradition. But whether you believe in God, it's important to remember a simple thing: no one idea about God is better than another. In the end we are all similar, everyone with differences and defects. What's essential is to value humanity." -Stella.
She wants us to know how unnecessary it is to hate others.
Thank you Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for the gifted ARC.
When the Germans seized and then rounded up over 1700 residents of Juderia, the story takes a dark turn as she recalls the scary, heartbreaking, and unimaginable deportation to Auschwitz and eventual time in various camps.
Stella is a courageous and honest woman. A Holocaust survivor. This is an important story to read. "Knowing is remembering. Reading is remembering. Naming is remembering." - Michael Frank. It's more than about her time in the deportation camps, it's about how life was hard even after the liberation. How the entire Jewish community of Juderia was extinguished (most were murdered upon their arrival in Auschwitz).
This story offered a perspective different than others. It shows how the racial laws affected Stella all her life. It shows the affect this hatred had on her and the Jewish community even afterwards. How other countries helped with the deportation of their own citizens. She has so many legitimate questions. She wanted to tell her story and share the world she came from, the world in which she was forced into, and how she built her life in the end. Telling her story seemed to also help her heal and discover things about herself as well.
My favorite quote:
"You don't need to believe to be a Jew. You are a Jew because you are born into a tradition. But whether you believe in God, it's important to remember a simple thing: no one idea about God is better than another. In the end we are all similar, everyone with differences and defects. What's essential is to value humanity." -Stella.
She wants us to know how unnecessary it is to hate others.
Thank you Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for the gifted ARC.
March 19, 2024
Subtitle: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World
In February, 2015 Michael Frank attended a lecture, where he had a brief conversation with an elegant elderly woman. The next morning, he received a call from the woman who had organized the lecture. Stella Levi, she told him, had enjoyed meeting him and wondered if he would be willing to help with a bit of writing she had done. Stella was not a native English speaker and wanted to ensure her piece was accurately written. Thus began a series of meetings over one hundred Saturdays and six years, as Stella told her story to Frank.
This is a marvelous tale of a very strong woman. She was a strong girl and teenager when growing up in the Juderia in Rhodes, and she was a strong young woman when she was “evacuated” to Auschwitz. She survived the camps, by using her intelligence and being prepared and willing to do what was necessary to stay alive. She managed to get to the United States where some of her relatives had gone before World War II. And she found her own path here as well.
Her memories, as related by Frank, and forthright and clear. She shows great courage in recalling and reliving some of these episodes in her life. She also shows her strength of character. But make no mistake, her experiences during the Holocaust did NOT define her. She did not forget or forgive, but rather she focused on moving forward. Stella made herself into the woman she always wanted to be and ensured that she LIVED her life.
In February, 2015 Michael Frank attended a lecture, where he had a brief conversation with an elegant elderly woman. The next morning, he received a call from the woman who had organized the lecture. Stella Levi, she told him, had enjoyed meeting him and wondered if he would be willing to help with a bit of writing she had done. Stella was not a native English speaker and wanted to ensure her piece was accurately written. Thus began a series of meetings over one hundred Saturdays and six years, as Stella told her story to Frank.
This is a marvelous tale of a very strong woman. She was a strong girl and teenager when growing up in the Juderia in Rhodes, and she was a strong young woman when she was “evacuated” to Auschwitz. She survived the camps, by using her intelligence and being prepared and willing to do what was necessary to stay alive. She managed to get to the United States where some of her relatives had gone before World War II. And she found her own path here as well.
Her memories, as related by Frank, and forthright and clear. She shows great courage in recalling and reliving some of these episodes in her life. She also shows her strength of character. But make no mistake, her experiences during the Holocaust did NOT define her. She did not forget or forgive, but rather she focused on moving forward. Stella made herself into the woman she always wanted to be and ensured that she LIVED her life.
November 15, 2022
This was an exquisite biography of Stella Levi, who grew up in an old Jewish community in Rhodes, was deported to Auschwitz in 1944, and then found a way to live out her very long life with the incredible losses she endured. Every story like this is so very unique, but the world that is painted by Stella of a world gone now is just beautiful.
September 4, 2022
I felt a deep emotional connection as I finished this book, to Stella Levi whose story is told by the author and the loss of the Jewish community of Juderia on Rhodes Island which constitutes the main points of the story. La Juderia, the Jewish community in Rhodes had been flourishing for around 500 years up until the 1,650 Jews were transported to Auschwitz in July 1944, only two months before the liberation of Greece by the Allied forces. The absurdity of the situation still confused Stella to this day, on why the Germans decided to transport a faraway Jewish community as they were losing the war, with limited resources and time that could be utilised to fight the war instead. Why did they go so much trouble transporting them to Auschwitz at the end of the war? Yet despite its absurdity, it was also a decision which marked the end of a Jewish community in Rhodes. Juderia would no longer be the same after the war. Around 90 per cent of the 1,650 rounded Jews would perish during and after being transported to Auschwitz.
Stella’s stories, as recounted in this book, are divided into 100 chapters, following the one hundred Saturdays in the course of six years that the author spent with Stella. Saturday, as happens, is also Judaism’s day of rest on the seventh day of the week – the Shabbat. I could easily imagine Stella conversing with Michael inside her house, relaxing after a week of working (or doing other activities), as Stella recounted her stories. Each chapter is short and only takes around 2-5 minutes to read. Stella’s stories are relaxing, without compromising their significance. The first one-third of the stories recount the twenty years of life that Stella lived in Juderia up until 1944, with much emphasis on the practices and customs of the Jewish community there, whereas the latter would focus on the experience inside concentration camps and her postwar life in the United States.
Many topics are mentioned, but most notably language and identity have a special place in the story. The Jews in Juderia spoke a language called Judeo-Spanish, an ancient form of Castillian Spanish mixed with words from Hebrew, Turkish, Greek, French, and Italian. It was written using cursive characters called “solitreo”, while also incorporating Hebrew and Latin characters. Yet Stella grew up in a Juderia that was changing. Up until 1912, Rhodes Island was part of the Ottoman Empire, before Italian troops landed and overtook the Dodecanese Islands, of which Rhodes is the largest island. With the arrival of the Italians, modernities came with electricity and running water, as well as different opportunities for education. French, and later Italian, gained importance as the languages of education for Stella and her sisters who studied at Alliance Israélite Universelle school and later at schools administered by the Italian government. The Juderian Jews of her generation also grew up differently from their parent's generation. Stella and some of her sisters would grow up to be nonbelievers, not going to the synagogue on Shabbat as their parents did, yet there will always be some recurring features of their identity as Jews even after they live in places far from Juderia of their youth.
Everything changed after the racial laws against the Jews were introduced in 1938. Stella lost the right to obtain education and the persecution against the Jewish community of Juderia quickly got followed by displacement after their internment at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Dislocation, relocation, confusion about where home was, and what home was are recurring themes in the story. Life inside the camps, and out of them, are two different matters. I have read several different books by Holocaust survivors recounting their experiences living inside concentration camps, most notably, Viktor E. Frankl, Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel, and there are recurring features in their stories. Stella described it as though there were different Stellas in each stage of her life. The Stella who lived in Rhodes, the Stella inside the concentration camp, and also the current Stella are all different persons who approached life differently. It was necessary for them to approach the absurdity of their situation by detaching it from the rules of the external world.
But more than a recounting of the history of the Jewish community in Rhodes and experience living in concentration camps, this book is also an inquiry into what constitutes humanity. Stella’s conversations with Michael during their one hundred Saturdays together also question the meaning of life and human conditions. There are things that only seem clearer as we arrive at a certain age in life. I find myself asking again about Hannah Arendt’s assessment of what drove Europe into anti-semitism, to which she described the crumbling of European empires in the early 20th century and the loss of status of the Jews as the financiers of European monarchs. Yet the Jews in Juderia had been living in a place far remote from the main theatre of European conflicts, in which they lived for over 500 years following their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula to avoid the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. Up until July 1944, they always regarded the anti-semitism of Europe as an outside phenomenon, far remote from the daily life of the Rhodeslis. Life is often absurd, and so was the situation the Jewish community in Juderia experienced with their near-annihilation at the almost end of the war. Stella’s stories are also about coming to terms with the fluidity of life, its absurdity, and the loneliness that often accompanies us in its long journey when we don’t feel at home in one particular place or in one particular culture.
More into the Deportation of the Jews from Rhodes: https://youtu.be/3VSJkzHNgu8
Reviewed from an electronic advance reader copy made available by the publisher through NetGalley.
Stella’s stories, as recounted in this book, are divided into 100 chapters, following the one hundred Saturdays in the course of six years that the author spent with Stella. Saturday, as happens, is also Judaism’s day of rest on the seventh day of the week – the Shabbat. I could easily imagine Stella conversing with Michael inside her house, relaxing after a week of working (or doing other activities), as Stella recounted her stories. Each chapter is short and only takes around 2-5 minutes to read. Stella’s stories are relaxing, without compromising their significance. The first one-third of the stories recount the twenty years of life that Stella lived in Juderia up until 1944, with much emphasis on the practices and customs of the Jewish community there, whereas the latter would focus on the experience inside concentration camps and her postwar life in the United States.
Many topics are mentioned, but most notably language and identity have a special place in the story. The Jews in Juderia spoke a language called Judeo-Spanish, an ancient form of Castillian Spanish mixed with words from Hebrew, Turkish, Greek, French, and Italian. It was written using cursive characters called “solitreo”, while also incorporating Hebrew and Latin characters. Yet Stella grew up in a Juderia that was changing. Up until 1912, Rhodes Island was part of the Ottoman Empire, before Italian troops landed and overtook the Dodecanese Islands, of which Rhodes is the largest island. With the arrival of the Italians, modernities came with electricity and running water, as well as different opportunities for education. French, and later Italian, gained importance as the languages of education for Stella and her sisters who studied at Alliance Israélite Universelle school and later at schools administered by the Italian government. The Juderian Jews of her generation also grew up differently from their parent's generation. Stella and some of her sisters would grow up to be nonbelievers, not going to the synagogue on Shabbat as their parents did, yet there will always be some recurring features of their identity as Jews even after they live in places far from Juderia of their youth.
Everything changed after the racial laws against the Jews were introduced in 1938. Stella lost the right to obtain education and the persecution against the Jewish community of Juderia quickly got followed by displacement after their internment at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Dislocation, relocation, confusion about where home was, and what home was are recurring themes in the story. Life inside the camps, and out of them, are two different matters. I have read several different books by Holocaust survivors recounting their experiences living inside concentration camps, most notably, Viktor E. Frankl, Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel, and there are recurring features in their stories. Stella described it as though there were different Stellas in each stage of her life. The Stella who lived in Rhodes, the Stella inside the concentration camp, and also the current Stella are all different persons who approached life differently. It was necessary for them to approach the absurdity of their situation by detaching it from the rules of the external world.
But more than a recounting of the history of the Jewish community in Rhodes and experience living in concentration camps, this book is also an inquiry into what constitutes humanity. Stella’s conversations with Michael during their one hundred Saturdays together also question the meaning of life and human conditions. There are things that only seem clearer as we arrive at a certain age in life. I find myself asking again about Hannah Arendt’s assessment of what drove Europe into anti-semitism, to which she described the crumbling of European empires in the early 20th century and the loss of status of the Jews as the financiers of European monarchs. Yet the Jews in Juderia had been living in a place far remote from the main theatre of European conflicts, in which they lived for over 500 years following their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula to avoid the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. Up until July 1944, they always regarded the anti-semitism of Europe as an outside phenomenon, far remote from the daily life of the Rhodeslis. Life is often absurd, and so was the situation the Jewish community in Juderia experienced with their near-annihilation at the almost end of the war. Stella’s stories are also about coming to terms with the fluidity of life, its absurdity, and the loneliness that often accompanies us in its long journey when we don’t feel at home in one particular place or in one particular culture.
More into the Deportation of the Jews from Rhodes: https://youtu.be/3VSJkzHNgu8
Reviewed from an electronic advance reader copy made available by the publisher through NetGalley.
September 13, 2022
Never underestimate the power of friendship at any stage in life.
With nearly a century of life behind her, Stella Levi had never before spoken in detail about her past. Then she met Michael Frank. He came to her Greenwich Village apartment one Saturday afternoon to ask her a question about the Juderia, the neighborhood in Rhodes where she'd grown up in a Jewish community that had thrived there for half a millennium.
Stella Levi, one of the last remaining Holocaust survivors from the vanished Sephardic community of Juderia on the Greek island of Rhodes.
The remarkable story of ninety-nine-year-old Stella Levi whose conversations with the writer Michael Frank over the course of six years (100 Saturdays)
bring to life the vibrant world of Jewish Rhodes, the deportation to Auschwitz that extinguished ninety percent of her community, and the resilience and wisdom of the woman who lived to tell the tale.
With nearly a century of life behind her, Stella Levi had never before spoken in detail about her past. Then she met Michael Frank. He came to her Greenwich Village apartment one Saturday afternoon to ask her a question about the Juderia, the neighborhood in Rhodes where she'd grown up in a Jewish community that had thrived there for half a millennium.
Stella Levi, one of the last remaining Holocaust survivors from the vanished Sephardic community of Juderia on the Greek island of Rhodes.
The remarkable story of ninety-nine-year-old Stella Levi whose conversations with the writer Michael Frank over the course of six years (100 Saturdays)
bring to life the vibrant world of Jewish Rhodes, the deportation to Auschwitz that extinguished ninety percent of her community, and the resilience and wisdom of the woman who lived to tell the tale.
July 7, 2022
Writer Michael Franks spent 100 Saturdays interviewing Stella Levi, a 98-year old holocaust survivor who lived an idyllic life in the Jewish sector of Juderia, on the Island of Rhodes . . . until 1944 when nearly every Jew was deported to the German camps. This is Stella's captivating storytelling of her life before, during, and after her encampment. Maira Kalman's iconic illustrations provide colorful images of the quaint island life that Stella reverently remembers and mourns for.
February 15, 2023
Ok, confession time, the book is good, but if you want to actually HEAR the voice of the woman whose story this is, get the audio book. When the author is discussing the songs Stella and her friends/family sang at different parts of the book, the current Stella SINGS them and it is really powerful, at least for this listener.
I didn't mean to listen to three Holocaust memoirs in a row, it just kind of happened that way. In this one, Stella mentioned a "Magda" who at Auschwitz was one of the imprisoned Jews made to be a leader of the barracks by the Nazis. I listened to "The Nazis Knew My Name", by a Magda and I have to wonder if it was the same person. The world is small, but in this instance, it was made regrettably smaller by evil and not by coincidence.
That aside, what made this Holocaust memoir stand out to me was the fact that Stella talks about her life in Rhodes and the way of life there for the majority of the book. It's not all the horrors she lived through after she and her entire community were deported. That makes what happened to them that much more horrible to the reader/listener, because you get a feel for the people, the community, their human-ness that the Nazis tried to strip from them, that they succeeded at.
Stella admits that her home and way of life wouldn't have lasted forever, it was a dying way of life, with the young moving out and the old ways falling out of favor for the "new", as is always the case, but the death of her home and people was greatly accelerated, in the most horrible way possible.
This was in the vein of "Tuesdays with Morrie", where the author interviewed Stella over the course of 100 Saturdays through six years. He is the one who narrates the book, with snippets of Stella, usually singing or speaking in another language, which is really great to hear. I love how we get to hear her voice, if only here and there. It emphasizes her humanity, that this isn't a history story, it's the story of a human being.
I'm glad that she told her story to the author and that he put it all together. With the generation who lived through and experienced WWII passing on, the stories of what they went through need to be shared and learned from by the following generations. Unfortunately, I don't think we will ever as a species not hurt one another. Genocide is alive and well (again, looking at you Communist Party in China), but we need the stories to at least have the CHANCE to learn and get better. Or to at least recognize when it is happening again.
I've said it before and I'll keep on saying it. Be the candle in the darkness, light the other candles around you. Share the stories and do what you can. Even one life saved is worth it.
5, I'm glad that I listened to this, stars.
My thanks to NetGalley, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, libro.fm and Simon & Schuster Audio for an eARC copy and audio book to read/listen to and review.
I didn't mean to listen to three Holocaust memoirs in a row, it just kind of happened that way. In this one, Stella mentioned a "Magda" who at Auschwitz was one of the imprisoned Jews made to be a leader of the barracks by the Nazis. I listened to "The Nazis Knew My Name", by a Magda and I have to wonder if it was the same person. The world is small, but in this instance, it was made regrettably smaller by evil and not by coincidence.
That aside, what made this Holocaust memoir stand out to me was the fact that Stella talks about her life in Rhodes and the way of life there for the majority of the book. It's not all the horrors she lived through after she and her entire community were deported. That makes what happened to them that much more horrible to the reader/listener, because you get a feel for the people, the community, their human-ness that the Nazis tried to strip from them, that they succeeded at.
Stella admits that her home and way of life wouldn't have lasted forever, it was a dying way of life, with the young moving out and the old ways falling out of favor for the "new", as is always the case, but the death of her home and people was greatly accelerated, in the most horrible way possible.
This was in the vein of "Tuesdays with Morrie", where the author interviewed Stella over the course of 100 Saturdays through six years. He is the one who narrates the book, with snippets of Stella, usually singing or speaking in another language, which is really great to hear. I love how we get to hear her voice, if only here and there. It emphasizes her humanity, that this isn't a history story, it's the story of a human being.
I'm glad that she told her story to the author and that he put it all together. With the generation who lived through and experienced WWII passing on, the stories of what they went through need to be shared and learned from by the following generations. Unfortunately, I don't think we will ever as a species not hurt one another. Genocide is alive and well (again, looking at you Communist Party in China), but we need the stories to at least have the CHANCE to learn and get better. Or to at least recognize when it is happening again.
I've said it before and I'll keep on saying it. Be the candle in the darkness, light the other candles around you. Share the stories and do what you can. Even one life saved is worth it.
5, I'm glad that I listened to this, stars.
My thanks to NetGalley, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, libro.fm and Simon & Schuster Audio for an eARC copy and audio book to read/listen to and review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 30, 2022
One Hundred Saturdays, In Search of a Lost World, Michael Frank
This book had a profound effect on me, although I have read hundreds of other books about this barbaric period of history. I had neither known about the history of Rhodes, nor was I aware of the Juderia, a community of Jews that lived there, Jews that wound up there as they historically fled persecution from other countries of the world, persecution that was and is unfathomable, but was apparently, unstoppable. They lived there in relative peace; Muslims heard their call to prayer; Jews, went to Synagogue. The children that qualified, attended schools run by the Church. It was a place where they enjoyed following their customs and traditions and maintained their culture.
After a series of interviews between Michael Frank and Stella Levi, that took place over a period of more than six years, beginning in 2015, this book was born,. Michael Frank has unearthed and written about the previously little known life of Stella Levi, and with it, the history of Juderia, her home on the island of Rhodes, an island that had survived under the rule of leaders from several countries, and like Rhodes, Stella’s life was also multifaceted, a result of her upbringing, her tragic experiences during World War II, and her future life as she went from country to country in order to find a home, a home that would accept her, and one in which she would find comfort. Whether that marriage of desires was completely fulfilled will be left to the reader to determine. Stella, may not be certain, even at the age of 99, if America was the correct choice. Of what she is certain, however, is that love, in its many forms is the thing that sustained her and still does.
I have not read another approach like this one, that exposes the way in which an entire community reacted to the barbarism of the Nazis. The story is touching and heartbreaking because they were so naïve. At first, when Mussolini allied with Hitler, the effect on their community was minimal, although Stella’s father’s business was taken from him, as a result. Gradually, after Germany took over, the racial laws became more oppressive, and still, no one rebelled. They merely accepted what was happening because they believed it would soon be over. When schools were closed, a secret school run by professors and clergy, appeared for some. Others did not want to participate. It seemed that the oppression was so subtle, at first, so gradual as to go unnoticed, and was disbelieved, questioned, until it was far too late to resist.
The Jews had enjoyed their lives, their culture, their customs, and their traditions, and they continued to enjoy their lives in their small enclave of Juderia, worshiping their G-d, attending services, singing and dancing in their courtyards, and generally continuing to communicate with and to help each other in times of need. Their Synagogue, family, and friends were the center of their universe. Some children rebelled and wanted more, but many simply continued to live as they had throughout history. We Jews, both Ashkenazi and Sephardic, still observe many of the same customs. We serve eggs after funerals, put out bowls of water at the door, rent clothes as we mourn, refrain from sitting on furniture in mourning, view all Jews as a part of our community. It is a birthright, period.
When the status quo came to an end, they were unprepared and still very much naïve, believing they were being gathered together to be sent to another place to live temporarily. No one there could have imagined the fate that awaited them. Some were saved from the Nazi’s ultimate end game by serendipity, some by nationality, some by sheer luck and courage. Most, were not saved. Many were murdered. Survivors did not wish to return to Rhodes, the place where it all began for them. However, it began for the rest of the world, elsewhere, and the book will inspire deep thought into our current way of life and force us to study the question, could it happen again?
As this remarkable book described the life of a young woman from the early 1900s until the present day, as I witnessed what she had to live through, the choices she had to make, and was amazed by her courage, independence and wisdom, as they shone bright throughout the telling of her story, I wondered why the conversation about the Holocaust often makes it about a choice between those who believed in Communism and those who believed in Fascism? Both are undesirable extremes at either end of the spectrum of evil. Surely there must be a middle choice we can all agree upon.
As communication was curtailed by their government, as opposition and speech was silenced, as the news from only one point of view was presented, and as people who disagreed were disrespected, diminished and mocked, increasingly unable to defend themselves, the world descended into madness. Is it really impossible to believe another Holocaust is impossible, as we witness events in our current world today. Are we as resilient, are we as supportive of each other, is there even a common culture to support to help us survive? We have all been scarred by our history, but how we deal with our scars will determine whether or not the world will succumb to tyranny or peace.
As the Jews were removed from society, bit by bit, so the Republicans are now being removed, silenced and forbidden to participate in life, by the very same people who think that they are the virtuous ones. Is history repeating itself today with politics rather than religion? As there was little resistance from the Jews, during the Holocaust, so difficult was the end result to imagine, we see little resistance from the Republicans as they naively believe this will end with cooler minds in charge. It is not happening, however, as the Democrats continue to perpetuate hate and division with deceitful behavior which is denied by a complicit “state” media.
Although in Rhodes and elsewhere, many were proud to join underground organizations to fight the tyranny of the leadership, today they are shamed and maligned for fighting back against this heinous cancel culture, not different from the racial laws of Hitler. How different are the policies of the brown and black shirts from the policies of the “green” shirts of today? As are schools and our employment choices are being closed to certain people, under the pretense of inclusion, but are really the opposite, exclusionary, how do they really differ from the Nuremberg Laws enacted in 1935? When property is taken from one to give to another, how different is it from forgiving student debt? Will the masses continue to remain impassive because of personal benefit?
I implore everyone to look in the mirror and hope that the person looking back is not guilty of the same shameful behavior of the National Socialists as they slowly but surely attempted to (and almost succeeded), wipe out an entire nationality because no one could believe it could actually happen. If the same naivete exists today, as one political party attempts to do that to another, are we doomed to repeat history?
I loved this book. I loved it for its history, its humanity, its courage, and its honesty, but I loved it more for the warning it sent to me. If half the country is silenced by the other half, can our country survive? As the Jews were removed from society, bit by bit, so the democrats are trying to do that to the Republicans. Although this was not the intent of the author, this is an important message I gleaned from the book. As love, in its various forms, sustained Stella, how can we restore mutual love and respect in America, before it is too late? We must not let history repeat itself.
This book had a profound effect on me, although I have read hundreds of other books about this barbaric period of history. I had neither known about the history of Rhodes, nor was I aware of the Juderia, a community of Jews that lived there, Jews that wound up there as they historically fled persecution from other countries of the world, persecution that was and is unfathomable, but was apparently, unstoppable. They lived there in relative peace; Muslims heard their call to prayer; Jews, went to Synagogue. The children that qualified, attended schools run by the Church. It was a place where they enjoyed following their customs and traditions and maintained their culture.
After a series of interviews between Michael Frank and Stella Levi, that took place over a period of more than six years, beginning in 2015, this book was born,. Michael Frank has unearthed and written about the previously little known life of Stella Levi, and with it, the history of Juderia, her home on the island of Rhodes, an island that had survived under the rule of leaders from several countries, and like Rhodes, Stella’s life was also multifaceted, a result of her upbringing, her tragic experiences during World War II, and her future life as she went from country to country in order to find a home, a home that would accept her, and one in which she would find comfort. Whether that marriage of desires was completely fulfilled will be left to the reader to determine. Stella, may not be certain, even at the age of 99, if America was the correct choice. Of what she is certain, however, is that love, in its many forms is the thing that sustained her and still does.
I have not read another approach like this one, that exposes the way in which an entire community reacted to the barbarism of the Nazis. The story is touching and heartbreaking because they were so naïve. At first, when Mussolini allied with Hitler, the effect on their community was minimal, although Stella’s father’s business was taken from him, as a result. Gradually, after Germany took over, the racial laws became more oppressive, and still, no one rebelled. They merely accepted what was happening because they believed it would soon be over. When schools were closed, a secret school run by professors and clergy, appeared for some. Others did not want to participate. It seemed that the oppression was so subtle, at first, so gradual as to go unnoticed, and was disbelieved, questioned, until it was far too late to resist.
The Jews had enjoyed their lives, their culture, their customs, and their traditions, and they continued to enjoy their lives in their small enclave of Juderia, worshiping their G-d, attending services, singing and dancing in their courtyards, and generally continuing to communicate with and to help each other in times of need. Their Synagogue, family, and friends were the center of their universe. Some children rebelled and wanted more, but many simply continued to live as they had throughout history. We Jews, both Ashkenazi and Sephardic, still observe many of the same customs. We serve eggs after funerals, put out bowls of water at the door, rent clothes as we mourn, refrain from sitting on furniture in mourning, view all Jews as a part of our community. It is a birthright, period.
When the status quo came to an end, they were unprepared and still very much naïve, believing they were being gathered together to be sent to another place to live temporarily. No one there could have imagined the fate that awaited them. Some were saved from the Nazi’s ultimate end game by serendipity, some by nationality, some by sheer luck and courage. Most, were not saved. Many were murdered. Survivors did not wish to return to Rhodes, the place where it all began for them. However, it began for the rest of the world, elsewhere, and the book will inspire deep thought into our current way of life and force us to study the question, could it happen again?
As this remarkable book described the life of a young woman from the early 1900s until the present day, as I witnessed what she had to live through, the choices she had to make, and was amazed by her courage, independence and wisdom, as they shone bright throughout the telling of her story, I wondered why the conversation about the Holocaust often makes it about a choice between those who believed in Communism and those who believed in Fascism? Both are undesirable extremes at either end of the spectrum of evil. Surely there must be a middle choice we can all agree upon.
As communication was curtailed by their government, as opposition and speech was silenced, as the news from only one point of view was presented, and as people who disagreed were disrespected, diminished and mocked, increasingly unable to defend themselves, the world descended into madness. Is it really impossible to believe another Holocaust is impossible, as we witness events in our current world today. Are we as resilient, are we as supportive of each other, is there even a common culture to support to help us survive? We have all been scarred by our history, but how we deal with our scars will determine whether or not the world will succumb to tyranny or peace.
As the Jews were removed from society, bit by bit, so the Republicans are now being removed, silenced and forbidden to participate in life, by the very same people who think that they are the virtuous ones. Is history repeating itself today with politics rather than religion? As there was little resistance from the Jews, during the Holocaust, so difficult was the end result to imagine, we see little resistance from the Republicans as they naively believe this will end with cooler minds in charge. It is not happening, however, as the Democrats continue to perpetuate hate and division with deceitful behavior which is denied by a complicit “state” media.
Although in Rhodes and elsewhere, many were proud to join underground organizations to fight the tyranny of the leadership, today they are shamed and maligned for fighting back against this heinous cancel culture, not different from the racial laws of Hitler. How different are the policies of the brown and black shirts from the policies of the “green” shirts of today? As are schools and our employment choices are being closed to certain people, under the pretense of inclusion, but are really the opposite, exclusionary, how do they really differ from the Nuremberg Laws enacted in 1935? When property is taken from one to give to another, how different is it from forgiving student debt? Will the masses continue to remain impassive because of personal benefit?
I implore everyone to look in the mirror and hope that the person looking back is not guilty of the same shameful behavior of the National Socialists as they slowly but surely attempted to (and almost succeeded), wipe out an entire nationality because no one could believe it could actually happen. If the same naivete exists today, as one political party attempts to do that to another, are we doomed to repeat history?
I loved this book. I loved it for its history, its humanity, its courage, and its honesty, but I loved it more for the warning it sent to me. If half the country is silenced by the other half, can our country survive? As the Jews were removed from society, bit by bit, so the democrats are trying to do that to the Republicans. Although this was not the intent of the author, this is an important message I gleaned from the book. As love, in its various forms, sustained Stella, how can we restore mutual love and respect in America, before it is too late? We must not let history repeat itself.
July 2, 2022
https://wendyreadit.wordpress.com/202...
This paragraph towards the end of the story sums up the book: 'You don't need to believe to be a Jew. You are a Jew because you are born into a tradition. But whether you believe in God , it's important to remember a simple thing: no one idea about God is better than another. In the end, we are all similar, everyone with differences and defects. What's essential is to value humanity.' While the story itself, about the life of Stella Levi, reads like a documentary, an interview with Stella and is quite dry at times, I did learn some things I did not know. I had never heard of the island of Rhodes before and thus, did not know what happened to the island's Jews during WW2 and learned a lot about its history. I liked the trust the author, Michael Frank, built with Stella as she told her story even though the people, places and names just blurred together. #simonandschuster Sept 2022 Pub Date
This paragraph towards the end of the story sums up the book: 'You don't need to believe to be a Jew. You are a Jew because you are born into a tradition. But whether you believe in God , it's important to remember a simple thing: no one idea about God is better than another. In the end, we are all similar, everyone with differences and defects. What's essential is to value humanity.' While the story itself, about the life of Stella Levi, reads like a documentary, an interview with Stella and is quite dry at times, I did learn some things I did not know. I had never heard of the island of Rhodes before and thus, did not know what happened to the island's Jews during WW2 and learned a lot about its history. I liked the trust the author, Michael Frank, built with Stella as she told her story even though the people, places and names just blurred together. #simonandschuster Sept 2022 Pub Date
August 10, 2022
Stella Levi, in her 90s, recalls and describes in amazing detail what Jewish life was like in the Judería of Rhodes. The Jews of Rhodes, a centuries-old community, had their own unique culture that centered on Jewish traditions handed down through the centuries. This close-knit community came to an end in July 1944 when the Nazis deported almost the entire extant Jewish population of Rhodes (over 1,650 people) to Auschwitz. Fewer than 200 survived; none returned to Rhodes, a decimated community. In One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World, Stella memorializes a lost way of life. A fascinating read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
June 18, 2022
This is a beautiful and compelling book filled with brilliantly arranged fascinating details. Also it's the biography of a Jewish New Yorker who was born in the Island of Rhodes and who has lived a very long life, part of which was experiencing the Holocaust in a concentration camp, so it has some brutally hard, heartbreaking, infuriating parts. Overall, it gave me great joy.
(NB: I read an advanced reading copy of this book, sent to me by the publisher.)
(NB: I read an advanced reading copy of this book, sent to me by the publisher.)
September 6, 2022
Probably one of the most important books I’ve read in years. Stella Levi was born in the Jewish quarter of Rhodes in a community that had existed for over 500 years. In 1944 the Germans aided by the Italians deported the entire community of 1600 people to Auschwitz. Stella refuses to be identified as a victim or as a hero, she was in her mind simply a survivor. By reading this book you will discover she is so much more.
December 21, 2022
A remarkable telling of the life of Stella Levi growing up on the island of Rhodes and the deportation of their entire Jewish population to Auschwitz when Stella was a young girl.
Michael Frank lends us an intimate view of an independent survivor with continual curiosity in her long and fascinating life.
Kudos to Michael Frank and Stella Levi for this notable book.
Michael Frank lends us an intimate view of an independent survivor with continual curiosity in her long and fascinating life.
Kudos to Michael Frank and Stella Levi for this notable book.
September 16, 2023
i feel bad rating this as such given it’s traumatic makeup
about deportation of the Jewish community in Rhodes to Auschwitz..it feels like i’m rating this woman’s experience which is NOT what i’m doing but i’m rating how the author chose to convey it.
i think this woman is amazing and her story should be heard (thought it’s not what she wants to be defined as.. she turned 100 this year and was the youngest in her family and the only one currently alive!!
incredible story though i feel like the author didn’t do her justice, like he should have given more of her personal words and thoughts but instead he was re working it himself and i feel like he was putting his own touch on things he didn’t even experience himself. i hate to say i was bored and read this super slowly until it got to the topic of deportation which was advertised as the whole book but wasn’t discussed until halfway thru the book and wasn’t spoken ab for too long…also feel like this guy pulled it out of her.
it ended way better than started and gave a great perspective on friendships and relationships and what they do to and for a person. oh also the author was weirdly obsessed with her intimate/romantic relationships which was like what did that even have to do with her personal importance? she even said like why should u know? anyway she reflects on what it means to be independent and how a person not alone can feel lonely and i wish i got to hear more of her wisdom in the book
about deportation of the Jewish community in Rhodes to Auschwitz..it feels like i’m rating this woman’s experience which is NOT what i’m doing but i’m rating how the author chose to convey it.
i think this woman is amazing and her story should be heard (thought it’s not what she wants to be defined as.. she turned 100 this year and was the youngest in her family and the only one currently alive!!
incredible story though i feel like the author didn’t do her justice, like he should have given more of her personal words and thoughts but instead he was re working it himself and i feel like he was putting his own touch on things he didn’t even experience himself. i hate to say i was bored and read this super slowly until it got to the topic of deportation which was advertised as the whole book but wasn’t discussed until halfway thru the book and wasn’t spoken ab for too long…also feel like this guy pulled it out of her.
it ended way better than started and gave a great perspective on friendships and relationships and what they do to and for a person. oh also the author was weirdly obsessed with her intimate/romantic relationships which was like what did that even have to do with her personal importance? she even said like why should u know? anyway she reflects on what it means to be independent and how a person not alone can feel lonely and i wish i got to hear more of her wisdom in the book
March 24, 2022
One of the best biographies I have ever read! I doubt any reader will fail to be charmed by the story that Frank unravels over six years of Saturdays spent with Stella Levi. Stella herself is a strong role model of survival and, though she might not agree, heart. Her story deserves to be read widely. This was my first introduction to Rhodes and the old Jewish quarter. Stella Levi's descriptions of the Juderia and her childhood there are vivid and descriptive. Her description of her time at Auschwitz was gently and patiently extracted from her memories by Frank and include very concrete details that adds to our knowledge of the Holocaust.
On an entirely different note, I wish that every teenager who complains about going to school could read this book and appreciate the value of an education--especially to those who were denied.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this biography.
On an entirely different note, I wish that every teenager who complains about going to school could read this book and appreciate the value of an education--especially to those who were denied.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this biography.
June 3, 2022
What might be called historical research was the author meeting with Stella Levi in her home in Brooklyn, NY for 100 Saturdays to learn and document her long life of nearly 100 years. Documenting her life included the destruction of the culture she was born into and her sadness and triumphs in the ensuing years. This book is a celebration of one woman's life as well as that of a way of life now long gone. It also celebrates her determination to get an education after it was denied by Mussolini's rules. In the summer of 1944 every single Jew on the island of Rhodes was summarily transported to a camp in Poland. Eventually she was able to leave Europe and met her brother for the very first time in Los Angeles. It simply not the place for her, so she moved to NYC and began a whole new and different life there. L'chaim!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster via NetGalley. Thank you!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster via NetGalley. Thank you!
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