audiobook The Girl from Human Street: Ghosts of Memory in a Jewish Family by Roger Cohen in History

Review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Poignant; beautifully crafted Jewish family sagaBy Keith WheelockI found this book a page turner; beautifully written with superb research and reporting. It is impossible to grasp fully such complex; multi-layered narrative in a single reading.On one level I found it an extraordinary saga of a Jewish family's history--displacement; assimilation; prejudice; survival; and expressing human love and anguish. Cohen dwelt on lost memories and how families often kept silent about familial history. One might wonder why he dwelt so heavily on the Lithuanian heritage that he family had left and seemingly ignored generations before Cohen was born. I found this essential to the overall story of an uprooting and the resettlement principally in the pre-and-post-Boer War South AfricaThe irony was that Jewish assimilation in South Africa was accompanied by a general willingness to acknowledge acceptance of whites in a society where blacks were systematically discriminated against. More than one; even after apartheid; the theme was 'if the blacks weren't the targets of discrimination; it would be us Jews.'Cohen's extended family generally flourished in South Africa. For various reasons; many of them migrated to England; where the social structure was less accommodating to Jews. While Cohen's extended family did well in England; it experienced some discomfort in fitting into England where anti-Semitism; though less virulent than in much of Europe; was prevalent.Cohen's family history was told in vignettes; The flashbacks to Lithuania highlighted the Jewish experience from the pogroms to Hitler and Stalin and to neighbors who occasionally saved Jews as great risk; but more often participated in the Final Solution.Cohen weaved Zionism and Israel into his sweeping narrative. Some of this related to explaining his personal view that Israel must obtain some two-state solution or cease to be a democratic state.Another constant theme was the nature of his mother's manic depression. I found this; as well as vivid recollections of a South Africa he had left before age 3; rather disconcerting. I can appreciate his struggle to seek closure on this turbulent phase of his life. I wonder why Cohen dwelt at length on his Israeli cousin; Rena; whose manic depression ultimately led to suicide.How does this Jewish narrative relate to (atheist) Cohen as a person? At the outset he wrote "I have grown suspicious that all of the running around in my peripatetic life might not have been towards something but away from something. Stillness feels like the most dangerous state of all."Much later he quoted Frost: "Home is the place; when you have to go there; they have to take you in." Cohen mentioned that taking American citizenship was a liberating experience; in part because America was a nation of immigrants in which he could belong. Cohen clearly is an exceptional individual with a broad range of friends and acquaintances. I would whether Cohen feels that he truly belongs anywhere.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Deeply moving; beautifully-written and accurate account of the South African Jewish experience; across generations continentsBy eric hassallThrough the vehicle of his family stories across generations and countries; Roger Cohen has captured the South African Jewish experience; from its origins in Eastern Europe - its depth; its richness; its difficulties and struggles. But the book covers much more than this...Cohen's parents emigrate from Johannesburg to London; and his mother; June Cohen; develops a severe depressive illness. Mr Cohen postulates that that his mother's dislocation from a warm; loving family; an easy-going life in sunny privileged-under-apartheid South Africa; to grim grey post-war London; was a major contributor to the development of her depressive illness. A strong positive family history of mental illness subsequently becomes evident. In other words; he describes how June Cohen's wrenching dislocation and isolation in the UK seemed to be the catalytic precipitant factor in her illness. He describes the immediate and lasting effects her illness has on him; his sister and his father. It's a courageous and touching account.Emigration / immigration is a central theme of the book; and as Cohen points out; while the Jews who fled oppression in Eastern Europe to live in South Africa were hugely successful in the professions and business; the flip side is the price sometimes paid for leaving family; culture and familiarity. Another theme he explores is that anti-Semitism over the centuries - the pogroms; the expulsions; the need to flee; and the Holocaust - has engendered a transgenerational trauma; which often resulted in shame; silence; assimilation; denial of Jewish identity; and the precipitation of mental illness in some. Mr Cohen does not present this as a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial; rather; it's a hypothesis richly and thoughtfully illustrated.Mr Cohen perfectly captures the atmosphere of South Africa under apartheid - its spectacular natural beauty; the warmth of its climate and people; the successes of the Jews as new immigrants; and their privilege as whites. This is portrayed against the backdrop of the ugliness and brutality of apartheid and the stripped human rights of `non-whites'.In this context; the book accurately describes the particular condition of Jews in South Africa - the vulnerability they felt; despite their privilege and success. The sense of fragility stemmed from being a successful; high profile minority that was also disproportionately represented in the anti-apartheid movements; including among the lawyers and fellow travelers of Mandela and the African National Congress - in a country with many Nazi sympathizers in the government and instruments of state.The vulnerability of South African Jews and their consequent general tightness as a community; is contrasted with the situation of American Jews; who have been blessedly secure for so long. Mr Cohen also describes `to a T' the particular British brand of casual; subtle-but-pervasive anti-Semitism he encounters during his life in the UK.The book has a big vision; and it is beautifully written; with humanity and courage.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Ignore the Times reviewBy MMCohen succeeds in conveying the history of his family as it relocates from a small shtetl in Lithuania to South Africa at the turn of the century. He does so with accurate depiction of Jewish life in the new country against the background of the Afrikana control of the vast black population. Into this story he weaves; skillfully; the descriptions of family members; their personalities; foibles and differing attitudes to their new homeland.After World War II; a new chapter opens as the Cohen family leaves for England and he explains in most personal terms; his parents decision to move out of South Africa and make their home in London. His keen eye describes the personal toll suffered by his severely depressed mother and its effect on him. This is contrasted with a meteoric rise of his physician father in the British scientific community.Years later; he returns to his family's shtetl in Lithuania to research the fate of its Jews; who mostly remained there and meticulously recounts the horrors experienced at the hands of the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators.Overall; the book offers a careful historic analysis with deep understanding of the impact on Jewish family life as it tries to navigate to a better and safer world. Cohen's prose is superb making the reading a joyful literary experience. I am so happy that I listened to my wife who told me to ignore the Times review reminding me that critics not always get it right.