Book Review – Wolf: A Story of Hate by Zeev Scheinwald and Ella Scheinwald (5 stars)

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Title: Wolf: A Story of Hate

Author: Zeev Scheinwald and Ella Scheinwald

Published: 5^th of May 2020 – Amsterdam Publishers

Format: Kindle Edition – 258 pages

“I stayed alive to remind the world about what they did to us and what they are still trying to do. I am a walking memorial to those who were assassinated. This is my revenge. The revenge of my brothers and sisters, my mother and my father, my whole family who is not here anymore.” – Wolf: A Story of Hate

Hello Hello! How are you today?

I haven’t posted on my blog for quite a few days as I haven’t been feeling the best and have had a lot to do, but I finally sat down and finished this book this morning! This is the second book I was sent for review by Liesbeth from Amsterdam Publishers and so far I’ve been really surprised by just how different each book is that I’ve read from them.

Thank you so much to Liesbeth for sending me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

AMAZON SYNOPSIS

The true story of a young Jewish man imprisoned in corporate-owned labour camps during WWII. His name is Wolf. He was caught up in the most vicious and disgraceful mass slaughter of people in history.

His experiences during the Holocaust are relevant today, resonating with decent human beings who are concerned about morally corrupt leaders and their admiring masses, which, together with self-serving corporations, can orchestrate tragedies against their own populations.

Imagine Wolf’s story was your story. The story of your child, parent, friend, loved one. How would you cope knowing you are hostage to a government and manufacturing firms rallying to destroy you?

Millions fell victim to political extremism and corporate greed and indifference. Alliances between political fanaticism and financial interests can quickly plunge societies into an abyss of exploitation and genocide. These alliances, if left unchecked, can once again create well-oiled machines of human destruction, where governments, corporations, and followers choose hate over kindness, murder over empathy, torture over love. This is where hate led humanity, and where it can take us again if we are not vigilant.

MY REVIEW

Wolf: A Story of Hate by Zeev Scheinwald and Ella Scheinwald is a nonfiction Holocaust memoir about a young man’s journey from the start of the war to the end and the consequences it had on his life. This book is very unique in that it details everything that happened to Wolf/Zeev in the Skarzysko labour camp, and others that have been forgotten about or hidden up after the end of WWII.

Since starting to read books published by Amsterdam Publishers, I’ve come to realise that even though I have done a lot of research into this period of history and have read a lot of books about it, there is still so much we don’t know, and so much that has been forgotten or covered up.

This book is very hard to read and even though I’ve read a lot of books about and in the backdrop of WWII, I had to stop a few times. If you are squeamish, don’t like reading about death, torture and suffering, do not read this book because you won’t be able to keep going. I don’t mind reading about these themes and it took me nearly a week to get through it because it’s very hard-hitting and you realise a lot of things that you probably didn’t know prior to reading this book. There are still so many things we don’t know that happened during WWII, so many people suffered and there were so many atrocities that it’s impossible to know everything,  but this book is an amazing one to read if you want the truth, and you want it on an individual level, instead of the official historical version.

Zeev’s description and narration of his time in Skarzysko, Mauthausen, Buchenwald, and other such camps was raw and emotional. At one point in the book, he said how he felt that his account was not emotional enough and that he sounded detached and like it didn’t happen to him, but I actually think that emotion such as is expressed in this book is needed to understand the extent of trauma, torture and suffering that was inflicted upon Jewish and other peoples during the Final Solution.

It’s a bit horrible to say “I loved it”, but I did, it was a great book and although it was hard to read, broke my heart, made me angry, shocked me and made me feel ashamed to be a human being, I think it was an amazing account and one we need to know about. Every time I read about something new, I wonder to myself how much we still don’t know, and it’s a chilling thought.

MY THOUGHTS AND RATING

I’m so glad I got a chance to read this book, it was so poignant and so very much needed. Every book I’ve read from Amsterdam Publishers has put emphasis on the need to know more about the events and sufferings of WWII, right down to individual accounts and tortures for it to not happen again, and I think it’s right. I struggled to read this book because I know that human beings did atrocious things to other human beings, and I was shocked to see the measures they implied to do so, but it’s important to know. It doesn’t surprise me, I knew how awful people were, but it still took my breath away when certain things were described (for those of you who’ve read this, I’m referring to the “lampshades” in particular).

I don’t think I can say that I “enjoyed” this book because it describes atrocities that you can’t even imagine, but it was also amazing and taught me so much, I don’t know if that makes sense. I don’t like rating nonfiction, but this one deserves 5 stars because of the quality and emotion in the narration, it was just such a great experience for me and I think more people need to read more individual accounts to better understand what happened, and what could happen again.

Thank you again to Liesbeth for the chance to read this book, had you not contacted me I would never have even heard about it, so I’m very glad that I have now read it.

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed this review, see you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx

If you would like to purchase this book, you can find it here: Amazon UK (affiliate link) – Amazon FR (affiliate link) – AbeBooks (affiliate link) – The Book Depository (affiliate link) – Amazon US – Waterstones – Barnes and Noble