Book Description Review “Gripping. … Fearless. … Recalls imprisonments, escapes from confinement, and successful missions against the Nazis. … A welcome addition to the World War II memoir shelf.” (Kirkus Reviews, STARRED Review)“[A] powerful debut memoir. … Rosenberg, a modest narrator, nevertheless writes thrillingly of his life. … Has all the suspense of a tense spy thriller.” (Publishers Weekly)“Rosenberg provides a thrilling account of gut-wrenching wartime experiences. … Highly recommended.” (Library Journal, STARRED Review) Read more About the Author JUSTUS ROSENBERG was born in Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland), in 1921. Graduating from the Sorbonne, in Paris, he worked with the French underground for four years and then served in the United States Army. For his wartime service, Rosenberg received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. For the last seventy years, he has taught at American universities; his is professor emeritus of languages and literature at Bard College, where he has been on faculty for fifty years. He is the cofounder of the Justus & Karin Rosenberg Foundation, which works to combat anti-Semitism. In 2017 the French ambassador to the United States personally made Rosenberg a Commandeur in the Légion d’Honneur, among France’s highest decorations, for his heroism during World War II. He lives with his wife in New York’s Hudson Valley. Read more Customers Review: The Art of Resistance tells of the wartime adventures of Justus Rosenberg; a Jewish adolescent from Danzig who, at various times, worked to help refugees escape, spied on the Germans and assisted the US invasion. Lucky to survive, he eventually became a distinguished professor of literature at Bard College. At the age of 98 he could modestly be described as a national treasure.The adventures make for lively reading and the memoir certainly needed to be published, but there are a few points that might help the prospective reader. First, Rosenberg explains all the geopolitical goings on of the 1940s. This is wonderful for a high schooler who is trying to engage in history but tedious for the more educated reader.Further, the book is not a literary memoir despite Rosenberg interacting with some of Europe’s leading intellectuals. That is, there’s no sense of grounding the book in the literary tradition, no allusions to canonical works or extended metaphors. This isn’t a criticism. It’s just the type of memoir of that Rosenberg chose to write. He focused instead on narrating the facts of his fascinating escapades and describing the era.WWII buffs, Judaica scholars, really anyone who loves a good adventure story will enjoy this book. It’s an uplifting story from an otherwise dark era.
As someone who had the distinct honor of being a student of Justus at Bard College in the 1960’s I may be somewhat biased. The memoir is so beautifully written and evocative that it reads much like a novel. As students we knew nothing of his experiences in World War II. We got a sense of his brilliance and vast knowledge and I acknowledge that my love of learning and curiosity of the world around me was deeply influenced by his constantly questioning mind. This came rushing back while reading his memoir. At one point he writes of his love of exploring Paris as a yoiung student. His description of being a “flaneur” made me feel as if I was standing by his side and exploring Paris with him. More significantly he explored the deeper meaning of being a “flaneur” and much like 50+ years ago it electrified my mind. It’s a book that is difficult to put down and explores a remarkable young mind willing to experience life even in the most horrific of moments. Thank you Justus!
The author of this memoir is 99 years old. What a life he has lived! The narrative has three main sections: his childhood in Danzig, the immediate pre-war and war period in France and the post war period in France, Germany and the USA. Justus Rosenberg was sent to Paris by his parents just before the outbreak of WWII to earn a degree from the Sorbonne. With the outbreak of war, he wanted to join the French army, but could not because he was not a French citizen. He worked to help artists and other intellectuals escape while working for Varian Fry. Next, he worked with the French underground resistance movement. Because he spoke German, French, Polish, Russian and English, Rosenberg was recruited to assist the US Army 636 Tank Destruction Battalion. After the war, he worked with the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to help resettle some of the over 12 million displaced refugees in Western Europe. He also played a role in denazifying Germans, some of whom were later tried in Nuremberg. Along the way, he earned a masters degree from the Sorbonne. Not all of his family survived the war and the reader learns about this too. Rosenberg was finally able to emigrate to the United States and worked as a college professor until his late seventies. The reader will be amazed at how he was honored for his work during the war by two countries.Though this is not a great literary work, Rosenberg provides an exciting testimony of both the sacrifices and rewards of war service. He is one of the few survivors of that time still alive to provide such vivid accounts and that makes the book worth reading.
This memoir is incredible! Brilliantly and beautifully written, a story of a few years that lasts a lifetime. I literally could not put it down, and it followed me in my dreams… (I also did end up reading parts of it in the middle of the night when one of my kids woke me up).Justus Rosenberg’s journey from Danzig to the US via France and Germany during and after just WW2 is quite simply amazing. He left Danzig to study in Paris (a great decision made by his parents at the time), and after the invasion of France in 1940 ended up in Marseille, then Grenoble, then various areas in the Drôme, before joining a US battalion and then the official refugee aid agency at the time (before it became the UNHCR). He spent time working to help refugees get out of France while being a refugee himself, escaped capture to then join the Résistance proper. I loved reading about his experiences making his way around France, living with Surrealists such as André Breton, working undercover in Grenoble (the city where I grew up), and his days as a flâneur in Paris. I really enjoyed the author’s descriptions of flânerie, descriptions that match my own personal way of discovering a new place I call home as well as old ones. I also loved how his memoir is peppered with his own personal thoughts and interpretations of events and possible future events, memories clear as day to both author and reader all these decades later.Justus Rosenberg knows his story of survival and resistance is incredible but also knows that it was very much a mix of circumstance, luck, place, time, his observation skills, his quick thinking, his education, and also due to how he looked (young for his age and blond with blue eyes). But to me Justus didn’t just survive, he made the most of his circumstances to help others as much as he could, even when his own situation was pretty dire. He is such as inspiration and I can’t wait to read about more of his life (those FBI files sound very interesting!).Justus Rosenberg will be 100 years old in 2021. His story is amazing, and in my opinion a must read, both in terms of how we need to remember the past, but also because his life philosophy is something that I think would bring hope to many, and maybe inspire many more to be like him. I am certainly inspired. |
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