Reviews for Steven Spielberg

The average rating for Steven Spielberg based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-11-12 00:00:00 Jessica Matthews WOW! A far different story of how an entire family escaped from Lodz, Poland, went to Russia,seperated and not only survived the War but were reunited. Interesting twists and turns of fate and life told from the viewpoint of an Eight (8) year old in a strange Country and how he survives the World War two in throughout the Soviet Union. Great look at Cultures and an Inside look at Stalin Russia during the Great Patriotic War.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-01-31 00:00:00 Matthew Majeski Some Jewish people saw the writing on the wall and were able to get out of Nazi-occupied Europe before World War II began, or at least before the Nazis occupied their particular part of Europe. Certainly they suffered, as all refugees do: they had to flee their homes, often on short notice, often with almost nothing but the clothes on their backs, and start all over again in a strange land, and most of them were never able to return home. Most times those people are still referred to as "Holocaust survivors" because they were definitely victims of Nazi aggression. But I prefer the term "Holocaust avoiders" or "Holocaust escapees." Along the Tracks is just such a story: a Polish-Jewish family who were able to escape the Nazi terror by fleeing deep into the Soviet Union. This novel, based on a true story, is about this family and in particular the oldest son, Yankele aka Yasha. It was a compelling story and definitely a page-turner, and showed a side of the Holocaust and World War II that children aren't often told about. Although they may have never had to deal with concentration camps or gas chambers, the family had to deal with illness, separation, forced labor, starvation, homelessness, and other trials of war. I thought the second half of the story was much better than the first half. This was mainly because the second half was told from one point of view while the first half had like a zillion different narrators switching back and forth, sometimes three on the same page, which was really jarring and annoying for me. It might not bother some people as much, though. Once the story got into the second half, which had only Yankele/Yasha's perspective, it really galloped along for me. If you're interested in stories of European refugees who fled into the USSR during World War II, I recommend Anatole Konstantin's A Red Boyhood: Growing Up Under Stalin . He was also Jewish and his family fled to Kazakhstan for the duration of the war; his experience was quite similar to the novel.