Book Review: Good Neighbors, Bad Times

Throughout Mimi Schwartz’s youth her father, Arthur Loewengart frequently mentioned how in the tiny German village where he grew up, “everyone got along” and “In Benheim, everyone behaved!” Trying to become as American as possible, Mimi largely ignored the stories of pre-Nazi Germany her father loved to recount. Many years later when she learned of the existence of a Torah, rescued from the Benheim synagogue by Christian neighbors, she realized there might have been some substance to her father’s tales. Learning of that simple act of bravery and defiance began a twelve-year international quest to collect the stories of those who lived through Hitler’s Germany. This is not a Holocaust book in the usual sense, although Mimi and a host of scholars and historians researched the historical records, it was more to add credence to the stories she heard from Christian and Jewish survivors. For the most part, these are touching tales of small acts of kindnesses and courage in the face of unspeakable horrors. Although many found it easier to deny atrocities, as in simply saying families were sent east rather then acknowledge they were being sent to concentration camps, food and clothing was left where Jewish neighbors could find it, windows were repaired at a terrible personal cost and some refused to join Nazi Youth Groups. It is these personal stories of triumph and tragedy, the crystal clear recollections of some and memories altered by time, perspective and to one degree or another, denial that puts a very human face on those dark days.

So much is being lost as the survivors of the Holocaust age and die, taking their memories with them. Mimi has done an outstanding job of collecting the stories surrounding one small village, tying the people and events together with warmth and compassion. Often the memories are conflicting, even disturbing as survivors and historians attempt to balance good and evil with the facts but it is this balancing act that makes these stories so compelling.