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GORDON PARSONS recommends an entertaining account of the years between Germany’s defeat in WWI and Hitler’s seizure of power
Moving memoir of an anti-nazi survivor
Paul Simon reviews Gone to Ground by Marie Jalowicz Simon (Profile Books, £14.99)
MIGUEL YOSHIDA explains the evolution and influence of the Cuban Casa De Las Americas in joining culture to the revolutionary struggle
ANDY HEDGECOCK is charmed by a skilful adaptation of Tove Jansson’s lyrical portrait of three generations of a family, overcoming grief
ALEX HALL treads warily through a messy, dialectical struggle fought in the mundane machinery of driving licences, criminal law, and birth registries
MICHAL BONCZA, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and ANGUS REID review Atlas of Disappearance, Love Me Tender, Bouchra, and This Tempting Madness
Flitting between myth and the modern world, Medusa is determined to steer clear of human affairs. When her resolve crumbles, the result is petrifying in every sense
Marie Jalowicz Simon was a “U-boat” — the name given to those enemies of the nazis, mainly Jews, who went underground rather than face the mechanised death of the concentration camps.
Her clear-eyed memoir, after a brief description of early childhood and family circumstances, moves on to her time as a forced labourer in the Spandau factory of the Siemens company.
Establishing a theme that runs throughout this extraordinary account, wonderfully translated by Anthea Bell, Simon recalls not only her own will to survive but the collective spirit of solidarity and resistance of those facing humiliation, exposure and death.
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DOMINIC O’KEY recommends Arundhati Roy’s study of troubled mother/daughter relations
MARJ MAYO sees the contemporary relevance of this account of the consequences of a society’s accommodation with evil
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
On May 16 1944, Romani families in Auschwitz-Birkenau armed themselves with stones, tools, and sheer collective will, forcing the SS to retreat – leaving a legacy of defiance that speaks directly to the fascisms of today, says VICTORIA HOLMES