The Parnas: A Scene from the Holocaust

The author of this book does a very good job of describing what he calls in his Foreword the "epidemic of evil" that took over Europe during the Nazi era. He is a very good writer, and for anyone who wants to be reminded of the indescribable horrors of the Holocaust that ultimately defy description--as we all should be--his book does the best at it that's humanly possible. It's not a book that you will enjoy reading, but it's a book that--if you're honest with yourself--makes you face what you and every other human being is capable of doing under certain circumstances. In Jungian terms, it reveals our shadows, and in literary terms, especially in respect to Joseph Conrad, it reveals the "horror" that lurks in all our hearts,minds, and souls.

This book was a requirement for a class I am taking. I had abbot of a hard time getting into it, but once the story of the Parnas began I was entranced in the way the author went about telling this story and creating a vision of what was going on during these dark days.

I so liked the book that I bought this copy to give a a gift. It's an amazing story with courage and human decency before it turns dark and tragic,

Short book and an interesting read. Provides a glimpse of the Holocaust in Pisa, Italy. Read it for my book club and found it worthwhile.

The presence of the characters in the setting of war time Italy was vivid and seemed as if the events happened yesterday.

Took a class on the Holocaust, and this was one of the required readings. It was very interesting and helped shape my view of this period in history.

Great price.

Extraordinary and completely unique work of memoir and psychological insight. I read this book nearly twenty years ago and it has stayed with me all these years. An unusual story of the Holocaust and one that stands out in its attempt to understand the influence of the perception of evil on the psychology of the individual and the individual's response when it meets it in reality. The other reviewers understand the profound insight this book offers.