Mila 18

Mila 18 is an epic novel by Leon Uris. Leon painstakingly researched the Warsaw Ghetto and the Uprising and the facts are historically correct. However, he used his imagination as a fiction writer to create the characters and their conversations and movements. Some of the characters are real and were actually in the Ghetto and did what he says they did. Rosenblum, for instance, did write a journal about what was going on in the Ghetto and he did bury writings, diaries, histories, etc. in milk cans and other canisters at various spots in Warsaw. Some were actually retrieved; but some are still lost. This is not a book to be read in one sitting or even two. It is a book to be savored and thought about as you are reading. Although not necessary, knowing something of the history of the Warsaw ghetto, the Uprising, and the Nazis, it does help to understand the actions of the characters better.In addition to being a story about the ghetto and the uprising, an attempt to understand how different people react to the same circumstances. He shows how and tells why some Jews became collaborators and “betrayed” their own, sometimes even their own families. As it begins before WWII, you see how those who considered themselves not to be Jews were drawn into helping the Nazis. It explains how the Jewish ruling group in the Ghetto came about and how each member dealt with what he had to do.His book also shows how women were controlled by their husbands and fathers prior to WWII and how that changed as the war continues. Some were forced by circumstances to break out of the mold and become independent young women. Rachael, for example, defied her father by living with Wolf. He refused to allow the marriage by himself and made sure the other Jews knew he did not condone marriage thus leaving them to live together in “sin”. What is interesting is that Rachael does have the consent of her mother to do this. Deborah was in an arranged marriage and found herself basically a slave to her husband. She met Christopher de Monti before the war and had an affair with him. When given a chance to leave the Ghetto with Christopher, she refused and stayed with her children in the Ghetto. Christopher, an Italian by passport, refused to leave since he couldn’t leave Deborah even though he doesn’t see her anymore. Leon Uris delves into changes in social standards as he writes.The book is very good and very well written. It is another book that brings history to life.

I'm not much of a writer and don't think I can do justice to this very powerful book in a personal review. However, I wanted to add my five stars to a book that I found beautifully written and compulsively readable. This story about the struggle of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto circa 1940-43 was profoundly moving, enlightening, disturbing.I also can't fathom the day-to-day, hour-to-hour horrors that these people endured, the pain of trying to stay alive with no heat, no water, the barest scraps of food, dozens of new corpses in the streets every day from cold, starvation or suicide, and the determination of the German military to wipe them off the face of the earth. And I cannot imagine the kind of bravery and imagination it took the Polish Jews to keep coming up with new ways to evade capture, and the courage of the non-Jews who were willing to risk their lives -- in a way none of us in 2013 America are likely to know -- to provide support to the Jews.I am not able to testify to the historical accuracy of the book, though others have done it here. I suspect it's like other Uris books that I've read (Exodus, QB VII, Armageddon) -- a lot of documented history combined with artistic license and a reflection of personal viewpoints.I thought it was a great book and I would definitely recommend it.Thank you.

… this fictional account of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Jews fending off the Nazis, albeit for only a few weeks, spurred an interest to read nonfictional accounts of these heroes.

Leon Uris often wrote fiction firmly based in fact, such as "Exodus". His books are so thoroughly researched that the reader can't be sure that he's not reading a history text. While the characters, specific circumstances and actions are fictionalized, the story is true. In his own words, "Within a framework of basic truth, tempered with a reasonable amount of artistic license, the places and events described actually happened. The characters are fictitious, but I would be the last to deny there were people who lived who were similar to those in this volume."The hardest part of this story for me to understand was the absolutely unconscionable apathy of the rest of the world to the plight of the Jewish people during Adolph Hitler's "Final Solution". FDR knew, as did Churchill, that the Jews of Europe were being exterminated like unwanted vermin, and they made a CONSCIOUS decision to ignore the problem and do nothing to help. They refused even to send weapons to the Jewish people who wished to defend themselves. They did not want to provoke the Nazis into even worse acts of barbarity!This is the story of the horrors and hardships; the starvation, beatings, shootings, gassing, and other forms of extermination used by the Nazis against the Jews of Europe who had been crammed into the Warsaw Ghetto. It is the story of unbelievable courage, stamina, determination and faith of a people who knew they would die without outside help - help that no one was willing to offer. Some parts of the book are hard to read, and I frequently found myself near tears reading of the inhumanity heaped upon these people. Only a handful survived; hundreds of thousands of European Jews and other "subhumans" and "undesirables" were murdered in the ghettos or shipped off to death camps, and the rest of the world shrugged their shoulders. What a shame.This is the 3rd URIS book I've read; I intend to read them all.