23/12/2019
As the generation of Holocaust survivors and their firsthand memoirs fall silent with the passage of time and fade into history, the general knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust and its history of human suffering seems to be declining throughout the world. The startling rise and spread of Anti-Semitism around the world and in the U.S. and the dramatic rise of the Alt-Right and Holocaust deniers is cause for concern and raises the prospect that history could repeat itself.
To counteract these trends and to educate and reintroduce new generations of readers about the Holocaust. Mandel Vilar Press is publishing and is seeking to publish the best books—historical fiction and nonfiction—about the Holocaust.
Almost half of all Americans are unable to name a single concentration camp or explain what Auschwitz was. The death camp is one of the most infamous that existed in N**i-ruled Europe, and its name has become synonymous with the genocide.
The number of hate groups in the U.S. has increased by 20 percent over the past three years. The number of neo-N**i groups increased from 99 in 2016 to 121 in 2017.
The farther we move away from the terrible events of the N**i era, the more creative we have to be in educating people to the horrors that took place and how it is relevant to today's society,
To combat these trends Mandel Vilar Press sees as it’s imperative as a book publisher the need to publish books about the Holocaust as part of its overall mission.
In our short five year history we have published or will publish the following books:
1. Alan Lelchuk, “Searching for Wallenberg” —reviewers called this historical novel: A tour de force (Michael J.Sherwin, Pulitzer Prize winner); “ A brilliantly constructed literary investigation into the mysterious life and death of Raoul Wallenberg.” (Michael Walzer) and
“offers a fictional account of Wallenberg’s life more illuminating than any history we have or may ever get” (Louis Gordon,Tikkun)
2. Andrew Potok, “13 Stradomska Street: A Memoir of Exile and Return”
“ A meditation on Human evils, on the Poland in the heart, on the persistence of the unforgivable....I can’t recommend it too highly” ( Todd Gitlin)
“A civilized man in an uncivilized world, painter Andrew Potok examines the long reach of both his family’s escape from Poland and his own encroaching blindness in this powerful and elegant memoir.” (Elinor Langer)
3. Tara Masih, “ My Real Name is Hanna” A multiple book award winner:
“With the continuing surfeit of WWII fiction, it is refreshing to find an original voice that delivers such a harrowing yet inspiring message, a highly readable, affecting novel.” (Historical Novel Review) “
“A powerful, revelatory leap of imagination taking readers on a journey with 14-year old Hanna from slowly enveloping horror of the Holocaust, to the literal and spiritual depths of being buried alive.” (Greg Dawson)
4. Nadine Epstein, Ed., “Elie Wiesel, An Extraordinary Life and Legacy— Writings, Reflections, Photographs”
( A MomentBooks imprint)
“ Elie Wiesel was the Jewish people’s spokesperson. He looked after our moral landscape and paid attention to what happened to Jews around the world. We need a person like that. “ (Itzhak Perlman)
5.Theodore Bikel and Aimee Ginsburg Bikel,” The City of Light” illustrations by Noah Phillips
"Aimee Ginsburg Bikel's shaping and sharing of her beloved late husband Theo Bikel's tale of what he experienced as a little boy during the rise, and then explosion, of hatred that preceded the Holocaust, is beautiful, painfully powerful, and a great gift. It is particularly meaningful in this time of mushrooming anti-Semitism, hatred and bigotry of every sort, worldwide. Told in the sweet poetic language of a child, and a one-day-to-become iconic actor, poet, folk singer and international activist for social justice, it is a riveting and undeniable tale, made all the more meaningful by the mounting denial of this history that we must tell and retell, lest it be repeated." (PETER YARROW, Peter Paul and Mary).
6. Alan Kaufman, “The Berlin Woman”
“briskly paced, solidly crafted and certainly holds one’s attention." (Jewish Exponent)
“Two second-generation survivors, inheritors of the Holocaust, they take each other to bed—not for tender, loving, solace. The bedroom is a battleground for them, where they can try, never successfully, to satiate their rage on each other with each orgasm.” (San Diego Jewish World)
8. Rachel Biale, “Growing Up Below Sea Level:A Kibbutz Childhood” Forthcoming Spring 2020
Rachel Biale’s memoir of her kibbutz childhood – juxtaposed with her parents’ flight from the Holocaust – tells the quintessential story of Israel in the most intimate terms.
“Rachel Biale’s fresh and vivid stories of her kibbutz childhood, raised in the biblical landscape of the Jordan River by European-born parents and community who had barely fled the N**is, are pulsating with love and unblinking insight into the early kibbutz life. I read these stories with amazement and deep personal recognition. Literature is still the best path to grasping the heart Israel, and these stories touch on a pivotal moment in the young country’s history, geography, and social dreams." --(Fania Oz-Salzberger)
9. Small Bibles for Bad Times: Selected Poems and Prose of Liliane Atlan
A bi-lingual text, Translated and Introduced by Marguerite Feitlowitz
A co-publication of Mandel Vilar Press and Dryad Press Pub date: March 2021, 160 pp
French author Lilian Atlan (1932-2012)
survived the Holocaust in hiding and while identified as a “Jewish writer,” she was also an originator of l’écriture féminine, as well as a pioneering theater artist using video and improvisation, first in working with people in addiction treatment programs and then as creative tools.
Her writing is steeped in the Torah, Talmud, mystical texts, and Jewish history; at the same time, her French is semantically nuanced, inflected with undertones of Hebrew, Ladino, and Yiddish. Thematically Atlan draws upon personal memories as well as testimonials of Holocaust survivors, investigation of historical archives, and Jewish literature.
One crucial question informs all of her work: “how can we integrate within our conscience, without dying in the attempt, the shattering experience of Auschwitz.”
All these books are available on our website: www.mvpublishers.org and at all other sales outlets.
