The Avengers: A Jewish War Story by Rich CohenMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Cohen sets out the to tell the lesser told side of WW2 and the Holocaust: the Jewish resistance and partisans who fought back against the Nazis. The focal point is on three main individuals: Abba, Vikta, and Ruzka, and mainly Vilna and the surrounding areas. The author tells us how they met, how they helped to form and lead the Jewish partisan group in Vilna. It follows these three through the war and then to Israel.
There are harrowing and fascinating aspects to this story. The details of life under the Nazis, in the ghetto, in the forests is worth the read. But the way the story is told was not as compelling as I would have liked. It is more journalistic and retrospective, and so harder to get inside the emotions of the characters. It’s not a novel, but I was expecting something more of a story. This jumped around a bunch, moved through events too quickly at times.
It is still worth reading for anything interested in this time period, the experiences of the Jews in the war, and after.
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