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Mila 18
It was a time of crisis, a time of tragedy and a time of transcendent courage and determination. Leon Uris's novel is set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi tyranny, as the Jews of Warsaw boldly met Wehrmacht tanks with homemade weapons and bare fists. Here, painted on a canvas as broad as its subject matter, is the compelling story of one of the most heroic struggles of modern times.
563 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
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About the author
Leon Uris
88 books1,594 followersLeon Marcus Uris (August 3, 1924 - June 21, 2003) was an American novelist, known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels. His two bestselling books were Exodus, published in 1958, and Trinity, in 1976.
Leon Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish-American parents Wolf William and Anna (Blumberg) Uris. His father, a Polish-born immigrant, was a paperhanger, then a storekeeper. William spent a year in Palestine after World War I before entering the United States. He derived his surname from Yerushalmi, meaning "man of Jerusalem." (His brother Aron, Leon Uris' uncle, took the name Yerushalmi) "He was basically a failure," Uris later said of his father. "He went from failure to failure."
Uris attended schools in Norfolk, Virginia and Baltimore, but never graduated from high school, after having failed English three times. At age seventeen, while in his senior year of high school, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Uris enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He served in the South Pacific as a radioman (in combat) at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and New Zealand from 1942 through 1945. While recuperating from malaria in San Francisco, he met Betty Beck, a Marine sergeant; they married in 1945.
Coming out of the service, he worked for a newspaper, writing in his spare time. In 1950, Esquire magazine bought an article, and he began to devote himself to writing more seriously. Drawing on his experiences in Guadalcanal and Tarawa he produced the best-selling, Battle Cry, a novel depicting the toughness and courage of U.S. Marines in the Pacific. He then went to Warner Brothers in Hollywood helping to write the movie, which was extremely popular with the public, if not the critics. Later he went on to write The Angry Hills, a novel set in war-time Greece.
According to one source, in the early 1950's he was hired by an American public relations firm to go to Israel and "soak up the atmosphere and create a novel about it". That novel would be Exodus, which came out in 1958 and became his best known work. Others say that Uris, motivated by an intense interest in Israel, financed his own research for the novel by selling the film rights in advance to MGM and writing articles about the Sinai campaign. It is said that the book involved two years of research, and involved thousands of interviews. Exodus illustrated the history of Palestine from the late 19th century through the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. It was a worldwide best-seller, translated into a dozen languages, and was made into a feature film in 1960, starring Paul Newman, directed by Otto Preminger, as well as into a short-lived Broadway musical (12 previews, 19 performances) in 1971. Uris' novel Topaz was adapted for the screen and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Uris' subsequent works included: Mila 18, a story of the Warsaw ghetto uprising; Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin, which reveals the detailed work by British and American intelligence services in planning for the occupation and pacification of post WWII Germany; Trinity, an epic novel about Ireland's struggle for independence; QB VII, a novel about the role of a Polish doctor in a German concentration camp ; and The Haj, with insights into the history of the Middle East and the secret machinations of foreigners which have led to today's turmoil.
He also wrote the screenplays for Battle Cry and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Uris was married three times: to Betty Beck, with whom he had three children, from 1945 through their divorce in 1968; Margery Edwards in 1969, who died a year later, and Jill Peabody in 1970, with whom he had two children, and divorced in 1989.
Leon Uris died of renal failure at his Long Island home on Shelter Island, aged 78.
Leon Uris's papers can be found at the Ransom Center, University of Texas in Austin. The collection includes all of Uris's novels, with the exception of The Haj and Mitla Pass, as well as manus
Leon Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish-American parents Wolf William and Anna (Blumberg) Uris. His father, a Polish-born immigrant, was a paperhanger, then a storekeeper. William spent a year in Palestine after World War I before entering the United States. He derived his surname from Yerushalmi, meaning "man of Jerusalem." (His brother Aron, Leon Uris' uncle, took the name Yerushalmi) "He was basically a failure," Uris later said of his father. "He went from failure to failure."
Uris attended schools in Norfolk, Virginia and Baltimore, but never graduated from high school, after having failed English three times. At age seventeen, while in his senior year of high school, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Uris enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He served in the South Pacific as a radioman (in combat) at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and New Zealand from 1942 through 1945. While recuperating from malaria in San Francisco, he met Betty Beck, a Marine sergeant; they married in 1945.
Coming out of the service, he worked for a newspaper, writing in his spare time. In 1950, Esquire magazine bought an article, and he began to devote himself to writing more seriously. Drawing on his experiences in Guadalcanal and Tarawa he produced the best-selling, Battle Cry, a novel depicting the toughness and courage of U.S. Marines in the Pacific. He then went to Warner Brothers in Hollywood helping to write the movie, which was extremely popular with the public, if not the critics. Later he went on to write The Angry Hills, a novel set in war-time Greece.
According to one source, in the early 1950's he was hired by an American public relations firm to go to Israel and "soak up the atmosphere and create a novel about it". That novel would be Exodus, which came out in 1958 and became his best known work. Others say that Uris, motivated by an intense interest in Israel, financed his own research for the novel by selling the film rights in advance to MGM and writing articles about the Sinai campaign. It is said that the book involved two years of research, and involved thousands of interviews. Exodus illustrated the history of Palestine from the late 19th century through the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. It was a worldwide best-seller, translated into a dozen languages, and was made into a feature film in 1960, starring Paul Newman, directed by Otto Preminger, as well as into a short-lived Broadway musical (12 previews, 19 performances) in 1971. Uris' novel Topaz was adapted for the screen and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Uris' subsequent works included: Mila 18, a story of the Warsaw ghetto uprising; Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin, which reveals the detailed work by British and American intelligence services in planning for the occupation and pacification of post WWII Germany; Trinity, an epic novel about Ireland's struggle for independence; QB VII, a novel about the role of a Polish doctor in a German concentration camp ; and The Haj, with insights into the history of the Middle East and the secret machinations of foreigners which have led to today's turmoil.
He also wrote the screenplays for Battle Cry and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Uris was married three times: to Betty Beck, with whom he had three children, from 1945 through their divorce in 1968; Margery Edwards in 1969, who died a year later, and Jill Peabody in 1970, with whom he had two children, and divorced in 1989.
Leon Uris died of renal failure at his Long Island home on Shelter Island, aged 78.
Leon Uris's papers can be found at the Ransom Center, University of Texas in Austin. The collection includes all of Uris's novels, with the exception of The Haj and Mitla Pass, as well as manus
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 690 reviews
December 29, 2008
I grew up during World War 11 and although it was kept pretty quite by the Nazis many of us heard about what was happening to the Jewish people in Europe. I read this book when it first came out back in 1961, and I decided to read it again just this past month. This is a really powerful novel, not for the faint hearted. What was so amazing is what these poor Jewish people suffer through. I could hardly put this book down once I started reading it again. I give it five stars. Leon Uris the author also wrote Exodus (movie also with Paul Newman) I plan to re-read Exodus again since it's been over 30 years since I last read it.
January 31, 2018
Mila 18 is a breathtaking account of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, by the Jewish population of Warsaw, against the plans of the Nazi regime to exterminate them.
It is a great epic from the pen of one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, Leon Uris.
The Warsaw ghetto uprisings are an important symbol of the freedom and dignity of mankind and the ongoing struggle against totalitarianism and cruelty (particular that type of cruelty that is self righteously practiced by ideologues from the left and right.).
The key characters are:
Andrei Androfski , the indomitable hero of a prestigious Polish cavalry regiment , and also a proud Jew.
Gabriella Rak , Andrei's pretty Polish sweetheart , one of the rare voices of conscience in a world gone mad .
Deborah Bronski , the intriguing beauty , a figure of love and tragedy , Andrei's sister.
Paul Bronski , a shell of his man who ,lacks all conviction , driven by the willingness to please his masters and a strong desire to divorce himself from his roots.
Christopher De Monti , The Italian journalist and playboy who will come out of this as the voice that will bring a disturbing hidden truth to the world.
Rachael Bronski : Deborah's lovely and talented daughter , whose life is thrown into turmoil by the Nazi occupation , she is a rare survivor.
Alexander Brandel : a narrator and leader of the Bathyran Zionist Movement in Warsaw
Wolf Brandel : Rachael ` sweetheart and a natural leader ,together with Rachael and her younger brother Stephan ., one of the young people of the ghetto determined to survive .
This book can be appreciated on many levels. It is a novel of love and hate , of destruction and redemption , of much that is tragic and horrific as well triumph of the human spirit . It is an intense human drama.
But most of all it contains an important lesson for the past and present , a lesson more important today than ever.
Fundamentally this is a story of the Jewish people, and about the hatred the Jewish people have survived at a time when the dark and hideous forces of anti-Semitism are reemerging on a scale unknown since Hitler's Third Reich, under the guise of anti-Zionism or hatred of Israel.
This is a story about how the Jewish people where persecuted and massacred at will in every land in which they where strangers, because they did where deprived of a homeland of their own .
Always at the darkest hours of the holocaust the one redeeming factor is the desire for the rebirth of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.
Indeed the movement that keeps the Jewish people alive is Zionism!
The same dream that many evil forces today are working to destroy.
When the Jewish children are being taken to their deaths in the Nazi vehicles, what keeps them alive a little longer is the dream living in the tiny land of Israel, then known by the colonial name of Palestine.
It is this dream that provides the only hope at all when we read of a rachitic three year old girl in filthy rags being shot dead by a Nazi officer, as she desperately ties to retrieve her torn baby doll from under his boot.
Another lesson of the book is the gross indifference to the world of the genocide of Jews. Is this really any different +to the equanimity of the world to the mass killing of Jews today by Palestinian terrorists in Israel , on an almost daily basis ? In a sense there is an even greater perversion by the world today, as most of the world, often led by those considered the most `progressive, shrilly condemn Israel and Jews for defending themselves. Condemn the Jewish people for wanting to survive, for the chance of succeeding where the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto failed.
Take these lines:
`Jews where charred into unrecognizable smoldering corpses.
Jews where roasted in bunkers, which where turned into coffins by wind shifts and downdrafts.
Jews where choked to death in clouds of smoke which crushed their lungs.'
Is this any different to what is going on today every day in Israel, with the bombing of Jews by Arabs .
The German officer Horst Von Epp , warns the Nazi's of the consequences of their holocaust , the disaster that will be brought upon them , and about the mark of shame that will stain their memory.
The same warning must be made to those who are acting against Israel and the Jews today
It is a great epic from the pen of one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, Leon Uris.
The Warsaw ghetto uprisings are an important symbol of the freedom and dignity of mankind and the ongoing struggle against totalitarianism and cruelty (particular that type of cruelty that is self righteously practiced by ideologues from the left and right.).
The key characters are:
Andrei Androfski , the indomitable hero of a prestigious Polish cavalry regiment , and also a proud Jew.
Gabriella Rak , Andrei's pretty Polish sweetheart , one of the rare voices of conscience in a world gone mad .
Deborah Bronski , the intriguing beauty , a figure of love and tragedy , Andrei's sister.
Paul Bronski , a shell of his man who ,lacks all conviction , driven by the willingness to please his masters and a strong desire to divorce himself from his roots.
Christopher De Monti , The Italian journalist and playboy who will come out of this as the voice that will bring a disturbing hidden truth to the world.
Rachael Bronski : Deborah's lovely and talented daughter , whose life is thrown into turmoil by the Nazi occupation , she is a rare survivor.
Alexander Brandel : a narrator and leader of the Bathyran Zionist Movement in Warsaw
Wolf Brandel : Rachael ` sweetheart and a natural leader ,together with Rachael and her younger brother Stephan ., one of the young people of the ghetto determined to survive .
This book can be appreciated on many levels. It is a novel of love and hate , of destruction and redemption , of much that is tragic and horrific as well triumph of the human spirit . It is an intense human drama.
But most of all it contains an important lesson for the past and present , a lesson more important today than ever.
Fundamentally this is a story of the Jewish people, and about the hatred the Jewish people have survived at a time when the dark and hideous forces of anti-Semitism are reemerging on a scale unknown since Hitler's Third Reich, under the guise of anti-Zionism or hatred of Israel.
This is a story about how the Jewish people where persecuted and massacred at will in every land in which they where strangers, because they did where deprived of a homeland of their own .
Always at the darkest hours of the holocaust the one redeeming factor is the desire for the rebirth of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.
Indeed the movement that keeps the Jewish people alive is Zionism!
The same dream that many evil forces today are working to destroy.
When the Jewish children are being taken to their deaths in the Nazi vehicles, what keeps them alive a little longer is the dream living in the tiny land of Israel, then known by the colonial name of Palestine.
It is this dream that provides the only hope at all when we read of a rachitic three year old girl in filthy rags being shot dead by a Nazi officer, as she desperately ties to retrieve her torn baby doll from under his boot.
Another lesson of the book is the gross indifference to the world of the genocide of Jews. Is this really any different +to the equanimity of the world to the mass killing of Jews today by Palestinian terrorists in Israel , on an almost daily basis ? In a sense there is an even greater perversion by the world today, as most of the world, often led by those considered the most `progressive, shrilly condemn Israel and Jews for defending themselves. Condemn the Jewish people for wanting to survive, for the chance of succeeding where the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto failed.
Take these lines:
`Jews where charred into unrecognizable smoldering corpses.
Jews where roasted in bunkers, which where turned into coffins by wind shifts and downdrafts.
Jews where choked to death in clouds of smoke which crushed their lungs.'
Is this any different to what is going on today every day in Israel, with the bombing of Jews by Arabs .
The German officer Horst Von Epp , warns the Nazi's of the consequences of their holocaust , the disaster that will be brought upon them , and about the mark of shame that will stain their memory.
The same warning must be made to those who are acting against Israel and the Jews today
February 19, 2020
Historical fiction by Leon Uris first published 1961 this audio recording released 2009.
This is the retelling of the horror that was the Warsaw Ghetto and more pacifically the uprising by the Jews who were held prisoner within the ghetto.
The bravery, determination and the willingness to self sacrifice for the greater cause shown by the oppressed Jewish people is nothing short of inspirational.
For a people whose very existence is steeped in forbearance this uprising was unprecedented.
The excesses that the Jews were subjected to was the catalyst that galvanised the many factions within the Jewish community to come together to fight for a common cause. Up to this point there was not a lot of harmony between the various Jewish factions. There were the Orthodox, the Zionists, the Secular and many more in between. But this aggressive act of persecution by the German forces brought all those faction together to bring about what was a herculean, but in the end, a doomed effort. This uprising was as much about proving to the Jews themselves as well as the Germans that they, the Jews of Poland, were not sub-human but were a force to be reckoned with. And prove it they did. For the best part of forty days and night David gave Goliath a fight that would go down in, not just, Jewish history but world history.
Leon Uris takes this appalling period in human history and puts faces to the many people who sacrificed and endured so much.
This is a very graphic depiction of mans inhumanity to man.
In the end I couldn’t help but draw a parallel between the plight of the Jews then and the plight of the Palestinians now.
When, I wonder, will enough ever be enough?
5 stars for an incredible experience.
This is the retelling of the horror that was the Warsaw Ghetto and more pacifically the uprising by the Jews who were held prisoner within the ghetto.
The bravery, determination and the willingness to self sacrifice for the greater cause shown by the oppressed Jewish people is nothing short of inspirational.
For a people whose very existence is steeped in forbearance this uprising was unprecedented.
The excesses that the Jews were subjected to was the catalyst that galvanised the many factions within the Jewish community to come together to fight for a common cause. Up to this point there was not a lot of harmony between the various Jewish factions. There were the Orthodox, the Zionists, the Secular and many more in between. But this aggressive act of persecution by the German forces brought all those faction together to bring about what was a herculean, but in the end, a doomed effort. This uprising was as much about proving to the Jews themselves as well as the Germans that they, the Jews of Poland, were not sub-human but were a force to be reckoned with. And prove it they did. For the best part of forty days and night David gave Goliath a fight that would go down in, not just, Jewish history but world history.
Leon Uris takes this appalling period in human history and puts faces to the many people who sacrificed and endured so much.
This is a very graphic depiction of mans inhumanity to man.
In the end I couldn’t help but draw a parallel between the plight of the Jews then and the plight of the Palestinians now.
When, I wonder, will enough ever be enough?
5 stars for an incredible experience.
May 8, 2020
My initial reading of Mila 18 by Leon Uris occurred shortly after the novel was published & in fact it may have been one of the first contemporary books I purchased. Tucked into my book was a newspaper review & a listing of best-selling fiction books, with Mila 18 at #3 just behind works by Irving Stone & John Steinbeck. After finishing the Uris novel I was discomforted to read a comment that the author's main reason for being was that Uris managed to create fiction easily translated into blockbuster films, with Exodus & Battle Cry already among them.
When someone in a book club discussion group I am a part of chose the novel, I wondered how the passage of 50 years might alter my interpretation of a book I seemed to take to heart much earlier in life. In rereading Mila 18, I found it to be a seemingly well-researched, well-written work of historical fiction. The novel does not represent a great literary effort but Leon Uris catches my fancy as a better than average story teller, not bad for someone who never graduated from high school because he consistently failed his English class.
Lately, there has been no end of so-called "holocaust novels" but Mila 18 appeared when this was not the case & interestingly, at a time when Wm. L. Shirer's Rise & Fall of the Third Reich, a very large tome I somehow also managed to read, was listed as the #1 best-seller for non-fiction. It was said at one point that Shirer's book "read like a murder mystery, which in many ways it was" but at that point the reality of WWII & the holocaust seemed well beyond my reach, except perhaps when rendered into films.
What caught my attention at 2nd reading was that Leon Uris seemed to capture what I now think of as the complexity of sentiments of the various Polish Jews who were rendered rather quickly from citizens of Poland to ghettoized pariahs with no legal status & finally to human beings consigned to charnel houses in Poland & elsewhere by the Nazis, their willing Polish collaborators, as well as others from the Ukraine & elsewhere.
The wonder that such atrocious behavior was possible was not easily accepted by me then any more than it is today but this fictional account did introduce me to the concept of the holocaust. Further reading of books by Eli Weisel, Viktor Frankl & others, meeting survivors of Nazi concentration camps + visits to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. & Yad Vashem in Jerusalem have served as a further resource, while never yielding concrete answers. Perhaps there are none. But beyond that, the question also remains as to whether any fictional account can do justice to the reality of places like Treblinka, Auschwitz, Buchenwald & the many other endpoints of the Final Solution for Jews & others who were thought to be enemies of the Nazis.
Mila 18 portrays the desperation of Poles with the Russians on their eastern flank and Nazi Germany to the west, with the Poles not able to defend against either. Ultimately, Germany invades by air & overland quickly pulverizing any Polish resistance, including that manifested by 30,000 Jews who served in the Polish army. The novel details the inner struggle of the Polish Jews who occupy the Warsaw Ghetto & demonstrate a wide variety of views on their plight, including some who feel that resistance is most un-Jewish, hoping that their fate will ultimately improve.
A rabbi intones, "Our best defense is to be good Jews". As news of death-camps filters into the ghetto, those who have not already been sent off to what they initially believed to be less ominous relocations for labor required by the Nazi war effort, those remaining cluster together & begin a concerted resistance, sensing the ultimate futility of such a path but also realizing there are no other alternatives. As one explains:
While I am not interested in singling out all of the main characters of the Uris novel, the author details competing alliances, some generational divisions & also several love stories, perhaps to retain the interest of those readers with a less historical bent. With limited resources & few weapons, the remaining Jews exact a rather heavy toll on the German soldiers who are quite unprepared for Jewish resistance of any kind. When the insurrection begins, many within the ghetto are glad to be Jews for the 1st time in their lives.
The various bunkers that are linked together in the ghetto are named after concentration camps and there is a memorable celebration of Passover as their reinforced enemy gathers outside for the final assault. As word of the prolonged resistance within Warsaw's Jewish ghetto seeps out to the rest of Europe, the "dubious battle" (a phrase Uris uses several times) becomes a source of pride & even inspiration.
There are indeed formulaic elements to Mila 18 but Leon Uris manages to give dimension to the many characters, some of whom do manage to escape & survive via a tunnel, even as the ghetto is torched & obliterated at novel's end. And the story of the insurrection has sufficient complexity to hold one's interest, even at a 2nd reading of the novel, one that I think serves as a vehicle for understanding at least one chapter of WWII & the Holocaust.
When someone in a book club discussion group I am a part of chose the novel, I wondered how the passage of 50 years might alter my interpretation of a book I seemed to take to heart much earlier in life. In rereading Mila 18, I found it to be a seemingly well-researched, well-written work of historical fiction. The novel does not represent a great literary effort but Leon Uris catches my fancy as a better than average story teller, not bad for someone who never graduated from high school because he consistently failed his English class.
Lately, there has been no end of so-called "holocaust novels" but Mila 18 appeared when this was not the case & interestingly, at a time when Wm. L. Shirer's Rise & Fall of the Third Reich, a very large tome I somehow also managed to read, was listed as the #1 best-seller for non-fiction. It was said at one point that Shirer's book "read like a murder mystery, which in many ways it was" but at that point the reality of WWII & the holocaust seemed well beyond my reach, except perhaps when rendered into films.
What caught my attention at 2nd reading was that Leon Uris seemed to capture what I now think of as the complexity of sentiments of the various Polish Jews who were rendered rather quickly from citizens of Poland to ghettoized pariahs with no legal status & finally to human beings consigned to charnel houses in Poland & elsewhere by the Nazis, their willing Polish collaborators, as well as others from the Ukraine & elsewhere.
The wonder that such atrocious behavior was possible was not easily accepted by me then any more than it is today but this fictional account did introduce me to the concept of the holocaust. Further reading of books by Eli Weisel, Viktor Frankl & others, meeting survivors of Nazi concentration camps + visits to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. & Yad Vashem in Jerusalem have served as a further resource, while never yielding concrete answers. Perhaps there are none. But beyond that, the question also remains as to whether any fictional account can do justice to the reality of places like Treblinka, Auschwitz, Buchenwald & the many other endpoints of the Final Solution for Jews & others who were thought to be enemies of the Nazis.
Mila 18 portrays the desperation of Poles with the Russians on their eastern flank and Nazi Germany to the west, with the Poles not able to defend against either. Ultimately, Germany invades by air & overland quickly pulverizing any Polish resistance, including that manifested by 30,000 Jews who served in the Polish army. The novel details the inner struggle of the Polish Jews who occupy the Warsaw Ghetto & demonstrate a wide variety of views on their plight, including some who feel that resistance is most un-Jewish, hoping that their fate will ultimately improve.
A rabbi intones, "Our best defense is to be good Jews". As news of death-camps filters into the ghetto, those who have not already been sent off to what they initially believed to be less ominous relocations for labor required by the Nazi war effort, those remaining cluster together & begin a concerted resistance, sensing the ultimate futility of such a path but also realizing there are no other alternatives. As one explains:
All were imprisoned within the ghetto in a loosely knit association of diversified ideologies & each beats his breast & berates the other. I don't care if your beliefs take you along a path of Orthodox religion or Zionist ideology or a path of labor activism. We are all here because our paths travel a blind course through a thick forest, seemingly devoid of human dignity. Beyond the forest, all of our paths merge into a single great highway which ends in the barren hills of Judea.All of Warsaw has become a coffin for the ghettoized Jews.
This is our singular goal. How we travel through the forest is for each man's conscience. Where we end our journey is always the same. We all seek the same thing through different ways--an end to the long night of 2,000 years of darkness & unspeakable abuses which will continue to plague us until the star of David flies over Zion.
While I am not interested in singling out all of the main characters of the Uris novel, the author details competing alliances, some generational divisions & also several love stories, perhaps to retain the interest of those readers with a less historical bent. With limited resources & few weapons, the remaining Jews exact a rather heavy toll on the German soldiers who are quite unprepared for Jewish resistance of any kind. When the insurrection begins, many within the ghetto are glad to be Jews for the 1st time in their lives.
The various bunkers that are linked together in the ghetto are named after concentration camps and there is a memorable celebration of Passover as their reinforced enemy gathers outside for the final assault. As word of the prolonged resistance within Warsaw's Jewish ghetto seeps out to the rest of Europe, the "dubious battle" (a phrase Uris uses several times) becomes a source of pride & even inspiration.
There are indeed formulaic elements to Mila 18 but Leon Uris manages to give dimension to the many characters, some of whom do manage to escape & survive via a tunnel, even as the ghetto is torched & obliterated at novel's end. And the story of the insurrection has sufficient complexity to hold one's interest, even at a 2nd reading of the novel, one that I think serves as a vehicle for understanding at least one chapter of WWII & the Holocaust.
July 24, 2009
I recently re-read Mila 18 while in Warsaw; of course, I went to Mila 18 and stood on the actual spot. I had first read the book when it came out in 1962. It was powerful then, even more so today. The most moving lines ... "For the first time I am proud of being a Jew" ... "you must survive and be part of the State of Israel" ... resonated with me as a Jew and as an author who has written about Jews. My grandparents lived near Warsaw; they left in the early 1900s; their families stayed and were murdered by the Germans. Despite what I view as sincere efforts on the part of contemporary Germans, and thier collaborators in other countries, to recognize and atone for the horrendous deed of their ancestors, it is hard for me to forgive. I doubt I ever will.
March 18, 2018
This began like one of those 1980s epic TV series when the subject matter is fascinating but the script and acting awful. The author gets carried away with every character's back story and he shows us in superfluous and often syrupy detail scenes that could have been told in a sentence or two. However once he had settled into his grove and the war narrative began it was a compelling read. He gives us the Warsaw Ghetto from the perspective of both the Jews and the Nazis with the odd Pole thrown in too, culminating in the heroic uprising. Leon Uris isn't the best writer in the world but he did a brilliant job of comprehensively researching his subject and the story is gripping.
September 22, 2020
Leon Uris was an amazing author. His books do not exactly fit into my favorite reading genres, but they transcend. I binged on a few of his works in 1970 and loved them
June 30, 2009
Ok. Ok. Deep breaths. I'm going to try really, really hard to not get overly worked up here. It's entirely possible, that if you know nothing about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, if you have never read any literary version of the Holocaust (SOPHIE'S CHOICE AHEM COUGH COUGH), and/or if you had forgotten about the many and varied injustices of World War II, this book will present itself as new, exciting, and maybe even revelatory to you. I don't have any personal foothold on these events, but (big disclaimer here) I did live in Poland for a while -- one of those places where things that happened in 1939 are felt to have happened yesterday; where Holocaust survivors routinely visit elementary schools; where the carriage drivers in Old Town can give you their personal narratives of where and how the bombs fell -- so an Amazing Story of Personal Courage in the Face of Adversity - Based on True Events! isn't quite enough to bring me to my feet.
So, there's that. But also? This book is propagandist dreck. To be fair, pro-Zionist and anti-Nazi propaganda isn't the worst thing in the world, but -- and this is just my personal preference -- I do not generally favor books where prose, character development, and emotional nuance are manipulated to support a thesis. Mila 18 is half bodice-ripper, half pamphlet, with only the worst qualities of each. I am so unimpressed that the Uprising captured Uris' imagination if the best he could do to was to show it through the eyes of boring, one-dimensional stock characters ("Angry Zionist", "Pacifist Zionist", "Wife") and prose so soul-crushingly awful I was turning down pages JUST SO I COULD TELL GOODREADS ABOUT SOME OF THESE SENTENCES. Witness: "Rachel and Wolf lay side by side on the bed, awed by the magnificence of their experience...She felt so elated from the wonderment of fulfillment."
That the preceding combination of words appeared in one of the only popular novels about these absolutely extraordinary true events makes me want to cry.
You guys, this is the closest I have ever come to not finishing a book -- the only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that something this conventional would be building to some sort of barnstorming and possibly redemptive climax. It's not. Please, don't be like me. Stay far, far away.
So, there's that. But also? This book is propagandist dreck. To be fair, pro-Zionist and anti-Nazi propaganda isn't the worst thing in the world, but -- and this is just my personal preference -- I do not generally favor books where prose, character development, and emotional nuance are manipulated to support a thesis. Mila 18 is half bodice-ripper, half pamphlet, with only the worst qualities of each. I am so unimpressed that the Uprising captured Uris' imagination if the best he could do to was to show it through the eyes of boring, one-dimensional stock characters ("Angry Zionist", "Pacifist Zionist", "Wife") and prose so soul-crushingly awful I was turning down pages JUST SO I COULD TELL GOODREADS ABOUT SOME OF THESE SENTENCES. Witness: "Rachel and Wolf lay side by side on the bed, awed by the magnificence of their experience...She felt so elated from the wonderment of fulfillment."
That the preceding combination of words appeared in one of the only popular novels about these absolutely extraordinary true events makes me want to cry.
You guys, this is the closest I have ever come to not finishing a book -- the only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that something this conventional would be building to some sort of barnstorming and possibly redemptive climax. It's not. Please, don't be like me. Stay far, far away.
November 20, 2007
It has been a very long time since I read this book. It had a profound effect on me, and for that I have marked it as amazing. Though I'm not certain how fond I would be of it now, I think that it made me search my soul for certain answers about humanity, its strengths and weaknesses. In short it is about war, genocide, the human spirit, and taking a stand even when you know the action is futile. Though, as I've recently read in another book, wouldn't it be far less meaningful if we knew that we would prevail in our efforts against death in its finality?
March 22, 2008
Leon Uris books are written in a style that takes history and historical characters and fictionalizes events through these made-up composite characters in a very entertaining, personalized and informative manner. Not great literature, however, his books are all page-turners and can be very emotional wrenching. This book, about the history of the Nazis taking over Poland, and the brave fight in the Warsaw Ghetto has left a deep imprint on my soul. Reader beware - if sad books stay with you, this will leave a deep wound.
August 27, 2012
A work of historical fiction, this novel is both informative and mind boggling. I learned a wealth of information about the situation of Jews in and around Warsaw before and during WW II and was reminded to "never forget." I used the term mind boggling because enjoyable is too light of an adjective to describe such horror juxtaposed to kindness, love to hate, and good to evil.
One of the many things I enjoy about Uris's books is the way he describes and develops his characters and the various situations in which they're involved. He introduces the reader to Gabriela, Andre, Paul Bronski, Deborah, Chris deMonti, and several others in the beginning of the novel, and then as the book progresses you see even more of their many dimensions. For example, you might think that Gabby is a social butterfly, spoiled and pampered. You'd be wrong. She's a strong person, a loyal one too, especially to Andre but to the others as well. And then there's Koenig, a mean and malevolent person.
Members of my writing group are fond of saying, "Show, don't tell," and Uris is a master of showing. No one can read Mila 18 without seeing, hearing, and smelling the sights, sounds, and odors of the battlefield, the underground ghetto, and the sewer. I saw the children eating chocolate on their way to a concentration camp, felt revolted by Stutze's brutal murder of Max Kleperman, and smelled and "tasted" the murky sewer gas swirling around up to my neck.
Uris also reminds his readers that even in the most horrid of conditions, there is love, honor, and strength. Deep love exists between several couples, and the descriptions of their moments together are poignant. Honor, integrity, and strength are described time after time in the actions of the Jewish people themselves as they struggle against the cruelty directed towards them.
One of the many things I enjoy about Uris's books is the way he describes and develops his characters and the various situations in which they're involved. He introduces the reader to Gabriela, Andre, Paul Bronski, Deborah, Chris deMonti, and several others in the beginning of the novel, and then as the book progresses you see even more of their many dimensions. For example, you might think that Gabby is a social butterfly, spoiled and pampered. You'd be wrong. She's a strong person, a loyal one too, especially to Andre but to the others as well. And then there's Koenig, a mean and malevolent person.
Members of my writing group are fond of saying, "Show, don't tell," and Uris is a master of showing. No one can read Mila 18 without seeing, hearing, and smelling the sights, sounds, and odors of the battlefield, the underground ghetto, and the sewer. I saw the children eating chocolate on their way to a concentration camp, felt revolted by Stutze's brutal murder of Max Kleperman, and smelled and "tasted" the murky sewer gas swirling around up to my neck.
Uris also reminds his readers that even in the most horrid of conditions, there is love, honor, and strength. Deep love exists between several couples, and the descriptions of their moments together are poignant. Honor, integrity, and strength are described time after time in the actions of the Jewish people themselves as they struggle against the cruelty directed towards them.
August 1, 2011
Ah, the benefit of age and experience.
I read this book when it was first published in the 60s and thought it was wonderful. I see now that what I got from it was incredibly deep research into the story of the resistance of the Warsaw Ghetto.
While that story is compelling and heartbreaking, I wonder if Mila 18 could even be classified today as a "novel." The characters are two dimensional and serve essentially as plot devices rather than as real people. Even in historical novels, character should drive plot, not the other way around, and in Mila 18, the plot drives the people.
I'd also forgotten the large chunks of exposition in which Uris shares with us his research notes. While I certainly appreciated re-learning the history of the growth of Zionism and lots of detail about the Polish Army, Uris was given wide latitude by his publisher. He was, of course, a best selling author but still: this time around, I skimmed and skipped entire chapters. Despite the intense subject matter, this time the book was boring. The characters were not only two dimensional, but they keenly reflected the stereotypes of the 60s.
We've come a long way in understanding and depicting human beings.
I read this book when it was first published in the 60s and thought it was wonderful. I see now that what I got from it was incredibly deep research into the story of the resistance of the Warsaw Ghetto.
While that story is compelling and heartbreaking, I wonder if Mila 18 could even be classified today as a "novel." The characters are two dimensional and serve essentially as plot devices rather than as real people. Even in historical novels, character should drive plot, not the other way around, and in Mila 18, the plot drives the people.
I'd also forgotten the large chunks of exposition in which Uris shares with us his research notes. While I certainly appreciated re-learning the history of the growth of Zionism and lots of detail about the Polish Army, Uris was given wide latitude by his publisher. He was, of course, a best selling author but still: this time around, I skimmed and skipped entire chapters. Despite the intense subject matter, this time the book was boring. The characters were not only two dimensional, but they keenly reflected the stereotypes of the 60s.
We've come a long way in understanding and depicting human beings.
August 15, 2024
I first read Leon Uris, more than 25 years back while still in school. I still remember the impact his novels had on me. It was his works that got me fascinated by the world of books and developed in me a life long interest in history and the Jewish people. Son of a polish immigrant who participated in the American side of World War 2, he beautifully intertwines facts and fictions.
Based on the Warsaw ghetto uprising, it is more than a historical novel, “lest we forget”. One realizes it was not just the Germans, but the Polish and the Ukrainians who actively participated in the holocaust and the “final solution”. Extremely moving and unsettling, the novel is a must read for all who want to now the genesis of the pride Jews have for their nation. Shalom alekhem !
Based on the Warsaw ghetto uprising, it is more than a historical novel, “lest we forget”. One realizes it was not just the Germans, but the Polish and the Ukrainians who actively participated in the holocaust and the “final solution”. Extremely moving and unsettling, the novel is a must read for all who want to now the genesis of the pride Jews have for their nation. Shalom alekhem !
December 21, 2009
A compelling, dramatic account of the Rising in the Warsaw Ghetto.
April 15, 2019
Outstanding book! I really like Leon Uris as an author with his insight and writing style.
June 11, 2016
I am left stunned by this story. It is a story; not a lot is known about what actually happened, about who were the participants, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and here a riveting story has been crafted around the known facts. But even the known facts are astonishing; that a group of essentially unarmed Jews in the Ghetto that had been created by the Nazis took on the German war machine and held out for 42 days - longer than Poland itself.
There is surviving testimony as to what took place but it hardly matters - it is the sort of action that was bound to become mythologised. Even, recent research suggests, to the point of the person supposed to have led the Jews in their revolt never having existed. Well, someone led them and very competently too, obviously.
I cried. And I have to agree, pacifist that I am and all, that the one justification for fighting is a refusal of tyranny.
There is surviving testimony as to what took place but it hardly matters - it is the sort of action that was bound to become mythologised. Even, recent research suggests, to the point of the person supposed to have led the Jews in their revolt never having existed. Well, someone led them and very competently too, obviously.
I cried. And I have to agree, pacifist that I am and all, that the one justification for fighting is a refusal of tyranny.
June 7, 2008
I read Mila 18 immediately after Armageddon and I thought they made a great combination. Everyone has heard of the Warsaw Ghetto but I never quite understood just what happened there. This book was a great illustration of that bit of history. Again, the novel is about people in inhuman conditions trying to find some hope for the future, refusing to be trodden under the boots of megalomaniacs. But as we know from history the events in Warsaw were a horror and a tragedy so be prepared for another gut-wrenching ending.
September 5, 2013
A reread for me, having first read this back in 1961 or '62. I remembered it as being a very powerful fictionalized version of history back then. It has not lost any of that impact over time.
I credit Uris with laying the ground work for my long lasting love of the fictionalized history genre that I enjoy today. Anytime I can learn something factual from a fast paced novel, it's a good read.
I credit Uris with laying the ground work for my long lasting love of the fictionalized history genre that I enjoy today. Anytime I can learn something factual from a fast paced novel, it's a good read.
September 9, 2013
The #4 bestseller of 1961 was another door stopper but mostly a page turner. It is the second version I have read of events concerning the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. I also read John Hersey's The Wall as part of my reading list for 1950. Each book takes a slightly different look at this atrocity but it is hard to say which is better.
Because he is Leon Uris, he had to put several love stories in his version, but compared to his 1958 bestseller Exodus this book is so much better in terms of writing style and the characters. He makes clear the evil deeds of Hitler and his henchmen when it came to their treatment of Jews, the ways that they fumbled towards the "final solution," the psychopathic inhumanity of all involved, and the methods used to spin the news about what was happening.
In contrast, we see the bravery and humanity of the Jewish leaders as they try to keep as many as possible alive in that ghetto. Mila 18 is the name of the building inside the ghetto where the Jewish resistance had their headquarters.
Both this book and The Wall make it clear that the journals and diaries of certain people inside the ghetto are responsible for the knowledge we now have about what happened there. Even as the final residents were being obliterated, some took the steps necessary to keep the journals secure and get the information about their locations into safe hands.
To me, that is a story worth telling at least twice. As our continuous wars go on, seemingly always presented as a necessary slaughter of people, whether of another religion or another political system, it is sobering to read about how mankind has forever succumbed to such madness. But it is also steadying to read about the victims who resist, who record, and thus live on.
February 8, 2017
54 von 100 für dieses Meisterwerk des zionistischen Realismus. Aufgerundet auf drei Sterne wegen der deutlichen Steigerung gegenüber Exodus, bei dem es sich um ein ziemlich wirres Sammelsurium von Reportage, zionistischer Propaganda und Superheldenmythos gehandelt hatte. Allerdings gehörten die Kapitel mit der Lebensgeschichte Dov Landaus und dem Ghettoaufstand zu den zu kurz gekommenen Aktivposten des Welterfolgs.
Im Vergleich mit dem Kuddelmuddel Exodus, in dem zuletzt so ziemlich jeder Erzählfaden verloren ging, ist die zionistische Umnähung der Muster des sozialistischen Realismus durch einen militanten Antikommunisten schon eine kreative Meisterleistung. Abgesehen von den ausgewählten historischen Fakten folgt Uris getreu dem in der Tolstoj-Nachfolge kreiierten Schnittmuster, nur dass eben die Juden hier die Kommunisten sind, die den zukünftigen Sieg und die spätere Staatsgründung immer schon im Hintergrund haben, auch wenn die Reaktion in dieser Phase noch mal einen Pyrrhus-Sieg feiern darf.
Hauptheld und Supermann Andrej ist in Sachen Kampfkraft ein Ari Ben Kanaan-Klon, da er aber auch eine Wende vom polnischen Patrioten zum Zionisten durchmacht, handelt es sich um eine typische Tolstoj- bzw. SR-Figur. Der amerikanisch-italienische Journalist Chris de Monti ist die zweite, schwächere Heldenfigur, ein enttäuschter Idealist, der aus verschmähter Liebe zeitweise auf die falsche Seite gerät, mit der Übermittlung des ersten Berichts über die Vernichtungslager letztlich wieder auf die richtige Seite zurück kehrt.
Chris wird von seinem zeitweiligen Nazigönner, dem dauergeilen Propagandisten von Epp höchstpersönlich im Ghetto abgeladen, als der ihm auf die Schliche kommt, weil der den SS-Schergen nichts gönnt und schon über das Kriegsende hinaus denkt. Von Epp ist so etwas wie die verlorene Seele auf der Naziseite, der Medientechnokrat, wie man heute sagen würde, hat an den Mythen über die Juden mitgestrickt, verachtet aber die Nazis und verspottet sogar die lange Zeit vergeblichen Mühen das Ghetto aufzulösen. Derartige gewissenlose Besserwisser gehören auch zum Arsenal einschlägiger weltanschaulicher Literatur, genauso wie der zum Judenrat verkommene Ex-Professor Paul Bronski, für den sein persönliches Fortkommen und die eigene Geltungssucht an erster Stelle steht, so dass er zum willigen Vollstrecker der Deporatationsbefehle wird und darüber die Achtung seiner Familie verliert, die samt und sonders in den Widerstand geht.
Da es sich um ein zionistisches Buch und nicht um ein politische korrektes Machwerk handelt, nimmt Uris auch beschnittene Ungläubige und Unbelehrbare aufs Korn, die noch aus jeder Notlage ihren Schnitt machen müssen. Zu diesem Abschaum, der sämtliche Vorurteile der Nazis bedient gehört der Ganev Max Kleppermann, der für neue Rekordgewinne zahlreiche Hungertote unter seinen Mitjuden in Kauf nimmt, ehe ihm die Nazis seine Auslandskonten und sein Leben nehmen. Nicht minder faszinierend ist der unter Exzemen und Impotenz leidenden Chef des jüdischen Ordnungdienstes, Warsinski, der einst aus Protest gegen seine elende jüdische Kindheit katholisch geworden war, ehe ihn die Rassenpolitik der Nazis unter die Juden zurück warf. Als Herr über Leben und Tod lässt er sich schon mal einige Gerechte abkaufen. Der Moment, in dem Ghetto-Chronist Alexander Brandel sein Büro für den ersten derartige Menschenhandel ist auch sonst so weit bezeichnend für die Prosa dieses Buches, im Guten wie auch sonst: Auch Warsinski, der Konvertit, dessen Hass auf die Juden der Niedertracht und Bösartigkeit des »Korps Reinhard« ebenbürtig war, fürchtete Brandel. Von einem nervösen, juckenden Ausschlag waren seine Handrücken tiefrot. Beim Anblick Brandels, als dieser sein Büro betrat, begann er seine Hände mit den Fingernägeln zu kratzen, so dass sich seine Haut in blutige Schuppen verwandelte.
Später werden die Gerechten über Warsinski herfallen und schadenfroh dabei zusehen wie der sonst für Abtransportquote prügelnde Ordnungsdienst von der SS zu den Zügen in Richtung Ofen abtransportiert wird. Genauso wie die Judenräte. Im weiteren Verlauf geraten auch die kampfesmüden Revisionisten beim Versuch sich durch die Kanäle davon zu stehlen in deutsches Giftgas, Uris lässt keinen entkommen, aber erst einmal die nicht ganz so entschlossenen sterben.
Natürlich gibt es auch jede Menge Nazi-Kretins wie Bronskis Nachfolger auf dem Lehrstuhl für Medizin, den immer korrupter und fetter werdenden Franz König, den unter Waschzwang leidenden SS-Chef Alfred Funk, den von Epp mit immer neuen Nadelstichen reizt. Dazu werden jede Menge SS-Schergen, die seit Babi Jar und anderen Einsatzkommandos nicht mehr so gut schlafen können, im Verlauf des nie da gewesenen heldenhaften Widerstands von Andrej Androfski und seinen Mitstreitern dauerhaft und endgültig von ihren Leiden kuriert.
Die Underdog-Geschichte mit den anerkanntesten Bösewichtern der Weltgeschichte und einem breiten Spektrum von Gerechten, eigentlich Guten und jede Menge Schurken auf beiden Seiten, lässt dem Leser kaum eine Wahl bei der Identifizierung mit den wahren Helden des Widerstandes, dabei sollte man aber nicht vergessen, dass der alte Kommunistenfresser das literarische Muster des Lieblingsfeinds des kalten Krieges genutzt hat, um einen einigermaßen funktionierenden Roman zu schreiben. Selbstverständlich kann man sich von den Schicksalen aus Mila 18 rühren lassen, aber letztendlich sollte man darüber nicht vergessen, dass der zionistische Propagandist Uris ein paar historische Fakten in ein, sagen wir mal, bewährtes literarisches Muster gepresst hat, um sein erstes Buch fertig zu kriegen, das auch den Titel Roman verdient.
Im Vergleich mit dem Kuddelmuddel Exodus, in dem zuletzt so ziemlich jeder Erzählfaden verloren ging, ist die zionistische Umnähung der Muster des sozialistischen Realismus durch einen militanten Antikommunisten schon eine kreative Meisterleistung. Abgesehen von den ausgewählten historischen Fakten folgt Uris getreu dem in der Tolstoj-Nachfolge kreiierten Schnittmuster, nur dass eben die Juden hier die Kommunisten sind, die den zukünftigen Sieg und die spätere Staatsgründung immer schon im Hintergrund haben, auch wenn die Reaktion in dieser Phase noch mal einen Pyrrhus-Sieg feiern darf.
Hauptheld und Supermann Andrej ist in Sachen Kampfkraft ein Ari Ben Kanaan-Klon, da er aber auch eine Wende vom polnischen Patrioten zum Zionisten durchmacht, handelt es sich um eine typische Tolstoj- bzw. SR-Figur. Der amerikanisch-italienische Journalist Chris de Monti ist die zweite, schwächere Heldenfigur, ein enttäuschter Idealist, der aus verschmähter Liebe zeitweise auf die falsche Seite gerät, mit der Übermittlung des ersten Berichts über die Vernichtungslager letztlich wieder auf die richtige Seite zurück kehrt.
Chris wird von seinem zeitweiligen Nazigönner, dem dauergeilen Propagandisten von Epp höchstpersönlich im Ghetto abgeladen, als der ihm auf die Schliche kommt, weil der den SS-Schergen nichts gönnt und schon über das Kriegsende hinaus denkt. Von Epp ist so etwas wie die verlorene Seele auf der Naziseite, der Medientechnokrat, wie man heute sagen würde, hat an den Mythen über die Juden mitgestrickt, verachtet aber die Nazis und verspottet sogar die lange Zeit vergeblichen Mühen das Ghetto aufzulösen. Derartige gewissenlose Besserwisser gehören auch zum Arsenal einschlägiger weltanschaulicher Literatur, genauso wie der zum Judenrat verkommene Ex-Professor Paul Bronski, für den sein persönliches Fortkommen und die eigene Geltungssucht an erster Stelle steht, so dass er zum willigen Vollstrecker der Deporatationsbefehle wird und darüber die Achtung seiner Familie verliert, die samt und sonders in den Widerstand geht.
Da es sich um ein zionistisches Buch und nicht um ein politische korrektes Machwerk handelt, nimmt Uris auch beschnittene Ungläubige und Unbelehrbare aufs Korn, die noch aus jeder Notlage ihren Schnitt machen müssen. Zu diesem Abschaum, der sämtliche Vorurteile der Nazis bedient gehört der Ganev Max Kleppermann, der für neue Rekordgewinne zahlreiche Hungertote unter seinen Mitjuden in Kauf nimmt, ehe ihm die Nazis seine Auslandskonten und sein Leben nehmen. Nicht minder faszinierend ist der unter Exzemen und Impotenz leidenden Chef des jüdischen Ordnungdienstes, Warsinski, der einst aus Protest gegen seine elende jüdische Kindheit katholisch geworden war, ehe ihn die Rassenpolitik der Nazis unter die Juden zurück warf. Als Herr über Leben und Tod lässt er sich schon mal einige Gerechte abkaufen. Der Moment, in dem Ghetto-Chronist Alexander Brandel sein Büro für den ersten derartige Menschenhandel ist auch sonst so weit bezeichnend für die Prosa dieses Buches, im Guten wie auch sonst: Auch Warsinski, der Konvertit, dessen Hass auf die Juden der Niedertracht und Bösartigkeit des »Korps Reinhard« ebenbürtig war, fürchtete Brandel. Von einem nervösen, juckenden Ausschlag waren seine Handrücken tiefrot. Beim Anblick Brandels, als dieser sein Büro betrat, begann er seine Hände mit den Fingernägeln zu kratzen, so dass sich seine Haut in blutige Schuppen verwandelte.
Später werden die Gerechten über Warsinski herfallen und schadenfroh dabei zusehen wie der sonst für Abtransportquote prügelnde Ordnungsdienst von der SS zu den Zügen in Richtung Ofen abtransportiert wird. Genauso wie die Judenräte. Im weiteren Verlauf geraten auch die kampfesmüden Revisionisten beim Versuch sich durch die Kanäle davon zu stehlen in deutsches Giftgas, Uris lässt keinen entkommen, aber erst einmal die nicht ganz so entschlossenen sterben.
Natürlich gibt es auch jede Menge Nazi-Kretins wie Bronskis Nachfolger auf dem Lehrstuhl für Medizin, den immer korrupter und fetter werdenden Franz König, den unter Waschzwang leidenden SS-Chef Alfred Funk, den von Epp mit immer neuen Nadelstichen reizt. Dazu werden jede Menge SS-Schergen, die seit Babi Jar und anderen Einsatzkommandos nicht mehr so gut schlafen können, im Verlauf des nie da gewesenen heldenhaften Widerstands von Andrej Androfski und seinen Mitstreitern dauerhaft und endgültig von ihren Leiden kuriert.
Die Underdog-Geschichte mit den anerkanntesten Bösewichtern der Weltgeschichte und einem breiten Spektrum von Gerechten, eigentlich Guten und jede Menge Schurken auf beiden Seiten, lässt dem Leser kaum eine Wahl bei der Identifizierung mit den wahren Helden des Widerstandes, dabei sollte man aber nicht vergessen, dass der alte Kommunistenfresser das literarische Muster des Lieblingsfeinds des kalten Krieges genutzt hat, um einen einigermaßen funktionierenden Roman zu schreiben. Selbstverständlich kann man sich von den Schicksalen aus Mila 18 rühren lassen, aber letztendlich sollte man darüber nicht vergessen, dass der zionistische Propagandist Uris ein paar historische Fakten in ein, sagen wir mal, bewährtes literarisches Muster gepresst hat, um sein erstes Buch fertig zu kriegen, das auch den Titel Roman verdient.
December 12, 2014
Mila 18 has a copyright of 1961 making it over 50 years old. I probably read it 30 years ago but found my way to it again after visiting Warsaw, Poland and learning a little bit about the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto during WWII. This book is a fictional account of that event.
It took me a while to get into this book but once I did, I found myself sobbing over the plight of the Jews with some regularity. As the book tells us, “The Warsaw Ghetto…once held nearly six hundred thousand people. That number was decimated by starvation, disease, executions, deportation to slave labor, and finally assembly-line murder in Treblinka. [By September 1942] less than fifty thousand remained.” It was at this point that the people in the Ghetto, banded together to fight back.
The book does a fine job of describing the factions in the ghetto that prevented an earlier uprising. It did a fine job of showing the mindset it took to fight in the face of certain defeat. And it did a fine job of showing the perseverance and cunning of the Jews who lasted in battle for over a month - from April 13, 1943 through May 16, 1943. This was a miracle unto itself.
Miracle or not, the Jews lost the uprising. 600,000 Jews of Warsaw - gone. What is there to say? It is a wrenching tale worthy of our attention and of our tears.
It took me a while to get into this book but once I did, I found myself sobbing over the plight of the Jews with some regularity. As the book tells us, “The Warsaw Ghetto…once held nearly six hundred thousand people. That number was decimated by starvation, disease, executions, deportation to slave labor, and finally assembly-line murder in Treblinka. [By September 1942] less than fifty thousand remained.” It was at this point that the people in the Ghetto, banded together to fight back.
The book does a fine job of describing the factions in the ghetto that prevented an earlier uprising. It did a fine job of showing the mindset it took to fight in the face of certain defeat. And it did a fine job of showing the perseverance and cunning of the Jews who lasted in battle for over a month - from April 13, 1943 through May 16, 1943. This was a miracle unto itself.
Miracle or not, the Jews lost the uprising. 600,000 Jews of Warsaw - gone. What is there to say? It is a wrenching tale worthy of our attention and of our tears.
May 21, 2019
I recommend this book. The real events were told through fictitious characters. The book opens with the first salvo of WWII when Germany invaded Poland. The 'sub-human' Jews and other undesirables were rounded up like cattle and herded into the ghettos of Warsaw, Poland. What they did to survive slaughter is the meat of this book. Living in the ghetto meant a life of hunger, thirst, fear and a declining will to live. The ghetto dwellers eventually moved underground where even the healing rays of sunlight were lost to them. As their survival instincts flagged, they held to a singular purpose of getting their story out to the world. Several men wrote daily diaries describing the Jew experience in the Warsaw ghettos. The diaries were hidden in several places known to only a few people. One of those few had to survive to retrieve the diaries. One did survive. So we know the story of how the Jews were persecuted and how they fought and held a Goliath army for over a month using mostly crude instruments of war. However one might feel about the holocaust, those feelings will be changed by this book.
Thank you, Mr. Uris, for a good read.
(Leon Uris died in 2003.)
I retread this book May, 2019. It was even better the second time.
Thank you, Mr. Uris, for a good read.
(Leon Uris died in 2003.)
I retread this book May, 2019. It was even better the second time.
January 17, 2017
Very powerful novel about the Warsaw Ghetto and the Jewish Uprising there during WWII. I've read quite a bit about the Holocaust but this is the first novel I've read about the Warsaw Ghetto and the courageous fighters who faced the Nazis with limited weapons including homemade bombs and their bare hands. This novel by Uris was sweeping in scope telling the story of Poland and Warsaw before the German invasion in 1939 and through the horrors of the ghetto. The novel focuses on a group of people including Jews, Polish non-Jews, and Germans. The Jewish characters and the Poles who helped them were very believable and Uris’ descriptions made me feel their pain as they fought their oppressors. The German characters were sufficiently evil and there was no question that I despised them and everything they stood for. Every time I read something about the Holocaust, I can't believe how man can be so inhuman towards man!
This novel was written in 1961 and some of the first part of the novel was a little soap-operaish, in line with other novels of the time like Harold Robbins and Irving Wallace. But overall, I would definitely recommend this one. I have read QBVII by Uris which I would also recommend and I most definitely will be reading more of his work.
This novel was written in 1961 and some of the first part of the novel was a little soap-operaish, in line with other novels of the time like Harold Robbins and Irving Wallace. But overall, I would definitely recommend this one. I have read QBVII by Uris which I would also recommend and I most definitely will be reading more of his work.
October 30, 2015
El autor cuenta a través de un grupo de personajes ficticios (aunque no tanto) la invasión de Polonia por los alemanes durante la II Guerra Mundial y como los judíos fueron discriminados, acorralados y exterminados por los nazis. Y, en concreto, narra un episodio real, aunque poco nombrado en los documentales y libros, como es el levantamiento del gueto de Varsovia: como un puñado de judíos, enfermos, hambrientos, casi sin armas, mantuvieron en jaque durante semanas a las fuerzas alemanas. Y sobre todo muestra que, a pesar de que lo quieran negar, los alemanes no tenían el monopolio del antisemitismo. La escena en que el jefe de la resistencia polaca se niega a admitir judíos en su organización es tristemente verídica; y la indiferencia del mundo ante el sufrimiento de las víctimas del holocausto nadie lo puede negar.
June 6, 2022
It is incredible; the will to survive. That's what this book sums up for me. This book is about the destruction and the rebellion of the jews of Warsaw. It's easy to see the kind of dirty politics that were played to annihilate Polish jews. The reason is too feeble but the seeds of thought allowed for a massacre of jews because of a people who acceded to that reason and allowed for the horrible events to happen, that now are etched into history forever. Some chapters are truly heart-wrenching; you just stay still, unable to move by what you've just read.
Though it is fiction, this book is based on facts so it stays very close to the truth of the devastating acts by the Nazis on the Jews of Warsaw. Definitely recommend!
Though it is fiction, this book is based on facts so it stays very close to the truth of the devastating acts by the Nazis on the Jews of Warsaw. Definitely recommend!
June 7, 2008
Oh my gosh this book really expanded my view about World War Two! By the end I found myself crying. When Andrei escaped from the Germans to return to Warsaw and lead the resistance i thought it was an amazing show of courage and determination. This book also showed how the Jews were left to fend for themselves. There were precious few that stayed to offer assistance to those trapped in Warsaw. Even though they perish at the end you still get a feeling of respect for these characters and the sacrifices they made to stand up for what they believe in!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 11, 2021
History speaks of two insurrections against Nazi rule that erupted in Warsaw during World War II. Americans sometimes confuse the two. Chronologically, the second of these events was the Warsaw Uprising led by Polish partisans that unfolded from August 1 to October 2, 1944. The event is remembered because a huge Soviet army had advanced to within the city limits but declined to intervene on behalf of the Poles, who were systematically slaughtered by the Germans.
THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING
A year and a half earlier—from April 19 to May 16, 1943, the Jewish Combat Organization, or ZOB, battled SS troops and their local collaborators who had moved in to the Warsaw Ghetto to slaughter the estimated 70,000 to 80,000 Jews remaining there. (Some 265,000 others from the ghetto’s population when the Germans established it in October 1940 had earlier been deported to the Treblinka extermination camp.) Popular novelist Leon Uris memorialized the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in his explosive bestselling novel, Mila 18. His story, published sixty years ago when World War II was less than two decades in the past, examines the experience of the 400,000 Jews who lived in the city as the war arrived.
TWO INTERLOCKING FAMILIES AT THE CENTER OF THE TALE
To dramatize the events that unfolded from September 1939, when the Nazis invaded Poland, to April 1943, Uris follows the misfortunes of two Jewish families and their friends as well as the German officials and military officers who engineered the massacre of the Warsaw Ghetto.
PAUL BRONSKI
Dr. Paul Bronski is an eminent physician. He serves in the prestigious post of Dean of the School of Medicine at Warsaw University until the Nazis force him and all other Jewish academics out of their jobs. He does not identify as Jewish. However, his wife, Deborah, is a believer. She and her brother, Andrei Androfski, are the children of pious Orthodox Jewish parents. And Andrei is militant in his Judaism, a leader in the Zionist movement that had gained a foothold in Poland over the preceding half-century.
ANDREI ANDROFSKI
As the novel opens, Andrei serves as a lieutenant in a storied Ulany regiment, a crack cavalry unit of the Polish Army. After distinguishing himself in the nation’s defense against the invasion, he is elevated to captain. He’s a big man, a ferocious fighter, and a survivor, and we witness him taking a leading role in the Jewish underground movement that launches the defense of the ghetto. However, his Judaism notwithstanding, he falls in love with a Polish woman, Gabriela Rak, who herself later plays a significant role in the underground. “If a shiksa was good enough for Moses,” he tells a friend, “a shiksa is good enough for Androfski.”
CHRISTOPHER DE MONTI
Journalist Christopher de Monti is involved in another forbidden romance, his with Deborah Bronski. The two are passionately in love, but Deborah will not leave Paul behind or upset her two children. Chris is the man in Poland for the Swiss News Service. He carries an Italian passport, but his mother is American and he identifies more closely with the USA than with Italy. He is at loggerheads with his father, a wealthy Italian aristocrat in bed with Mussolini’s fascists. Together with a Polish Jew, Ervin Rosenblum, Chris labors to evade Nazi obstructions and a smokescreen of propaganda to get the truth out to the world about events in Poland.
ALEXANDER BRANDEL
Alexander Brandel is among Andrei’s friends but represents a great contrast to him. He is an intellectual. His journal of the events around him morphs into a collaborative effort involving dozens of others once they are forced into the ghetto and the Nazis’ intentions start to become clear. Alex’s son, Wolf Brandel, sixteen years old as the novel opens, falls in love with Rachel Bronski, and they manage to spend time together despite the strictures of family and the war. Wolf will become a central figure in the uprising.
CHIEF CHARACTERS AMONG THE GERMANS
DR. FRANZ KOENIG
Franz Koenig had smarted for years, ever since the Jew Paul Bronski had risen to become Dean of the Medical School. When his chance comes, he exults in humiliating his former boss, even evicting the family from his palatial home and moving in himself. And when the Nazis move to exert close control over events in Warsaw, they find in Koenig a useful collaborator. He, in turn, becomes embroiled in black market operations and gains great wealth stolen from Jewish families. The Germans are content to let him act as he will because he serves as a useful adviser to the clueless Nazi officials placed in control over the city.
RUDOLPH SCHREIKER
Rudolph Schreiker is named Commissar of Warsaw once the Germans break through on their siege of the city. He is a remarkably stupid man, raised far above his abilities because of his ardent loyalty to the Führer. Koenig finds him easy to manipulate.
HORST VON EPP
Dispatched from Berlin, where he developed much of the Nazi propaganda used so effectively by Joseph Goebbels, Horst von Epp is a literate and courtly man who has little sympathy for the Nazis he is forced to work with. His chief role in the story is as a brake on the impulsive and irrational actions of Oberführer (Colonel) Alfred Funk.
ALFRED FUNK
Alfred Funk is the communications link between Adolf Eichmann and Reinhard Heydrich in Berlin and the top Nazis in Poland. He carries orders to Warsaw from the German capital and the top officials in occupied Poland, who are located not in Warsaw but in Lublin and Kraków. Funk is the overall commander of German forces in Warsaw and bears overall responsibility for crushing the Warsaw Uprising.
Other Nazi officers, including Eichmann and Heydrich, appear off-stage in central roles as the Nazis’ “Final Solution” unfolds under their leadership.
A STIRRING ACCOUNT, BUT MELODRAMATIC
MIla 18 is a stirring account of human courage in the face of insurmountable odds. I’ve never seen anywhere else such a detailed picture of the events of March and April 1943, week by week and often day by day. Not in any novel of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising or any history book. The focus on the Bronski and Brandel families lends the tale an intimate touch. The writing, however, is never brilliant. And at times the story comes across as melodramatic.
ON A PERSONAL NOTE
In 1965, after I cut short my graduate school education at Columbia University, I spent the summer and early fall traveling in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Scandinavia, with short stops toward the end in Germany, France, and the UK. It was what used to be called the Grand Tour. (I financed the hideously expensive trip with money I’d made speculating on the stock and commodity markets while cutting classes at Columbia.) The trip was an eye-opener.
I began my trip through Eastern Europe in Poland, visiting Kraków, Auschwitz, and Warsaw. The experience was shattering. Of course, Auschwitz was by far the most troubling, as I could easily imagine that some of the bones and hanks of hair and eyeglasses I saw heaped up in displays there had once belonged to distant relatives of mine. But Warsaw, too, was a shock.
The siege of Warsaw in 1939, the two uprisings, and the devastating artillery bombardment by the Soviet army in 1945 left little standing in the “Paris of the East.” And when I visited the city twenty years after the war, broad vistas of rubble still met my eye. The USSR, more intent on looting what little of value had been left behind by the Nazis, had done little to rebuild beyond erecting a few ugly high-rise apartment buildings. It was a sobering reminder of how important government can be.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leon Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish immigrants. His father was Polish, his mother first-generation Russian-American. He enlisted with the Marines and served in World War II in the Pacific, fighting as a radioman in combat on Guadalcanal and Tarawa from 1942 through 1944. Uris’s fame rests largely on his 1958 novel Exodus, but he wrote many other bestselling books over nearly half a century. His career had begun in 1953 with the publication of another widely read title, Battle Cry.
THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING
A year and a half earlier—from April 19 to May 16, 1943, the Jewish Combat Organization, or ZOB, battled SS troops and their local collaborators who had moved in to the Warsaw Ghetto to slaughter the estimated 70,000 to 80,000 Jews remaining there. (Some 265,000 others from the ghetto’s population when the Germans established it in October 1940 had earlier been deported to the Treblinka extermination camp.) Popular novelist Leon Uris memorialized the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in his explosive bestselling novel, Mila 18. His story, published sixty years ago when World War II was less than two decades in the past, examines the experience of the 400,000 Jews who lived in the city as the war arrived.
TWO INTERLOCKING FAMILIES AT THE CENTER OF THE TALE
To dramatize the events that unfolded from September 1939, when the Nazis invaded Poland, to April 1943, Uris follows the misfortunes of two Jewish families and their friends as well as the German officials and military officers who engineered the massacre of the Warsaw Ghetto.
PAUL BRONSKI
Dr. Paul Bronski is an eminent physician. He serves in the prestigious post of Dean of the School of Medicine at Warsaw University until the Nazis force him and all other Jewish academics out of their jobs. He does not identify as Jewish. However, his wife, Deborah, is a believer. She and her brother, Andrei Androfski, are the children of pious Orthodox Jewish parents. And Andrei is militant in his Judaism, a leader in the Zionist movement that had gained a foothold in Poland over the preceding half-century.
ANDREI ANDROFSKI
As the novel opens, Andrei serves as a lieutenant in a storied Ulany regiment, a crack cavalry unit of the Polish Army. After distinguishing himself in the nation’s defense against the invasion, he is elevated to captain. He’s a big man, a ferocious fighter, and a survivor, and we witness him taking a leading role in the Jewish underground movement that launches the defense of the ghetto. However, his Judaism notwithstanding, he falls in love with a Polish woman, Gabriela Rak, who herself later plays a significant role in the underground. “If a shiksa was good enough for Moses,” he tells a friend, “a shiksa is good enough for Androfski.”
CHRISTOPHER DE MONTI
Journalist Christopher de Monti is involved in another forbidden romance, his with Deborah Bronski. The two are passionately in love, but Deborah will not leave Paul behind or upset her two children. Chris is the man in Poland for the Swiss News Service. He carries an Italian passport, but his mother is American and he identifies more closely with the USA than with Italy. He is at loggerheads with his father, a wealthy Italian aristocrat in bed with Mussolini’s fascists. Together with a Polish Jew, Ervin Rosenblum, Chris labors to evade Nazi obstructions and a smokescreen of propaganda to get the truth out to the world about events in Poland.
ALEXANDER BRANDEL
Alexander Brandel is among Andrei’s friends but represents a great contrast to him. He is an intellectual. His journal of the events around him morphs into a collaborative effort involving dozens of others once they are forced into the ghetto and the Nazis’ intentions start to become clear. Alex’s son, Wolf Brandel, sixteen years old as the novel opens, falls in love with Rachel Bronski, and they manage to spend time together despite the strictures of family and the war. Wolf will become a central figure in the uprising.
CHIEF CHARACTERS AMONG THE GERMANS
DR. FRANZ KOENIG
Franz Koenig had smarted for years, ever since the Jew Paul Bronski had risen to become Dean of the Medical School. When his chance comes, he exults in humiliating his former boss, even evicting the family from his palatial home and moving in himself. And when the Nazis move to exert close control over events in Warsaw, they find in Koenig a useful collaborator. He, in turn, becomes embroiled in black market operations and gains great wealth stolen from Jewish families. The Germans are content to let him act as he will because he serves as a useful adviser to the clueless Nazi officials placed in control over the city.
RUDOLPH SCHREIKER
Rudolph Schreiker is named Commissar of Warsaw once the Germans break through on their siege of the city. He is a remarkably stupid man, raised far above his abilities because of his ardent loyalty to the Führer. Koenig finds him easy to manipulate.
HORST VON EPP
Dispatched from Berlin, where he developed much of the Nazi propaganda used so effectively by Joseph Goebbels, Horst von Epp is a literate and courtly man who has little sympathy for the Nazis he is forced to work with. His chief role in the story is as a brake on the impulsive and irrational actions of Oberführer (Colonel) Alfred Funk.
ALFRED FUNK
Alfred Funk is the communications link between Adolf Eichmann and Reinhard Heydrich in Berlin and the top Nazis in Poland. He carries orders to Warsaw from the German capital and the top officials in occupied Poland, who are located not in Warsaw but in Lublin and Kraków. Funk is the overall commander of German forces in Warsaw and bears overall responsibility for crushing the Warsaw Uprising.
Other Nazi officers, including Eichmann and Heydrich, appear off-stage in central roles as the Nazis’ “Final Solution” unfolds under their leadership.
A STIRRING ACCOUNT, BUT MELODRAMATIC
MIla 18 is a stirring account of human courage in the face of insurmountable odds. I’ve never seen anywhere else such a detailed picture of the events of March and April 1943, week by week and often day by day. Not in any novel of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising or any history book. The focus on the Bronski and Brandel families lends the tale an intimate touch. The writing, however, is never brilliant. And at times the story comes across as melodramatic.
ON A PERSONAL NOTE
In 1965, after I cut short my graduate school education at Columbia University, I spent the summer and early fall traveling in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Scandinavia, with short stops toward the end in Germany, France, and the UK. It was what used to be called the Grand Tour. (I financed the hideously expensive trip with money I’d made speculating on the stock and commodity markets while cutting classes at Columbia.) The trip was an eye-opener.
I began my trip through Eastern Europe in Poland, visiting Kraków, Auschwitz, and Warsaw. The experience was shattering. Of course, Auschwitz was by far the most troubling, as I could easily imagine that some of the bones and hanks of hair and eyeglasses I saw heaped up in displays there had once belonged to distant relatives of mine. But Warsaw, too, was a shock.
The siege of Warsaw in 1939, the two uprisings, and the devastating artillery bombardment by the Soviet army in 1945 left little standing in the “Paris of the East.” And when I visited the city twenty years after the war, broad vistas of rubble still met my eye. The USSR, more intent on looting what little of value had been left behind by the Nazis, had done little to rebuild beyond erecting a few ugly high-rise apartment buildings. It was a sobering reminder of how important government can be.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leon Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish immigrants. His father was Polish, his mother first-generation Russian-American. He enlisted with the Marines and served in World War II in the Pacific, fighting as a radioman in combat on Guadalcanal and Tarawa from 1942 through 1944. Uris’s fame rests largely on his 1958 novel Exodus, but he wrote many other bestselling books over nearly half a century. His career had begun in 1953 with the publication of another widely read title, Battle Cry.
December 5, 2018
Great novel. Leon Uris never dissapoints. I have read two of his books previously and they were great. Here, we are transported to Poland and the year is 1943 or therabouts. Hitler and his Nazi buddies have invaded Poland with his barbarous goal of exterminating the Jews. In order to tame them he comes up with the idea of recruiting some of their own to control the population. Alongside the Germans, they form the Jewish Civil Authority, Jewish Militia, and others whose work is to transmit the laws of the Gestapo anong their own.
On the other hand, we have the Jewish people who have nothing but their faith and religion. It is a battle between the lions and the lambs. They live in the Ghettos and band together to protect and help one another. Amongst them are Zionists, and different other groups which come together to combat the external aggression. They try to defend their nest the best way they can. But the German dictatorship and arrogance will overun them. They will be banded togather to slave camps, amputated, tortured, burned, and killed.
This was an eye opener to me. I consider myself privileged to have had the opportunity of reading such a great book. It reminded me of the immigration problem in the world. Trumps divisive policies and his America first policy. We are forgetting quickly. Thomas Paine's words are no longer revered by our leaders. He admonished us to have the world as our country, all men our brethren, and to do good our religion. Unfortunately, we have honored him by doing the opposite. Our species has endeavoured to destroy each other in useless wars. And, just like then, the rest of the world stands silently as the innocent suffer and perish.
On the other hand, we have the Jewish people who have nothing but their faith and religion. It is a battle between the lions and the lambs. They live in the Ghettos and band together to protect and help one another. Amongst them are Zionists, and different other groups which come together to combat the external aggression. They try to defend their nest the best way they can. But the German dictatorship and arrogance will overun them. They will be banded togather to slave camps, amputated, tortured, burned, and killed.
This was an eye opener to me. I consider myself privileged to have had the opportunity of reading such a great book. It reminded me of the immigration problem in the world. Trumps divisive policies and his America first policy. We are forgetting quickly. Thomas Paine's words are no longer revered by our leaders. He admonished us to have the world as our country, all men our brethren, and to do good our religion. Unfortunately, we have honored him by doing the opposite. Our species has endeavoured to destroy each other in useless wars. And, just like then, the rest of the world stands silently as the innocent suffer and perish.
October 10, 2017
I first read this book many many years ago but I had forgotten just how powerful it was. During a recent trip to Warsaw I was inspired to read it again. It meant a lot more to me this time as I was able to "see" places mentioned through the lens of my recent travels. It is a novel based on factual events but featuring imaginary characters. Uris did an amazing job making it read as though it was fact. I grew to deeply care for some of the charactors. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Holocaust history..
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