Jack and Rochelle: A Holocaust Story of Love and Resistance | 
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| Authors: Jack Sutin, Rochelle Sutin
Creator: Lawrence Sutin
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 652479
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 225
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 1555972438
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.531809438
EAN: 9781555972431
ASIN: 1555972438
Publication Date: March 1, 1996
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Product Description
Jack and Rochelle Sutin crossed paths in the winter of 1942-43, when, after separate escapes from Nazi ghetto labor camps, they discovered each other in the wooded lands of Poland. The forest where they remained in hiding was a place where many Jews and Russians, the so-called partisans, had fled to in an effort to escape Nazi persecution.
Despite their bleak surroundings—inhuman living conditions and ever-present danger—Jack and Rochelle began a careful courtship that flourished into a deepening love. With a new determination and a thirst for revenge, Jack led partisan raids on nearby Polish farms that were occupied by Nazi sympathizers. Thus was their resistance waged, often in ignorance of what atrocities were being committed in the rest of Europe. Cut off from the outside world, the partisans' survival depended on desperate, makeshift warfare strategies. Maintained by a blind faith and their deep love for one another, Jack and Rochelle survived circumstances that had never before been imposed on a people.
Today, Jack and Rochelle are part of a small group of resistance fighters whose testimony offers all readers and students a unique perspective on this terrible episode of human history. Lawrence Sutin herein presents his parents' story in their own words, stories that he has heard throughout his life. In a thoughtful afterword, he reflects on his experiences as a child of Holocaust survivors.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
Excellent read August 20, 2006
This is a truly amazing story of human courage. Jack and Rochelle were not only brave enough to run away from their Germany captors, but then spent years living in the woods surviving and fighting back. Even after the Russian liberation and their departure from the woods, Jack and Rochelle fought danger constantly until they could get to an American displaced persons camp. They were such survivors. I can't imagine living through what they did, especially at their young ages.
I read this in a day because I couldn't put it down.
horrifying, but inspiring true story December 6, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Jack and Rochelle Sutin were Jewish and met during WWII. I have read many stories of the holocaust from the perspective of the concentration camp. But never a story like Jack and Rochelle's!! They escaped from the ghetto and hid out it the woods during the war. (Small groups of Jews banded together in the woods.) Sound idyllic? Their existence was horrific, dreadful, and desperate! They were often reduced to being like animals. If a woman arrived pregnant, no one wanted her in their group - a baby is noisy and would be too risky. (If the woman was accepted into the group despite her pregnancy, she was forced to kill her newborn or someone in the group killed it for her.) Jewish women, who were alone and did not find a group of Jews to join, often had to perform sexual favors to find someone to take them in or help them. (Cruel and heartless Russian partisans were the worst offenders!) Despite the absolute horror of this true story, the story of Jack and Rochelle is inspiring. They met in the woods, and survived - overcoming great odds. They later married and came to the USA. The book is also well-written, and is an "easy read" in regards to the writing style.
Amazing, riveting, compelling, mind boggling story of love. October 17, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Jack and Rochelle is probably one of the best books I have read in the past 5 yrs. It is truly amazing what they endure during the war and how they survive. There truly isn't any words to describe how much I loved this book. Thank you Jack and Rochelle for writing your experiences! This is a well written and easy to read book. The story is very easy to follow and so important to be read! I hope that everyone has a chance to read this book. It makes you realize you need to be a kinder and more understanding person to others. Hate is an awful thing....and there is still too much of it in our world! Thank you Jack and Rochelle! God bless you both!
compelling narrative of determined Holocaust resistance May 14, 2003
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Ably edited by their son Lawrence, the instructive and inspiring Holocaust narrative of Jack and Rochelle Sutin provides ample proof of both the degradation implicit in the Shoah and the astounding strength and courage Jewish partisans demonstrated in their battle against the attempted Nazi genocide. "Jack and Rochelle" is a deceptively easy book to read; the chapters consist of blended chronological testimonies; Lawrence Sutin honorably avoids imposing his own voice on his parents, instead allowing his mother and father to describe, in their own words, their own cadences, the horrors they faced and the gritty resolve they mustered to fight back. Rarely does a subtitle so accurately depict the contents of a memoir as does their own: "A Holocaust Story of Love and Resistance."Both Jack and Rochelle came from educated and enlightened eastern European Jewish families. As the two of them chronicle the onset of anti-Jewish depradations, they remind us of the rich texture of their pre-war lives. This dimension of humanity, of lives complicated by strained love relations, competitive urges and the deeply felt need for independence, makes the Nazi onslaught all the more unsettling and horrific. Several themes predominate in the Sutins' braided lives. First is the omnipresence of Jew hatred, whether it be in pre or post war Poland, in the brutally repressive Soviet bureaucracy or the finely honed hatred of Nazi Germany. Indifferent neighbors, vicious anti-Jewish Russian partisans (who commit ghastly sexual offenses against women who want nothing more than to join them in battling a common enemy), and the active participants in human eradication, the Nazis, make the Sutins' world one of constant peril. Survival is never taken for granted, and Jack and Rochelle's descriptions of their physical torment, often undertated, is wrenching to read. Personal sacrifice exists on every level: physical, social and spiritual. Rochelle's first child dies within a day due to exposure when its survival imperils others; Jack is literally covered with pus-filled boils as a result of living outside the boundaries of human habitation. Yet, neither Jack or Rochelle never complain, never give themselves away to self-pity. Instead, they are infused with the Judaic command to remember and Rochelle's mother's insistence on revenge, to take action to avenge the murder of their people. In this charged atmosphere of sanguine justice and physical erosion, amidst the rank and fetid habitat of primitive partisan surroundings, hope and love survive. Jack dreams that Rochelle will appear. She does. Despite sexual abuse and spiritual depletion, Rochelle gradually accepts and receives Jack's love. He has never stopped loving her. "Jack and Rochelle" is above all a cry of victory. It is a cry that murder and eradication cannot conquer a people. It is a cry that memory and consecration to life will prevail over death. It is a cry that love can endure, even if it is formed in the absolute crucible of death.
Survivors of WWII in Poland January 10, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
A true story well told. An uplifting story about the power of love, faith, and self reliance. The unbelievable resiliance of humans to survive and keep their sanity in a world gone crazy. The book does not dwell on the horrors or even give explicit descriptions. The two main characters had a hard enough time and were not physically tortured or held prisoner. They simply hid out and lived in terror for several years until miraculously making their escape to the West. These were two lucky people who nevertheless suffered years of fear and depradation.
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