2024 the best female dancer in the world review

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“An extraordinary story of an unconventional, nervy woman and her determination to survive.” —The New York Post

Paul Glaser was an adult when he learned the truth about his heritage. Raised in a devout Roman Catholic home in the Netherlands, he had never known his father was Jewish and that their family had suffered great losses during the World War II. When Paul inquired, his father refused to provide details about the war, the camps, and especially Rosie, Paul’s estranged aunt.

Shortly after this discovery, Paul started an investigation into his family’s past, desperate to get to the bottom of the long-standing rift between his father and Rosie. His research led him to a collection of Rosie’s wartime diaries, photographs, and letters, which told the dramatic story of a woman who was caught up in the tragic sweep of World War II.
Rosie Glaser was a magnificent woman; despite everything, she remained hopeful, exuberant, and, most importantly, cunning. When the Nazis seized power, Rosie, a nonpracticing Jew, entered dangerous territory, managing a hidden dance school and participating in whispered conversations and secret rendezvous. She was eventually caught and sent to a series of concentration camps.

She survived, though, in part by giving dance and etiquette lessons to her captors, who favored her and looked out for her in return. Of the twelve hundred people who arrived with her in Auschwitz, only eight survived.

Dancing with the Enemy recalls an extraordinary life marked by love, betrayal, and fierce determination.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Skyhorse; Reprint edition (May 12, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1632205815
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1632205810
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.25 inches
Reviewer: Jane Townsend
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Well written & gripping tale about Rosie
Review: I couldn't put this book down, although as with all good books, I didn't want it to end.It's the sensitive and intelligent account of Rosie, a young Jewish woman's spirit and resilience during her captivity in the Second World War. Her entrepreneurial spirit and determination to outdo her enemies was astounding. If only more of the millions of ethnic minorities and Jews murdered by The Nazis had rebelled and used their survival instincts as she did, many more may have survived .She was brutally sterilised as a living human experiment in one of Hitlers camps, witnessed women and children being gassed, hung and beaten but developed a protective psychology which allowed her to escape danger & survive time and again. The deceptions, lies and quick thinking which allowed her to survive years of imprisonment in concentration camps is redeemed by her joie de vivre and indomitable spirit.The story is told by her in the first person although it was written by her nephew in 2008. Chapters set during the war are interspersed by his account of the discovery of her life , which reaches the present day by the end of the book. I am not a fan of alternating between the past and present but it works ok in this genre.Why were Jews persecuted relentlessly and consistently throughout Europe and the western world during the first part if the twentieth century? It is hard to imagine such open racism and hostility in 2014 living in the West. Maybe in any society where there is a great divide between wealthy immigrants and struggling native occupants, this scenario will repeat itself if we are not careful.Envy and resentment of the have-nots towards the haves will always be with us. It's a salutary reminder that wealth distribution is the only way to world peace. It is interesting that Rosie chose Sweden as her final resting place, where she found welcome and acceptance. Sweden has one of the best records of social equity and wealth distribution in the world and was neutral during the war.Will the rich and privileged of today learn the lessons of the past? If as a society we do not, history will repeat itself, however unlikely that seems.That's why we need to keep alive the record of the holocaust more diligently now that few survivors remain as living witnesses.This book undoubtedly does this, providing not only historical records and proof of events, but takes the reader inside Rosie's mind giving us an intimate and immediate experience of events. It is a tale of one human being's struggle to survive against all odds, which despite our disparate beliefs, politics and ideologies, we can all relate to.

Reviewer: Angela Risner The Sassy Orange
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The inhumanity of man and the Dutch should be ashamed
Review: I have read a great deal about the Holocaust, but mostly about what happened to the German and Polish Jews. (Obviously, I've read about Anne Frank, but she was a German-born Jew living in the Netherlands, so again from the German Jew standpoint.) Most recently I read Bo Lidegaard's Countrymen, which describes the incredible Danish commitment to their Jewish citizens. This and Lidegaard's book describe, in very different ways, the plight of other Jews.*The Nazis were running the show in the Netherlands, while the Dutch queen and her ministers - living in relative luxury in London - hypocritically urged resistance and heroism over the radio. More and more Dutch people were benefiting from the new order. Unemployment had declined, trade was better than ever, and the indecision of democracy had been replaced by something more effective. New social laws had been implemented. Everyone had health insurance. Labor conditions had improved in the factories. A family allowance was introduced, and benefits for the elderly, widows, orphans, and invalids had been increased.*Not a single government was willing to help; no one was interested. Not only the Dutch, but the British, the Americans, and the French, the so-called Allies, failed to intervene. We were completely alone. The Allies knew about the gas chambers in Auschwitz. They flew over them, bombed half of Germany, but not the gas chambers, despite repeated requests The Americans and the English were both guilty of turning back ships full of Jewish refugees.Glaser's book tells the story of his discovery of his Jewish ancestry in the 1980s, which comes as a bit of a shock to someone who was raised as a Roman Catholic. Struggling to understand why this was kept a secret, Glaser begins to do some research, which leads him to his estranged Aunt Rosie (she is sister to Glaser's father.) Rosie, her journals, and her photographs fill in the blanks for Glaser.Rosie, a non-practicing Jew, was a dance instructor before the restrictions on the Jews began. Her ex-husband and his brother turned her in for running a business, which was illegal for Jews. She was then sent to different concentration camps, where she was able to use her abilities to dance and entertain to survive.*Going to bed with a German was certainly wrong. But you had to know what it was really like in a concentration camp. If you wanted to survive you needed more than a little luck. You had to lie, steal, and cheat, most of the time at the cost of other prisoners. If you stole someone's bread, you survived, the other died...Anne Frank might have survived were it not for the fact that a fellow prisoner stole her bread a few days before the liberation of the camp. That was the raw truth.Unlike the Danish people as related in Lidegaard's book, the Dutch were eager to assist their German occupiers.*Ruthless manhunts were organized, and Jewish game was hunted down without mercy, driven from the hollows and smoked out by Dutch policemen, Dutch civil servants, Dutch mayors, Dutch SS officers, Dutch bounty hunters and traitors. They were so effective that the Germans only had to round it up and dispose of it.The Dutch's discrimination against the Jews did not end once World War II was over.* Lack of cooperation and concern on the part of the Dutch authorities intensified my decision (to remain in Sweden.) I had recently received a bill for a warm winter coat that the embassy had sent in May, immediately after our liberation. They wanted to me pay for it. The Swedish authorities had provided clothing, housing, food, and medical care for free, and the Dutch wanted me to pay for a coat.*My brother served his country when it could have killed him. He almost died a hero, and for nothing. Shortly after the war, the same grateful homeland demanded that he pay taxes for my father, a man the authorities had imprisoned and murdered, and they even included interest.*My brother had already informed them that our mother and father were dead, but it now appeared that they wanted us to pay up, and with interest, because there was no civil registration of their death. Our house, our stolen property, and the jewelry we handed over at the beginning of the war were not returned. The money that the government forced my parents to deposit with Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co. was also not returned.*Shortly after the liberation, the Dutch government had actually crafted legislation that intentionally prevented the return of stolen money and property.The Danes demonstrated that it was possible to resist the Nazi-driven deportation and extermination of the Jewish population. However, many countries participated enthusiastically.*According to the official numbers provided by the Dutch authorities, 72 percent of the Jewish population of 140,000 perished during the occupation, an unusually high percentage compared with other occupied countries: in Denmark it was less than 1 percent; Germany 24 percent; Belgium 44 percent; and France 22 percent.I could understand (to a small degree) the Dutch being complicit with the Germans during the war. But not returning property after the war? Charging for a coat? Asking for taxes on a dead person? Unfathomable. Unforgivable.As Lidegaard's book shows, a bully, whether a person or a country, can be defeated if people are willing to stand up to it.Highly recommend.

Reviewer: California Dreaming
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent Book About the Holocaust
Review: This is one of the best books that I've ever read about the Holocaust.It's a true story, that is well-researched. The heroine of the story, who lived through the atrocities of the Holocaust, was an excellent writer, as is Paul Glazer, the author of the book. It is refreshing to read a book that is so well-constructed.Highly recommend this book.

Reviewer: Carole P. Roman
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Achingly human account of the holocaust
Review: Achingly human account of the holocaust based on personal correspondence written by a relative of the author. It's a story about survivors and the many paths one can take to escape persecution. Rosie Glaser is a woman ahead of her time. Daring, rebellious, and unconventional, her very nature serves to protect and propel her to safety during one of the blackest periods of humanity. I knew many survivors, and each story is a miracle in itself. We have an obligation to record them. Many have passed, and the fact that Paul Glaser took the time to recount his family's history is a miracle in itself. You can feel his resentment and horror as he realizes he is not who he thinks he is. The fact that the story survives though him is the greatest part of it all. He must bury his impulses and bravely research his own unknown past, embracing a part of him his father both hid and rejected long ago. With mounting panic, he learns first of a family he never knew, and then is devastated by their murder at the hands of the Nazi's.This is a story about survival in many different forms; Rosy's fierce battle to claw her way through the dangerous times she was born into, her proud rebellion and moxie when she snubs her nose at her tormentors and the unknown DNA that appears in the author when he courageously forges forward risking his own personal persecution to tell the world a story that must be told.

Reviewer: Jean B
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I have read many Holocaust stories but this one is so personal and well documented what an incredible woman. Thank you Rosie

Reviewer: DutchDebs
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A must Read! Do you believe in Fate or just coincidence? How many coincidences does it take to make you believe in Fate? This book had to be written and even though it took many coincidences I believe it was Fate in the end that made the Author, Paul Glaser pick up his pen and write this book. There are two stories - The re-discovery of his Aunt Rosie estranged from his father who never talks about her which leads to the discovery of his own Jewish background - and the incredible survival story of his Aunt Rosie a dance instructor ( Look up 'Aunt Rosie Dancing in Auschwitz' on Youtube which tells this story showing original clips of film and photos that she managed to bury and hide and retrieve after the war) and how she refuses to give in to the authorities and carries on her dancing lessons in her parents attic despite the fact that jewish businesses are now forbidden. She falls in love, loses her true love, marries, is betrayed several times and ends up in six different concentration camps, survives them and throughout manages to still see each person for who they are and clinging onto every little bit of humanity she can and doing what it takes to survive - she even ends up teaching german ss officers etiquette and dance lessons!The way this book is written is in a way that makes it easier but yet fascinating to read, a lot of Rosie's experiences are told through her own letters that she wrote to a friend (who was a german lady) and because she did not want to alarm her friend too much she writes them almost a little too matter of factually and this makes it a little 'easier' to read and take in the enormity of her story.Her courage and determination flow through the pages like a fast flowing river and you'll find yourself almost being swept away by it and at time almost drowning but reaching the other side feeling invigorated and inspired.I am Dutch and was shocked and felt a little ashamed to be Dutch after reading this book to realise that there where a lot of my kinsmen who where quite ready to look the other way and let these atrocities take place but I also know of many stories, and one of them being my own grandfather, of great defiance and courage against the germans and helping each other however it seems there is a lot that still needs to be addressed, recognised and corrected.

Reviewer: gb uk
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Great read, well researched and interestingly laid out. A story I think needs not to be forgotten. Opened a new angle for me on the dutch during the war. Was nice to see the photos aswell.

Reviewer: Bernice
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This book is good for little known participation of Holland in WW2. Very well written. I would recommend this book to any one who likes human interest books.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Great and interesting book!