Day after Night

From barbed wire to barbed wire: a painful, beautiful story of healing and forgiveness

Day after Night is the latest offering from acclaimed author Anita Diamant (The Red Tent). In this novel, Diamant transport the reader to Palestine, 1945. In the wake of Nazi Germany, the remaining Jews of Europe, recently liberated from the death camps, frail, hollow, and raw, are now gathered in Displaced People's Camps (DP's) across Europe. Many young people stand at a cross roads. They've lost everything - parents, siblings, friends. They've seen and experienced every horror, and now they must decide what to do with their lives. Should they return to their homes and communities in Europe? Should they take inspiration from the Zionist camp songs of their younger days and immigrate to Palestine? Should they try to find relatives in America? And ultimately: can they even live in the world, after having been through the camps?

Diamant gives us a peak into the lives of five young women - teenage girls, really - each of whom ended up by a twist of fate in Palestine on the eve of Israel's statehood. "Welcome Home!" they are greeted by fellow survivors as they enter the barbed wired gate at Atlit - a prison compound on the Mediterranean coast of Israel, just south of Haifa.

Having arrived in Palestine as a result of different motivations - some Zionist, others desperate, and still others from a sense of having nothing left in Europe, the girls undertake the seemingly insurmountable task of healing. They find themselves alive and alone in a world turned completely upside-down. They've been surviving from day to day for years, and now must adjust once again to a "new normal." Their struggle with this is palpable.

A commonality they share is a great reluctance to remember - to remember the horrors they experienced in the camps. and even more poignant and more painful, to remember what life was like before the camps. Each girl has secrets that cannot be brought into the light of day. Each must battle her inner demons to find peace and self-forgiveness. Each girl finds her healing in different ways and at different times. And despite their tough outward appearances and actions, they support one another.

Within Atlit the detainees break themselves into communities, often by their origins (Romanians, Germans, Hungarians, Poles, etc.). They come together as communities to converse in their native tongues, to ask for information about their neighbors and friends, and pray in familiar tunes. In a particularly moving scene, the entire camp comes together to recite Kaddish at the end of Yom Kippur. So many souls over which to pray.

The number of young people in the camp makes sexual tension inevitable. These are young men and women in their late teens and early twenties. They flirt with each other. They tease one another. At one point a bus of Syrian Jews is brought into the camp (these young men had been captured by the British crossing the border into Palestine). They are muscle-bound, dark-skinned, black-haired men - very foreign and exotic-looking to the pale, thin European girls witnessing their arrival.

Day after Night "has it all" - a wonderful story-line based on some of the most important moments in Jewish and Israeli history; empathetic characters; sex; intrigue; a prison break and chase scene; and even an epilogue to answer the questions of "whatever happened to" so-and-so. It's a beautiful book, from cover-to-cover, full of weepy moments and opportunities to reflect on life and how we play the cards we're dealt.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

One of the Best

I never heard of this place and was really given a view of things in the beginnings of Israel that was educational, thrilling and hope inspiring. A must read for all those who love books about Israel and what inspires Americans, like me, to realize the need for Israeli endurance so it never happens again and I really don't think the British, ala this and Cyprus, were very good to the Jews and young people should be made to read this if they care anything about their heritage.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Wow! Highly Recommend!

Wow! This book gives you another look at what happened after World War II. A view that opens you up to wondering how anyone could survive the atrocities that occurred, how people could go on after losing everything. How could they have any hope or will-power. I am not sure there are many in our society today that could endure and go on. I had never really given any thought to how the people from the concentration camps survived after they were released by the Allies. Unfortunately we teach our children about World War II when they are really too young to think about what happened to individual people. Where they went, how they survived after the War.

Great Reminder

This book humanizes the Holocaust, sometimes we tend to put everyone in one category. Each one of these women survived different situations in different ways. Also, when a war is over we tend to forget that the impact of that war will affect that entire generation for the rest of their lives and in turn the lives of those they care about. GREAT BOOK.

Another great book from Diamant

I read The Red Tent and really enjoyed it so I thought I would give this book a try. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The study of each of the individual personalities and backgrounds all coming together in unusual and difficult circumstances was very well done. I immediately recommended the book to a coworker who enjoyed it as much as I did.

Great Historical Snapshot

Recently finished Day after Night and I have to say that I found it a very good and enlightening book. I really did not know about this event. Such a powerful story. I really liked the switch back and forth between the character's stories. Sometimes it was difficult to keep track of who was who as the author switched frequently from one character's story to another, but I think that it worked. If you are interested in WWII and the stories of individuals, I don't think you will be disappointed.

I loved this book

My father is a Holocaust survivor and all my life I heard the stories of he and his family's experiences. He came to America from the camps. Here is a story of going to Israel. I never knew undocumented Jews were interred in camps. I thought they were welcomed to Israel and quickly assimilated into the homeland. What an eye opener this was for me. The story had wonderful characters and was so well written. I will recommend this book to all of my friends and especially my daughters. Whether you're Jewish or not, you will love this book. The only disappointment for me was that it was a short book and I wanted it to last. I wanted to savor it but I couldn't put it down. That's the sign of a great book.

Great Read!

I really liked this book. As in the Red Tent, the author weaves multiple tales of strong women into one central plot. Great for a book club!

Day After Night by Anita Diamant

Based on true story of Oct. 1945 rescue of more than 200 prisoners from an interment camp/prison for illegal immigrants, run by the British. The story is told through the eyes of 4 young women with profoundly different stories. All of them survived the holocast, but never expected this situation to happen when they thought they were finally heading towards freedom. It was a powerful telling of a terrible tragedy. I thought it was going to be too dark/ depressing but was very inspirational.

Sketchy and Rushed

The Red Tent had such an impact on all of us that years later, we are still talking about it. With high hopes, my book club and I read The Day After Night. We were intrigued by the subject matter which has not been touched on in recent literature. With so much written about the Holocaust, we were interested in finding out more about what was happening in Israel right at the beginning. This is the first novel in our experience that touched on the subject. Expecting another revealation, my book club and I were so disappointed with Day After Night. The characters were so poorly described and developed that we kept confusing the women and could not form clear pictures in our heads about their looks and personalities. The story was also simple, redundant and ended so quickly, it felt like a kid in class who had to finish a story because the bell had rung. We are going to see Anita Diamont speak tomorrow night, se we are curious to see what she has to say about this rather intriguing subject, but poorly executed novel.

Wanted to love it!!!

Being an Anita Diamant fan I fully expected to love this book and had recommended it for our book club. Very disappointing. The characters never drew you in on a subject that really should have because the time period is so important and relevent for today to understand the world. Each character had her own story but it all seemed flat. Recommend "The Red Tent" and "Good Harbor" by this author to show you good stories that are well written and wonderful!!!!

Slow

Interesting topic but slow moving and a little dull.

Beautiful tribute to post-Holocaust survival

Yes, that was me sobbing on the train as I read this gem of a book. I loved the characters set in the post-WWII struggle to achieve the goal of a homeland for the ragged Jews after the war. Each story was told with accuracy and sensitivity, describing the mechanisms that each young woman used for surrvival. The friendship that arose, not just between them, but with others and the touching unexpected ending and follow-up to the tale, held me for hours after I read the book.

Day After Night by Anita Diamant - review

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Ms. Diamant is a powerful writer, and is capable of bringing the past to life through her characterizations and her careful research. I also learned a lot through reading this book, about a period of history and a location that I knew little about. I did not want this book to end, and I crave a sequel to know more about what happened later in the lives of the young women after their breakout from Atlit. I found that many cliches about post WWII Jews were erased from this reading, such as they did not want to hear how "lucky" they were. I recommend this book to anyone want to learn more about what Jews did to eatablish thier country of Israel and how hard life was for them after the war ended. It was almost going from one type of captivity to another.

Overall good read

Most of the time, I was interested in the characters. Sometimes, when the characters went into the Zionist philosophy, I wanted the story to move on. I will pass this on to some of my friends.

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