Hope and Honor

by Sid Shachnow, Jann Robbins Narrated by Brian Emerson

Overview

Major General Sid Shachnow was ten-years old when he escaped the notorious Kovno concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Lithuania. Later, he traveled to post-war Germany and he earned a living as a courier for his mother's black market business. His family eventually came to America where he struggled to get an education, held down three jobs and courted the girl of his dreams.

Major General Shachnow began his career in the US Army as a driver for various officers in Europe, all of whom spotted potential in the young private and encouraged him to become an officer. After nearly forty years of service to his country, including two tours of duty in Vietnam, Major General Shachnow could look back on a career and a life with pride, sadness and a sense of duty spawned from freedom, both lost and earned.

Editorial Reviews

The author of this book is a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran. But his two Silver Stars and three Bronze Stars don't adequately convey the story or valor of Sidney Shachnow's life. As a young Lithuanian Jew, he spent three years in the Nazis' notorious Kovno concentration camp. He and his family survived by bribery, stealth, and quick wits. After their release, they returned to their homeland, which was now under the yoke of Soviet domination. Fleeing westward, Shachnow settled in America, eventually enlisting in the U.S. Army, which he served for 32 years. In addition to his Vietnam tours, he served in the Middle East and divided Germany. A warrior's unique survivor story.

Publishers Weekly

Part Holocaust memoir and part U.S. Army career narrative, this tale of an extraordinary life begins with young Schaja Shachnowski, a Lithuanian Jew, watching the Nazis march into his town. Taken with his family to a concentration camp, they survived by bribery, quick wits, the help of the Jewish camp police and the occasional assistance of local Lithuanians. Schaja was impressed by American GIs and remembered them after he and his family were eventually admitted to the U.S.: wanting to marry a Christian girl whom his family loathed and also unable to find a decent job, he enlisted in the army in 1955. This began a 40-year career, covered in the book's second half, that ended with him a much decorated major general, having spent most of his career in Special Forces, eventually becoming its commanding general. He served two tours in Vietnam, commanded the Berlin Brigade and fought for an enlarged role for Special Forces. He is also still married to his boyhood love, a remarkably enduring person in her own right. Schachnow's life certainly demonstrates the title qualities, as well as high professional integrity and a ferocious will to survive. His telling of it is not always graceful, but his story comes through clearly and with conviction. Agent, Elizabeth Winick for McIntosh & Otis Inc. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A former commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Forces, Shachnow here recounts his life and career. As a child, Schachnow, along with his family, narrowly escaped death in a Nazi concentration camp in Lithuania. The fascinating story of their survival and transition to a new way of life in the United States is covered in the first two sections. In the third part, Schachnow details his nearly four decades of military service, from his beginnings as an army private in 1955 through two combat tours in Vietnam, positions of increasing responsibility within the special forces, and important postings as the commanding general of U.S. Forces in Berlin and commander of the JFK Special Warfare School. While interesting, this account of his military career is almost entirely anecdotal, and only at the very end does he offer some critical insights on the qualifications needed to serve in the special forces. Unfortunately, poorly constructed sentences and errors in spelling and grammar mar many of the pages. An optional purchase for public libraries. Edward Metz, USACGSC Combined Arms Research Lib., Ft. Leavenworth, KS Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Marginally useful memoir by a Holocaust survivor and American general. Now retired from military service, debut author Shachnow was ten years old when he and his family were interned in a concentration camp along with other Lithuanian Jews. "I developed an instinct for survival," he recalls. "If I saw any kind of trouble, I hid. I learned to disappear into an alley, a doorway, or behind a shrub." After three years of captivity, he escaped, hidden by a Catholic family until the Red Army arrived. Astonishingly, his mother, father, and brother had also survived. Convinced by an uncle to flee before the borders were sealed, the family moved westward toward the American zone, arriving in Germany in the fall of 1945. It took four years for them to secure permission to emigrate to America, where young Sid found work pumping gas and delivering groceries until joining the army in 1955. In the military, he writes, he blossomed, graduating at the top of his class from officer candidates school; apparently moved as much by the needs of his growing family ("hostile fire pay was $55 per month extra") as by career ambitions, he then volunteered for training in the Special Forces and assignment to Vietnam, where he distinguished himself in combat. After the war, he rose through the officer grades until attaining the rank of major general and commanding the Special Forces. None of these are ordinary events or attainments, but Shachnow writes with little sense of drama or self-reflection. Instead, in good military fashion, he too often reverts to pat phrases: he offers that his experience in the camps instilled a desire to "make sure no threat to freedom would go unchallenged again," adding, "Communism wasa real threat and it had to be stopped" and repeating the tired assertion that politicians, not soldiers, lost the war in Vietnam. Of some interest, surely, to those who served with Shachnow, but too limited to add to our understanding of the events he describes.

co-author with Tom Clancy of the New York Times #1 bestseller Into the Storm - General Fred Franks

"Sid Shachnow's life is an inspiring story for us all. . . . His powerful narrative is a riveting read, moving and informative."

Thomas Fleming

"What a book! Must reading! More riveting than any novel!"

New York Times bestselling author of Beyond Baghdad and Fighting For The Future - Ralph Peters

"An inspiring story wonderfully told, General Shachnow's memoir is as deeply moving as it is fascinating. His journey from a childhood amid the Holocaust to become one of the U.S. Army's most effective and visionary generals is at once a testament to his personal courage, to human resilience and to America's greatness."

author of the New York Times bestseller Red Phoenix - Larry Bond

"Absolutely harrowing, as vivid and frightening as any Holocaust account I've read. His Special Forces experiences in Vietnam are also astonishing. General Schachnow had a vital role in shaping America's Special Forces into the tool it is today, at the precise time it is needed."

Deputy Secretary of Defense - Paul Wolfowitz

"Very few soldiers achieve the rank of Major General in the U.S. Army Special Forces. That a survivor of the Kovno concentration camp could do so says great things about the U.S. Army. . . . Major General Shachnow is a great American who serves as an example to every American that freedom does not come free."

General Norman Schwarzkopf

"A gripping story of a warrior's survival and ultimate victory against all odds."

From the Publisher

"A gripping story of a warrior's survival and ultimate victory against all odds."

—General Norman Schwarzkopf on Hope and Honor

"Very few soldiers achieve the rank of Major General in the U.S. Army Special Forces. That a survivor of the Kovno concentration camp could do so says great things about the U.S. Army. . . . Major General Shachnow is a great American who serves as an example to every American that freedom does not come free."—Paul Wolfowitz on Hope and Honor

"Absolutely harrowing, as vivid and frightening as any Holocaust account I've read. His Special Forces experiences in Vietnam are also astonishing. General Schachnow had a vital role in shaping America's Special Forces into the tool it is today, at the precise time it is needed."—Larry Bond, author of the New York Times bestseller Red Phoenix on Hope and Honor

"An inspiring story wonderfully told, General Shachnow's memoir is as deeply moving as it is fascinating. His journey from a childhood amid the Holocaust to become one of the U.S. Army's most effective and visionary generals is at once a testament to his personal courage, to human resilience and to America's greatness."—Ralph Peters, author of Beyond Baghdad and Fighting For The Future on Hope and Honor

"What a book! Must reading! More riveting than any novel!"—-Thomas Fleming on Hope and Honor

"Sid Shachnow's life is an inspiring story for us all. . . . His powerful narrative is a riveting read, moving and informative."—-Fred Franks, General U.S. Army (ret.), co-author with Tom Clancy of the New York Times #1 bestseller Into the Storm: A Study in Command on Hope and Honor

FEB/MAR 06 - AudioFile

In this remarkable story, Shachnow, born a Jew in Lithuania in the 1930s, survives, the Soviets, then the Nazis (including a concentration camp), then the Soviets again. He escapes after the war to Germany, where he refines his scrappiness. With the assistance of a family in Salem, Massachusetts, he and his immediate family move to Salem, where he works hard, finishes high school, marries a local girl, joins the Army, and becomes a Green Beret. No fiction writer could have invented this saga. Brian Emerson has a resonant baritone that is stately in delivery. He is clear in his pronunciation and does well with the various non-English names and words. His delivery of dialogue is appropriately expressive. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169904758
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	06/27/2005
Edition description:	Unabridged

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