Criminal Democracy

Author’s review

The editor, David, contributed significantly to the quality of the book both by improving the text and the flow of the book and by suggesting new additions that will help the reader.

The service was on time and to my full satisfaction. I choose you because you were affiliated with Book Baby and because of your impressive record.

The book will be in the market within two weeks.

A short introduction

Dear Reader,

As Williams Faulkner famously wrote, "The past isn't gone "“ it isn't even past." Though the tumultuous events of the twenty-first century have been relegated to the history books, their legacy endures, most tellingly in the lives of the ordinary individuals whose lives those events have shaped. This fact is made poignantly evident in Criminal Democracy, a multi-generational family history and personal memoir by first-time published Israeli-American author Al Birch (aka Arie Livne).

This 61,000-word work begins by chronicling the tenuous calm that characterized Jewish life in 1930s Krakow, where Birch's father grew up, before the savagery of WWII forever altered Europe and the world. With a careful eye for detail and a narrative style that borrows from the best historical fiction, Birch tells the true account of the lives and loves of his grandparents, Joel (his father), and other relatives, until the moment when the horrors of the Holocaust engulf his family and everything they know.

Drawing on historical documents and family oral history, Birch narrates the misery his forebears endured when they found themselves transported to Auschwitz. They cross paths with a historical chapter known to many: that of Oscar Schindler, in whose factory Joel was selected to work, a fortuitous turn of events that would spare him from the tragic fate so many others (including his wife Zocha) encountered in the concentration camps and cities-turned-battlefields.

From the ruins of war-torn Europe, the story moves to Israel, where Joel with his new wife Frida settle, despite the difficulties of living in the nascent nation in the aftermath of tragedy. Birch candidly describes his childhood, family life, and the ordinary trials and triumphs of growing up and getting older. As with his relatives, his own story often intersects with the national story of Israel and broader world events, and he offers his honest critique of Israel, a land he loves despite its deep-rooted political flaws. Eventually, Birch is uprooted again, when he and his family relocate to California, in a new country and culture he eventually adopts as his own. Later, he achieves some measure of closure with his family history in Poland when in the aftermath of the fall of communism, he returns to his ancestral homeland to try to reclaim long-lost family properties.

Birch is a certified accountant and experienced financial officer in the corporate worlds of both the U.S. and Israel. He has a talent for merging personal and family details with broader, overarching historical themes, while narrating objectively and truthfully to open up his own world to the reader.

Author: Al

This book is a story of a Jewish family........

What happens when a senior employee does not cooperate with influential people in the organization? If the issue of disagreement is major he has to leave the company. If he is lucky and the organization is decent he can continue with his life and he will be OK. If he is not lucky, the nightmare begins. I worked in such organization and the book describes the consequences.

What happens if you are not in good terms with a senior employee of an intelligence agency? The senior employee has access to tools that can hurt. What can stop this behavior? This behavior can be stopped by high moral standards and enforcement of the law. What happens if both do not exist? The author describes these situations in the book.

The biography describes my extended family. Being Jewish, my family survived the horrible times of Second World War II in Europe, called holocaust, with the help of the good German, Mr. Schindler (From the movie "The Schindler's List"). The book describes the holocaust from my family's point of view.

My family emigrated twice, one time my parents emigrated in 1950 from Poland to Israel and the other time my family emigrated in 1989 from Israel to the US. There is a lot of optimism and hope before immigrating to a new country, but often the actual experience is hard. Probably many immigrants can share some parts of my experience.

My hope is that the book will intrigue changes in the political system in Israel. These are big expectations and most chances are that nothing will change. I hope that I am wrong.

If nothing changes I believe that there will be more victims, and the next one might be you. So, do not sit comfortably in your couch and think that this cannot happen to you, because it can.

I show also the complex relationship within my family. Again, if you are not lucky to belong to a supportive family, it might hunt you all your life. As a teenager I was told that your family and your country are your closest friends. To me both were proven wrong.

Most of the book is based on actual events and experiences. However there are some parts where I used my imagination and creativity.

Enjoy the reading.