Product Description
The Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show, Special Edition and the first 16 volumes. Each DVD is an hour of classic entertainment. Includes appearances by many stars, including: Zero Mostel; Ann-Margret; Tony Bennett; Jack Benny; Victor Borge; Sid Caesar; Diahann Carroll; Petula Clark; Bill Cosby; Bing Crosby; Dom Deluise; Peter Falk; Marty Feldman; Ella Fitzgerald; George Gobel; Buddy Hackett; Goldie Hawn; Florence Henderson; Lena Horn; Shirley Jones; Gene Kelly; Michael Landon; Peggy Lee; Robert Mitchum; Bob Newhart; Juliet Prowse; Ronald Reagan; Don Rickles; Roy Rogers; Rowan and Martin; Peter Sellers; Phil Silvers; Frank Sinatra; Jimmy Stewart; John Wayne; Raquel Welch; Orson Welles; Flip Wilson; Jonathan Winters ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (25)

Tortured
One may say that Gertrude Baniszewski's control over the children in her house amounts to a form of mind control.If there was ever a case in which an adult ordered the torture and eventual murder of another child, this case would be an example.In a cruel and disturbing look at 1960's America, "House of Evil" is an harrowing book.

Some may suggest that the Baniszewski was "rough around the edges" or "possessed loose morals".It is had to argue with these statements.In short, Gertrude Baniszewski took in Sylvia and Jenny Likens for a regular fee while her parents were away working for a carnival.Sylvia rubbed Mrs. Baniszewski the wrong way, causing her to be the victim of sensational torture in which all of the other children of the house were involved.Incidents included sexual humiliation, forced tattooing, burning, scalding, beatings, and starvation.

Yet as the story progesses, one begins to wonder why Sylvia allowed herself to be a victim to such savagery.Not being with her real family, she could have left or even went to police.Had Sylvia developed a known attachment to her torturers, the attachment could be labeled Stockholm Syndrome.However, Sylvia developed no known sympathy for her captors and seemed free to leave.

Though a short read, the complexities of this case make it a very interesting read.The story falls outside of the boundaries of other works of true crime that readers will find themselves "rubber-necking"at this absurd scene.

Good shopping expeirence
I was very happy with the entire shopping expierence, the book was shipped quickly and recieved fast communcations on the sale were all good the book itself is great

Horrifying
I read about this case on [...] long before this book (or the movie AMERICAN CRIME) which I did not bother to see. I recognized the symptoms of abusive family life from other cases, but this case is beyond others.

When I was training as an educator, we (my classmates and I) had to take a seminar called "Recognizing Signs of Abuse". From reading about this case, there were many clear signs that should have alerted neighbors, teachers, pastors, etc. Sylvia went from being a happy teenager to being depressed and withdrawn. She got thinner, dirtier, and more fearful. The sudden change in her demeanor was in itself the biggest red flag. The adults outside of her foster family should have immediately recognized what was going on.

Unlike today, there was little advocacy for children's welfare in the 1960's. The concept of "child abuse" was virtually unknown, and parents who beat their kids could get away with it, calling it "discipline" and "correction". When a neighbor's child told her mother "the woman next door is kicking the girl", her mother said "well, they're obviously punishing her for being bad." If my mother had heard that a neighbor was kicking a child, she would notify the authorities. But in those days, nobody cared.

I think some of the blame falls on Sylvia's parents. They knew that Gertrude Baneziewski was living in squalor with a brood of children, and they knew she was living with a younger boyfriend, and they knew the house was filthy, so why did they leave their daughter there? My theory is that the parents were ignorant. What kind of parent leaves their child with someone they barely know?

The lesson we can all take from this is that "bullies" and "abusers" usually stop if they know they're being watched. If I see a guy screaming at a kid for dropping an ice cream cone, I might say "awfully temperamental today, are we?" Abusers aren't going to stop unless someone lets them know that what they are doing is wrong.

The neighbors never said anything when they saw Sylvia being abused in her home.

Good book if i could read it entirely...
I saw the movie An American Crime and became interested in the case because I just couldn't believe all of this had actually happened.
I ordered the book last year around november and received it in december, however i was busy reading some other stuff so i didn't start reading this book until mid-february of this year. Unfortunetly I just realized that several pages are missing from my edition and I don't know if anyone else had that problem. After page 106 I see all the pictures that are included in the book, however after the last picture the story resumes on page 139, is that normal? Because I don't think it is.

It's a real shame considering it's been almost 3 months since I received it and I don't live in the U.S, not to mention there is no other way to read the book.

Bad luck I guess...

Very well written.
This book is well written. You can vividly imagine things that happened. He explains it very well. It is very sad. The one thing that stuck out to me is the update in the book. Almost everyone involved died young. Makes you think justice was truely served for this young girl from someone other than the judicial system. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Mostly good reading
I have read this book a couple of times, along with Nick Tosches book on Dino. I like to read about the lives of different entertainers and find that Dean Martin was probably one of the most fascinating personalities ofhis time.The fact that he was such a private person makes him that muchmore intriguing. I do feel Arthur Marx did the best he could with theinformation he had, but I cannothonestly give this book 5 stars. I'llread it again and maybe I'll change my mind.

Mostly good reading
I have read this book a couple of times, along with Nick Tosches book on Dino. I like to read about the lives of different entertainers and find that Dean Martin was probably one of the most fascinating personalities ofhis time.The fact that he was such a private person makes him that muchmore intriguing. I do feel Arthur Marx did the best he could with theinformation he had, but I cannothonestly give this book 5 stars. I'llread it again and maybe I'll change my mind.

Arthur Marx had more facts straight than did Nich Toshes
I have this book and the reading is good.Actually this book seems to bemost of the research for Nick Toshes book. Minus the mob and language. Although you get the feeling that Arthur Marx really knew and liked thesubjects he's writting about. Would recommend it to be included in anycollectors library. ... Read more

Product Description
What was the role played by local police volunteers in the Holocaust? Using powerful eyewitness descriptions from the towns and villages of Belorussia and Ukraine, Martin Dean's new book reveals local policemen as hands-on collaborators of the Nazis. They brutally drove Jewish neighbors from their homes and guarded them closely on the way to their deaths. Some distinguished themselves as ruthless murders. Outnumbering German police manpower in these areas, the local police were the foot-soldiers of the Holocaust in the east.
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Customer Reviews (6)

Combines Valuable Information and Notable Omission of Facts
The setting of this heavily-documented work is the Belorussian (Byelorussian)-majority area of pre-WWII northeast Poland under the German occupation. Although Dean doesn't discuss the Jedwabne massacre, he provides the background that enables the reader to understand how Poles came to be blamed for it: "Dr. Walther, Stahlecker, the commander of Eisatzgruppe A, confirmed in his report that it was deliberate policy to incite pogroms in the first days of German rule. These pogroms gave the appearance of popular support for the measures against the Jews. Care was to be taken, however, to ensure that Germans were not seen to be coordinating these actions." (p. 21).

Dean repeats the non-sequitur of Jan T. Gross, in which the fact that Jews were victims of Communism is somehow supposed to nullify their disproportionate support for the same. He also cites figures of 25% of the prewar Polish Communist Party being Jewish, and no more than 5% of Jews supporting Communism (p. 175), forgetting the fact that Jews were only 10% of pre-WWII Poland's population, and only a small fraction of 1% of Polish gentiles supported Communism. Even so, his quoted figures are too low. They fail to take account of the fact that much support for Communism was covert.

After conquering the region in 1941, the Nazis set up the German gendarme and the mostly-Belorussian Schutzmannschaft. At first, membership was voluntary (p. 65), and, among those who joined, Poles were relatively few. (p. 46, 52).By mid-1942, local men were forcibly drafted into the Schutzmannschaft (pp. 66-67), and, through the year 1942, its overall membership increased 9-fold. (p. 60).Many Poles involved were members of the Polish Underground, and used their positions for such things as the procuring of weaponry. (p. 74, pp. 142-143).

The degree of direct (killing) and indirect (roundup) Schutzmannschaft participation in what remained the mostly-German (p. 166) murder of Jews varied from unit to unit and person to person, and was not simply reducible to anti-Semitism. (pp. 162-163).In addition, there were Jews who betrayed other Jews (p. 91), as well as Jews who took part in German-sponsored trading of stolen goods. (p. 199).

Dean uses the false and offensive term "Polish death camps" (p. viii, 101)--totally inexcusable for a Holocaust historian. He labels Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947as "Polish nationalist". (p. 191). How so? It offers a balanced presentation of both Polish and non-Polish collaboration. Dean faults it for having a chapter on Jewish collaboration. Shouldn't books whose avowed subject is collaboration include Jewish collaboration?

It is possible that Soviet partisans inflicted only 15,000--20,000 German casualties. (p. 207). Dean mentions the "massive stores of potatoes" possessed by Soviet partisans in the Naliboki forest, and how some of these had been acquired from the "deserted town of Naliboki". (p. 205). In actually, Naliboki was far from deserted, and its members (and those of Koniuchy) were eventually murdered by Soviet and Jewish bands. He does mention the OUN-UPA genocide of Poles further south. (p. 145, 207).

Finally, Dean goes beyond a strictly Judeocentric focus. Not only Jews but also the Polish intelligentsia was specifically targeted for annihilation. (pp. 69-70, 100, 196-197). A staggering one-third of the entire population of this region perished in WWII. (p. 119). The German despoiling of the region was severe, as enumerated on page 117. Overall, it took 20 years after the war to replace the losses. (p. 148).

Collaboration in the holocaust
Read this book, and quite frankly was a waste of time. It really was not worth the paper it was written on. This author has proven to me to be a master of historical revisionism-a master spinner. So do not bother reading or buying this shmata.

Obviously these one-star reviews are missing the whole point of the book!
A great book that shows readers a look into a side of the holocaust that is somewhat left untaught. How people can accuse Martin of not including facts and figures and making assumptions obviously have done little to no research on the topics he discuses in his book. It's hard to collect facts and evidence on something that happend 50 years ago on a side that is shoved under the carpet.
This is a great look into another significant part of the Holocaust that is sometimes overshadowed by the traditional teachings of the time period.

Ignore the 5 star reviewers. They do not read history!
As has already been mentioned --- the author makes numerous assumptions, but offers no proof, because he apparently feels that facts and figures are not required in a holocaust book.
Mr. Dean should not set himself above truthful and honest approach to a touchy subject.

Provides no data for claim
Dean makes very specific accusations in the very subtitle of this book, yet he provides no documentation to back his assertions. I expect more from a scholar. ... Read more

Product Description
Relates events in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, childhood which sowed the seeds for his activism for equal rights for people, regardless of their color. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good for the very young
The School Library Review is correct in that little biographical information is given, but that isn't the point of this book.It is about how a little boy responded to injustice with love.It can precipitate a nice discussion among preschoolers to second-graders about choices and how to react when things are truly unfair.I think this book is easy for little ones to relate to, especially if this is the first they've heard of MLK. ... Read more