Troubled Memory

By WALTER ISAACSON

As a child in Poland, Anne Skorecki Levy survived the Holocaust; as a grandmother in Louisiana, she confronted ex-Klansman David Duke in his run for Governor. Powell, a Tulane University history professor, tells this tale with wonderful narrative grace and moral force. He deftly explores ethical compromises and nuances: the Levy family's decision to pass as Aryan during the war; the struggles between the assimilated Reform Jews of New Orleans, reluctant to stir up trouble; and the tight-knit "New American" club of Holocaust survivors who insisted on aggressively bearing witness against neo-Nazis.

--By Walter Isaacson