Book Review: Taking Liberties - Aryeh Neier Recalls His Struggles for Respect of Human Rights
| Publication year | 2005 |
| Citation | Vol. 2005 No. 12 |
December 2005 - #12. Book Review: Taking Liberties - Aryeh Neier Recalls His Struggles for Respect of Human Rights
Taking Liberties: Four Decades in the Struggle for Rights, Aryeh Neier. Public Affairs, 2003, 373 pp., $30.
"The ACLU made remarkable progress under Neier, and he is not shy about taking credit. He is, however, careful in assessing his achievements; and at times, he even confronts the many sins of the self-righteous civil rights organization."
Before "ground zero" became a part of the American lexicon, and long before the debates about government intrusion on privacy under the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept Terrorism Act (a.k.a., the U.S.A PATRIOT Act(fn1)), there had been unforgettable assaults on individual liberties, matched by equally tenacious struggles to identify and enforce civil and human rights. Taking Liberties is Aryeh Neier's account of four decades in the trenches, in a global battlefield to establish respect for human dignity. It is an immensely personal story, recounted with a historical accuracy that will intrigue those who shared in those struggles and educate a present generation of rights advocates about the triumphs and failures of his efforts.
His story begins on August 16, 1939. Neier was two years old and his family had just escaped the pending persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. Born to a middle-class Jewish family in Berlin at a tumultuous time in Europe's history, he confessed that he was too young to remember the atrocities that led to mass migration of Jews in the twentieth century. His family landed in England, just in time for the Battle of Britain, with its countless woes. The family was torn apart soon after they arrived. Neier, his mother, and his sister trekked on a train to the English countryside amidst the nightly bombardments and rubbles of the war. Kettering became their new home.
For a time, his father stayed behind in London to work as a laborer. His only sister, Esther married an American GI and moved to the United States, leaving him desolate. To add fuel to the flames, the boy Neier was forced into a hostel for refugee children where he refused to speak for the duration of his stay. If these...
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