The compelling history of ten Jewish families rebuilding their lives in Warsaw after the Holocaust-"amply illustrated... the book reverberates with hope" ( Jewish Book Council).
Warsaw, Poland, once described as the "Paris of the East," had been transformed into a landscape of ruin by the ravages of World War II. Among the few areas of the city center that escaped Nazi decimation was Ujazdowskie Avenue, where German officials lived during the occupation. In the late 1940s, while most surviving Polish Jews were making their homes in new countries, ten Jewish families reclaimed a once elegant building at 16 Ujazdowskie Avenue and began reconstructing their lives. These families rebuilt on the rubble of the Polish capital and created new communities as they sought to distance themselves from the memory of a painful past.
Based on interviews with family members, extensive archival research, and the families' personal papers and correspondence, Karen Auerbach presents an engrossing story of loss and rebirth, political faith and disillusionment, and the persistence of Jewishness.
Vorwort
Two generations rebuild their lives in Poland after the Holocaust
Autorentext
Karen Auerbach is Kronhill Lecturer in East European Jewish History at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. A former journalist, she reported for the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Star-Ledger of Newark, and the Forward.
Zusammenfassung
In a turn-of-the-century, once elegant building at 16 Ujazdowskie Avenue in the center of Warsaw, 10 Jewish families began reconstructing their lives after the Holocaust. While most surviving Polish Jews were making their homes in new countries, these families rebuilt on the rubble of the Polish capital and created new communities as they sought to distance themselves from the memory of a painful past. Based on interviews with family members, intensive research in archives, and the families' personal papers and correspondence, Karen Auerbach presents an engrossing story of loss and rebirth, political faith and disillusionment, and the persistence of Jewishness.
Inhalt
Glossary of names
Introduction
1 "History Brushed Against Us": The Adlers and the Bergmans
2 The Jewish Families of 16 Ujazdowskie Avenue, 1900-1948
3 "The Entire Nation Builds Its Capital": Ujazdowskie Avenue and Reconstructed Warsaw
4 "Stamp of a Generation": Parents and Children
5 "Ostriches in the Wilderness": Children and Parents
6 "Finding the Eradicated Traces of the Path": Seeds of Revival
Epilogue: Present and Past
Notes
Bibliography and works cited