Research Catalog

Title

Awakening lives : autobiographies of Jewish youth in Poland before the Holocaust / edited by Jeffrey Shandler ; with an introduction by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Marcus Moseley, and Michael Stanislawski.

Publication

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2002], ©2002.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Shandler, Jeffrey.

Description

li, 437 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm

Summary

• "This never-before-published collection of autobiographies written by young Polish Jews in the 1930s is extraordinary. Their candid and passionate writings not only reveal the personal struggles, ambitions, and dreams of fifteen young authors, they also offer remarkable insight into the nature of ordinary Jewish life in Poland during the years between the world wars. Later authors often view this moment through lenses tinted by nostalgia or horror. But these young writers, unaware of the catastrophic future, tell their life stories with the urgency and fervor of adolescents, coming of age during a period of manifold new opportunities and challenges." "The autobiographies presented in the volume are selected from hundreds that were written for contests in the 1930s conducted by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, then based in Vilna. Nine male and six female authors write from a variety of circumstances that reflect the great diversity of interwar Polish Jewry - some of the authors are ardently secular, and others devoutly religious; some are impoverished and others come from the working class or middle class; some are highly educated, and others self-taught. They come from big cities, small towns, and villages; they are Zionists, Bundists, communists; they espouse multiple political affiliations or none at all. Taking up the unusual task of writing an autobiography at the threshold of adulthood, these young authors also display different personalities, writing styles, and views of life. Originally written for a pioneering research project that hoped to address the challenges facing Polish Jewish youth, their words now speak across the chasm of history, providing unique testimony on Jewish life in the final years before the Holocaust."--Jacket.
• "This never-before-published collection of autobiographies written by young Polish Jews in the 1930s is extraordinary. Their candid and passionate writings not only reveal the personal struggles, ambitions, and dreams of fifteen young authors, they also offer remarkable insight into the nature of ordinary Jewish life in Poland during the years between the world wars. Later authors often view this moment through lenses tinted by nostalgia or horror.
• But these young writers, unaware of the catastrophic future, tell their life stories with the urgency and fervor of adolescents, coming of age during a period of manifold new opportunities and challenges.".
• "The autobiographies presented in the volume are selected from hundreds that were written for contests in the 1930s conducted by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, then based in Vilna.
• Nine male and six female authors write from a variety of circumstances that reflect the great diversity of interwar Polish Jewry - some of the authors are ardently secular, and others devoutly religious; some are impoverished and others come from the working class or middle class; some are highly educated, and others self-taught. They come from big cities, small towns, and villages; they are Zionists, Bundists, communists; they espouse multiple political affiliations or none at all. Taking up the unusual task of writing an autobiography at the threshold of adulthood, these young authors also display different personalities, writing styles, and views of life.
• Originally written for a pioneering research project that hoped to address the challenges facing Polish Jewish youth, their words now speak across the chasm of history, providing unique testimony on Jewish life in the final years before the Holocaust."--BOOK JACKET.

Alternative Title

Autobiographies of Jewish youth in Poland before the Holocaust

Subject

• Jews > Poland > Biography
• Jewish youth > Poland > Biography
• Jewish youth
• Jews
• Poland > Biography
• Poland

Genre/Form

Biographies.

Note

• "Published in cooperation with The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research."

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Contents

1914-1939: A chronology xlv -- Map of Interwar Poland lii -- The Autobiographies -- 1. S. Etonis 3 -- Invasions during the World War -- Traditional kheyder vs. progressive shule -- Mother's death -- Smuggling goods at the Russian border -- Yeshiva -- Homesickness -- Studying musar -- A heretical friend -- Reading forbidden literature -- Self-education for gymnasium -- Work as a teacher -- 2. Khane 20 -- Feuding parents -- Divorce -- Homeless wandering -- Life in an abandoned fortress -- Feuding sisters -- A mother's beating -- Work in a bindery -- Learning to read -- Illegal political activism -- Stealing across the border -- Working in Vilna -- Mother's death -- 3. A. Greyno 51 -- A poor family -- Learning to read from Father -- Move to a city -- Failed business ventures -- Sexual awakening -- Learning to sew -- An anti-Semitic landlord -- A murdered child? A special friend -- Trade unionism -- A revolutionary meeting on Yom Kippur -- Esperanto -- Political trials -- Becoming a librarian -- Arrest, torture and prison -- Jean Christophe -- 4. Henekh 113 -- Father's death -- Yeshivas in Grodno and Radun -- Corruption in yeshiva -- Discovering secular literature -- An unsuccessful love affair -- Arson -- Trapped in marriage to a rabbi's daughter -- Contemplating suicide -- 5. Forget-me-not 123 -- Parental squabbles -- A Jewish public school -- Desecrating the Sabbath -- Mother's early death -- Joining an illegal political party -- Life in a day orphanage -- Chronic illness and a TOZ sanatorium -- Working in a pharmacy -- A dwindling family -- Political disillusionment -- Trade union activism -- 6. Ludwik Stockel 141 -- The Russians attack -- Saved by a nursemaid -- Life on a rural estate -- The local Polish public school -- Gymnasium in Czortkow -- Writing poetry -- Summer romance -- A school trip -- A bicycle race -- Unrequited love -- A socialist and a Zionist -- Law school in Lwow -- Anti-Semitic violence -- 7. Hanzi 197 -- A pious mother, an intellectual father -- Living with Grandmother -- A religious upbringing -- A rare eye disease -- Blessing from the Hafetz Hayyim -- Tarbut gymnasium in Vilna -- Stealing books -- A member of Betar -- A leg infection -- A nurse from Siberia -- A Zionist hero -- 8. The Stormer 226 -- Kheyder -- Father's death -- Moving to Lodz -- Public school -- Yeshiva -- Sex among yeshiva students -- Political awakening -- A revolutionary cell -- Factory work -- Gordonia -- Illegal emigration to Palestine -- Life on the road -- Stealing across the border -- Capture and imprisonment -- Return home -- 9. G.S. 263 -- Life on a rural estate -- Public school -- Betar -- Attending commercial school -- Relations between Poles and Jews -- Life on hakhsharah -- Failed aspirations -- Work as a governess -- 10. EM. TEPA 275 -- An intellectual proletarian father -- Mother's mental illness -- Kheyder vs. public school -- Studying the violin -- Gymnasium -- Work as a musician -- Economic woes -- 11. G.W. 296 -- A shoemaker's son -- Life in a small town -- Kheyder -- The family moves -- Illness and recovery -- Public school -- A tailor's apprentice -- Bundist youth movements -- Normal family life -- 12. Esther 321 -- A hasidic family -- Beys Yaakov school and Polish public school -- Polish patriotism -- Membership in Bnos Agudas Yisroel -- A secret reader -- Running a Beys Yaakov school -- A forbidden friendship -- Provincial anti-Semitism -- Discovering socialism -- 13. J. Harefuler 344 -- Inferiority complexes -- Kheyder and progressive Jewish elementary school -- Mother's death -- Stepmother -- Work as a shoemaker -- A frustrated actor's death -- Communism -- Camping trips -- The Joint Distribution Committee -- A Jewish citizen in Poland -- 14. Eter 380 -- A rabbi's daughter -- Polish elementary school -- A community feud -- The commercial gymnasium -- Work as a tutor -- Self-education -- Zionist politics -- A poem by Julian Tuwim -- 15. Yudl 391 -- A poor family -- Delivering milk -- Public school -- Street life -- Shady dealings in a dye factory -- A bootmaker's apprentice -- A trip to Lodz -- Betar, then the Bund -- Leading a successful strike.

ISBN

• 0300092776
• 9780300092776

LCCN

2002002660

OCLC

• ocm49249333
• 49249333
• SCSB-14146751

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries