From A Ruined Garden Second Expanded Edition

"An indispensable sourcebook... Emphasis falls on the variegated, often joyful, culture of the Polish Jews, on what existed before the garden was ruined." --Geoffrey Hartmann, The New Republic "From these marvelous selections, one can see an entire culture unfolding." --Curt Leviant, New York Times Book Review "This newly revised version of the classic study... is a pleasure for the eye and the soul One of the seminal studies of the impact of the Shoah on European Jewry, it is even more moving in its new incarnation than in its original version. More than a collection of studies of books of remembrance and mourning, this volume asks how one can mourn for a world lost and still live in the present and the future." --Sander L. Gilman "Kugelmass and Boyarin have done a splendid job of combing the vast memorial book literature to select the most revealing accounts of Jewish life in interbellum Poland. Ordinary people speak in this volume with an immediacy and poignancy that cannot help but touch the reader. In the time since it first appeared, From a Ruined Garden has become a classic. Its reappearance in an updated and expanded form is most welcome." --Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett "In this magnificent collection, the editors combine a profound 'feel' for the vanished world of Polish Jewry, the anthologist's skill at selecting the telling example, and the anthropologist's sophisticated understanding of how these testimonies should be read. A marvelous introduction to this rich literature." --Peter Novick Polish Jewish survivors of the Holocaust compiled memorial books to preserve the memory of their destroyed communities. They describe daily life in the shtetl as well as everyday life during the Holocaust and the experiences of returning survivors. These memories paint a haunting picture of a way of life lost forever.

In the years after World War II, Polish Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who had made their way to the Americas and Israel compiled memorial books to preserve the memory of their destroyed communities. From a Ruined Garden gathers some 77 sections from the nearly 1,000 memorial books published. The texts describe daily life in the shtetl as well as everyday life during the Holocaust and the experiences of returning survivors.

"The World Must Know by Michael Berenbaum is a skillfully organized and clearly told account of the German Holocaust that consumed, with unparalleled malevolence, six million Jews and millions of innocent others--Protestants, Catholics, Poles, Russians, Gypsies, the handicapped, and so many others, adults and children. This important book, a vital guide through the unique corridors of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., merits the widest of audiences."--Chaim Potok, author of The Chosen and The Promise The World Must Know documents the compelling human stories of the Holocaust as told in the renowned permanent exhibition of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Drawing on the museum's extensive collection of artifacts, archives, and eyewitness testimonies, and augmented with more than two hundred period photographs, this book serves as an enduring reminder of the moral obligations of societies and individuals. This revised edition is enhanced with new insights and updates based on archival information that had been inaccessible to researchers until after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Communist regimes of Eastern and Central Europe. It includes new photographs, redrawn charts, a new section on the Holocaust in Greece, an updated bibliography, and a new foreword by the museum director. Published on behalf of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

"Jews of Eastern Europe were targets of violence during the first half of the twentieth century. Survivors compiled memorial books to preserve historical, biographical, and cultural information. This collection provides a history of the memorial books and their cultural contexts; essays on Yizker books; key reviews (some translated from Yiddish); and a bibliographic overview of secondary sources"--Provided by publisher.

Bibliography of titles of memorial books and where (libraries) to find them.