Jewish Childhood In Krak W

Chapter 1: Navigating shifts in German-occupied Kraków -- Chapter 2: Adapting to life inside the ghetto -- Chapter 3: Clandestine activities by and on behalf of children -- Chapter 4: Child welfare: continuity and change -- Chapter 5: Concealed presence in the camp -- Chapter 6: Survival through hiding and flight.

In the vein of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Number the Stars, this fusion of fairy tales, folklore, and World War II history eloquently illustrates the power of love and the inherent will to survive even in the darkest of times. In the land of dolls, there is magic. In the land of humans, there is war. Everywhere there is pain. But together there is hope. Karolina is a living doll whose king and queen have been overthrown. But when a strange wind spirits her away from the Land of the Dolls, she finds herself in Kraków, Poland, in the company of the Dollmaker, a man with an unusual power and a marked past. The Dollmaker has learned to keep to himself, but Karolina’s courageous and compassionate manner lead him to smile and to even befriend a violin-playing father and his daughter—that is, once the Dollmaker gets over the shock of realizing a doll is speaking to him. But their newfound happiness is dashed when Nazi soldiers descend upon Poland. Karolina and the Dollmaker quickly realize that their Jewish friends are in grave danger, and they are determined to help save them, no matter what the risks.

The author reccounts his youth as a Jewish child in Poland before the second World War.

Through an in-depth textual analysis of eyewitness testimonies, the author reconstructs various categories of child survivors and the ways in which they coped with social relations on the Aryan side in Nazi-occupied Poland, using concepts of "performance" pioneered by Goffman. These testimonies bring a new dimension to issues of betrayal and hostility as well as of sacrifice and dedication, creating a broader view of historical representation through pictures of individuals.

Award-winning writer Henryk Grynberg takes an extraordinary collection of interviews with young Polish war orphans conducted in Palestine in 1943 about their experiences and gives their stories "one voice". The cumulative effect of so many different voices discussing similar horrors is shocking and makes this book unlike any other work on the Holocaust.

Few Polish cities have evoked more affection from their Jewish inhabitants than Krakow, and this volume brings together the work of leading historians - from Israel, Poland, Great Britain, and the US - to explore how this relationship evolved. It takes as its starting point 1772, when Poland was partitioned between the Great Powers and Krakow came under Austrian rule, and it examines the relationship between the Jewish minority and the Polish majority in the city in the different stages of its history down to the period of German occupation during World War II. An additional perspective is provided by a consideration of how Jewish life in Krakow has been remembered by Holocaust survivors and how it is portrayed in post-war Polish literature. The main explanation for the specific nature of relations between Poles and Jews in Krakow seems to be that Jewish acculturation to Polish culture was more pronounced in Krakow than anywhere else in Poland. The Jewish community as a whole opened itself up to contemporary currents and participated in the life of the city, above all in its cultural dimension, while nevertheless retaining a highly articulated sense of Jewish identity and unity. This meant that Jews were able both to defend their interests effectively and to establish links with the rest of the population from a position of strength. An additional important factor appears to have been the more tolerant atmosphere which prevailed in the Austro-Hungarian empire, which meant that ethnic tensions were less acute than elsewhere on the Polish lands. Furthermore, the fact that the city was largely pre-industrial and conservative, and was a spiritual and intellectual center for both Catholics and Jews, may paradoxically have mitigated ethnic conflict, as did the fact that the two societies - Polish and Jewish - were largely socially separate. While the increase in anti-Semitism after 1935 and the consequences of the Holocaust are still etched in the minds of many, the city nevertheless has a special place in Jewish hearts and will continue to be remembered as one of the great centers of Jewish culture in east-central Europe. As in other volumes of Polin, the New Views section examines a number of important topics. These include a general investigation of the situation of the Jews in Galicia, an analysis of the position of Jewish slave laborers in the Kielce area under Nazi rule, an investigation into the resurgence after 1944 of the myth of ritual murder, and a discussion of the history of the Jewish settlement in Lower Silesia after the World War II. [Subject: History, Jewish Studies, Polish Studies, Cultural Studies]

Personal stories of Polish rescuers and Jewish children include tragedies with no winners. Research on issues involved in the search for hidden Jewish children in the postwar period in Poland, raises questions such as: Why so many organizations? How did they operate? How did the Polish courts deal with the issue? What was the stance of the Church? How did the children react to the transition? Many moving personal stories of the children are interwoven in this book.

"The memoirs of Jews who were children during the Nazi occupation of Poland This book serves as a memorial to loved ones who do not even have a grave, as well as a tribute to those who risked their lives and families to save a Jewish child. A wide variety of experiences during the Nazi occupation of Poland are related with wrenching simplicity and candor, experiences that illustrate horrors and deprivation, but also present examples of courage and compassion."--Publisher's description.