Jewish Childhood in Kraków
218 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:17 Sep 2021
ISBN:9781978822931
Hardcover
Release Date:17 Sep 2021
ISBN:9781978822948
Winner of the 2020 Ernst Fraenkel Prize from the Wiener Holocaust Library
Jewish Childhood in Kraków is the first book to tell the history of Kraków in the second World War through the lens of Jewish children’s experiences. Here, children assume center stage as historical actors whose recollections and experiences deserve to be told, analyzed, and treated seriously.
Sliwa scours archives to tell their story, gleaning evidence from the records of the German authorities, Polish neighbors, Jewish community and family, and the children themselves to explore the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland and in Kraków in particular. A microhistory of a place, a people, and daily life, this book plumbs the decisions and behaviors of ordinary people in extraordinary times.
Offering a window onto human relations and ethnic tensions in times of rampant violence, Jewish Childhood in Kraków is an effort both to understand the past and to reflect on the position of young people during humanitarian crises.
Jewish Childhood in Kraków is the first book to tell the history of Kraków in the second World War through the lens of Jewish children’s experiences. Here, children assume center stage as historical actors whose recollections and experiences deserve to be told, analyzed, and treated seriously.
Sliwa scours archives to tell their story, gleaning evidence from the records of the German authorities, Polish neighbors, Jewish community and family, and the children themselves to explore the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland and in Kraków in particular. A microhistory of a place, a people, and daily life, this book plumbs the decisions and behaviors of ordinary people in extraordinary times.
Offering a window onto human relations and ethnic tensions in times of rampant violence, Jewish Childhood in Kraków is an effort both to understand the past and to reflect on the position of young people during humanitarian crises.
An outstanding contribution to the history of children and families during the Holocaust in Poland. . . . [Sliwa] has a keen sense of historical geography and timing, leading the reader through continuity and change in monthly, weekly, or even daily stages of city life. Time and space are thus deeply historicized in this book, making for a superb microhistorical account. . . . This superbly narrated short text, unburdened by academic jargon, should be a must-read not only for academics but for anyone interested in family, children, and genocide histories. Dedicated 'To the children for whom this history was a reality,' Jewish Childhood in Kraków is a most compelling exploration of Jewish children's life and death during genocide.
Sliwa’s book is an essential contribution to Holocaust scholarship, but even more significantly, she offers us the opportunity to learn about children’s experiences, which often are absent from Holocaust literature. Their concealed presence, which Sliwa spends so much time discussing, is precisely what makes it difficult to tell their stories. But Sliwa’s persistence and ability to dig through a multitude of sources to find even the smallest pieces of information resulted in this remarkable account that will hopefully encourage future scholars to explore the experiences of children in other parts of Poland and Europe.
This well researched book on the history of Jewish childhood in Kraków will become a standard work on the subject, inviting other scholars to investigate Jewish childhood in other ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Joanna Sliwa offers a nuanced and compelling picture of what it meant to grow up Jewish under the German occupation of Kraków, one of the oldest Jewish communities in Poland. By giving voice to Jewish children and their fears, heartbreaks, loss, and survival, she allows readers to learn of children’s vulnerability and resilience, agency and helplessness firsthand. These voices will become central to the ways we think about Jewish children’s experiences during the Holocaust.
A well-researched book. An important addition to Holocaust literature.
JOANNA SLIWA is a historian at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) in New York City.
Note on Terminology
Introduction
1 Navigating Shifts in the City
2 Adapting to Life inside the Ghetto
3 Clandestine Activities
4 Child Welfare
5 Concealed Presence in the Camp
6 Survival through Hiding and Flight
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations Used in Notes
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
1 Navigating Shifts in the City
2 Adapting to Life inside the Ghetto
3 Clandestine Activities
4 Child Welfare
5 Concealed Presence in the Camp
6 Survival through Hiding and Flight
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations Used in Notes
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Related Titles
Polish Jewish Culture Beyond the Capital
Centering the Periphery
Edited by Halina Goldberg and Nancy Sinkoff, with Natalia Aleksiun
