Description
Book SynopsisPresents an engrossing story of loss and rebirth, political faith and disillusionment, and the persistence of Jewishness redefined as an integral element of the post-war generation's Polishness
Trade ReviewPoignant and nuanced, this work is an important contribution. . . . Highly recommended.
* Choice *
Auerbach's work deserves the highest praise as it is the first attempt at a comprehensive study of Jewish assimilation across generational lines covering the last eighty years of post-Holocaust Poland. . . . Auerbach's book is undoubtedly an achievement. Beautifully written and skillfully contextualized, her study of Jewish assimilation in postwar Poland will become a must read for everyone interested in twentieth-century Polish-Jewish history.
* H-Poland H-Net Reviews *
Amply illustrated with photographs of the families whose lives Auerbach chronicles, the book reverberates with hope and trembles with the tentative efforts of the people to rekindle the flames of their humanity after inestimable loss and trauma.
* Jewish Book Council *
This is an interesting and often moving tableau about the efforts of some wounded people to overcome their personal tragedies while redefining their communal loyalties.
* Booklist *
This imaginative and innovative monograph offers quite a new way of looking at the development of Jewish identity in People's Poland. . . . This book is certainly essential reading for all those interested in the history of postwar Poland and its Jewish minority.
* Slavic Review *
Table of ContentsGlossary 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
