Polish-Jewish Literature in the Interwar Years PDF Download

Author: Eugenia Prokop-Janiec
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 9780815629849
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Foremost among a recent wave of Polish books on Jewish issues, this groundbreaking work rectifies long-held misconceptions about Polish Jewish writers. Popular notion has it that Polish Jewish writers, unlike their counterparts in Western. Northern, and Central Europe, wrote solely in Yiddish or Hebrew. Yet between the two world wars Poland produced an elite group of assimilated Jews who wrote exclusively in Polish. Theirs was not an easy lot. Torn between love of Poland and its literature and their own Jewish identity, they straddled a fine line between two cultural worlds-at once advocating acculturation while prey to virulent anti-Semitism. This pioneering, award-winning volume examines the emergence and development of these writers, their personal plight, and the profound effect they had upon Polish letters and poetry. Meticulously researched, it explores the role of language as a bridge, attitudes toward Polish writing, impact of the ghetto, and the transformation of Polish into a force for its Jewish populace. Finally, it pays homage to fine literary voices silenced by the Holocaust.

Author: Celia Stopnicka Heller
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 9780814324943
Category : Antisemitism
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
The Holocaust virtually destroyed the Jews of Poland, once a community of more than three million, constituting ten percent of the population, and the oldest continuous Jewish community in a European country. On the Edge of Destruction looks at the rich and complex nature of that community and the tremendous pressures under which it lived before the tragic end.

Author: Sławomir Jacek Żurek
Publisher: Academic Studies PRess
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
The title of this monograph, ‘Polish-Jewish Re-Remembering’, refers to the post-1989, thirty-year-long process of reviving attention to Polish-Jewish relations in historical, cultural, and literary studies, including the impact of Jews on the development of Polish culture, their presence in Polish social life, and the relationships between Jews and non-Jews in Poland. The book consists of four parts: the first focuses on Polish, Jewish and Polish-Jewish Literature (dealing mainly with pre-1939 literary works); the second, on the post-war literary output of the Polish-Jewish writer Arnold Słucki (1920–1972); the third, on Polish-Israeli literary images in the works of writers who were active in Israel (1948–2018); and the fourth, on recent (after 2000) Polish Holocaust literature.

Author: Bernard Goldstein
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 1612494471
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
Bernard Goldstein’s memoir describes a hard world of taverns, toughs, thieves, and prostitutes; of slaughterhouse workers, handcart porters, and wagon drivers; and of fist-and gunfights with everyone from anti-Semites and Communists to hostile police, which is to say that it depicts a totally different view of life in prewar Poland than the one usually portrayed. As such, the book offers a corrective view in the form of social history, one that commands attention and demands respect for the vitality and activism of the generation of Polish Jews so brutally annihilated by the barbarism of the Nazis. In Warsaw, a city with over 300,000 Jews (one third of the population), Bernstein was the Jewish Labor Bund’s “enforcer,” organizer, and head of their militia—the one who carried out daily, on-the-street organization of unions; the fighting off of Communists, Polish anti-Semitic hooligans, and antagonistic police; marshaling and protecting demonstrations; and even settling family disputes, some of them arising from the new secular, socialist culture being fostered by the Bund. Goldstein’s is a portrait of tough Jews willing to do battle—worldly, modern individuals dedicated to their folk culture and the survival of their people. It delivers an unparalleled street-level view of vibrant Jewish life in Poland between the wars: of Jewish masses entering modern life, of Jewish workers fighting for their rights, of optimism, of greater assertiveness and self-confidence, of armed combat, and even of scenes depicting the seamy, semi-criminal elements. It provides a representation of life in Poland before the great catastrophe of World War II, a life of flowering literary activity, secular political journalism, successful political struggle, immersion in modern politics, fights for worker rights and benefits, a strong social-democratic labor movement, creation of a secular school system in Yiddish, and a youth movement that later provided the heroic fighters for the courageous Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Author: Israel Gutman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 608

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Book Description
A series of essays, by noted scholars from America, Europe, and Israel, describing Jewish life in Poland between 1918 and 1939. the study illustrates the communities' efforts to maintain the strong cultural heritage amidst anti-Semitism.

Author: Harold B. Segel
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501718290
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
A vibrant Jewish community flourished in Poland from late in the tenth century until it was virtually annihilated in World War II. In this remarkable anthology, the first of its kind, Harold B. Segel offers translations of poems and prose works—mainly fiction—by non-Jewish Polish writers. Taken together, the selections represent the complex perceptions about Jews in the Polish community in the period 1530-1990.

Author: Antony Polonsky
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
Poland in between the two World Wars. The Jewish population in Poland, second in number only to that of the United States.

Author: Antony Polonsky
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 178962780X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 567

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Book Description
A comprehensive survey—socio-political, economic, and religious—of Jewish life in Poland and Russia. Wherever possible, contemporary Jewish writings are used to illustrate how Jews felt and reacted to new situations and ideas.

Author: Natalia Aleksiun
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1789628059
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 534

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Book Description
Thoroughly researched, this study highlights the historical scholarship that is one of the lasting legacies of interwar Polish Jewry and analyses its political and social context. As Jewish citizens struggled to assert their place in a newly independent Poland, a dedicated group of Jewish scholars fascinated by history devoted themselves to creating a sense of Polish Jewish belonging while also fighting for their rights as an ethnic minority. The political climate made it hard for these men and women to pursue an academic career; instead they had to continue their efforts to create and disseminate Polish Jewish history by teaching outside the university and publishing in scholarly and popular journals. By introducing the Jewish public to a pantheon of historical heroes to celebrate and anniversaries to commemorate, they sought to forge a community aware of its past, its cultural heritage, and its achievements---though no less important were their efforts to counter the increased hostility towards Jews in the public discourse of the day. In highlighting the role of public intellectuals and the social role of scholars and historical scholarship, this study adds a new dimension to the understanding of the Polish Jewish world in the interwar period.

Author: David Engel
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469619571
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
The announcement in December 1942 by the Polish government-in-exile that the Germans were attempting to exterminate all Jews in Poland came after much information had reached the West through other sources. The Polish government's action and inaction in releasing the information was the result of the complex weighing by the government's concept of its obligations to the Jewish citizens of Poland. Originally published in 1987. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.