In Those Terrible Days: Writings from the Lodz Ghetto

by Yosef Zelkovitsh

Zelkowicz (b. 1897) was the scion of a wealthy Hassidic family, and had been ordained as a rabbi by the age of 18, but he soon left the study hall, and became a teacher, bookkeeper and writer. He wrote short stories, folk tales, humorous pieces, plays, literary studies, reportage, and articles. His pieces on Jewish folklore and history were published in newspapers and literary supplements in Poland and America. He became a member of the executive board of YIVO, the Institute for Jewish Research and joining the staff in Lodz.
When he was deported to Auschwitz in August 1944, the rich amount of research and copious notes that he took with him disappeared with him, but27 notebooks remained behind in the Lodz Ghetto. His personal diary and the variety of articles that he wrote reflect the diversity and richness of his writings even under conditions of extreme physical deprivation and present a moving document of the nightmarish days with great precision and vivid detail.

Genres: Holocaust

381 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2003

Reviews

[Göran · Rating 5 out of 5]

In September 1942 the Jews in the ghetto in Lodz were ordered to hand over their sick, elderly and children to the Nazis "for resettlement" (to the death camp of Chelmno). What followed are events defying human comprehension. Children were torn from their parents, sick were thrown out of their beds, elderly were loaded on to trucks as pieces of metal scrap, anybody could be shot at a whim. Yosef Zelkovitsh was there to see it and describe it and his notes are miraculously still with us to read about it. I find this to be one of the most important testimonies to the Nazi-engineered collapse of human morality "as we know it".