There Once Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok

by Yaffa Eliach

For 900 years the Polish shtetl was a home to generations of Jewish families. In 1944 almost every Jew was murdered and with them died a way of life that had survived for centuries. Yaffa Eliach has written a landmark history of the shtetl.

Genres: History, Jewish, Judaism, Holocaust, Nonfiction, Judaica, Poland

754 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Yaffa Eliach (b. Yaffa Sonenson, Eišiškės, (Yiddish: אישישוק‎/Eishyshok) 31 May 1937) is a historian, author, and scholar of Judaic Studies and the Holocaust. She is probably best known for creating the “Tower of Life” made up by 1,500 photographs for permanent display at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

Yaffa Eliach was born Yaffa Sonenson to a Jewish family in Eishyshok near Vilna, now Eišiškės, Lithuania, a small town inhabited roughly in equal numbers by Jews and Poles until the Holocaust, where she lived until she was four years old. When the town was occupied by the Germans in June 1941 and most of the Jewish population was murdered by the Germans and Lithuanians, she and her family hid and survived in hiding places in the Eishyshok vicinity. Upon returning to Eishyshok after the arrival of the soviet forces in 1944, her mother and a brother were killed when the village, now occupied by the soviet army and security services (NKVD) was attacked by the Polish Home Army (AK) attempting to liberate Polish soldiers arrested by the soviet occupying forces. The Sonensons were hosting an officer of SMIERSH, soviet counter-intelligence (Yaffa Sonenson's father joined the soviet NKVD forces and helped them fight and arrest the Polish resistance, becoming a levtenant). The Russian officer and several of his soldiers have fired on the arriving Home Army from the Sonensons' house and as a result of a short exchange of fire there were at least three civilian casualties, a Polish woman and two above-mentioned Sonenson's family mambers . Later Yaffa Eliach accused the Polish Home Army of antisemitic motivation of the attack, however, her interpretation was found groundless by Polish historians as well as reputed Israeli scholars, including professor I.Gutman ("Znak", July, 2000).

Eliach emigrated to Palestine in 1946, and later to the United States in 1954. She received her BA in 1967 and her MA in 1969 from Brooklyn College, New York and a Ph.D. in 1973 from City University of New York in Russian intellectual history, studying under Saul Lieberman and Salo Baron.

Since 1969, Eliach was professor of history and literature in the Department of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College, and founded and served as director of the Center for Holocaust Studies in Brooklyn. She was a member of President Jimmy Carter's Commission on the Holocaust in 1978-79 and accompanied his fact-finding mission to Eastern Europe in 1979. She has been a frequent lecturer at numerous conferences and educational venues and has appeared on television several times in documentaries and interviews. She has written several books and has contributed to Encyclopaedia Judaica, The Women's Studies Encyclopedia, and The Encyclopedia of Hasidism.

Eliach has devoted herself to the preservation of memory of the Holocaust specifically from the perspective of a survivor's vantage point. She has also preserved her memories (via lecture) on video and audiocassettes. Her research has provided much material used in courses on the Holocaust in the United States.

Eliach thinks her generation “is the last link with the Holocaust”, and considers it her responsibility to document the tragedy in terms of life, not death, bringing the Jews back to life. In memory of her native Eishyshok she has written Once There Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok (1998), recounting the colorful Jewish life of Eishyshok. Also in memory of the town, Eliach created the “Tower of Life”, a permanent exhibit which contains approximately 1,500 photos of Jews in Eishyshok before the arrival of the Germans for the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C..

In 1953, Eliach married David Eliach, now principal emeritus of the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School. She has a daughter, Smadar Rosensweig, Professor of History at Touro College (NYC), and a son, Yotav Eliach, the principal of Rambam Mesivta High School. She has 14 grandchildren, including Itamar

Reviews

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely marvelous compendium of detailed insights into Jewish life in Polish shtetls before the holocaust. Although focused on Eishyshok, much applies to other shtetls as well.

I am well along in my new novel set in Germany and Poland during the Nazi years. Recently, though, in re-reading some of what I had written, and comparing it with scenes from my earlier novel The Heretic, I began to feel that I was not adequately capturing the emotion that is my goal. I realized that I had been (necessarily) immersed in scenes about Hitler's rise to the Chancellorship and I understood what I was feeling, which I can summarize as "too many Nazis, not enough Jews." It is the Jews who bring the emotion to my story, as they watch from Poland, fearful, hopeful, uncertain and confused.

Yaffa Eliach's book is my cure. Its 800+ pages captures the sense of the shtetl, facing the future that was never to be. Without a trace of hyperbole or any hint of the maudlin, Eliach paints a warm and enduring picture of people who did not live to paint it themselves. A vibrant culture for centuries, Polish Jewry struggled with the dilemmas of the 20th century, balancing Halakah and Zionism, secular studies and Talmud, open lives and closed. So much potential, which we all know was never to be realized.

Eliach captures it all, the mind and the heart. Now my job is to weave aspects of the lives that created that emotion into my story.

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a priceless resource describing life in the eastern European shtetl of Eishyshok in the 20th c. In addition to clear text organized by the nature of the activity (synagogue, heder, bathhouse, etc.) there are numerous anecdotes that bring the text very much to life. There are also heartbreaking stories and photos of many of those who were murdered by the Germans in September 1941. I'm about 1/3 through this 800 page tome; every page brings something unexpectedly evocative.

[Rebecca]

This is a big dense history of a single schtetl, from the Middle Ages through the Holocaust. Elliach is a good storyteller, but her attention to details and records is a little daunting at first. Taking my time with this one.

[Cherie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking and infuriating. A 900-year old Jewish settlement torn to shreds and its inhabitants murdered. The photos are powerful reminders that security and stability cannot be taken for granted. Especially relevant today when we have leadership who will not condemn white supremicist thought and routinely scapegoats others. I purchased this book from the U.S. Holocaust Museum when I was a social studies teacher. The photos and stories are highlighted in the museum and it is an unforgettable experience. It is a remarkable work of historical research--for more info on the author and research process, CNN has a good article : http://www.cnn.com/books/beginnings/9...

[June Sobel · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most remarkable pieces of non-fiction I have ever read. I visited Eishyshok (now Eisiskes, Lithuania) in July 2015 where my remaining ancestors from the neighboring shtetl of Olkieniki were killed in September 1941. I was riveted by this tome that recreated a historical as well as personal story by the author. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the Jewish world of Eastern Europe that once was...

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the people of Ejszyszki or the Tower of Faces you see at the Holocaust Museum. A large majority of the people were murdered with very few survivors that escaped. I didn't read this entire book but I did read what I wanted to get out of it. The chapter about the massacre is hard to read. I borrowed it from the library but may reread it in the future.

[Fei K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book detailing the history of the shtetl of Eishyshok (now Eisiskes). It is comprehensive and thorough, addressing many aspects of shtetl life. I enjoyed it as a rich slice of history, and was amazed at Eliach's dedication in researching and writing it so precisely.

[Lanell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read this book word for word, but I did like the general knowledge of Jewish life of this one region and specific lives, most adversely affected by World War II.

[Mary Narkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have read some of this remarkable book. To be read again.

[Pam G · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating look at shtetl life in eastern europe. so enjoyable.

[Roger Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of my wife's family. If you've seen the movie Defiance, it came out of this book.

[Randy Silverstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable chronicle of the village of Eishyshok, in modern Lithuania. Don't be intimidated by the 818 pages, as the last 119 pages are notes, sources, glossary and index. The author has been thorough in documenting the 900 year history of the area, not just the effect of the Holocaust.

[Howard Krosnick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant, heartbreaking, inspiring book. I learned so much about the shtetl world of my grandparents and ancestors, so much about the Holocaust. Reading this book is like entering a whole alternative world and has changed my understanding of my own and my peoples' past and present.

[Nechama Friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, tragic, heartbreaking history of just one Shtetl and its swift decimation by the Nazis and their collaborators. Too much to take in at once, I read this over several months.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely memorial to Yaffa's hometown.