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On the Other Side of the Gate: A Novel
Hershel and Lena Bregman, a young Jewish couple in Nazi-occupied Poland, desperately plot to smuggle their young son to safety outside the town ghetto before the Nazis begin their deportation of ghetto Jews
149 pages, Library Binding
First published March 1, 1975
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December 11, 2022
A young Jewish couple, Heschel and Lena, end up trapped in a ghetto following the Nazi takeover. They manage to survive, thanks to wits and connections, until faced with a major dilemma: pregnancies have become forbidden. What is to become of Lena, who is expecting? With the help of the Polish underground and sympathizers, the couple manage to find shelter and protection for their baby David.
The novel is well-researched, conveying the horrors of that time and place, and avoiding horns and halos. Clearly the Poles, who have often been condemned collectively as vicious anti-Semites and Nazi collaborators, were diverse, and compassion ranged among the occupied populace, from peasant to urbanite alike. Here they display incredible ingenuity -- fake names, fake appearances, fake newspaper ads -- to hide and transfer little David. The novel ends ambiguously, as little is known of the fate of the couple after the baby is placed under the care of outside friends. There is an afterword about Jewish children who were taken in by Polish couples and, after the war, either reluctantly returned or themselves, raised as gentiles, refusing to return to their birth parents.
The characters Lena and Heschel are somewhat more secularized --Heschel reads Dubnov and Sholom Aleichem rather than Bible and Talmud - and their Jewishness is more of an ethnicity than a religion. The author may have been writing with this idea of Judaism in mind, but the couple are, in fact, representative of many of that era's younger generation. The Jews of interwar Poland were assimilating or acculturating, in spite of the Chassidic presence, with many becoming involved in Zionist or leftist activities. Nevertheless, this book would appeal to all Jewish readers, and its tone toward all the victims, Jewish and Polish, is respectful.
The novel is well-researched, conveying the horrors of that time and place, and avoiding horns and halos. Clearly the Poles, who have often been condemned collectively as vicious anti-Semites and Nazi collaborators, were diverse, and compassion ranged among the occupied populace, from peasant to urbanite alike. Here they display incredible ingenuity -- fake names, fake appearances, fake newspaper ads -- to hide and transfer little David. The novel ends ambiguously, as little is known of the fate of the couple after the baby is placed under the care of outside friends. There is an afterword about Jewish children who were taken in by Polish couples and, after the war, either reluctantly returned or themselves, raised as gentiles, refusing to return to their birth parents.
The characters Lena and Heschel are somewhat more secularized --Heschel reads Dubnov and Sholom Aleichem rather than Bible and Talmud - and their Jewishness is more of an ethnicity than a religion. The author may have been writing with this idea of Judaism in mind, but the couple are, in fact, representative of many of that era's younger generation. The Jews of interwar Poland were assimilating or acculturating, in spite of the Chassidic presence, with many becoming involved in Zionist or leftist activities. Nevertheless, this book would appeal to all Jewish readers, and its tone toward all the victims, Jewish and Polish, is respectful.
Displaying 1 of 1 review