The Life of Jews in Poland before the Holocaust: A Memoir

by Ben-Zion Gold

Ben-Zion Gold’s memoir brings to life the world of a million Jews in pre-World War II Poland who were later destroyed by the Nazis. Warmly recalling the relationships, rituals, observances, and celebrations, Gold evokes the sense of family and faith that helped him through the catastrophe that followed. With him we experience the life and institutions of the the Heder and hooky playing, his encounter with Hassidism, the courtship and marriage of his oldest sister, and the author’s own first inkling of love. And with him, we recapture the memories that made life worth living in the face of disaster, along with the experience of the human capacity for evil that tested and transformed his faith as it devastated his world. Finally, Gold tells of the fate of his family and of his own escape from that fate.

Genres: Judaism, History, Holocaust, Nonfiction, Poland, Religion

154 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2007

Reviews

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a Holocaust story, this isn't the book for you. The title says it all: the author is writing about life BEFORE the Holocaust, and he devotes only a few pages to his family's fate once the Nazis showed up. (He was the only survivor in his large family, and went on to become a rabbi.) Most memoirs are just the opposite: maybe a chapter or so about pre-war life, then a long history of the war years, then a concluding chapter about life after liberation.

I found this book very valuable because it gives a detailed glimpse of the Hassidic Jewry of Poland: a society vastly different from our own, a society we will never know again, which existed for centuries before being wiped out by World War II. The way Gold described that time and place, I felt like I was actually there, and I saw exactly what was destroyed when the Nazis invaded Poland.

I could also see in his descriptions reasons why the Jews had such a hard time resisting and escaping from the Nazis. Polish Jews were a peaceful, long-suffering lot, used to centuries of pogroms, and it was always their habit to just keep their heads down and endure until things got better. Who was to know that this time was different? And if a Jew wanted to escape, he had a hard time of it, especially the Hassidic Jews. Gold points out that Hassidic Jews had a much higher mortality rate than assimilated Jews. They in particular had always kept apart from the gentile population, living in their own neighborhoods, going to their own schools. Many of them didn't even speak Polish, and of course flawed Polish or a Yiddish accent would be a dead giveaway. A lot of them didn't know very many gentiles, certainly not intimately. To hide you usually needed gentiles' help, and who could you turn to that you knew you could trust? Also, from what Gold says, the Hassidic Jewish population tended to be very poor, lacking the resources to bribe their way to safety, purchase false papers, etc.

I would recommend this to novelists who want to write about that period, and also as a supplement to the bigger Holocaust collections.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author has a very matter-of-fact style, describing the facts around daily activities and life of his Jewish family before WWII. The memoir is heavy on Jewish tradition - describing the details of various religious ceremonies or holidays, and the family's preparations for and participation in those activities. Also, he details the day-to-day activities of the family, and how they as religious Jews interacted with their Polish neighbors.

I had hoped for a little more personal-ness in this memoir - I found it a little dry and too detailed at times, but all-in-all, it was interesting and provided me with new perspective and history.

[Christa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rabbi Gold is an elegant, savvy writer. He approaches his life experiences with scholarly distance than can seem stiff at times, but sprinkled throughout are sweet and poignant vignettes. I learned a huge amount about particulars of the religious educational system in pre-WWII Poland through his detailed accounts of the yeshivas he attended and the rebbes tishes (tables) he visited. It is a perfect complement to Yiddish literary representations of the interwar frum (religious) Jewish world.

[Joanna Leliwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastyczne wspomnienia z przedwojennego, żydowskiego Radomia.

[Sara Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book to be somewhat clumsily written; I wish the author had worked with a writer rather than simply publish a memoir, BUT I did enjoy reading about the life of a Jew in pre-Nazi Poland. Too often, I think we focus on the holocaust (which SHOULD be a focal point, for sure), and we ignore what was lost. I appreciated learning more about the rich cultural and religious life of one Polish Jew.