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From that Place and Time: A Memoir, 1938-1947
From that Place and Time is the memoir of Lucy S. Dawidowicz, an American-Jewish historian who set out to study Yiddish language and Jewish history at YIVO, the Jewish Scientific Institute in Vilna, Poland, in 1938. Escaping Poland only days before the Nazi onslaught, she worked in the New York YIVO during the war, and returned to Europe from 1946 to 1947 to aid Jewish displaced persons in Munich and Belsen with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Dawidowicz's memoir not only describes her pre-war year in Jewish Eastern Europe, but also treats the ghostly post-war period, and her role in salvaging what remained of Vilna's scorched Jewish archives and libraries. Nancy Sinkoff's new introduction explores the historical forces, particularly the dynamic world of secular Yiddish culture, which shaped Dawidowicz's decision to journey to Poland and her reassessment of those forces in the last years of her life.
376 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1989
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119 people want to read
About the author
Lucy S. Dawidowicz
15 books18 followersLucy Schildkret Dawidowicz (June 16, 1915 – December 5, 1990), was an American historian and an author of books on modern Jewish history, in particular books on the Holocaust.
Dawidowicz was born in New York City as Lucy Bagleizer. Her parents, Max and Victoria (née Ofnaem) Schildkret were secular-minded Jews with little interest in religion. Dawidowicz did not attend a service at a synagogue until 1938.
Dawidowicz's first interests were poetry and literature. She attended Hunter College from 1932 to 1936 and obtained a B.A. in English. She went on to study for a M.A. at Columbia University, but abandoned her studies because of concerns over events in Europe. At the encouragement of her mentor, the historian Jacob Shatzky, Dawidowicz decided to focus on history, especially Jewish history. Dawidowicz made the decision to learn Yiddish and at Shatzky's urging, in 1938 she travelled to Wilno, Poland (modern Vilnius, Lithuania) to work at the Yiddish Scientific Institute (known by its Yiddish acronym as the YIVO).
Dawidowicz lived in Wilno until August 1939 when she returned to the United States. During her time at the YIVO, she became close to three of the leading scholars there, namely Zelig Kalmanovich, Max Weinreich and Zalmen Reisen. Only Weinreich survived the Holocaust and that only because he went to New York to establish a branch of the YIVO there before World War II. In particular, Dawidowicz was very close to Kalmanovich and his family, whom she described as being her real parents. During her time in Poland, she encountered anti-Semitism from the local Gentile population and her later writings on Gentile-Jewish relations in Poland were very much coloured by her memories of the time in Wilno. Dawidowicz was well known for her view that the vast majority of the Roman Catholic population in Poland was virulently anti-Semitic before and during World War II. Other historians, such as Norman Davies, have objected to the factual validity of this portrayal of Gentile-Jewish relations.
From 1940 until 1946, Dawidowicz worked as a researcher at the New York office of the YIVO. During the war, she was aware that something horrible was happening to the Jewish people of Europe, though it was not until after the war that she finally became aware of the full extent of the Holocaust.
In 1946, Dawidowicz traveled to Germany where she worked as an aid worker for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in the various Displaced Persons (DP) camps. During this period, she involved herself in the search for various looted YIVO books in Frankfurt. Only after the war, did she realize the full extent of the Jewish catastrophe, when she became involved with providing aid for Holocaust survivors. By her own admission, she was full of sorrow over the fate of European Jews, hatred for the Germans and pride in the tenacity of Holocaust survivors. In particular, she was filled with sadness as she realized that the world of Eastern European Jewry that she had encountered and lived among in Poland before the war had been destroyed forever, and all that was left of it were the emaciated survivors she was working with and her own memories. Moreover, Dawidowicz found it very poignant that she had left that world in August 1939; a month before the process of destruction had begun.
In 1947, she returned to the U.S. and on January 3, 1948, she married a Polish Jew named Szymon Dawidowicz. Upon her return to the U.S. she worked as a researcher for the novelist John Hersey's book The Wall, a dramatization of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. From 1948 until 1960, Dawidowicz worked as a historical researcher for the American Jewish Committee. During the same period, Dawidowicz wrote frequently for the Commentary, the New York Times and the New York Times Book Review. An enthusiastic New York Mets fan, Dawidowicz lived the rest of her life in New York. In 1985, she founded the Fund for the Translation of Jewish Literature from Yiddis
Dawidowicz was born in New York City as Lucy Bagleizer. Her parents, Max and Victoria (née Ofnaem) Schildkret were secular-minded Jews with little interest in religion. Dawidowicz did not attend a service at a synagogue until 1938.
Dawidowicz's first interests were poetry and literature. She attended Hunter College from 1932 to 1936 and obtained a B.A. in English. She went on to study for a M.A. at Columbia University, but abandoned her studies because of concerns over events in Europe. At the encouragement of her mentor, the historian Jacob Shatzky, Dawidowicz decided to focus on history, especially Jewish history. Dawidowicz made the decision to learn Yiddish and at Shatzky's urging, in 1938 she travelled to Wilno, Poland (modern Vilnius, Lithuania) to work at the Yiddish Scientific Institute (known by its Yiddish acronym as the YIVO).
Dawidowicz lived in Wilno until August 1939 when she returned to the United States. During her time at the YIVO, she became close to three of the leading scholars there, namely Zelig Kalmanovich, Max Weinreich and Zalmen Reisen. Only Weinreich survived the Holocaust and that only because he went to New York to establish a branch of the YIVO there before World War II. In particular, Dawidowicz was very close to Kalmanovich and his family, whom she described as being her real parents. During her time in Poland, she encountered anti-Semitism from the local Gentile population and her later writings on Gentile-Jewish relations in Poland were very much coloured by her memories of the time in Wilno. Dawidowicz was well known for her view that the vast majority of the Roman Catholic population in Poland was virulently anti-Semitic before and during World War II. Other historians, such as Norman Davies, have objected to the factual validity of this portrayal of Gentile-Jewish relations.
From 1940 until 1946, Dawidowicz worked as a researcher at the New York office of the YIVO. During the war, she was aware that something horrible was happening to the Jewish people of Europe, though it was not until after the war that she finally became aware of the full extent of the Holocaust.
In 1946, Dawidowicz traveled to Germany where she worked as an aid worker for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in the various Displaced Persons (DP) camps. During this period, she involved herself in the search for various looted YIVO books in Frankfurt. Only after the war, did she realize the full extent of the Jewish catastrophe, when she became involved with providing aid for Holocaust survivors. By her own admission, she was full of sorrow over the fate of European Jews, hatred for the Germans and pride in the tenacity of Holocaust survivors. In particular, she was filled with sadness as she realized that the world of Eastern European Jewry that she had encountered and lived among in Poland before the war had been destroyed forever, and all that was left of it were the emaciated survivors she was working with and her own memories. Moreover, Dawidowicz found it very poignant that she had left that world in August 1939; a month before the process of destruction had begun.
In 1947, she returned to the U.S. and on January 3, 1948, she married a Polish Jew named Szymon Dawidowicz. Upon her return to the U.S. she worked as a researcher for the novelist John Hersey's book The Wall, a dramatization of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. From 1948 until 1960, Dawidowicz worked as a historical researcher for the American Jewish Committee. During the same period, Dawidowicz wrote frequently for the Commentary, the New York Times and the New York Times Book Review. An enthusiastic New York Mets fan, Dawidowicz lived the rest of her life in New York. In 1985, she founded the Fund for the Translation of Jewish Literature from Yiddis
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 19, 2021
A unique take on story that has been told many times
Well-written. The author makes the story real and personal- makes the reader feel the history being .described. Also leaves the reader in awe of her accomplishments.
Well-written. The author makes the story real and personal- makes the reader feel the history being .described. Also leaves the reader in awe of her accomplishments.
December 26, 2017
A memoir of the WWII years in the life of a Jewish American historian. Lucy Dawidowicz was a young woman of 23 when she spent 1938-39 in Vilna, Poland (modern day Lithuania) as a graduate researcher at YIVO, a research center, library and archives for Yiddish culture. At that time, Vilna was known as the "Jerusalem of the North", with a large Jewish population. She leaves hurriedly at the end of August, 1939, just ahead of the invading German army and spends the war years, feeling guilty that her American passport allowed her to escape the death and destruction that came to Vilna and all of Eastern Europe. As an employee for YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City, she is privy to knowledge of the Holocaust as it happens and then spends several post-war years in Germany, working in the DP (displaced persons) camps and later in the Offenbach Archival Depot, sorting looted books and sending the remnants of the Vilna's library and archival collections back to YIVO's surviving branch in New York City.
Author writes from her own perspective, as an American but also as someone very aware of what was lost in terms of Jewish European life and culture. One can feel her sorrow, despair and anger. Almost all of her friends and co-workers from Vilna were lost.
This memoir was a major source for 2 recent books that I've read, The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe's Libraries and especially The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures. That helped me have more background to understand the time & place; this book gave me even more appreciation for the people involved in the story.
Author writes from her own perspective, as an American but also as someone very aware of what was lost in terms of Jewish European life and culture. One can feel her sorrow, despair and anger. Almost all of her friends and co-workers from Vilna were lost.
This memoir was a major source for 2 recent books that I've read, The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe's Libraries and especially The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures. That helped me have more background to understand the time & place; this book gave me even more appreciation for the people involved in the story.
June 5, 2022
Lucy Dawidowicz was primarily known as an historian of the Holocaust and Europe during the World Wars. I once had the privilege to meet her during a lecture that she was giving. This memoir recalls her early years when she was sent to the YIVO headquarters in Vilna (1938 – 1939) as a graduate researcher. She had two things going for her: 1) fluency in Yiddish thanks to her parents’ immigrant and socialist background, and 2) an American passport. The author describes in vivid first-hand detail the rising threat of Hitler’s Germany and the horrors of the Holocaust. During the war, she documents the Holocaust from the YIVO offices in New York, and in its aftermath, she returns to Europe as an official of the JDC to help displaced persons. The book describes the rescue of some the YIVO’s archives and Ms. Dawidowicz’s personal hatred toward the German people.
As a former English major, the author writes extremely well, making history come alive and never a boring set of facts. Yet other than raw emotion against the Germans, Ms. Dawidowicz reveals relatively little about her personal life during those years. As a young American woman, the author must have attracted male attention – even for the wrong reasons. But we never hear any of this. She also frequently mentions taking photographs during her two tours of Europe. Yet no pictures of herself or her colleagues or the devastation that she witnessed appear in the book,
As a former English major, the author writes extremely well, making history come alive and never a boring set of facts. Yet other than raw emotion against the Germans, Ms. Dawidowicz reveals relatively little about her personal life during those years. As a young American woman, the author must have attracted male attention – even for the wrong reasons. But we never hear any of this. She also frequently mentions taking photographs during her two tours of Europe. Yet no pictures of herself or her colleagues or the devastation that she witnessed appear in the book,
July 22, 2024
Seniai planuota šiuos atsiminimus perskaityt, bet laiko atsirado tik dabar. Ir nesigailiu. Tikrai įdomūs atsiminimai. Kai kur įvykiams užbėgama už akių, bet tai normalu, juk atsiminimai parašyti po kurio (ilgo) laiko. Vilnius labai įdomiai pristatomas iš žydiškos perspektyvos (nors ir trūksta viso kito margumyno, bet suprantama ir viskas paaiškinta knygoje kodėl taip yra). Šis tekstas dar labiau papildo išnykusio miesto vaizdinį, su kuriuo susipažinti reikėtų kiekvienai / kiekvienam. Antroji knygos dalis irgi labai įdomi. Joje pristatoma kaip JAV gyvenę žydai išgyveno Europos tragediją, kaip ieškojo ir gaudavo informacijos apie įvykius Europoje ir bendrai, kaip atrodė Antrasis Pasaulinis karas už Atlanto. Bendrai autorė daug kur nevynioja į vatą ir rašo tai ką jautė tuo metu (arba jautė rašydama atsiminimus) - tai šią knygą padaro dar paveikesne ir įdomesne. Trečioji dalis puikiai dera su Davido E. Fishmano „Knygų gelbėtojai Vilniaus gete" ir pavaizduoja koks buvo tų JIVO ir Strašuno bibliotekos knygų, kurios nebuvo sunaikintos ar paslėptos Vilniuje, likimas.
January 10, 2022
I read this for research purposes and I'm not sure that it would make much sense to anyone who doesn't have background on Pre-WWII Vilna, YIVO, the Vilna ghetto, and the Paper Brigade. That being said, the perspective of an American Jewish college student who took a year abroad to study at YIVO in 1938 is such a unique story that it's worth a read for that reason alone.
I do think that some of Dawidowicz's weird personal thoughts about people's appearance or interpersonal strife was unnecessary, but she doesn't spare herself in revealing her own hubris and naivete, too. I think this was an attempt at a quite honest memoir of one woman's experience of extraordinary historical events and how she, as an American Jew, became so entwined with the Jews of one European city and their tragic fate. I found most insightful her recollections of the DP camps and the more complicated reactions of survivors to their trauma and their actions during the war.
I do think that some of Dawidowicz's weird personal thoughts about people's appearance or interpersonal strife was unnecessary, but she doesn't spare herself in revealing her own hubris and naivete, too. I think this was an attempt at a quite honest memoir of one woman's experience of extraordinary historical events and how she, as an American Jew, became so entwined with the Jews of one European city and their tragic fate. I found most insightful her recollections of the DP camps and the more complicated reactions of survivors to their trauma and their actions during the war.
February 13, 2024
Besides what others have said, I regard this book as essential Holocaust reading because it paints a vivid picture of Jewish life in Poland before the war.
It also describes Jewish culture in N.Y.C. when Communism was in fashion. It gives some insight into the way it was propagated and how it responded to directions from Moscow.
I disagree with the description of "survivor's guild" although if you want to understand the anguish that American Jews with connections in Europe as the Holocaust unfolded.
After WW II Dawidowicz returned to Europe and worked to rescue the mountains of printed material seized by the Nazis, including some from the library in Vilna.
For a more detailed account of her activities from that point onward, see her bio,"From Left Right" by Nancy Sinkoff which describes her contributions to Holocaust studies and Jewish issues in general.
It also describes Jewish culture in N.Y.C. when Communism was in fashion. It gives some insight into the way it was propagated and how it responded to directions from Moscow.
I disagree with the description of "survivor's guild" although if you want to understand the anguish that American Jews with connections in Europe as the Holocaust unfolded.
After WW II Dawidowicz returned to Europe and worked to rescue the mountains of printed material seized by the Nazis, including some from the library in Vilna.
For a more detailed account of her activities from that point onward, see her bio,"From Left Right" by Nancy Sinkoff which describes her contributions to Holocaust studies and Jewish issues in general.
November 29, 2021
Full review at:
https://www.academia.edu/62648660/Rev...
From the conclusion:
From that Place and Time suggests a futile effort on the author’s part to clear herself of her class self-hatred, an effort in which poverty and Left-wing politics and the failure to modernize are inextricably linked, alongside Being Jewish. This is the survivor guilt of the allrightnik: guilt about class, not ethnicity. Or both.
Adorno was right. The Revolution will abolish fear.
https://www.academia.edu/62648660/Rev...
From the conclusion:
From that Place and Time suggests a futile effort on the author’s part to clear herself of her class self-hatred, an effort in which poverty and Left-wing politics and the failure to modernize are inextricably linked, alongside Being Jewish. This is the survivor guilt of the allrightnik: guilt about class, not ethnicity. Or both.
Adorno was right. The Revolution will abolish fear.
May 14, 2008
I don't expect this memoir to be interesting to anyone not already interested in the time and place on which she is writing, namely Vilna in the 1930s. But if you have read or do know about Young Vilna then it is amazing to watch them go about their daily lives as the Nazis close in on them. It just doesn't seem real. And good luck finding this book outside of a library.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews