Konin: One Man's Quest for a Vanished Jewish Community

by Theo Richmond

The internationally acclaimed story of a Jewish ghetto in a small town in Poland—and of one man's obsessive quest to discover its fate and its survivors after the Holocaust. • "A stunning achievement.... A deep and powerful book.... He has re-created a world." — The New York Times

In 1939 the Polish town of Konin vanished in the wake of Nazi occupation. Twenty-five years later, Theo Richmond set out to find what he could about that vanished world. He traveled across the United States, Europe, and Israel, tracing survivors and sifting through archives and the stories of those he interviewed. A project he thought would take six months took seven years. Finally he confronted the Konin of today. Interweaving past and present, Konin tells the story of one community—how it began, how it flourished, and how it ended—and in the process re-creates the precariousness, anguish and necessity of human memory.

Genres: History, Holocaust, Nonfiction, World War II, Jewish, Judaism, Poland

572 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Shelley]

Yes, this is another Holocaust archival work and yes, it is brilliantly researched and written. But Richmond's crowning achievement, I propose, is his ability to create a lengthy work as this, about people many readers could never know, without ever letting it lapse into sentimentality or a wearisome litany of names, faces and facts. And yes, I have tearfully walked the streets of Konin with those Shoah survivors who now live in England, the US, and Israel. Richmond has ensured that the Nazi attempt to relegate Jewish Konin to oblivion has been thwarted. And we are much the better for it. "For the dead and the living we must bear witness." Thank you Mr Richmond. You have witnessed for the murdered of Kazimierz forest and all the other killing fields of Nazi Europe.

[Maija · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a good while to finish this. Not because it was boring or hard to read, but because it was intense and rich in detail, and the fates of the people in it were a lot to take in at once. This is an exceptional book - moving and educational.

[Yvonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pictures the Jewish life and its end in a small Polish town - based on careful and detailed research. Amazing work. Very touching.

[Velvetink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished it sometime before dawn (last night the 5th), followed directly after with the novel "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink. Both of which I am still digesting along with "Everything will be illuminated" - Safran Foer. I need sleep before I can write anything more..


Konin Jews were very proud of their library and the subject comes up many times in survivors accounts. There's a quote by Paul Johnson in his History of the Jews; "Pious Jews saw heaven as a vast library, with an archangel as the librarian", and I like that idea. Theo Richmond adds to it, "Hell has a library too. Two days after the Jews of Vilna were driven into the ghetto, they opened a library".




Don't know why I bother with using the update thingy...useless for correcting typos. Obviously I meant Ukraine, not Unkraine.


18.dec 2010 = found again, back on the to-read list.

Currently have misplaced this book somewhere...;( haven't finished it yet.

shelving it till it's found again.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me a long time to read, not because it dragged but because I needed to absorb every fascinating detail and digest the cruelty the human race is capable of inflicting. But still this was an immensely satisfying read. The research was excellent; the story of the rise and fall of one Jewish community beautifully written; the description of all the people the author meets on his quest so vivid and the education I received in what it means to be a Jew illuminating. Memoir and modern history all rolled into one marvellously readable book

[Rick Elinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Theo Richmond is a secular Jew, born in England, of parents who left their Polish town Konin as teenagers before WWI. Richmond became obsessed with finding out about Konin, which became Judenrein with the Nazi deportations and murders in 1942. Richmond interviews as many former residents whom he can find. They are all old, and either got out of Konin before the Nazis came or had extremely fortuitous escapes, often from the camps. The image that emerges of the town makes "Fiddler on the Roof" and the stories of Sholem Aleichem and others quite realistic. The details are striking such as the descriptions of the ways of making a living, the numbers of people occupying a few rooms, and the food, funerals, and even the outhouses. This is a granular, case-history approach showing the horror of the Holocaust, as for each person interviewed, whole families were murdered. It was interesting, but perhaps the book went on too long.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Konin, Poland is a city with a long, rich history. Many historical buildings have survived various conflicts and two world wars. The architecture is amazing, and I would love to see many things here in person. The author of this book has focused on this history of the Jewish community in Poland, particularly the vanishment of it during the course of World War II. During the war, thousands of Jewish people were deported or moved into ghettos. Their homes and items were turned over to German citizens, officials, and military service members. At the start of the war, there were some 6,000 Jewish citizens. After the war, only 200 remained. Less than 50 came back to Konin, and those who did left shortly due to the hostility towards the Jewish people. All of the history, lives, and stories were essentially lost. The author of this book did some wonderful, hands on research to uncover the lost legacy of the inhabitants of this community who were vanished.

[Agnes]

Trovato in libreria preparando scatoloni (.....) in vista di un trasloco...Che bella sorpresa, non lo ricordavo.... Edizione italiana.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Be very careful with these Holocaust books. While reading this one and a handful of others, you will become depressed, stop eating, stop shaving, showering stop sleeping, and stop taking care of yourself. This one is in particular. Although it is a fascinating collection of the indomitable spirit of the Jews, it is difficult to re-live these eyewitnesses and the brutality they experienced at the hands of the 'enlightened' germans and the rest of the collaborators in europe. So many of these european countries have still not paid for the crimes they committed during the Holocaust.

There are some firsthand accounts in this book that will stay with you for the rest of your life...imprinted in your memory, unable to forget. The finest, most educated, loyal citizens in europe, rounded up by the countries they lived in for hundreds of years, and sent to the gas chambers and german-made ovens, all for nothing, their only crime being Jews. 'Enlightened europeans'.

[matthew mcdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is a English Jew who researched the Polish Jewish community that his ancestors and extended family came from. The community was about 500 years old and had about 2,000 members in 1939. The vast majority of them were murdered in the holocaust.

I was told this was really good, but it didn't really work for me as literature - maybe because the book is more about the author's own story than about the people he was researching? The author does research and then in the second half of the book, he talks to survivors and witnesses and visits the town the community lived in.

As a book documenting what actually happened to the people he was researching, it's a lot more powerful. Most people probably have a rough idea of what the Nazis did to Jews during the war, but the details really are hard to believe.

[Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very compelling read and well written. This book inspired me to travel around Poland and motivated me to discover more about my family and its history. The only problem was it was an ex-girlfriend's book, so I never got to re-read it from time to time!

[Sirje · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant brilliant brilliant, couldn't stop reading. Terribly interesting, well-written but horribly sad book.

[Francisco Valdes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very moving tale of root seeking historical work. At the same time a heart breaking story of loss and madness during Second World War.

[Kate]

Recommended in The week in best books by Michael wood

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing reconstruction of a lost way of life.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a brilliant and fascinating book. It was well researched and very well written.