NOTES FROM THE WARSAW GHEITO

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 1958

This may well stand beside The Diary of Anne Frank in importance as a first-hand record of man's inhumanity to man in our times. In 1939 when Polish Jews were desperately seeking a way of escape from the ghetto which was their prison, thirty-nine-year-old historian, Emmanuel Ringelblum returned from Switzerland to Warsaw, determined to record the events which he knew would be of momentous importance in the history of his people. Five years later when he was executed, he left behind him, hidden in secret places, a complete chronicle of the Warsaw ghetto, the circumstances which preceded, and which followed it. Fearful of coloring events which could be of use to future historians, he has set down in straightforward and often understated language, the terrible events of those years, recording in detail, the structure of the ghetto, and describing with objectivity and compassion, the people who participated in it. Just prior to the 1944 uprising of the ghetto, Emmanuel Ringelblum was given the chance to escape, but refused to abandon his work which appears here in these Notes From the Warsaw Ghetto and to which John Hersey in his best-selling novel, The Wall, looked for the historical basis of his fictional account. In this Journal, Emmanuel Ringelblum, without intruding his remarkable personality, has achieved through his meticulous presentation of fact, and through his reverence for the subject to which he gave his life, not only one of the most formidable histories of modern times, but a profoundly moving account of man's powerful resolution to maintain dignity.

Pub Date: June 16, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1958

Categories: NONFICTION