David G. Roskies

The powerful writings and art of Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto Hidden in metal containers and buried underground during World War II, these works from the Warsaw Ghetto record the Holocaust from the perspective of its first interpreters, the victims themselves. Gathered clandestinely by an underground ghetto collective called Oyneg Shabes, the collection of reportage, diaries, prose, artwork, poems, jokes, and sermons captures the heroism, tragedy, humor, and social dynamics of the ghetto. Miraculously surviving the devastation of war, this extraordinary archive encompasses a vast range of voices—young and old, men and women, the pious and the secular, optimists and pessimists—and chronicles different perspectives on the topics of the day while also preserving rapidly endangered cultural traditions. Described by David G. Roskies as “a civilization responding to its own destruction,” these texts tell the story of the Warsaw Ghetto in real time, against time, and for all time.

Writing Our History

Voices from the Warsaw Ghetto

Samuel D. Kassow

An exploration of global Jewish responses to the years 1939 to 1973, a time of unprecedented destruction, dislocation, agency, and creativity. The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization Volume 9 covers the years 1939 to 1973, a period that editors Kassow and Roskies call "one of the most tragic and dramatic in Jewish history." Organized geographically and then by genre, this book details Jewish cultural and intellectual resources throughout this era, particularly in political thought, literature, the visual and performing arts, and religion. This volume explores worldwide Jewish perceptions of momentous events that transpired in the mid-twentieth century and how Jews redefined themselves across regions throughout an era rife with tragedy, displacement, and dispersion. The breadth and depth of this work goes beyond any comparable collection, with detailed insights and sharp focus to accompany its breathtaking scope. A major, ten-volume anthology project more than a decade in the making, the Posen Library is an ideal reference tool for scholars, teachers, and students at all levels.

The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 9

Gathers short stories, diaries, sermons, essays, and poems written in response to the Spanish Inquisition, martyrdom, Russian pogroms, and the Holocaust

Jewish Responses to Catastrophe

The Literature of Destruction

This text documents a virtually unknown chapter in the history of the refusal of Jews throughout the ages to surrender. The author employs wide-ranging scholarship to the Holocaust and the memories associated with it, in affirmation of both continuities and violent endings.

Responses to Catastrophe in Modern Jewish Culture

Against the Apocalypse

Naomi Diamant

A comprehensive assessment of Holocaust literature, from World War II to the present day

A History and Guide

Holocaust Literature

Focuses on authors: Nahman of Bratslav, Isaac Meir Dik, I.L. Peretz, Sholem Aleichem, Der Nister, Itzik Manger, and Isaac Bashevis Singer.

David G. Roskies

About

Books

Join the club