6 results for "Memoir"

The diary of Mary Berg: growing up in the Warsaw ghetto

Berg, Mary
• Inspiring and fascinating tale of the strength of human spirit during one of humanity’s darkest hours; • Reminiscent of both The Diary of Anne Frank, A Woman in Berlin and Suite Francaise; • Beautifully packaged in an attractive hardback, gift format for the Christmas market and containing original photographs and maps; • A unique insight from one of the few survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto, offering the only contemporary eye-witness account. After 60 years of silence, The Diary of Mary Berg is poised at last to gain the appreciation and widespread attention that it so richly deserves, and is certain to take it’s place alongside The Diary of Anne Frank as one of the most significant memoirs of the twentieth century. From love to tragedy, seamlessly combining the everyday concerns of a growing teenager with a unique commentary on life in one of the darkest contexts of history. This is a work remarkable for its authenticity, detail, and poignancy. But it is not only as a factual report on the life and death of a people that The Diary of Mary Berg ranks with the most noteworthy documents of the Second World War. This is the personal story of a life-loving girl’s encounter with unparalleled human suffering, a uniquely illuminating insight into one of the darkest chapters of history. Mary Berg was imprisoned in the ghetto from 1940 to 1943. Unlike so many others, she survived the war, rescued in a prisoner-of-war exchange due to her mother’s dual Polish-American nationality. Her diary was published in 1945 when she was still only 19, in an attempt to alert the world to the Nazi atrocities in Poland, when it was described as "one of the most heartbreaking documents yet to come out of the war" by the /New Yorker/. After the war, Berg remained in America in quiet anonimity.
Oneworld 2007-04-15 284 pages

The pianist: the extraordinary story of one man's survival in Warsaw, 1939-45

Szpilman, Władysław
Memoirs of a Jew from Warsaw (1911-2000). He studied music in Berlin, and from 1933 worked as a pianist for the Polish radio. Describes the Nazi occupation of Warsaw and the anti-Jewish laws. In the early period of the ghetto, Szpilman worked as a pianist in one of the ghetto's cafés. In summer 1942, during the mass deportation, he was saved by a member of the Jewish police. After the abortive ghetto uprising in January 1943, he went over to the "Aryan side" and was helped by Poles, mainly prewar acquaintances. During the Warsaw uprising in summer-fall 1944, he was rescued by a German officer, Wilm Hosenfeld. Pp. 191-208 contain excerpts from Hosenfeld's diary, in which he describes the genocide of Jews in Warsaw. Pp. 209-222 contain an epilogue by Wolf Biermann, relating the story of Hosenfeld - he had saved a number of Poles and Jews even before he met Szpilman; he died in Soviet captivity.
Gollancz 1999 222 pages

The subtenant ; To outwit God

Krall, Hanna
This volume presents two works by acclaimed Polish journalist Hanna Krall: The Subtenant, a semi-autobiographical novel, and To Outwit God, a remarkable interview with Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The Subtenant explores the troubled and ever-shifting relationships between Poles and Jews, beginning with the author's concealment as a child during the Nazi years and ending in 1981 when martial law was declared in Poland. In To Outwit God, Edelman's words assault conventional assumptions about heroes and heroism, taking in his time not only in the Warsaw Ghetto but his careers as a physician and a Solidarity activist. Taken together, the two works form a powerful memoir of Jewish survival, a meditation on Polish-Jewish relations, and a commentary on the forces that have produced modern Polish opposition movements.
Northwestern University Press 1992 247 pages