Customer Reviews

The Diary of Dawid Sierakowak

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This book is quite moving and powerful as its young, sardonic, incisive author leads us vicariously into the world of the ghetto. The brilliance of this young man is readily apparent through his keen observations of his desperate situation and horrendous surroundings. This is a must-read for anyone, and would be especially good for young people who sometimes ask how the Jews "let" this happen to them. The author is also very honest about his father's moral breakdown, as well as his bitter thoughts on the role of Chaim Rumkowski, the leader of the ghetto community. The preface is excellent, giving backround information about David, the war, the ghetto system, and Nazi methods of deceit and control. Highly recommended.

Be still when you read this book. Find a place with no distractions, no children asking for help with homework, no chores to do in the next room. Because you will need the stillness to grapple with the images from Lodz.

The book opens with an idyllic calm, when Dawid is being the young boy he was born to be. Anyone who has been to a youth camp will see himself in Dawid. This identification is critical to grasping the horror that is to come.

And no! There are no answers to the questions you cannot ask. The Whys and Hows cannot be riddled. You may think about them when you have put the book down for the last time, but let Dawid show you his world as it is destroyed around his ears. Worry about the nature of good and evil and humanity and war and peace and betrayal when you are done.

But first, let the young man tell his story. We are lucky this story survived.

This review is based on the 1996 Oxford hardback edition, and focuses on matters not developed by other reviewers.

Sierakowiak devotes a considerable number of entries to the 1939 German-Soviet conquest of Poland. On Sept. 14, it rained. Sierakowiak notes that, had this been going on since Sept. 1, the German tanks would've gotten stuck in the mire (p. 38). On Sept. 19, Sierakowiak repudiated Hitler's lies, in which the Fuhrer, in a radio broadcast, had blamed Poland for starting the war and for mistreating the German minority (p. 42).

A radio program from London mentioned the Germans' vain seeking of Prince Janusz Radziwill to form a collaborationist government (Nov. 5, 1939; p. 59). This adds refutation to the claim that there was no Polish Quisling because the Germans never wanted one.

No sooner had the German entered Lodz then they began to persecute both Jews and Poles. On Nov. 17, 1939, the Germans forced Polish priests to destroy the Kosciuszko statue with sledge hammers. This being ineffective, the Germans resorted to dynamite (p. 63).

A common Polonophobic Holocaust theme is the one about Poles habitually delighting in Jewish humiliation and suffering. In contrast, Sierakowiak writes (Nov. 18, 1939; p. 64): "The Poles cast down their eyes at the sight of the Jews with their armbands; friends assure us that `it won't be for long.'" In view of the fact that Sierakowiak otherwise never mentions Polish attitudes, and that negative incidents are more likely to be remembered and recorded in diaries than positive ones, this takes on further significance.

Sierakowiak was irreligious (p. 38). And, not only was he pro-Communist, but in fact he praised Communists and condemned capitalism many times (p. 88, 92, 102, 105, 155, 220, 260, 263, etc.).

As for leader Chaim Rumkowski (Rumkovsky) and his privileged Jews, Sierakowiak elaborates on the inequities between the well-fed, well-clad Jews and the starving, ragged Jews (p. 176, 198, 245). When Rumkowski ordered the timely and obedient fulfillment of the German order to deport Jewish children and the elderly ("useless eaters" for extermination), Sierakowiak noted the many kinds of privileged Jews whose children and elderly relatives had been exempt from this order (pp. 216-217).

The Germans used some Jews to beat other Jews (March 16, 1943; p. 258). During the deportations, one unarmed Jewish policeman each was assigned to supervise the loading of about 100 Jews onto the trains (p. 270). Armed Germans didn't usually get involved until the latter phases of the day's loadings.

Owing to the fact that the Jews in the Lodz ghetto had been exploited for German war production, they were spared for most of the duration of the war. Not until August 1944 did the Germans liquidate the Lodz ghetto.