Living Through It Twice: Poems Of The Romany Holocaust [Hardcover]

Paul Polansky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998 | ISBN-10: 8086103110 | ISBN-13: 978-8086103112 | Edition: 1

Poetry. A beautifully produced, bilingual edition mentioned on BBC Radio and NPR's All Things Considered, LIVING THROUGH IT TWICE has also inspired a forthcoming CBS television documentary. "Paul Polansky's spare, stark renderings of Romany survivors' voices have the hardness of memorial stone. But in reading them, the stone dissolves and something infinitely tender and unspeakable takes its place. The restraint and hardness hold in the tears-just barely. The Romany Holocaust, the Czech Romany Holocaust, the denial of it by the Havel government, the repetition of history today - these unknowns are thrown into sharp relief by Polansky's unblinking gaze. When we see what he sees, we no longer have an excuse to avert our eyes" -- Andrei Codrescu. "It was raining when I arrived. / How many came like me / smelling the wet countryside, / hearing no sounds from the city?" ("Auschwitz").

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lety by Pisek? I never heard of the place." Paul Polansky's chilling testimony of the concentration camp in Lety by Psek is all the more frightening since it's presented in such a conversational tone. It records the testimonies of those Romanies who survived the Lety camp or the recollections of their children. Czech literature might have as few as two books that can match Polansky's: David's Star by Jir Weil and Black Lyre by Jiri Kolar. Ladies and Gentlemen, hold on to your hats, this ride'll freeze you to the bone. -- Ivan M. Jirous

About the Author

Paul Polansky was born in Mason City, Iowa in 1942. He came to international attention in 1994 with his revelations about Lety, a World War II Romany (Gypsy) death camp. His book LIVING THROUGH IT TWICE, Poems of the Romany Holcaust (1940 - 1997) has been mentioned in reports on BBC Radio, National Public Radio (All Things Considered) and inspired a forthcoming CBS television documentary.

In 1999, GG published two more Polansky books, THE STORM, a novel about Jews and Gypsies used as slave labor on a nobleman's estate in South Bohemia during WW II, and STRAY DOG, a cycle of poems about violence inside and out the boxing ring.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 121 pages
• Publisher: G PLUS G; 1 edition (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8086103110
• ISBN-13: 978-8086103112
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,201,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The reality of being a romany person in the Czech Republic., October 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Living Through It Twice: Poems Of The Romany Holocaust (Hardcover)

I have lived in the Czech Republic for several years: however, it is still very hard to understand what it really means to be a gypsy here.

Paul Polansky's poems bring alive both the horror of the Lety camp (which he was responsible for exposing to the world) and the reality of life for romany people in modern Czech society.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars power, November 21, 2003

By 

Lily (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living Through It Twice: Poems Of The Romany Holocaust (Hardcover)

If you don't know about this subject, look into this powerful book. If you do know something about it, this book will add a human quality that is unforgetable

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blood, bones and truth, March 16, 2005

By 

Alyssa A. Lappen (Earth) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Living Through It Twice: Poems Of The Romany Holocaust (Hardcover)

These spare poems bring home the reality of two times like 6 millimeter bullets hitting a bull's eye.

The 39 poems open in the recent past, the 1990s and range back and forth across time, from President Havel's reign, during which more than 2,000 Rom "have been attacked/ by Czech skinheads," to World War II. (The contents are in the back, so the book reads like a story, unfolding without a predetermined path.)

As the poet sits in a Prague cafe, a Gypsy boy approaches. "A policeman on the corner nods" and two skinheads chase the boy to the river like wild, mad dogs, "their/ brains turned into froth." Yet Havel, after visiting Auschwitz, tells the radio audience "he still doesn't/ understand how the Holocaust/ could have happened in Europe."

As for the past, the pain is staggering. In Lety by Pisek, a Czech guard held "children's heads/ in a pail of water/ until the died." The bigger ones, he drowned "in the rain barrels or in the lake." In the cold of winter, he locked small children outside the barracks, naked. When they howled like wolves, the mothers lost their minds.

Further on, a mother laments, she escaped Hitler's youth gangs by escaping to Prague, but was interned in Lety, where she survived starvation,/ shootings,/ lethal injections,/ work gangs,/ beatings,/ rapes,/ typhus,/ and drownings/ in the rain barrel." She married a white man to save her eight children her fate. One son inherited her dark Gypsy skin. Now, he's recovering from two operations "after the skinheads/ impaled him on a metal pole." She doesn't "know if I'm living/ in 1939 or 1995." She thought she had survived, but realizes she has "only been/ staggering around in circles."

Read these poems, and one gets a glimpse of the truth, blood, bones, and all.

--Alyssa A. Lappen