Lodz Ghetto: Inside a Community Under Siege [Mass Market Paperback]

Alan Adelson (Editor), Robert Lapides (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

Lodz, a city in Southern Poland, had the second largest Jewish population in Europe. In 1940, the Germans forcibly created a ghetto of 200,000 Jews, a sealed self-governing labour camp for the German war effort. It was run by a Council of Elders, a police force and system of informers - all Jewish. From 1943 the ghetto was systematically emptied - first children and the elderly or infirm, then everyone. 200,000 people died, from starvation or in Auschwitz where they were shipped in cattle trucks. Only 800 survived, by hiding in cellars and attics until they were liberated by the Russians. But, while alive in the ghetto, the inhabitants tirelessly recorded their lives, their experiences, their miseries and their hopes. Diaries, letters, poems, sketches and photographs were secreted under floorboards, in cellars and in a dry-well. This testament has been gathered together and edited to provide an account of life and death inside the ghetto.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This searing documentary is composed of letters, poems and notebooks from the sealed-off ghetto in Lodz, Poland, where more than 200,000 Jews were forced by the Nazis into slave labor before deportation to extermination camps. "Photographs taken inside the ghetto, interwoven with the text, convey anguish and the will to survive," said PW , calling this "an important contribution to Holocaust literature." Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A canonical text future generations will ponder, write commentaries on, and shake their heads ...at humankind's capacity for evil. -- The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Magnificent...provides a wealth of insights in a highly engaging manner." -- Social Education, The Journal of the National Council for Social Studies

"One of the Best Books of the year"--Library Journal. -- Library Journal

A work of immense literary and moral power...at once devastating and transforming."--Walter Reich, NY Sunday Times Book Review. -- The New York Times Book Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140132287
• ISBN-13: 978-0140132281
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,491,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Important work, June 25, 2005

By 

Constance Cappel (Tivoli, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lodz Ghetto: Inside a Community Under Siege (Mass Market Paperback)

This book and the accompanying video are important narratives on the holocaust in Lodz. An accurate and moving book about a subject that should not be forgotten.