We Were Children Just Like You [Paperback]

Yaffa Eliach (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 121 pages
• Publisher: Center for Holocaust Studies; First Edition edition (March 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0960997083
• ISBN-13: 978-0960997084
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 9.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,537,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ballerinas and Small Polish Towns, December 5, 2003

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This review is from: We Were Children Just Like You (Paperback)

Yaffa Eliach in her classic holocaust work for all ages, "We Were Children Just Like You" did what few scholars are able to do: She brought home the lived-experience in the Shoah through collected family photographs from her Shtetl of Eishyshok, in Poland. Eliach is not a scholar removed from what it was like to be a Jewish child in Poland during the Shoah: this was the foundation of her life---she watched as her mother and infant brother were killed by the Violent, possessed of the intolerance and hatred she would spend much of her life combating. Her synthesis of excellent scholarship and hard work, combined with a simple but in-depth portrayal of the Jewish Children of Poland in far happier times, when they could still believe life was normal and safe, brings a photo-album for a world family to share, to remember ballerinas, bicycles, and play in a Poland that had not yet gone mad. In her own words from her Shtetl Foundation, she sought to portray the Jews "not as others saw them but as they saw themselves." (1) The beauty of this Children's-format book is that it provides a research base for the student of the Holocaust and a tender pictoral story for younger persons, still safe from what the world can render. Many of the 'ballerinas' and other small lives are gone in deaths we would rather forget, but never can afford to. This is a classic Holocaust studies book for even the very young and should be on every teacher's list of resources.

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Footnote
1. www.shtetlfoundation.org