Your Life is Worth Mine: Story Never Told Before of How Polish Nuns in World War II Saved Hundred [Hardcover]

Ewa Kurek (Author), Ewa Kurek-Lesik (Author), Jan Karski (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1997

The story -- never told before -- of how Polish nuns in World War II saved hundreds of Jewish lives in German-occupied Poland. Forty-nine convents and orphanages were involved in protecting the children and the most authoritative estimates indicate 1200 Jewish young people survived the war in these shelters.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Polish

About the Author

Ewa Kurek

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books; First Edition edition (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781804094
• ISBN-13: 978-0781804097
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,158,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting - memories of nuns & children, June 26, 2006

By 

Jagoda Urban-Klaehn "PolishSite Host at: http... (Idaho Falls, ID USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Your Life is Worth Mine: Story Never Told Before of How Polish Nuns in World War II Saved Hundred (Hardcover)

This is a great book. The author did a very comphrehensive research, every argument is supported by numerous sources. I enjoyed it a lot! But for a person who is not a scholar or not familiar with the aspects of war in Poland the best it to start reading the book from appendix - with real memories of nuns about children and children about being hidden in the monastery. After that read the chapters. In this way you would have a better understanding of the author's arguments.
I was crying while reading some fragments. The book is wonderful, very touchy. It is a comprehensive historical outlook into many aspects of war in Poland.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read, December 19, 2004

By 

Chris Felcher (MI) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Your Life is Worth Mine: Story Never Told Before of How Polish Nuns in World War II Saved Hundred (Hardcover)

This book brings to mind the unsung heroes under Hitler's Nazi Regime. Poles were under strict command by German forces not to abet anyone of Jewish origin. The threat of death to anyone found harboring or aiding the Jewish population put many who wished to help in deep jeporady. Polish Nuns with no leadership from Rome took it upon themselves to save as many Jewish children as they possible could without endangering the children already in their care. The book mentions many different congregations who offered "aid" under penalty of death. The book left me wanting to know even more about these wonderful women.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Polish Heroism Amidst Unspeakable German Terror, November 3, 2006

By 

Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Your Life is Worth Mine: Story Never Told Before of How Polish Nuns in World War II Saved Hundred (Hardcover)

This book provides much detail about the sacrificial life of Catholic nuns and their actions during the war on behalf of the needy children in general and Jewish ones in particular. It also gives the reader a good slice of Polish history during that tragic time.

There are widely divergent estimates on the total number of Polish Jews saved by Poles, ranging from 40,000-50,000 (Philip Friedman) to 100,000-200,000 (Joseph Kermisz). Kurek herself assesses the contribution of the Polish Catholic nuns as follows: "Two hundred rescuing convents and more than 1,200 saved Jewish children is tragically few when compared with the extermination of tens of thousands of Jewish children in Poland. Yet when it is taken into account that the rescuers were twenty thousand Polish nuns struggling against similar difficulties and subjected to the same inhuman occupation, the number becomes more significant." (pp. 103-104).

Some erstwhile Jewish children recall being subject to traditional church teachings about Jews being responsible for the Crucifixion of Christ. Others strongly repudiate any hints of such an experience (e. g., p. 187).

Kurek addresses hurtful accusations, made by some Jewish individuals and groups, that the nuns' motive for sheltering Jewish children was to convert them. She finds no support for this claim, and the testimonies of the Jews themselves do not indicate any pressure or enticement to convert. Of course, Jewish parents and clergy had to individually decide whether death was preferable to the chance that a Jewish child would eventually prefer Christianity solely as the passive outcome of his/her experiences with Catholic "substitute parents".

Kurek reminds us that, unlike in most German-occupied countries, the Germans had imposed an automatic death penalty for the slightest assistance to a Jew. In recent years, the nonsensical argument has been advanced, that owing to the fact that Poles commonly risked the death penalty anyway (through such things as engaging in Underground activities) the death penalty could not have been the real reason for more Poles not hiding Jews. To begin with, a Pole was far less likely to be caught for being in the Underground than for hiding a Jew. In addition, as pointed out by Kurek, the Germans, in practice, did not impose the death penalty consistently: "For Poles to fight the Germans in the rank of the underground army, in clandestine activities or in partisan squads, was a sort of ennoblement. It was dangerous. If someone was caught by the Germans, he could be sentenced to death. Yet there was always a chance of survival. One could be taken to prison or a concentration camp, and, once there, escape or survive. But if a Pole was caught helping a Jew, death was certain." (p. 33).

In his memoirs, Yitzhak Zuckerman pointed out that he was as often accosted by Jewish szmalcowniks (szmalcowniki), or blackmailers, as Polish ones. In a similar vein, Kurek writes: "And the nuns also knew that among the szmalcowniks and Gestapo agents there were Jews. This is why the Semitic features of a person asking to admit a child was not sufficient." (p. 58).

The back of the book has Appendices that include testimonies of the nuns and testimonies of the rescued Jews. In one of the latter, Irit, R., having personally experienced both bad and good from Poles, makes the following thoughtful comments: "So I can say that I saw various types of people. But now, forty years later, how can one judge the Polish people? Our youth also judges the Jews as cowards who did not fight. Who has a right to judge those people? Those Jews and those Poles? One cannot judge Poles. Here they say that I like the Polish people, and that's why I take this view. But it is not so. There is no black and white. In between here are other colors, and one has to be aware of this." (p. 197).

Although this work's main topic is the martyrdom and rescue of Jews, Kurek also discusses the Germans' genocidal murder of the Poles. She elaborates on the mass killings of Christian clergy and the destruction of church property (pp. 41-44). She also quotes estimates that the Germans murdered Polish gentiles and Polish Jews in a ratio of 10:1 during 1939-1941 and in a ratio of 2:3 during 1942-1944 (p. 17, 227). She cites entries from Emanuel Ringelblum's diary that state that, ironically, Poles had tried to save their lives by pretending to be Jews during the first indicated interval of time (p. 17, 224). Clearly, the genocidal priorities of the Germans had switched dramatically during the war. But they could have just as easily, and dramatically, switched again. Indeed, Kurek includes the testimony of Franciszka A., one of the rescued children currently living in Israel, who at least tentatively recognized the fact that, had the war lasted longer, the fate of the Poles would have eventually been the same as that of the Jews (p. 177).