Am I A Murderer?: Testament of a Jewish Ghetto Policeman (Hardcover)

by Calel Perechodnik (Author), Frank Fox (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Hoping his uniform would provide a shield for his family, Perechodnik, a 27-year-old engineer of agronomy, joined the ghetto police in the Polish town of Otwock during WWII only to find himself participating in the Germans' August 1941 extermination of Jews, including his wife and two-year-old daughter. The author watched helplessly as they were forced aboard a train bound for the Treblinka death camp. In this stunning memoir, written in hiding in Warsaw after he left the police, he expresses his anguish and astonishment at the savagery of the Poles who turned against the Jews. It was, he writes, "the greatest disillusionment that I have endured in my life." Perechodnik committed suicide by taking cyanide in 1944, shortly after the abortive Warsaw Uprising against the Germans, leaving this blistering record of the implementation of the Final Solution by a witness, victim and collaborator. Before his death, he entrusted his diary to a friend, and it eventually found its way to the Yad Vashem archives in Jerusalem. Fox, who edited this testament, teaches history in Britain. Illustrated.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
One of the most painful aspects of the Holocaust was the fact that many Jews became policemen; at the Nazis' insistence, Jewish policemen were responsible for maintaining order in the ghettos. At first they were welcomed, but later they were seen as traitors and collaborators by fellow Jews. Perechodnik was a 27-year-old ghetto policeman in Otwock, a town near Warsaw. In February 1941, he saw that the war was not coming to an end and wanted to avoid the labor camps, so he joined a force of 200 ghetto policemen. He hoped that the job would provide a shield for himself, his wife, and their 2-year-old daughter. But on August 19, 1942, Perechodnik's wife and daughter were among 8,000 Otwock Jews sent to their deaths in Treblinka. He fled the ghetto in 1943, and during 105 days in hiding, he wrote this memoir. Shortly before his own death in 1944, Perechodnik gave it to a friend, and it was eventually deposited in the Yad Vashem Archives in Israel. The book was published in Poland in 1993. Combining elements of a memoir, a chronicle, and a diary, it is one of the most exceptional eyewitness testimonies to come out of the Holocaust. George Cohen

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 255 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813327024
• ISBN-13: 978-0813327020
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #872,420 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Document, June 28, 2001

By	spideranansie (Singapore - Manchester) - See all my reviews

When I read Perechodnik's book years ago, I was profoundly moved by the experiences of the writer in the war years. Having just travelled to Germany and seen some concentration camps, I started reading avidly on the Holocaust and the experiences of survivors and perpetrators. The poignant title of the book was the thing that caught my eye and it remains one of the most startling and powerful accounts of the evil that took place in WWII. It is amazing that this first-hand account survived and I wish it was as highly circulated and read as Anne Frank's diary. Perechodnik's account lets us into the sacrifces one has to make in extreme situations and the guilt he feels throughout the war for abandoning his wife and kid entreats us. A harrowing experience. Let us never forget the humanity in us.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Holocaust Classic, August 18, 1996

By A Customer

This is one of the most important books ever published on The Holocaust. It is the Anne Frank of the Polish Jewish Experience. You have to keep reminding yourself that this was written in 1943 as you read it. It is the most compelling and unforgiving personal account written by a Holocaust nonsurvivor.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Personal note: the most nightmarish book I have ever read., November 6, 1996

By A Customer

This is not a review, only a personal note. I read the book in its original Polish edition. And having read a number of books on Holocaust and supposed Polish participation in it I just expected some new information on this subject. But this first hand account of what happened to the Otwock Jews and of barbaric behaviuor of Poles from Otwock cannot be more persuasive on the existence of common guilt of the Polish nation for not fighting Holocaust and what's more for taking part in it. Let's not jugde the caught by the horrible times "policeman" His writing stops beating of your heart. After one long evening of reading I went to sleep and had the worst nightmare of my life: I was put into a transport to Treblinka