Their Childhood and the Holocaust

A Child’s Perspective in Polish Documentary and Autobiographical Literature

ISBN: 9783653981223
Liczba stron: 308
Rok wydania: 2015
Wydania: 1 (Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main)

Justyna Kowalska-Leder

Assistant professor in the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw. Her main field of interests are Polish memory of the Holocaust, Polish-Jewish relations during World War II and personal documents written by Jews during the German Occupation. She has also won the FNP Award of Excellence for a monograph, Foundation for Polish Science (2009) and the Majer Bałaban Medal of Distinction for the best doctoral dissertation, organised by the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw (2010).

Children have a specific perception of the Holocaust: it did not destroy their earlier world view, but became the field of first experiences. This book focuses on the traumatic dimension of the Holocaust and how it is expressed (or left unexpressed) in children’s diaries. «Here and Now» under the German Occupation presents an analysis of diaries and school elaborations written in Polish by Jewish children during German Occupation*. A Literary Return to Childhood during the Holocaust* is dedicated to Polish retrospective literature, in which authors return to the experience of the Holocaust during their childhood years.