Focusing on a chilling chapter of history, this book delves into the only purpose-built camp for children under 16 in German-occupied Europe, located on Przemyslowa Street in wartime Poland. It examines the harrowing experiences of the young victims and the broader implications of such a facility within the German system of oppression. Through detailed accounts and historical analysis, it sheds light on the atrocities faced by children during this dark period, emphasizing the need to remember and understand this painful legacy.
The Jewish Order Service During the Nazi Occupation
248 pages
9 hours of reading
The narrative delves into the history of the Jewish Order Service, or Jewish Police, within the Warsaw Ghetto from 1940 to 1943, exploring its role and the complex perceptions held by the ghetto's inhabitants. It examines the moral dilemmas faced by members of the Jewish Police and the impact of their actions on the community during a harrowing period of oppression and survival. Through this lens, the book sheds light on the intricate dynamics of authority, collaboration, and resistance amidst the Holocaust.
Jews in Nazi-occupied Warsaw during the 1940s were under increasing threat as they were stripped of their rights and forced to live in a guarded ghetto away from the non-Jewish Polish population. Within the ghettos, a small but distinct group existed: the assimilated, acculturated, and baptized Jews. Unwilling to integrate into the Jewish community and unable to merge with the Polish one, they formed a group of their own, remaining in a state of suspension throughout the interwar period. In 1940, with the closure of the Jewish residential quarter in Warsaw, their identity was chosen for them. Person looks at what it meant for assimilated Jews to leave their prewar neighborhoods, understood as both a physical environment and a mixed Polish Jewish cultural community, and to enter a new, Jewish neighborhood. She reveals the diversity of this group and how its members’ identity shaped their involvement in and contribution to ghetto life. In the first English-language study of this small but influential group, Person illuminates the important role of the acculturated and assimilated Jews in the history and memory of the Warsaw Ghetto.
