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16th out of 23 books
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Holy Week: A Novel of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
At the height of the Nazi extermination campaign in the Warsaw Ghetto, a young Jewish woman, Irena, seeks the protection of her former lover, a young architect, Jan Malecki. By taking her in, he puts his own life and the safety of his family at risk. Over a four-day period, Tuesday through Friday of Holy Week 1943, as Irena becomes increasingly traumatized by her situation...more
Paperback, 152 pages
Published
January 16th 2007
by Ohio University Press
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Meaghan
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This is a beautifully structured story, put together in the manner of Steinbeck, each part sliding smoothly into the next. It's very short, but packs a lot of action into its 120-odd pages. I also believe it's one of the more realistic novels I've read about the Holocaust. The author doesn't try to make a hero out of anyone, not even the Jewish woman whose plight drives the plot. None of the characters here -- Jews, Poles, Germans -- come off well. They are all selfish even when they try not t...more
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This is an extraordinary book that offers an intimate view of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from the perspective of Catholic Poles who live nearby. At heart, it poses the question of the role of the bystander -- to intervene in the name of humanity, or to be protective of oneself and one's family. Vivid translation and helpful notes. I found it more accessible than Andrejewski's "Ashes and Diamonds" -- another landmark work.
The last book I'd read by Andrzejewski was "Ashes and Diamonds" back in the early or mid- 60s. The problem with that book is that it's entered into legend thanks to Andrzej Wajda's film. I don't know how I came across this one but I decided to read it and found it gripping. Good polish literature IS good... it gets at the human essence in ways that can make you bleed, and, of course, that's because of what they went through - not just the Second World war but everything before and afte...more
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