And yet, I am here! PDF
Preview And yet, I am here!
title: And Yet, I Am Here! author: Nelken, Halina. publisher: University of Massachusetts Press isbn10 | asin: 1558491562 print isbn13: 9781558491564 ebook isbn13: 9780585342474 language: English Nelken, Halina--Diaries, Jews--Poland-- Kraków--Diaries, Holocaust, Jewish (1939- subject 1945)--Poland--Personal narratives, Kraków (Poland)--Biography. publication date: 1999 lcc: DS135.P63N46 1999eb ddc: 943.8/6 Nelken, Halina--Diaries, Jews--Poland-- Kraków--Diaries, Holocaust, Jewish (1939- subject: 1945)--Poland--Personal narratives, Kraków (Poland)--Biography. Page iii And Yet, I Am Here! Halina Nelken Translated by Halina Nelken with Alicia Nitecki Page iv Copyright © 1986 by Halina Nelken English translation © 1999 by Halina Nelken All rights reserved First Polish-language edition, published by the Polish-Canadian Publishing Fund, Toronto, 1987 First German-language edition, published by Bleicher Verlag, Gerlingen, 1996 First English-language edition, published by the University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1999 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Designed by Mary Mendell Printed and bound by BookCrafters, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nelken, Halina. [Pamietnik z getta w Krakowie. English] And yet, I am here!/ Halina Nelken; translated by Halina Nelken with Alicia Nitecki. 1st English-language ed. p. cm. 1-55849-156-2 (cloth:alk. paper) 1. Nelken, ISBN HalinaDiaries. 2. JewsPolandKrakówDiaries. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (19391945)PolandPersonal narratives 4 Kraków (Poland)Biography. I. Title. 135. 63 46 1999 943.8'6dc21 98-30275 DS P N CIP British Library Cataloguing in Publication data are available. Page v The pastfor the future To my grandson, Jason, and to his parents, Helen and Les Nelken Page vii Contents Foreword ix By George H. Williams Introduction xi By Gideon Hausner Prologue: 7 1 Dlugosza * Street 1 37 Diary From the Ghetto in Kraków 2 199 Behind Barbed Wire: Plaszow*, Auschwitz, Ravensbrück 3 245 Bottomless Pit 4 267 Return to Kraków Epilogue: The Legacy of the Holocaust 271 Glossary 275 Biographical Note 277 Illustrations Follow Page 198 Page ix Foreword While researching the history of the Polish Aryans, I came across some important polemics between Catholics and Protestants regarding painting at the time of the Reformation and the Counter Reformation in Poland. The editor of these volumes was Halina Nelken, whose scholarly works published in Poland I knew long before I met her in person in front of Widener Library. She was brought to Harvard University by one of the most eminent art historians, Professor Jakob Rosenberg, as his assistant at the Graphic Art collection. While she worked at the Fogg Art Museum, she cooperated with me in reading together the sixteenth-and seventeenth- century texts in Polish and Latin and interpreting them with her profound knowledge of Polish history, art, and literature. Such was the beginning of our long intellectual friendship. Her energetic and cheerful nature hardly let one suspect what she had gone through during World War II. She was an effective and beloved teacher, a respected researcher and authorbut above all, she was a mother. I witnessed the difficult struggle of a woman alone in a foreign land, raising her little sonthe only family she had in the world. No matter how difficult the task, she succeeded. She told me that nothing could compare to Auschwitz, her measure of all things, and she mentioned her diary. I urged her to transcribe it. While reading it, I realized what a treasure it was, not only as a historical document, but also as a testimony of the unconquerable human spirit. It touches us all, young and old, how this resourceful woman, unscathed by cruel depravity, evil, and hatred, survived with spirit, courage, and integrity. GEORGE HUNSTON WILLIAMS HOLLIS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, EMERITUS HARVARD UNIVERSITY CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS OCTOBER 15, 1997 Page xi Introduction Hundreds and perhaps thousands of Jews in the cities, towns, ghettos, and camps wrote memoirs and kept diaries during World War II"they were journalists, writers, teachers, social activists, young people, and even children." Quoting the Warsaw ghetto historian Emmanuel Ringelblum, Dr. Jozef Kermisz from Yad Vashem reports with profound sorrow that most of the diaries vanished or were destroyed during the deportations, first uprisings, and fires. He supplies a long list of writers, social and resistance activists, whose diaries shared the tragic fate of their authors. After the war, some of the miraculously saved survivors continued the mission and published their memoirs. But memoirs are not the journals or diaries written immediately during the events as they happened. Memoirs re-create the past through the prism of many years, enriched by additional information unknown to the author before. They are true, but the truth is controlled by the knowledge of later events that might distort the authenticity of their account. Diaries of writers, politicians, and scholars are different from those written by children or very young girls, like Anne Frank. The journals of famous activists or leaders tend to be written "for posterity"; as a conscious legacy to future generations, they describe this tragic era to be ever remembered. The authors do not emphasize their personal experience, but the historical, social, political, and economic elements. A diary of a young girl who was locked up in the ghetto and removed from normal life before it even began for hersuch a diary is her true confessor. She confides to her diary her personal experiences, thoughts, hopes, and disillusionments, which she would not even
Description:The list of books you might like
