Synopses & Reviews
"... by reconstructing the history/experience of Brzezany in Jewish, Ukrainian, and Polish memories [Redlich] has produced a beautiful parallel narrative of a world that was lost three times over.... a truly wonderful achievement." -- Jan T. Gross, author of Neighbors
Shimon Redlich draws on the historical record, his own childhood memories, and interviews with Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians who lived in the small eastern Polish town of Brzezany to construct this account of the changing relationships among the town's three ethnic groups before, during, and after World War II. He details the history of Brzezany from the prewar decades (when it was part of independent Poland and members of the three communities remember living relatively amicably "together and apart"), through the tensions of Soviet rule, the trauma of the Nazi occupation, and the recapture of the town by the Red Army in 1945. Historical and contemporary photographs of Brzezany and its inhabitants add immediacy to this fascinating excursion into history brought to life, from differing perspectives, by those who lived through it.
About the Author
Shimon Redlich, born in Poland and a survivor of the Holocaust, is an internationally distinguished specialist on the history of the Jews in Eastern Europe. He holds degrees from Hebrew University, Harvard University, and New York University. Redlich holds the Solly Yellin Chair in Lithuanian and East European Jewry and lectures on modern European history at Ben-Gurion University, Israel. His publications include War, Holocaust and Stalinism: A Documented History of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in the USSR and Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia.
Table of Contents
Machine generated contents note: PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iX -- A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION Xiii -- MAPS xiV -- My Return 1 -- 2 Close and Distant Neighbors 20 -- 3 The Good Years, 1919-1939 34 -- 4 The Soviet Interlude, 1939-1941 78 -- 5 The German Occupation, 1941-1944 93 -- 6 The Aftermath, 1944-1945 141 -- Their Return 153 -- Concluding Remarks 163 -- INTERVIEWS 166 -- NOTES 168 -- BIBLIOGRAPHY 185 -- INDEX 191.