"The first English translation of a 1974 novel by an eminent Polish writer whose passionate identification with the travail of the European Jews is reminiscent of `Sholom Aleichem,' S.Y. Agnon, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. This story begins in the Warsaw Ghetto during WW II and focuses on Golda Heshl, who survives separation from her husband and family and incarceration at Treblinka, and also on her son Yossel Yurek, who lives by his wits as a farmworker and black marketeer. The novel operates at a continuous high pitch of emotion and is marred by a preachy, melodramatic conclusion. But the detailed portrayal of its characters' sufferings is acute, and the imperfect realization of their dream of a refugee ship coming 'to lead us out of exile' is rendered with stunning irony."—Kirkus Reviews
Description
This is the story of one family’s struggle to survive in the squalor of the Warsaw ghetto during the onset of the Holocaust. Yossel Yurek is a thirteen-year-old Jew whose ingenuity in smuggling goods in and out of his community saved the lives of those dear to him-as well as his own. It is the story of his mother, Golda, who courageously escaped from Treblinka. It is the true story of a family forever torn asunder by war. By January 1943, everyone in Warsaw knew that the deportations of the ghetto residents meant the death of the ghetto inhabitants. After Yurek’s older sister was deported, Yurek attempted to find a hiding place for himself and his younger sister, Hannah, while his mother, Golda, remained at home to earn money in order to pay the Polish family who hid her two children. With the power of description that only actual experience can endow, Yehuda Elberg relates the birth, death, and resurrection of a dynasty.
About the Author
Yehuda Elberg (1912–2003), Yiddish journalist and novelist. Born in Zgierz, Poland, Elberg came from a rabbinical family and was ordained as a rabbi. He is the author of several books including The Empire of Kalman the Cripple.
May 1997