Out of the ghetto / Jack Klajman with Ed Klajman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Klajman, Jack, 1931-

Contributor:

Klajman, Ed.

Series:

Library of Holocaust testimonies 1363-3759

The Library of Holocaust testimonies, 1363-3759

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Klajman, Jack, 1931-.

Klajman, Jack.

Jews--Poland--Warsaw--Biography.

Jews.

Jewish children in the Holocaust.

Poland--Warsaw.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Warsaw--Personal narratives.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

Jewish children in the Holocaust--Poland--Warsaw--Biography.

Warsaw (Poland)--History--Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943.

Warsaw (Poland).

Warsaw (Poland)--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Personal narratives.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xii, 154 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; Portland, OR : Vallentine Mitchell, 2000.

Summary:

Out of the Ghetto is the compelling, true story of Jack Klajman's childhood. Jack was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1931, as the fourth of five children, to poor, working-class Jewish parents. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the apartment building Jack lived in was bombed, sending his family scrambling to seek food and shelter with relatives. Then, after Poland surrendered, life became even more difficult as the Jews of Warsaw found themselves closed in by ghetto walls and being starved to death.

To feed his family, Jack crept through holes in the wall to get to the Aryan side of the city, where he begged for food posing as a Christian boy. Undeterred by near-death encounters with Nazi soldiers, these smuggling efforts kept his family alive until 1942, when the Germans decided to implement the 'final solution' and transport all the Jews of the ghetto to nearby extermination camps. Jack survived by staying in the hiding places of a few leaders of the ghetto underworld, who had adopted him as their pet.

During the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943, Jack experienced both the euphoria of Jewish resistance, and the horrors of mass murder. He survived the annihilation of the ghetto first by hiding among dead bodies, and later fleeing through the sewers. He ended up on the streets of Warsaw, pretending to be a Christian boy, and trying to elude the authorities whenever his true identity came under suspicion.

Jack made it through the war, escaping on many occasions what seemed to be certain death. His story is a powerful and dramatic affirmation that a steely desire to survive, combined with a great deal of luck and the strength and energy of youth, can overcome even the most desperate and horrific of circumstances.

Contents:

The Library of Holocaust Testimonies / Martin Gilbert vii

The Nightmare Begins 1

The Smuggling Life 15

Death 27

The Final Solution 41

The Uprising 61

Three Kilos of Sugar 82

The Catholic Orphan 102

Liberation 121

After the War 136.

ISBN:

0853033897

OCLC:

43032189