And yet I still have dreams : a story of a certain loneliness / Joanna Wiszniewicz ; translated from the Polish and with a foreword by Regina Grol.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wiszniewicz, Joanna.

Series:

Jewish lives

Standardized Title:

Jednak czasem miewam sny. English

Language:

English

Polish

Subjects (All):

Wiszniewicz, Joanna.

Jews--Poland--Warsaw--Biography.

Jews.

Poland--Warsaw.

World War, 1939-1945--Poland--Warsaw.

World War, 1939-1945.

Warsaw (Poland)--Biography.

Warsaw (Poland).

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xvi, 133 pages : maps ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Evanston, Ill. : Northwestern University Press, [2004]

Summary:

And Yet I Still Have Dreams is a departure from many Holocaust memoirs and biographies. Based on interviews with "Alex," an anonymous survivor of the Warsaw ghetto and three concentration camps, the story follows him from his assimilated childhood to his coming to terms with his memories of the Holocaust as an older man. Alex is angry, pugnacious, and contemptuous of the stereotypes found in some survivor literature and honest about the shortcomings of other works.

The book provides a connection to seldom discussed aspects of the Holocaust: the gulf between rich and poor Jews and how this translated into everyday survival; the refusal by Alex to see himself or Jews in general as heroes or victims; his own self-absorption as a teen in the ghetto; and his "privileged" family's near indifference to the suffering of those around them. Alex paints a picture of a complex and diverse Jewish society in prewar Poland, revealing how, many years later and despite his determination to leave it in the past, the burdens of memory-and the dreams-linger.

Contents:

And Yet I Still Have Dreams 5.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0810118130

0810118149

OCLC:

52160147