Through the eyes of Jewish child survivors from Poland : family, war, identity, and nationhood / Joanna Beata Michlic.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Michlic, Joanna B., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish children in the Holocaust--Poland.

Jewish children in the Holocaust.

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

World War, 1939-1945.

Physical Description:

viii, 319 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2026]

Summary:

"Through the Eyes of Jewish Child Survivors from Poland is an investigation of the social identity of Polish Jewish children in the early post-war period, particularly of those children who survived the war by living with Polish families"-- Provided by publisher.

"Through the Eyes of Jewish Child Survivors from Poland offers an intimate social history of Jewish childhood during and after the Holocaust. Centered on children from German-occupied Poland but informed by experiences across Nazi-occupied Europe, the book highlights the child's own perspective to illuminate rescue, survival, and relationships with adults under the Nazi occupation. In the first part, Joanna Beata Michlic examines children's wartime experiences, showing how agency, gender, class, and religious or social background shaped their chances of survival. The second part traces the complex efforts of these young survivors to reclaim both childhood and Jewish identity, revealing the gap between their hopes and the actual opportunities of the immediate postwar period.Drawing on children's diaries, letters, testimonies, and memoirs, Michlic illuminates how children experienced and remembered trauma: the destruction of their families, the loss of their prewar worlds, and the struggle to adapt to a new reality, challenging myths that sentimentalize the children's endurance and portray the Holocaust as neatly concluded. This powerful study shows why the history of Holocaust child survivors remains a vital resource for understanding vulnerability, agency, and the enduring impact of war and genocide"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : here and there

An untold story of rescue : Jewish children and youth in Nazi-occupied Poland helping each other

Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Poland : early post-war recollections of survival and Polish-Jewish relations during the Holocaust

Rebuilding shattered lives : some vignettes of Jewish children's lives in early postwar Poland

What does a child remember? recollections of the war and the early post-war period amongst child survivors from Poland

Missed lessons from the Holocaust : avoiding complexities and darker aspects of Jewish child survivors' life experiences.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781496226075

1496226070

OCLC:

1514891223