The Diary of Samuel Golfard and the Holocaust in Galicia

by Wendy Lower Claremont McKenna College

Overview

The Diary of Samuel Golfard and the Holocaust in Galicia examines the contents and context of a rare diary written by a Jewish man from Nazi-occupied Poland. Serving as both a record and an artifact of Samuel Golfard’s life, the diary details his attempt to make sense of and resist the event that ultimately destroyed him. Wendy Lower integrates photographs, newspaper articles, documents, and testimonies to create a more complete picture of Golfard’s experiences and writings. She also traces the diary’s own journey after Golfard’s death, from 1943 Poland to the present day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759120808
Publisher:	AltaMira Press
Publication date:	08/22/2011
Series:	Documenting Life and Destruction: Holocaust Sources in Context
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	198
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Wendy Lower is John K. Roth Professor of History at Claremont McKenna College. She is the author of Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields, a National Book Award finalist.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Editor’s Note

Part I: Introduction to Samuel Golfard's Diary
–Reading Jewish Diaries of the Holocaust
–The Golfard Diary as a Source of Holocaust History in Poland and Ukraine
–The Local Setting of Golfard’s Diary: Peremyshliany (Ukrainian), Przemyślany (Polish), Peremyshlany (German)
–Peremyshliany before the Nazi Occupation
–The German Occupation of Peremyshliany, 1941–1944

Part II: Samuel Golfard's Diary, January to April 1943

Part III: Related Documents
–Wartime Documents
–Postwar Documents
–Jacob Litman’s Testimonies
–Rescue in Peremyshliany : The Example of Tadeusz Jankiewicz and His Family


List of Documents
Place Names Mentioned in the Diary
Bibliography
Chronology of Events Related to the Diary
Biographies
Index
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

This volume combines a powerfully emotional personal narrative with concise and cohesive historical analysis in a way that other source-based books do not. Moreover, it is of great use to both scholars and students. While specialists and historians will surely find Golfard’s testimony textually rich, multi-dimensional, and challenging, the educational value of this volume is substantial. The book is short enough for students to digest easily, and perhaps more important, the historical background and editorial comments make the text a stand-alone work containing all one needs to truly engage with Samuel Golfard’s diary. Lower has produced an accessible yet historically complex commentary on a very special testimony—one that scholars and educators alike will certainly want on their shelves.

Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Golfard's diary is remarkable. It is searing, moving, emotional, yet also analytically sophisticated. The published diary will make a substantial contribution to several fields of study, including the history of Jewish responses during the Shoah, the perpetration of genocide, and Holocaust literature. Lower has done a beautiful job of framing the diary entries so that the reader gains a broader perspective of the unfolding history. This book is a most welcome contribution to the existing body of published source materials, illuminating a lesser-known dimension of the Holocaust that is at the forefront of recent research being conducted in the field.

Alexandra Garbarini

It is a miracle that this diary survived and has now become an invaluable source on the Holocaust in a small town in western Ukraine. It provides a glimpse into the state of mind of those destined for annihilation on the very eve of their destruction. The diarist is insightful and thoughtful. The introduction and commentary provided by Wendy Lower are nuanced and intelligent. One will learn a lot about the Holocaust from reading this book.

John Paul Himka

This volume combines a powerfully emotional personal narrative with concise and cohesive historical analysis in a way that other source-based books do not. Moreover, it is of great use to both scholars and students. While specialists and historians will surely find Golfard’s testimony textually rich, multi-dimensional, and challenging, the educational value of this volume is substantial. The book is short enough for students to digest easily, and perhaps more important, the historical background and editorial comments make the text a stand-alone work containing all one needs to truly engage with Samuel Golfard’s diary. Lower has produced an accessible yet historically complex commentary on a very special testimony —one that scholars and educators alike will certainly want on their shelves.

Oxford Journals

It is a miracle that this diary survived and has now become an invaluable source on the Holocaust in a small town in western Ukraine. It provides a glimpse into the state of mind of those destined for annihilation on the very eve of their destruction. The diarist is insightful and thoughtful. The introduction and commentary provided by Wendy Lower are nuanced and intelligent. One will learn a lot about the Holocaust from reading this book.--John Paul Himka, University of Alberta

Golfard's diary is remarkable. It is searing, moving, emotional, yet also analytically sophisticated. The published diary will make a substantial contribution to several fields of study, including the history of Jewish responses during the Shoah, the perpetration of genocide, and Holocaust literature. Lower has done a beautiful job of framing the diary entries so that the reader gains a broader perspective of the unfolding history. This book is a most welcome contribution to the existing body of published source materials, illuminating a lesser-known dimension of the Holocaust that is at the forefront of recent research being conducted in the field.--Alexandra Garbarini, Williams College

This volume combines a powerfully emotional personal narrative with concise and cohesive historical analysis in a way that other source-based books do not. Moreover, it is of great use to both scholars and students. While specialists and historians will surely find Golfard's testimony textually rich, multi-dimensional, and challenging, the educational value of this volume is substantial. The book is short enough for students to digest easily, and perhaps more important, the historical background and editorial comments make the text a stand-alone work containing all one needs to truly engage with Samuel Golfard's diary. Lower has produced an accessible yet historically complex commentary on a very special testimony--one that scholars and educators alike will certainly want on their shelves.--Holocaust and Genocide Studies

From the Publisher