The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow: Prelude to Doom

by Raul Hilberg (Editor), Stanislaw Staron (Editor), Josef Kermisz (Editor)

Overview

Adam Czerniakow was a Polish Jew who killed himself on July 23, 1942—on the face of it not an uncommon occurrence in those times. But there is more to the story than the tragic death of one man among so many millions. Czerniakow was for almost three years the chairman of the Warsaw Judenrat—a Jew, devoted to his people, who served as the Nazi-sponsored “mayor” of the Warsaw Ghetto. His personal dealings with the German authorities bring to this daily record of events a depth of knowledge, accuracy of detail, and panorama of view that was possible to no other participant in the epic prelude to the final doom of the largest captive Jewish community in Eastern Europe. This secret journal is not only the testimony of an unbearable personal burden but the documentary of the Ghetto’s terminal agony. It is the most important diary to emerge from the Holocaust.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493083763
Publisher:	Dee, Ivan R. Publisher
Publication date:	11/14/2023
Series:	Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	444
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Raul Hilberg is the author of The Destruction of the European Jews and the foremost historian of the Holocaust. Stanislaw Staron, now deceased, taught political science at the University of Vermont. Josef Kermisz was director of archives at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Editorial Reviews

A nightmare Alice-in-Wonderland...intensely dramatic entries. The diary makes a deep, deep impression.
— Peter Osnos

Reprint of the English version of the Czerniakow diary, which first appeared in a Hebrew translation in 1968. A unique document of the Jewish catastrophe, it encapsulates the constriction of the Warsaw Jews before they were swept away by deportations, and it describes the multiplicity of their problems. The author, who killed himself in 1942 after serving as the Nazi-sponsored "mayor" of the Warsaw Ghetto, recorded not only the testimony of his unbearable personal burden but a documentary of the Ghetto's terminal agony. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Booknews

A tale of Kafaesque horror.

Houston Chronicle

Meticulously factual and nonetheless moving.

The New Yorker

A nightmare Alice-in-Wonderland...intensely dramatic in the aggregate for all the matter-of-factness of individual entries...The Diary of Adam Czerniakow makes a deep, deep impression.

Peter 'snos

A major event!

Herman Wouk

Enormously evocative.

The Wall Street Journal - Dorothy Rabinowitz

Without parallel.

Isaiah Trunk

An astonishing record of desperate adaptation and resilient will.

The New Leader

A major event!

A nightmare Alice-in-Wonderland...intensely dramatic in the aggregate for all the matter-of-factness of individual entries...The Diary of Adam Czerniakow makes a deep, deep impression.

A tale of Kafaesque horror.

An astonishing record of desperate adaptation and resilient will.

Enormously evocative.

Meticulously factual and nonetheless moving.

Without parallel.

From the Publisher

Meticulously factual and nonetheless moving.

The New Yorker

A nightmare Alice-in-Wonderland...intensely dramatic in the aggregate for all the matter-of-factness of individual entries...The Diary of Adam Czerniakow makes a deep, deep impression.

The Review of Higher Education - Peter Osnos