Biography and Memory

Biography and Memory discusses the return of Jews to their places of birth in Poland. A biographical urge to come full circle often leads to symbolic journeys to one’s roots, but in the case of Shoah survivors, such journeys are unexpected, defying the generational definition of their biography, which mostly draws a demarcation line between wartime trauma and a new post- Holocaust life. Analyzed biographical stories collected from Israeli survivors indicate that such returns may be considered the last chapters of their wartime experiences. Survivors’ biographies are examined in the context of both Jewish and Polish memory. This book will be of interest to sociologists, historians, and to general readers.

Kaja Kazmierska (PhD University of Lodz) is an associate professor at the Department of Sociology of Culture, University of Lodz. Her publications include Polish War Experiences and Ethnic Identity: An Analysis of Eastern Borderland Narratives (1999) and the Polish language edition of this book, Biography and Memory: The Generational Experience of the Shoah Survivors (2008).

Shimon Redlich:
Professor Kaja Kazmierska's book deals with Polish-Jewish relations before, during, and after the Holocaust. It significantly contributes to our understanding of the sociology of memory and of the continuity/disruption in human identities, focusing primarily on the consequences of Holocaust trauma. The return of survivors to the sites of their childhood and youth constitutes, according to the author, the last phase of their wartime experiences. The description and the analysis of those returns point to the enormous complexity and variety of Jewish fates. Prof. Kazmierska's book is not only a result of professional commitment to the subject of her research, it also shows intellectual courage, honesty, and insight, as well as a deep personal sensitivity of a Polish sociologist in respect to the touchy and explosive issue of Polish-Jewish relations.

Prof. Janusz Mucha:
This amazingly well-written book, whose author makes use of the methodology of social qualitative analysis, takes up many issues vital to Polish people. To name but a few: 1. Consequences of the recent transformations in Eastern and Central Europe for many other societies and their members, 2. Our disparate perception of “Polish returns” to the Eastern Borderlands and the Jewish and German returns to Poland, 3. The separation of fates, concerning various national or religious groups living together.

Prof. Andrzej Piotrowski:
The author has faced quite a task: of bringing together and, simultaneously, meeting the requirements of many various perspectives characteristic of sociology, psychology/social psychology, anthropology, narratology and generally discourse theories, and–on the other hand–history, in its inevitable entanglement in the perspectives of other social and cultural studies, transcending today’s traditional historiography, which tries to answer the question, “how was it?” I am convinced that this book will generate a keen interest among researchers from various fields; it has the makings of resonating with a wider, non-academic audience as well.