I Came Home and There Was No One There

This book comprises interviews with the last veterans of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB), accompanied by never previously published photographic “postcards” from ghettos in the Warsaw region, and a reconstruction of the only existing list of the (ŻOB) soldiers.

The first part of the book, a collection of conversations with the last soldiers of the ŻOB, which fought in the Warsaw ghetto uprising, is called “Still Circling”. The first of the interviews was recorded in 1985 with ŻOB commander Marek Edelman, and the last another conversation with him from 2000. Grupińska’s other interlocutors are also ŻOB veterans—rank-and-file soldiers, men and women. They relate the stories of their homes and backgrounds—some were Bundists, others from Zionist or religious families—followed by their recollections of how they experienced and remembered the uprising. This provides several unique perspectives on shared episodes. Images include portraits of Grupińska’s interlocutors, as well as never previously published photographs of the ghetto and its surroundings that are reminiscent of postcards.

The second part of the book, “Rereading the List,” is intended to function like a litany of the names of the ŻOB members who fought in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. This list was compiled by a group of fighters in 1943 and rediscovered by the author in 2000. Each name is accompanied by a short story about the fighter—sometimes only a sentence or two—as well as any available photograph of them. The list is followed by a reconstruction of the ŻOB army, its divisions, and the places they fought.

Hanka Grupińska is a writer and teacher. In the 1980s she collaborated with underground newspapers and was one of the co-founders of the Poznań-based quarterly Czas Kultury, for which she wrote, translated, and edited texts. In the 1990s she lived in Israel, where she was cultural attaché at the Polish embassy, and spent six years gathering material for her book on Hasidic women, Najtrudniej jest spotkać Lilit (currently in translation under the working title Lilith Among the Storks). For several years, Grupińska worked on documenting the history of the extermination of the Jews and is the author of several non-fiction volumes on the Holocaust. She has spent the last decade observing the vicissitudes of the Tibetan people, which captured in her volume Dalekowysoko. Tybetańczycy bez ziemi (Highupandfaraway: Landless Tibetans). She occasionally teaches creative writing classes at universities and colleges in Warsaw.

Hanka Grupińska is a writer and lecturer. In the 1980s she collaborated with underground newspapers and was one of the co-founders of the Poznań-based quarterly Czas Kultury, for which she wrote, translated, and edited texts. In the 1990s she lived in Israel, where she was cultural attaché at the Polish embassy and spent six years gathering material for her book on Hasidic women, Najtrudniej jest spotkać Lilit (currently in translation under the working title Lilith among the Storks). Grupińska spent a quarter-century documenting the history of the extermination of the Jews. She is the author of several non-fiction volumes on the Holocaust. She has spent the last decade observing the vicissitudes of the Tibetan people, which she described in her volume Dalekowysoko. Tybetańczycy bez ziemi [Highupandfaraway: Landless Tibetans]. She occasionally teaches creative writing classes at universities and colleges in Warsaw.