Full Description
Lili Berger wrote about the most traumatic and transformative developments of the twentieth century to which she herself was an eyewitness. On the Waves of Destiny presents an anthology that reflects her early life in interwar Poland during the rise of Hitler, her Second World War activities in occupied Paris where she was active in the Communist resistance, and her sojourn in Communist Poland from 1949 to 1968.
The majority of her essays are pen portraits, often based on her own personal recollections, in which she made clear that she considered it her duty to memorialize the tens of thousands of Polish Jewish writers and artists who were murdered during the Holocaust, such as author and painter Bruno Schulz, historian Emanuel Ringelblum, and artist Gela Seksztajn, as well as to preserve their work. Even her short stories are based on actual experiences, not only her own but also those of people around her.
In her stories, her essays, and her allegorical fables, she explored issues such as equality for women, the moral responsibility of a writer, the question of Jewish identity, and the creative process in general. The translations in On the Waves of Destiny ensure that Lili Berger's legacy will continue to resonate with future generations of readers.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Jewish Life in Poland
We Polish Jews
Naftole Herts Kon: The Tragic Enthusiasm
Notes and Reflections on the Fate of the Written Word
The Yiddish Folk Song in Polish Translation
Holocaust
The Hidden Source of a People's Survival: Writings from the Ghettos and Camps
On the Nineteenth Birthday of Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum: Recollections and Summing Up
Janusz Korczak: Pedagogue, Researcher
Ankeh: To Her Eternal Memory
Thoughts on Reading "The Medem Sanatorium Book"
Arts and Letters
Bruno Schulz: Artist and Jew
Vasily Grossman: The History of a Book, or the Path to Jewish Identity
Reyzl Zhikhlinski: On Her Poetry
Czajka
Czajka: The Painful Path to Self Discovery
Berl Mark, The Man and the Creator: On the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of His Death
Moyshe Shulshteyn: On His Tenth Yortsayt
Fables, Short Stories, and Historic Fiction
All Because of the Wife or The First Quarrel
The Rebbetzin's Sense of Justice
With Tevye the Dairyman in the Underground
Animals and Humans
The Jew Who Came Late
The Last Night
Unfinished Pages: Excerpt
The Debate between Paper and Letters: A Tale
Epilogue
Notes on the Underground: Lili Berger's Reflections on Marranism
Cultural Figures Named in the Text
Biographies of Editors and Translators
Books by Lily Berger
Bibliography
