The Warsaw Ghetto: A Guide to the Perished City
The tragedy of the Warsaw Ghetto is well known in Holocaust literature, but despite the publication of numerous personal accounts, studies, and works of fiction dealing with life there, no one has ever written a complete history of the ghetto. Engelking and Leociak, researchers at the Polish Academy of Science, have undertaken this monumental task. Using unpublished archival materials from Poland and Israel as well as published literature, they have painstakingly documented daily life in the ghetto from its creation, in 1941, to its liquidation, in 1943. The authors are, respectively, a psychologist and a scholar in literature, so they examine the material from a multidisciplinary point of view. Following some background material, they proceed chronologically and thematically, beginning with the setting—the topography of the ghetto and the changes to its boundaries over time. They then examine various ghetto offices and institutions: the Judenrat, the Jewish Order Service, the Health Service, etc. They also look at aspects of economic and community life. Final chapters cover the history of the deportation of the Jews in the ghetto to the Treblinka death camp and the events occurring in the ghetto after the deportation as well as the fate of the district after the uprising in 1943.   The many maps and illustrations make it possible to see exactly where things were located and where events took place. Various tables compile statistical details. Glossaries of names and terms, an extensive bibliography, and both general and name indexes conclude the book. This excellent work is highly recommended for academic libraries supporting history, Holocaust studies, and Jewish studies programs. --Barbara Bibel