Jewish Childhood in Kraków

JOANNA SLIWA is a historian at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) in New York City.

• Note on TerminologyIntroduction1 Navigating Shifts in the City2 Adapting to Life inside the Ghetto3 Clandestine Activities4 Child Welfare5 Concealed Presence in the Camp6 Survival through Hiding and FlightEpilogueAcknowledgmentsAbbreviations Used in NotesNotesBibliographyIndex

"An outstanding contribution to the history of children and families during the Holocaust in Poland. . . . [Sliwa] has a keen sense of historical geography and timing, leading the reader through continuity and change in monthly, weekly, or even daily stages of city life. Time and space are thus deeply historicized in this book, making for a superb microhistorical account. . . . This superbly narrated short text, unburdened by academic jargon, should be a must-read not only for academics but for anyone interested in family, children, and genocide histories. Dedicated 'To the children for whom this history was a reality,' Jewish Childhood in KrakÓw is a most compelling exploration of Jewish children's life and death during genocide." (The Polish Review) "Sliwa’s book is an essential contribution to Holocaust scholarship, but even more significantly, she offers us the opportunity to learn about children’s experiences, which often are absent from Holocaust literature. Their concealed presence, which Sliwa spends so much time discussing, is precisely what makes it difficult to tell their stories. But Sliwa’s persistence and ability to dig through a multitude of sources to find even the smallest pieces of information resulted in this remarkable account that will hopefully encourage future scholars to explore the experiences of children in other parts of Poland and Europe."- Rachel Rothstein (H-Poland) "This well researched book on the history of Jewish childhood in KrakÓw will become a standard work on the subject, inviting other scholars to investigate Jewish childhood in other ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe." - Joanna Beata Michlic (author of Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present) "Joanna Sliwa offers a nuanced and compelling picture of what it meant to grow up Jewish under the German occupation of KrakÓw, one of the oldest Jewish communities in Poland. By giving voice to Jewish children and their fears, heartbreaks, loss, and survival, she allows readers to learn of children’s vulnerability and resilience, agency and helplessness firsthand. These voices will become central to the ways we think about Jewish children’s experiences during the Holocaust." - Natalia Aleksiun (author of Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust) "A well-researched book. An important addition to Holocaust literature." - Jan T. Gross (author of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland)