The Tailors of Tomaszow: A Memoir of Polish Jews (Modern Jewish History) by Rena Margulies Chernoff

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"Preserving the collective memory of a community that is no more. Seven decades after the Nazis annihilated the Jewish community of Tomaszow-Mazowiecki, Poland, comes a gripping eyewitness narrative told by one of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust, as well as through first-hand accounts of other Tomaszow survivors. This unique communal memoir presents a rare view of Eastern European Jewry, before, during, and after World War II. It is both the memoir of a child and of a lost Jewish show more community, an unvarnished story in which disputes, controversy, and scandal all play a role in capturing the true flavor of life in this time and place. Nearly 14,000 Jews, one-third of the town's population, lived in Tomaszow-Mazowiecki before World War II, many making their living as tailors and seamstresses. Only 250 of them survived the Holocaust, in part because of their skill with a needle and thread. Engaging and highly accessible, The Tailors of Tomaszow is a powerful resource for educators and a compelling read for anyone wishing to gain a deeper, more personal understanding of Eastern European Jewry and the Holocaust"-- "Memoir of prewar life, the Holocaust, and the aftermath through the eyes of a child and the Jewish community of Tomaszow-Mazowiecki, Poland; personal tragedies and torture by the Nazis, illustrating life in the Blizyn labor camp and survival of Auschwitz-Birkenau."-- show less

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The Tailors of Tomaszw is an excellent, if sobering, account of the plight of the Jews of this Polish town. I appreciated the account of Rena Margulies's community and family life in Poland before the war, which made the horrors of its destruction later on by the Nazis all the more poignant. She lays out the atrocities very matter of factly, though not without emotion; these dreadful crimes require no embellishment.

I have read some wonderful fictional accounts of the Holocaust, with the exception of some of Primo Levi's non-fictional essays, and though these novels or short stories were surely informed by personal experiences, it is good to read this "memoir of Polish Jews" with its direct quotes and lived experiences and show more feelings.

Rena's account of a Polish ghetto, labor and concentration camps; brutal and heartless treatment at the hands of the Nazis; the inhumanity, losses, struggles she and others endured; and her ultimate survival, is a great addition to the canon of Holocaust literature. show less

Apr 7, 2021

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