Botchki: When Doomsday Was Still Tomorrow
by David Zagier
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Simultaneously humorus and tragic, this book is a memoir of Jewish shtetl life in Eastern Europe, before World War II, when life was ruled by religion and the Jewish calendar.Tags
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A beautiful and haunting story of a world now lost forever. The Holocaust permeates every page; every time a new character was introduced I wondered what his or her fate would be. Many of Botchki's Jews of the author's generation escaped through emigration, but the entire shtetl, including his parents and younger brother and his brother's family, was eaten by Treblinka in 1943.
The book is undeniably sentimental, but the author doesn't stoop from describing the hardships: the occupations by various foreign powers, the abject poverty and hunger his family was eventually cast in, the constant stresses and strains that nearly killed his mother and turned his once-doting father into an abusive, almost hateful man. Although World War II show more killed the Polish shtetls, they were already on their way out as Jewish youth, fleeing poverty and antisemitism, scattered to the winds. By the eve of World War II, David, his older brother and his sister were living with their respective families on three different continents.
For a more earthy (fictional) story about life in a shtetl before the Holocaust, try Yehoshue Perle's Everyday Jews: Scenes from a Vanished Life. show less
The book is undeniably sentimental, but the author doesn't stoop from describing the hardships: the occupations by various foreign powers, the abject poverty and hunger his family was eventually cast in, the constant stresses and strains that nearly killed his mother and turned his once-doting father into an abusive, almost hateful man. Although World War II show more killed the Polish shtetls, they were already on their way out as Jewish youth, fleeing poverty and antisemitism, scattered to the winds. By the eve of World War II, David, his older brother and his sister were living with their respective families on three different continents.
For a more earthy (fictional) story about life in a shtetl before the Holocaust, try Yehoshue Perle's Everyday Jews: Scenes from a Vanished Life. show less
Zagier, David, d. 1998 > Childhood and youth/Jews > Poland > Baszki > Biography/Jews > Poland > Baszki > Social life and/customs/Baszki (Poland) > Biography
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David Zagier (1908-1998) left Botchki in 1928 and became a journalist, working in South Africa, Paris, Geneva, and London. During World War II, while living in New York, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He later became a college professor and eventually settled in Switzerland. He completed this memoir shortly before his death in 1998
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, History, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 943.8 — History & geography History of Europe Central Europe: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech, Poland, Hungary Poland
- LCC
- DS135 .P63 .Z349 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania Asia History of Asia Israel (Palestine). The Jews Jews outside of Palestine
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 21
- Popularity
- 1,192,054
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.83)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
