| כותר |
"A book of curses" : the diary of Beinish Berkowicz, Nowogródek ghetto, 1942-1943. |
|---|---|
| מתוך |
Yad Vashem Studies 48,1-2 (2020) 71-107 |
| תקציר/הערה |
Recently a diary written during the Holocaust in the Novogrodek ghetto in Western Belorussia has surfaced. It was written in eloquent Hebrew by a man named Beinish Berkovitch, between April 1942 and January 1943, two weeks before the liquidation of the ghetto and the death of the author. In fourteen entries Berkovitch shares his thoughts on the horrific events as they unfolded in polished prose, dotted with historical and philosophical inquires, deep melancholy, and bitter sarcasm. He was evidently a well-read intellectual and a well-versed Jew, although not a God-fearing one. This document offers a glimpse into the mind of a shtetl ghetto prisoner who was not a survivor, but rather a thinker, looking pessimistically at the past, present, and future. We follow his initial belief in humanity and the culture that was slowly falling apart, until it shatters with the author’s final words: "Do not compile a book of lamentations over our destruction, only a book of curses. More precisely—one great, fierce curse upon all of humanity and its culture."The diary was smuggled from the ghetto by a non-Jewish friend of the author and made its way to the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. Over the years the original was lost, and only an error-ridden, barely legible copy survives. The text published here is based on a meticulous study of the document, with many of its errors and omissions corrected. The text is accompanied by historic, cultural, and linguistic annotations, as well as an introduction. In English and Hebrew. With the text of the diary (pp. 86-103). With an appendix (pp. 103-107). |
| שפה |
אנגלית |
| קרדיטים |
באדיבות יש ושם – רשות הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה Courtesy of Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center |
| מספר מערכת |
997009815379505171 |
| קישורים |
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries |
בכל שימוש יש לציין את מקור הפריט בנוסח הבא:
באדיבות יש ושם – רשות הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה Courtesy of Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
תצוגת MARC
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