Rabbi Joseph Polak

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Published by: Urim Publications
Release Date: January 1, 2015
Contributors: Foreword by Elie Wiesel
Pages: 141
ISBN13: 978-9655241624

 
WINNER of the 2015 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Biography / Autobiography

Overview

This memoir is a fascinating portrait of mother and child who miraculously survive two concentration camps, then, after the war, battle demons of the past, societal rejection, disbelief, and invalidation as they struggle to reenter the world of the living. It is the tale of how one newly takes on the world, having lived in the midst of corpses strewn about in the scores of thousands, and how one can possibly resume life in the aftermath of such experiences. It is the story of the child who decides, upon growing up, that the only career that makes sense for him in light of these years of horror is to become someone sensitive to the deepest flaws of humanity, a teacher of God’s role in history amidst the traditions that attempt to understand it—and to become a rabbi. Readers will not emerge unscathed from this searing work, written by a distinguished, Boston-based rabbi and academic.

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Praise

“This gem of a book, 70 years in the making, is already a classic, riveting in what it reveals, in the questions it releases. Polak's insights into the human soul are as profound as any of the authors of nonfiction or fiction whose work I've read, cherished, reread. So often, I just sat quietly for a long while with a single sentence as its power penetrated and continued to reverberate. This author's writing is extraordinary -- it has the sure breathtaking tempo, evocative imagery and courage of poetry at its best. Polak has allowed us into the innermost sanctum of his life's journey whose center is occupied by the Holocaust which demolished the world that should have been his and substituted a lifetime of questioning meaning, of running and hiding from pre-verbal memory, of searching for a way to keep living and shoulder the burden of witness.”
—Merle Feld, playwright, poet, author of A Spiritual Life and Finding Words

“As one of the last witnesses to the Shoah, certainly one of the youngest, Joseph Polak has written a memoir that is an essential contribution to the body of Holocaust literature.

Polak's testimony begins in utero when his mother is forced to "prove" her late-stage pregnancy to the SS to stave off immediate deportation. His witness continues as a three-year-old liberated from Bergen-Belsen, and then beyond -- as he portrays with great dignity the extraordinary burdens of survival. Thus, Rabbi Polak, in his person and in this writing, bridges the universe of physical survivors to that of the psychological survivors who must now carry testimony forward into future generations.
With each new, breath-taking read of this slender volume, one uncovers layer upon layer of meaning. Not the least of these is the theological struggle that grips this deeply religious man. It comes not in one diatribe or complaint but as a subtle undercurrent throughout, a powerful vignette of the absurd here, a daring question there...

This is a must read for anyone not afraid of grappling with the unfathomable.”
—Blu Greenberg, poet, writer, author of On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition

“I have a thought about why this particular memoir, of all memoirs, deserves to be read, indeed, must be read. World-wide, Anne Frank is considered to be the authentic voice from within the Holocaust. Her diary is indeed precious and incredibly touching. And yet it ends with her deportation to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen where she dies a gruesome death. That is not part of her diary. The reader is left in a void. From that same hideous place that claims her life emerges a little boy to continue the story. Joseph's voice originates from within Bergen-Belsen, and perhaps poses the questions and challenges to G-d that Anne might have posed, had she survived. His story and her story merge. These two youngsters from Holland, Anne forever a teenager, Joseph approaching the status of elder, provide a perspective of unusual insight from within the Holocaust, and from within survival. Surely Joseph's sensitive portrayal of this brief period of his life illustrates dramatically that for Jewish children, liberation was not particularly liberating. By reading this memoir and savoring its wisdom and lessons, perhaps we can assume a degree of [Joseph’s] burden and confer meaning upon it by sharing its insights with our children and grandchildren.”
—Robert Krell, MD, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, co-editor of And Life is Changed Forever: Holocaust Childhoods Remembered

“Joseph Polak’s memoir is a unique document, riveting and unnerving. All Holocaust memoirs describe not only what happened but also the survivor’s terrible search for bearings. But as one who survived the Holocaust at age two, Polak has nothing to grasp hold of. He is as skeptical of his own survival as we are. Polak’s great contribution is exploring the Holocaust not by way of what he remembers but rather by way of what he has been told, read, and discovered. He then pieces together his remarkable story devoid of sentimentality—a distinguishing trait of the best memoirs. But Polak’s is again unique in chronicling what he has been told of arrest, deportation, and camps together with the austere post-reunions and the more recent returns to the European sites. The story of his and his mother’s postwar experiences actually traces the brutal legacy of the Holocaust itself. Finally, he interrogates his experience in unflinching terms, letting neither God nor man off the hook. Readers are generally interested in survival stories. In this case, they will want to see how it was possible for a toddler to survive what most adults could not. How did it happen? And how did he come to know about it? It has all the elements of a detective story and fantasy tale together. The story is so fantastic that, as Polak himself says, it goes against what we know of the Holocaust and the concentration camps. Every page teaches the reader something new, in language that is fresh and original.”
—Alan Rosen, PhD, author, The Wonder of their Voices

“Joseph Polak is an outstanding writer. His memoir is an essential contribution to Holocaust literature . . . .This fast-paced, brief memoir reads like a novel. It is haunting and melancholic, unforgettable and poignant. Polak is a wonderful writer, proffering a terrifying truth while speculating about the wisdom of the Torah and the apparent absence of God.”
—Charles Weinblatt, nyjournalofbooks.com

“This book is about a different Holocaust—the one that survivors of concentration camps endured after April 1945. That is when survivors began to experience the horrific and persistent memories of what they had lived through, according to Joseph Polak, who entered the camps when he was just a toddler.”
—Eleanor Ehrenkranz, jewishbookcouncil.org