Botchki: When Doomsday was Still Tomorrow

Cover
George Braziller, 2001 - 238 Seiten
With the humor and clearsightedness of one who loved the shtetl, but who worked hard to escape from it, Zagier records the rhythms and texture of everyday life in Botchki, a small town northeast of Warsaw, from the early years of the century until 1927. The author glories in the details of growing up and explores every irony, every twist of fate, every historical fact, as history rushed past this shtetl, sometimes affecting it, sometimes just passing it by. Life was ruled by religion, and he recounts his growing rebelliousness against God, who gives his life meaning and yet allows so much suffering. First set down on the eve of World War II, finished fifty years later, and now published for the first time, Botchki is a testament to a vanished world. This important and moving memoir is essential reading for everyone interested in issues of Jewish life, identity, and exile, as seen through the lens of life in an Eastern European shtetl in the early twentieth century. 9 black-and-white illustrations.

Inhalt

Introducing Two Carters
8
West Rarely Met East
12
The Gods Got Along
15
Botchki Album
19
5
24
and Grandparents
28
7
32
Toddlers Troubles
35
The Doctors Were Wrong
122
Sixth Spoon Arrives
128
Cherries
132
Saint Takes Leave
137
Shtoopl Forms a Militia
142
After the Miracle on the Vistula
146
A Mothers Heart Knows
150
The Soul Trappers
156

9
39
ΙΟ Experiment in Metaphysics
43
Sabbath Was a Bride
46
12
52
Weekdays in the Synagogue
57
14
63
15
70
Summer 1915
73
17
78
Law and Order Prussian Version
83
19
88
The Fire
92
21
95
Tisha bOv ΙΟΙ
101
23
105
24
111
My Brother Was Different
115
Polonia Restituta
118
Eat Days
161
White Bread on Weekdays
168
Chaim the Ape
174
Cold Pogrom
180
Little Wolf Crosses My Path
184
Out of the Frying Pan
190
4I A Goat Named Elijah
196
New Life
201
Rachel Korn
205
Yankls Suicide
208
A Family Learns English
211
Disaster
216
and Deliverance
221
Discover My Father
225
Escape
228
Epilogue by Vega Zagier Roberts
233
Urheberrecht

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