Lauren Grodstein

Adam Paskow was a childless widower in his forties when he and his fellow Jews were imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto. At first, he and the nine people with whom he shared an apartment were able to procure enough food to survive. However, as the weeks passed, it became increasingly difficult to obtain even the most basic necessities.

“We Must not Think of Ourselves,” by Lauren Grodstein, is a haunting work of fiction that focuses on the physical and psychological damage inflicted by the Nazis on their helpless captives. The author moves us with affecting passages that describe in harrowing detail what the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto endured. First, they had to come to terms with the loss of their civil rights, jobs, education, and possessions. Eventually, many were executed, died of disease or malnutrition, or were sent to concentration camps.

At the behest of Emil Ringelblum—a politician, archivist, and social worker who organized relief agencies and soup kitchens—Adam, a gifted English teacher, creates a written record of the reminiscences, feelings, experiences, and observations of his acquaintances in the ghetto for the sake of posterity. Grodstein's central characters react to their dire circumstances in a variety of ways: with courage and resilience; horror and grief; desperation and recklessness; and incredible love and self-sacrifice. Our hearts go out to these persecuted men, women, and children. They were innocent victims who were tortured and killed by brutal oppressors driven by baseless hatred.… (more)

This was a haunting listen. There was an underground group of people who kept an archive of interviews with the Jewish occupants of the Warsaw ghetto so they would not be lost amidst and post the terrors of WWII…Oneg Shabbat. This was an historical fiction story to highlight that project and was done wonderfully. The daily struggles, the little hopes and dreams that kept them going, the beautiful histories of these people, the fear, the love, the adjustment to a life they did not understand and did not deserve, the children, the heroism. It’s all there in this terrifying and yet hopeful story.… (more)

Heartbreaking account of the Jewish people in Poland who were forced from their homes to move to the Warsaw ghetto. During this time, Adam Paskow, a widower, is asked to take testimony from people to preserve the experience of living in the ghetto for history to remember them. He agrees, and he takes interviews of his young students to whom he is teaching English.
When he is moved to the ghetto, he is put in an apartment with two families. One of the mothers in the apartment, Sala, and Adam become friendly and fall in love. Adam desperately misses his deceased wife, who was Catholic, but takes comfort in Sala's arms.
As Adam attempts to escape the ghetto, he has to make a heart-wrenching decision on who to save. This is a book that will stay with me a long time. It is based on true events and was inspired by a true project.… (more)

Outstanding novel about living in the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII. The everydayness amidst the horror of people crowded together starving, being shot for no reason, dead bodies left on sidewalks is heart-rending.

For Adam Paskow, English teacher and widower, living with other families in a small apartment is the 'new normal.' He is asked to keep a journal of the daily lives of those around him for the Oneg Shabbat archive project.

For whatever reason, I'm thinking, this is going to be boring but no, Grodstein creates a novel with a plot, and dialog, that is anything but boring. It is frightening, fragile, strong, grotesque, beautiful; filled with pain, anguish, anger, but most of all love.

A book to read, to keep and cherish.… (more)