Once There Was Warsaw: A Memoir

By Nat Brandt

Book Overview

As a young man in interwar Warsaw, newspaperman Ber Kutscher threw himself into the city's vibrant Jewish arts and culture scene from the headquarters of the Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists at Tlomkatse 13. In Once There Was Warsaw, Kutsher's achingly human depictions of writers, cabbies, artists, neighbors, and more are translated from the Yiddish into English for the first time, painting a tangible portrait of a moment in Polish history too quickly buried by the horrors of World War II.

Kutsher viewed his memoir, originally published in 1955 after witnessing the devastation of his home and relocating to France, as something of a holy mission, an opportunity to present the lives of the people who brought Warsaw to life while still making room to mourn the past. Written with humor, heart, and a deeply felt grief, Once There Was Warsaw is a complex and layered portrayal of a city and its people and the pain in remembering just how much was lost in its absence.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0815602839
• ISBN13: 9780815602835
• Release Date: September 2024
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Length: 336 Pages

Customer Reviews

BOXER REBELLION IN SHANSI(SHANXI) PROVINCE

Nat Brandt has written a book about a group of missionaries in China at the end of the nineteenth century. The book is written on three levels and works well on each level. First, is the biographical story of the various missionaries --who they were, where they came from, and how they ended their lives in China in 1900. Their individual personalities including strengths and foibles are sketched indelibly. We learn of their struggles together and with each other as they attempted to spread the Gospel and ultimately became martyrs for their beliefs and activities. The second level is that of Christian missionary work as a whole in China and elsewhere. The difficulties encountered when one is a representative of a foreign culture with an alien appearance, language, and ideas are portrayed vividly. The author shows clearly how the missionaries' convictions that Western ways were best undermined their success at evangelism and acceptance by most of their contemporary Chinese neighbors. Finally, the author discusses 19th century Chinese society and history, the events leading up to the Boxer uprising, the Boxer Rebellion itself and the resultant events as the Rebellion was put down by the Western Powers and includes an appraisal of how 20th century Chinese history was affected by the Rebellion and aftermath. In contrast to most accounts of the Boxer Rebellion which concentrate solely on events transpiring in Peking(Beijing) and Tientsin(Tianjin), the author presents us with a case study of activities away from the capital and coastal areas where missionary activities were the only opportunities for the native Chinese to encounter Western faces and ideas.