By
– July 26, 2012
Mostowicz describes his experiences as a physician in the Lodz ghetto and Nazi concentration camps, including an account of a workers’ demonstration in 1940; a description of the Gypsy camp and the Jewish attitudes toward Gypsies; the antagonism between Lodz Jews and the German and Czech Jews who had been deported to the Lodz ghetto; as well as a vivid account of Rumkowski, the head of the Judenrat of the Lodz ghetto, a man who was despised by most of the Jews but who is credited with saving more lives in Lodz than any other Judenrat Elder of other ghettos. Most importantly, the author questions the morality of his own actions, called upon as he was to make decisions that affected the fate of others.
Marcia W. Posner, Ph.D., of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, is the library and program director. An author and playwright herself, she loves reviewing for JBW and reading all the other reviews and articles in this marvelous periodical.