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Rating: 
Summary: detailed, unbiased analysis of complex subject
Review: I give this book 5 stars. The author has rejected myths, generalizations, and prejudiced thinking to give a fascinating history of Polish Christians and Polish Jews. She is careful to give the viewpoints of both groups, beginning in the Middle Ages and continuing to the present. When she quotes a source, she reminds us that this is that person's opinion, not necessarily a universal truth. She cites to references in Polish, Yiddish, and Hebrew. She does not condemn or defend either group, and realistically argues that neither was right or wrong; some people helped each other, some people harmed each other. She gives a detailed account of the history of Poland that is not widely available in this country. The author is both Polish and Jewish, and grew up in Poland. Her ability to abjectively at her subject is convincing and admirable.
Rating:
Summary: A Welcome Respite From the Usual Anti-Polish Bias
Review: In stark contrast to Marzynski's film Shtetl, and even more so Yaffa Eliach's book, There Was Once a World, Eva Hoffman has a remarkably balanced view of the relationships between Polish Jews and Polish gentiles. She candidly informs the reader how prejudices worked both ways. Polish gentiles might look at Jews as crafty, while Jews would often display a condenscending attitude towards Christians. She also discusses the tensions created by the fact that only some Jews saw their loyalty being to Poland, whereas other Jews shifted their loyalties to whatever foreign power was ruling over Poland at the time. Of course, the Russians, following a divide at emperia policy, encouraged polarization between Polish Jews and Polish gentiles by their policies. And this became worse during WWII. Hoffman acknowledges the fact that many Jews who collaborated with the Soviet Communists against the Poles, and the inevitable anti-Semitic backlash this created. However, Hoffman is careful to point out that, contrary to the impressions created by many Holocaust films, Poles did not (with rare and individual exceptions) participate in the German Nazi-sponsored murder of Jews. In fact, the roundups of Jews in the Bransk ghetto were performed by Lithuanian and Ukrainian collaborator police forces, not Poles. And, when it comes to individual instances where Poles did betray hiding Jews to the Germans, Hoffman is also fair enough to the reader to point out the unfortunate fact that Jews also searched for and betrayed other Jews. Finally, she addresses the accusation that the mainstream Polish underground (AK) murdered Jews who hid in the forests. She notes that there were various criminally-oriented bands which roamed the countryside, and it is these, and NOT the AK, which may have been responsible for the murder of fugitive Jews, who, owing to their obvious vulnerability, were a perfect target for such crimes. However, Hoffman is apparently unaware of the fact that, according to a Soviet document, there were also "phony AK" commandos sent inside German-occupied Poland by the Soviet Union. The job of these commandos was to commit various crimes against the civilian population (including Jews) and then to create the impression that the AK was responsible for them, all as part of an overall strategy to discredit anti-Communist forces in the eyes of the population. However, all in all, despite this shortcoming, Hoffman is remarkably objective in her treatment of Polish-Jewish relations. It is sad that her work is the exception, and not the rule, in this regard.
Rating:
Summary: The truth is never simple
Review: Shtetl is an excellent work of social history, although it is also a good outline of Polish history at the political level over the 8 centuries it covers. It is well written and an easy read.The author has a clear agenda, which is to be more balanced in her treatment of Poles than Jewish writers have usuually been and to be more balanced in her treatment of Jews than Poles have been. The book digs deeply into the sources of Polish perceptions of Jews and vice versa. It gives a deep feel for what life was like in Jewish communities in Poland. The chapter on the period between World Wars I and II is particularly good for showing the political, cultural and economic vibrancy that had come even to the rural shtetls. It must be one of the most "objective" books written about the historical relationship between Jews and Poles. A sympathetic portrait of both peoples that celebrates their virtues and describes their shortcomings as perceived by the other.
Rating: 
Summary: Deeply moving and personal look
Review: This serious, well-researched, and ultimately frustrating book is full of information and analysis.But it is definitely not the companion text to, say, the photography of Roman Vishniac, as the title might lead one to assume. In fact, it's historiography, and the title and subtitle are a bit misleading. It's as much about Poland as about the shtetl, and is -- incomprehensibly -- lacking an index. Hoffman grew up in Poland, emigrating as a teenager, and brings a compassionate mind to the historic problems of that country. Definitely worth reading.
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