Konin : One Man's Quest for a Vanished Jewish Community

Rating:
Summary: Well worth reading
Review: I found this book absolutely fascinating. My Grandmother came from Konin so for me it was a look into the world my Grandmother left behind.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing piece of work
Review: In this documentary book the author retells his ancestors' history. It's a story of the Jews in Konin - a insignificant town in Poland. Although I don't know this family nor were interested in this town. The book caught me from it's beginning. It is written as if it were a fiction saga, yet sadly it is true. You learn about the Jews in Konin from times when they were more than 50% of the town's population until today when Jews can be found only under earth covered mass graves. The 'Protokol' testimony of the Polish vet. taught me that we still don't know enough of the level of cruelty the Nazis (mankind?) got into. I think if all mankind would read this book, we could make this world a good place to be in after all.

Rating:
Summary: A Journey Into Lives
Review: Konin, subtitled A Quest, is indeed exactly that. It is Theo Richmond's quest across time, place, culture, and humanity. It is his quest to learn where he came from, to understand the place his older relatives spoke of so often in his youth, but which he started out knowing rather little about.

Konin is the small Polish town from which Richmond's (originally Ryczke) family emigrated well before the Jewish community was all but destroyed. From the start, Richmond seeks to learn all he can of the town's history and people, particularly the Jewish people and their section of the town. Some of the text is the town's history dating back into the nineteenth century, and there is some mention of even earlier times, but mostly it is the stories told in the words of the surviving people.

Though some did not respond to his requests, Richmond found dozens of old Koniners whose memories seem crystal clear. And from this, we the readers build up a crystal clear picture of their lives in the community. Almost everything is told in stories, long or short, happy or sad, of life. True, in some sections Richmond includes his own narrative, but even there the stories of the people are interwoven into the tapestry. We do not learn about Konin so much as experience it, with all its goods and bads and excitements and boredoms. And as Richmond is no detached observer, we follow him as he passes back through time into pre-war Poland. He tells us not only who the people are then and now, but how he comes to meet them and the impressions they make.

As might be expected, many of the surviving Koniners experienced the Holocaust, or Shoah, firsthand. With their life in Konin and since comes their life during that horrid time. This is Richmond's quest into and away from humanity. Although many of these pages only touch on Konin in that they relate to Koniners, they make up some of the most gripping reading between these two covers. They are included, of course, to complete today's picture of the Konin community.

One need not be Jewish or knowledgeable of Jewish history (I am neither) to appreciate Konin. One need only appreciate good writing, which Richmond provides, gripping drama, which life provides, and a willingness to see the fascinating slice-of-life of a largely ordinary community that is Konin.

Rating:
Summary: THIS IS A MUST!
Review: My wife Urszula and I had decided to take a day out in London, some sight seeing and shopping. We passed the many book shops on Charing Cross rd, but a book in one shop window caught my eye, 'Konin, a quest'. My wife is Polish, from the town of Konin. But what could this book be about, we wonder? There is nothing in Konin. How wrong we were! The book amazed us. I have read many publications on the holocaust, but nothing moved me quite like this book. The research and the feeling, the hardwork put into this account of a community so thoroughly wiped out that my wife hadn't even been aware that a Jewish community had ever existed and yet she grew up on its streets. In fact, the school she went to, the Gymnasium was built by the jewish people prior to the war. But nothing was or is taught about the jewish people within its walls, no reminders, nothing. Until now. Theo Richmond's work is a priceless reminder of want was lost and what should never be forgotten. We look forward greatly to the day the book is published in polish, when everyone there has a chance to understand just what was lost. We met Theo recently, his powerful charater came across so well in his book, as it is such an honest account, that it felt as though we had known him for years. Buy It! It is the best book you will ever read on the Jewish people.

Rating:
Summary: Read It
Review: There is little I can add to the existing reviews save yet another resounding confirmation of this book's brilliance. Konin is a superbly written, award-winning thing translated into Polish, Hebrew, German and Italian.

The book is impeccable stylistically and intellectually, and the thorny issue of Polish-Jewish relations is penetrated with honesty and insight. The people interviewed and depicted in the book are -- well, simply, REAL.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling social history of a lost population
Review: This is not just another Holocaust book. Not just another narrative of tragic suffering and heroic survival. KONIN A Quest is a compelling historical research about a specific small town, Konin, located in western Poland. Konin is the town where the author, Theo Richmond's, family came from. Growing up in London, he heard and overheard stories his parents told about their home town. As a young person, wanting to fit in and be accepted by his peers, these stories barely interested if not embarrassed the young Richmond. As an adult he became curious about his parents' town and the result for us is this book.

We are told about the general history Konin and it's place in Polish history. Richmond gives us details about the Jewish settlement in the town; how in the year 1883 out of a total of 6500 residents 50 % were Jewish. Richmond's father, along with many others, left Konin in the early 1900's realizing what a bleak future awaited them in their native town.

Theo Richmond's quest is to recreate for his readers a feeling for what Konin was for it's Jewish citizens. He interviews almost every living person who once called Konin their home. (Only one Jewish woman returned to live in Konin after World War II.) He relates to us their most intimate memories regarding their families. He describes in detail the very well stocked Jewish lending library, occupations and professions of various individuals, the school system, the social structure etc. In each case the personalities of those involved are felt by the reader. When Richmond was lucky enough to meet the individuals who actually lived in Konin he conveys to us how the time spent there has influenced the rest of their lives. He relates to us the horrors experienced by many for the survivors of the holocaust and their dispair when returning to Konin at the end of World War II, to find that almost no one of their family or acquaintances had survived.

When I finished the book, and closed the back cover, I felt that I had been a part of this one town in Poland. I had met the actual people who had live there, known a part of their lives and felt their pain at having been uprooted and lost so much. The town of Konin has changed dramatically since the time when a large Jewish community was a part of its population but Theo Richmond has succeded in his quest to relay to the world what that town was like in a different era.

Rating:
Summary: Crowning achievement
Review: Yes, this is another Holocaust archival work and yes, it is brilliantly researched and written. But Richmond's crowning achievement, I propose, is his ability to create a lengthy work as this, about people many readers could never know, without ever letting it lapse into sentimentality or a wearisome litany of names, faces and facts. And yes, I have tearfully walked the streets of Konin with those Shoah survivors who now live in England, the US, and Israel. Richmond has ensured that the Nazi attempt to relegate Jewish Konin to oblivion has been thwarted. And we are much the better for it. "For the dead and the living we must bear witness." Thank you Mr Richmond. You have witnessed for the murdered of Kazimierz forest and all the other killing fields of Nazi Europe.