There Once Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok

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Summary: Yaffa the Historian Versus Yaffa the Storyteller?
Review: Having read this book, I don't quite know what to make of it. On one hand, she gives a tremendous amount of detail, including photographs, in showing the reader what life was like in the shtetl at Eisyshok. Not only does one learn about the rites of passage in shtetl life, but one also learns such seldom-discussed topics as the care of the mentally ill, and the treatment of converts to and from Judaism. She expresses sadness that the shtetl is gone (whence her title, There Once Was a World), but on the other hand one must remember that the Jews now have their own homeland, something which was only a distant dream (if that) for the centuries of Jews who lived in Eishyshok. I find it ironic to hear her defenders denounce the fact that her father, Moishe Sonenson, was a communist collaborator, in view of the fact that he is quoted, towards the end of her very book, as protesting his exile to Siberia in view of all of the work he did on behalf of the Soviet communists! Other things she writes are not so clear, and, forgive me if I find it hard to believe them. Can we seriously believe that her parents' killers, so observant that they noticed a scratch on the floor, suddenly forgot that little Jaffa might still be alive under her mother Zipporah's body? Or that there might be others hiding in the attic-closet? And who, especially under the trauma of a killing in action, counts and remembers the number of bullets fired by the assailants? Furthermore, after the killings of much of her family, she says that the Poles might come back to mutilate the bodies. Can we seriously suppose that a guerilla group would take the risk of a succeeding military operation just to mutilate bodies? These and other statements of hers do not seem to partake of reality.

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Summary: a lost world that lives in the soul of all jews...
Review: In her very detailed and extensive account of life in a jewish market town of Eastern Europe, the author gives a vivid glimpse of the daily life, emotions and longings of its members. A real interesting book that transports us to the middle of a vibrant community that lived, cried, and smiled during all their history until the bitter end.

A must read for anyone intereste in the jewish culture and it's ethos.

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Summary: A Powerful Recollection
Review: The author has portrayed in such detail a world utterly destroyed by the Nazis and their collaborators. Eliach is able to describe the town of Eysheshok so well, that one feels as if he had been there. The extreme evil of the Nazis and Poles depicted in this book is so dreadfully horrific...

Rating:
Summary: A Powerful Recollection
Review: The author has portrayed in such detail a world utterly destroyed by the Nazis and their collaborators. Eliach is able to describe the town of Eysheshok so well, that one feels as if he had been there. The extreme evil of the Nazis and Poles depicted in this book is so dreadfully horrific...

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Summary: What Did Then 7-yr Old Yaffa Eliach Personally Know?
Review: There is an ongoing controversy about this book. Was her family killed by the Polish underground, with her the only lucky survivor, because they were Jewish or because they were Communists? The Poles have documentary evidence to support their case. And those who have followed Eliach's claims over the years allege that Eliach has changed her story a number of times. As for her personal experience, one wonders how the then 7-yr old Eliach could determine what the motives of her killers were anyway. Not too many 7 yr olds can make such judgements, and so Eliach's opinion, as the adult author of this book, can only rest solely on extraneous Polonophobic sources. As for Polish collaboration with the Nazis, Winston Churchill praised the Poles for being the only European nation not to produce a Quisling. Was he a victim of propaganda for making this statement?

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Summary: Timely & Relevant
Review: This book is especially significant and timely in light of the recent apology by Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski for the wartime massacre of Jewish villagers by their Polish neighbors 60 years ago. Read this book for a wonderfully detailed account of a town and a way of life that has been lost forever. It's disheartening to see how many of the Polish reviewers of this book are victims of the decades of propaganda that has taught them to believe that Poles were not collaborators in Nazi atrocities.

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Summary: An important and moving book.
Review: This book is extremely well written and Yaffa's research superb. The story itself is very topical at the moment and like Jan Gross' book "Neighbours', it will probably draw the attention of Poles, Lithuanians etc around the world who wish to deny that their people had anything to do with the slaughter of Jews in the holocaust. The story covers pretty much all aspects of life for the Jews of Eishyshok for the past 900 years up until the Nazis destroyed the community together with the help of their Lithuanian, Polish and Latvian aids. This book is definately worth reading and with the many photographs in the book, you come to develop a close affiliation with the people. Do read it, it is certainly extremely thorough.