(14)This pioneering work on Polish family history is designed to provide the American researcher with the kind of information he needs in order to succeed in his genealogical research. Written by a national director of the Polish Genealogical Society of America, it throws cold water on the myth that successful Polish genealogical research is beyond the powers of ordinary people. Mrs. Chorzempa begins with an examination of Polish-American resources, touching first on records kept by the Polish-American family, then veering off into a discussion of the standard records employed in genealogical research, such as census and naturalization records, ships' passenger lists, vital records of birth, marriage and death, records of fraternal societies, newspapers, church records, and military records. She treats each of these record groups in the context of Polish-American research, setting a framework for her discussion of the records held by the LDS Church in Salt Lake City. She also provides a breakdown of libraries and archives with Polish genealogical materials and a comprehensive list of Polish genealogical societies. The bulk of the book is focused on research in Poland, as the author shows the reader how to find and use church and civil records; how and where to locate research services, libraries, and archives; how to make sense of Polish names and the naming practices of the major ethnic groups; and how, ultimately, to deal with the Polish language. To clinch it, there is even a letter-writing guide, a transliteration of queries and requests to be sent to Polish churches, civil record offices, and institutions for purposes of obtaining assistance.
(2)This collection of Enlightenment Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau includes his most influential works: THE SOCIAL CONTRACT, CONFESSIONS, EMILE, and includes several other essays of interest: A DISCOURSE ON POLITICAL ECONOMY, INEQUALITY AMONG MEN, CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF POLAND, and A CONSTITUTIONAL PROJECT FOR CORSICA.
Rousseau was a major Swiss philosopher, writer, and composer of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, whose political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought.
This ebook is DRM free and includes an active table of contents.
September, 1939. Przemysl, Poland. Three-year-old Renata is woken by her Mamusia in the middle of the night and bundled into the basement. The peacock quilt she is wrapped in reminds her of a story about a giant who guards a mysterious place called the Underworld. She drifts back to sleep as the sound of thunder rages around them.
No one has explained to Renata what war is. She knows her Tatus, a doctor, is in Europe with the Polish Army and that her beautiful Mamusia is not allowed to work at the university anymore. But, more than anything, she notices that their frequent visitors - among them Great Aunt Zuzia and Uncle Julek with their gifts of melon and lovely clothes - have stopped coming entirely. One morning Mamusia returns home with little yellow, six-pointed stars for them to wear. Renata thinks that they will keep them safe.
June, 1942. Two soldiers in grey-green uniforms burst into their apartment carrying guns. Renata, Mamusia and grandmother ’Babcia’ are taken to the Ghetto and crammed into one room with other frightened families. The adults are forced to work long hours at the factory and to survive on next to no food. One day Mamusia and Babcia do not return from their shifts.
Renata is six years old. Utterly alone, she is passed from place to place and survives through the willingness of ordinary people to take the most deadly risks. Her unlikely blonde hair and blue eyes and other twists of fate save her life but stories become her salvation. Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales transport her to a magical world; David Copperfield reminds her what it is like to be on your own; and the family in Swallow and Amazons become the family she longs for.
A true story of the horrors of war, Let Me Tell You a Story is a powerful and moving memoir of growing up in extraordinary times, and of the magical discovery of books.
(162)All But My Life is the unforgettable story of Gerda Weissmann Klein's six-year ordeal as a victim of Nazi cruelty. From her comfortable home in Bielitz (present-day Bielsko) in Poland to her miraculous survival and her liberation by American troops--including the man who was to become her husband--in Volary, Czechoslovakia, in 1945, Gerda takes the reader on a terrifying journey.
Gerda's serene and idyllic childhood is shattered when Nazis march into Poland on September 3, 1939. Although the Weissmanns were permitted to live for a while in the basement of their home, they were eventually separated and sent to German labor camps. Over the next few years Gerda experienced the slow, inexorable stripping away of "all but her life." By the end of the war she had lost her parents, brother, home, possessions, and community; even the dear friends she made in the labor camps, with whom she had shared so many hardships, were dead.
Despite her horrifying experiences, Klein conveys great strength of spirit and faith in humanity. In the darkness of the camps, Gerda and her young friends manage to create a community of friendship and love. Although stripped of the essence of life, they were able to survive the barbarity of their captors. Gerda's beautifully written story gives an invaluable message to everyone. It introduces them to last century's terrible history of devastation and prejudice, yet offers them hope that the effects of hatred can be overcome.
(53)During World War II, Nazi doctor Josef Mengele subjected some 3,000 twins to medical experiments of unspeakable horror; only 160 survived. In this remarkable narrative, the life of Auschwitz's Angel of Death is told in counterpoint to the lives of the survivors, who until now have kept silent about their heinous death-camp ordeals.
(56)Filip Müller came to Auschwitz with one of the earliest transports from Slovakia in April 1942 and began working in the gassing installations and crematoria in May. He was still alive when the gassings ceased in November 1944. He saw millions come and disappear; by sheer luck he survived. Müller is neither a historian nor a psychologist; he is a source—one of the few prisoners who saw the Jewish people die and lived to tell about it. Eyewitness Auschwitz is one of the key documents of the Holocaust. Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "A shattering, centrally important testimony."—from the Foreword by Yehuda Bauer. "A very detailed description of day-to-day life, if we can call it that, in Hell’s inmost circle...Having read other books of this kind, I had expected to read this one straight through. But no, Eyewitness Auschwitz is jammed with infernal information too terrible to be taken all at once."—Terrence Des Pres, New Republic. "Riveting...It is a tale of unprecedented, incomparable horror. Profoundly, intensely painful; but it is essential reading."—Jewish Press Features.
