The Black Book of Polish Jewry

An Account of the Martyrdom of Polish Jewry under the Nazi Occupation. With an Introduction by the Editor, Arno Lustiger. Reprint der Ausgabe New York 1943.

This publication represents the first summary of reports about the genocide of the Polish Jews, who were the first victims of the Nazi mass murderers during the Second World War. The book was published by the American Federation for Polish Jews Inc. in the autumn of 1943 in New York. Looking at the list of contents it is hard to believe that this book was brought out more than 50 years ago. It is almost beyond belief how many documents, testimonies and data on the mass murder of the Polish Jews could be collected in distant New York, while the atrocities were actually happening. An enormous number of reports from occupied Poland reached the editors of the book by hazardous and clandestine ways, overcoming the German security forces, the Allies' control of the media, the military censorship and especially their control of the transatlantic cables. Jewish as well as German and allied sources were evaluated, as were articles and eyewitness reports by journalists of neutral countries. This book and particularly its second, historical part is a gravestone and memorial for the once largest national group of the Jewish people. The thousand-year-old history of the Polish Jews is described and their achievements, pre-eminent in the Jewish world, are portrayed. XVI,342 Seiten und 40 Tafeln, gebunden (Syndikat Buchgesellschaft 1995) leichte Lagerspuren/minor shelfwear