A history of the grandparents I never had
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
A history of the grandparents I never had
（Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture）
Stanford University Press, c2016
- Other Title
-
Histoire des grands-parents que je n'ai pas eus : une enquête
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-329)
Translation of: Histoire des grands-parents que je n'ai pas eus : une enquête
Contents of Works
- John Little-Apple-Tree in his village
- Professional revolutionaries
- A more "civilized" anti-Semitism
- The undocumented Jews of my family
- Autumn 1939 : the foreigners enlist
- The serendipitous dentist
- Bare humanity
- Behind an evergreen hedge
- The other side of the world
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Ivan Jablonka's grandparents' lives ended long before his began: although Mates and Idesa Jablonka were his family, they were perfect strangers. When he set out to uncover their story, Jablonka had little to work with. Neither of them was the least bit famous, and they left little behind except their two orphaned children, a handful of letters, and a passport. Persecuted as communists in Poland, as refugees in France, and then as Jews under the Vichy regime, Mates and Idesa lived their short lives underground. They were overcome by the tragedies of the twentieth century: Stalinism, the mounting dangers in Europe during the 1930s, the Second World War, and the destruction of European Jews.
Jablonka's challenge was, as a historian, to rigorously distance himself and yet, as family, to invest himself completely in their story. Imagined oppositions collapsed-between scholarly research and personal commitment, between established facts and the passion of the one recording them, between history and the art of storytelling. To write this book, Jablonka traveled to three continents; met the handful of survivors of his grandparents' era, their descendants, and some of his far-flung cousins; and investigated twenty different archives. And in the process, he reflected on his own family and his responsibilities to his father, the orphaned son, and to his own children and the family wounds they all inherited.
A History of the Grandparents I Never Had cannot bring Mates and Idesa to life, but Jablonka succeeds in bringing them, as he soberly puts it, to light. The result is a gripping story, a profound reflection, and an absolutely extraordinary history.
Table of Contents
1. John Little-Apple-Tree in His Village
2. Professional Revolutionaries
3. A More "Civilized" Anti-Semitism
4. The Undocumented Jews of My Family
5. Autumn 1939: The Foreigners Enlist
6. The Providential Dentist
7. Bare Humanity
8. Behind an Evergreen Hedge
9. The Other Side of the World
by "Nielsen BookData"
