Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Paper Tombs: Post-Holocaust Memorial Books and Prewar Jewish Life

Paper Tombs: Post-Holocaust Memorial Books and Prewar Jewish Life

Rich, Jennifer

Hardcover

JudaismAnthropologyHolocaust

ISBN10: 1479841250
ISBN13: 9781479841257
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: Jul 21 2026
Pages: 208
Weight: 1.00
Height: 1.10 Width: 6.10 Depth: 9.20
Language: English

Published in Association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this volume explores how post-Holocaust memorial books help to reshape our understanding of Jewish life and death in Eastern Europe

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Eastern European survivors created yizker bikher--Yiddish for memorial books--to honor their towns destroyed and loved ones murdered during the Second World War. Devoted to their fellow community members, these collaboratively-written volumes were one way for survivors to reclaim their lives and memories.

In Paper Tombs, Jennifer Rich argues that yizker bikher demand renewed attention. Often dismissed as nothing more than nostalgic, amateur histories, Rich showcases how these vibrant sources are exceptional accomplishments that reanimate prewar Jewish life, condemn the Germans and their local collaborators, and memorialize the people, places, and ways of life destroyed during the Holocaust.

Paper Tombs makes the case for the importance of post-Holocaust memorial books as a resource for understanding Eastern European Jewish life, reshaping our understanding of Jewish experiences following the Holocaust. Deeply researched and engagingly written, Paper Tombs recovers these largely forgotten volumes and repositions them as critically important sources that reveal the rich diversity of prewar Jewish life, the relentless cruelty wrought by the Nazi occupation of the small towns and large cities of Eastern Europe, and the ways that survivors wanted them to be remembered.

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