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silent in the face of the vileness of those who, out of the desire for profit or out of blind hatred, sacrificed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. One has to look truth squarely in the eye. Jews perished first of all because they didn’t realize in time what level German cruelty and barbarism would reach. They were well aware, however, of the vileness of some Poles. They knew what it was that closed before them the gates of the Polish neighborhood and forced them to wait in the ghetto for the near and inevitable sentence of death. I am not in the least blind. I do not consider it to be a duty of every Pole to hide, at the risk of his own life, every Jew. But I believe that it was the responsibility of the Polish society to enable Jews to move freely within the Polish neighborhood. Polish society is guilty of not strongly condemning the
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366:. Assured by the commandant of the Ghetto Police that his family would be protected, on 19 August 1942, Perechodnik brought his own wife and daughter to the ghetto's main square. But he was betrayed: Anka and Alinka were among the 8,000 Otwock Jews murdered at Treblinka. Subsequently, he was sent to a labour camp. Perechodnik constantly blamed himself for the death of his wife and daughter. Prior to their deportation to Treblinka, Anka asked Calek on several occasions to obtain a false
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413:. There are several theories as to how he died. One states that he committed suicide by swallowing cyanide after the Uprising failed. Other claims that he was killed by pillagers after the uprising. Another account (stated in the letter of Henryk Romanowski to his brother Pesach Perechodnik, following the memoirs in the book) claims he was burned alive in the bunker, unable to get out because of the typhus. He was aged 27.
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I have lived for twenty-six years among the Poles, embraced Polish culture and literature, loved Poland, looked on her as another motherland, and only in the last year have I recognized the true faces of Poles. I would gladly describe the facts of every noble behavior toward Jews, but I cannot be
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and executed. Calel spent 105 days in hiding with his mother and other Jews in the apartment of a Polish woman risking her own life to save them. While in hiding, he spent the time writing. The last entry in his memoir concerns his last will and is dated 23 October 1943. He then joined the Polish
469:(ŻOB) in Warsaw, was to assassinate its commanders. Perechodnik's account therefore, needs to be seen in its proper perspective. His memoir describes such events as his and his father's compliance with the Polish radio broadcast command to go eastward to fight in 1939, the formation of the
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In 1940, Perechodnik and his family, along with the other Jews of Otwock, were forced to by the
Germans occupying Poland to relocate to the Otwock Ghetto. To provide for himself, his wife, and their daughter (born in the ghetto), in February 1941 Perechodnik joined the
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In his final years, Perechodnik completely changed his attitude towards the Jews and the Jewish faith and traditions. In his memoir, he rejected belief in God and the religious traditions of his
Orthodox Jewish family. He became very bitter toward the
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of Warsaw. It remained virtually unknown in
English-speaking countries until Frank Fox's translation in 1996. It was released in Polish and Hebrew prior to its translation into English in 1996. Since then, it has been translated into many languages.
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and frequently criticised them, even blaming them for bringing these events on themselves because of their insistence on cultural and religious isolation. He was sarcastic about others, as well as self-deprecating about his own
Jewishness.
487:. His information is now considered by various researchers and experts on the Holocaust to be remarkably accurate, and according to these researchers, the notes show proof that the Jews at that time knew what was happening.
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Shortly before
Perechodnik died in 1944, he entrusted his manuscript to a Polish friend. After the war ended, the memoir was given to Perechodnik's brother, Pesach Perechodnik, who had survived the war in the
479:, the rounding up of Jews in the ghettos; life in, and escape from, a work camp; the experience of being hidden in Warsaw, the beginning of understanding of what was happening in the death camps, the 1943
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for her, identifying her as an ethnic Pole since she did not have the typical Jewish looks. Calel later wrote that she could easily pass for a Pole if she dyed her hair. Perechodnik failed to obtain the
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In early 1942, the German authorities began the ghetto liquidation action. The Jewish police were ordered to assist in the rounding up of Jews who were taken to the station and
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among the gentile population. He expresses his outrage at the refusal by some
Orthodox Jews to send their children to Polish orphanages which would have saved them from the
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454:. Perechodnik expressed his anguish and astonishment at the savagery of war. It was, he wrote, "the greatest disillusionment that I have endured in my life."
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Clandestine photo showing layover yard in Otwock on 19 August 1942. In the distance, Jews sit on the ground overnight, while awaiting transport to
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Perechodnik wrote his memoir between 7 May and 19 August 1943 in Warsaw, during his stay at the home of his Polish rescuer. When describing the
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Krondorfer, Björn (2010). "Chapter 3. Non-absent Bodies and Moral Agency: Confessions of an
African Bishop and a Jewish Ghetto Policeman".
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519:. It was recently republished in Poland in an unabridged version, with comprehensive sidenotes and references, under the title
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The former Oaza cinema in Otwock, run by the
Perechodnik family, later rebuilt as a theater and now undergoing renovation.
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he attempts to explain his own actions which were inspired by fear, but also, blames the Jews for claiming to have been
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Roth, John K. (1999). "Returning Home: Reflections on Post-Holocaust Ethics". In Roth, John K.; Hass, Peter J. (eds.).
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Strange Fire: Reading the Hebrew Bible After the
Holocaust. Edited by Tod Linafelt, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press
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with her two brothers. Calek and Anka's only daughter Alinka (Athalie), was born on 19 August 1940, a year after the
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Engel, David (1999). "On the
Bowdlerization of a Holocaust Testimony: The Wartime Journal of Calek Perechodnik".
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referred to it as 'the direct instrument of extermination'. One of the first clandestine operations of the
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Archives, and a copy was given to the Central Jewish Historical Commission in Poland, which today is the
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for his wife in time, partly due to his laziness and partly due to his "lack of trust in such things".
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Brown, Adam (2017). "Witnessing Moral Compromise: 'Privilege', Judgement and Holocaust Testimony".
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Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 12: Focusing on Galicia: Jews, Poles and Ukrainians 1772-1918
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605:(Jews in the Warsaw Uprising), Polish Center for Holocaust Research Association, 2009, pgs 184–190
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Pamiętnik Literacki. Czasopismo kwartalne poświęcone historii i krytyce literatury polskiej
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and a master's degree at a university in Toulouse, France. Perechodnik's wife Anka (Chana)
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Perechodnik wrote the following about the role of ethnic Poles during the Holocaust:
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in appearance, remained at large to support the family until he was captured by the
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Jewish Ghetto policeman who wrote a memoir of his experience; participant in 1944
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The Crime of My Very Existence: Nazism and the Myth of Jewish Criminality
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In the Shadow of the Polish Eagle: The Poles, the Holocaust and Beyond
503:. This document was first published as a complete book in 1995 by the
770:"Am I A Murderer? Judges 19-21 as a Parable of Meaningless Suffering"
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Male Confessions: Intimate Revelations and the Religious Imagination
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On 20 August 1942, Calel Perechodnik escaped to Warsaw. His father,
783:"Review of Am I A Murderer: Testament of a Jewish Ghetto Policeman"
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Fox, Frank (1995). "The Jewish Ghetto police: Some reflexions".
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As a child, Perechodnik lived in this wooden building in Otwock.
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which he joined, was not a benevolent force by any means.
409:. Perechodnik participated in the uprising as part of the
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Am I A Murderer?: Testament Of A Jewish Ghetto Policeman
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Am I a Murderer?: Testament of a Jewish Ghetto Policeman
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Underground; it was during this time that he contracted
816:"Kat, sędzia i ofiara w "Spowiedzi" Calka Perechodnika"
495:. The original copy of the memoir was presented to the
697:. Zeszyty Naukowe Wyższej Szkoły Humanitas: 273–293.
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A History of a Jewish Family During German Occupation
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Nusfeld was also from Otwock; she ran a cinema named
255:. His wartime diaries were published posthumously as
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Polish-Jewish Relations During the Second World War
475:in Otwock, Himmler's visit to Warsaw, the death of
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48:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
304:A secular Jew, Perechodnik was born in 1916 to an
860:. Liverpool University Press. pp. 316–329.
957:(in German). Thelem bei w.e.b. pp. 27–41.
955:Erinnerte Shoah: die Literatur der Überlebenden
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1218:Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust
916:. Stanford University Press. pp. 74–99.
8:
1032:. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 125–136.
768:Kellenbach, Katharina von (January 2000).
119:
1168:Polish resistance members of World War II
236:; 8 September 1916 – October 1944) was a
108:Learn how and when to remove this message
682:Davidovitch, Nitza; Levin, Eyal (2019).
422:
747:McC. Lewin, C. (1997). "Book Reviews".
652:Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
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1213:Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust
972:Schmid, Ulrich M. (4 December 1997).
585:, nr 7 (XXXIX) September 2004 issue.
515:, but its title was later changed to
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1208:People who died in the Warsaw Ghetto
617:, Joseph Kermish, Shmuel Krakowski,
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46:adding citations to reliable sources
994:. University of California Press.
322:Warsaw University of Life Sciences
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1051:. University Press of Kentucky.
1049:Problems Unique to the Holocaust
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22:
1028:Cooper, Leo (2000). "Looters".
787:Jewish Political Studies Review
33:needs additional citations for
1097:"Review of Sono un assassino?"
749:Holocaust and Genocide Studies
405:began as part of a nationwide
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1101:La Rassegna Mensile di Israel
1080:10.1080/14484528.2017.1328271
932:"Memoir of Calel Perechodnik"
781:Edelheit, Abraham J. (1997).
626:Northwestern University Press
603:Żydzi w Powstanczej Warszawie
576:"Przez siedem kręgów Piekła."
233:['TsaˈlɛlPɛˈrɛxɔdnik]
1198:20th-century Polish diarists
953:. In Schmitz, Walter (ed.).
837:East European Jewish Affairs
578:Review of Calel Perechodnik
364:Treblinka extermination camp
990:Berkowitz, Michael (2007).
814:Sierocki, Grzegorz (2015).
728:Perechodnik, Calel (2019).
637:. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
501:Jewish Historical Institute
440:German occupation of Poland
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1095:Di Porto, Valerio (1997).
1011:Ethics After the Holocaust
467:Jewish Combat Organization
360:loaded onto freight trains
1047:Cargas, Harry J. (1999).
891:Żukowski, Tomasz (2010).
849:10.1080/13501679508577804
703:10.5604/01.3001.0013.2311
658:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
589:Retrieved 9 October 2011.
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899:(in Polish) (6): 38–55.
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347:Jewish Ghetto Police
340:Jewish Ghetto Police
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189:or burned to death)
182:Cause of death
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615:Emanuel Ringelblum
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1013:. Paragon House.
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964:978-3-935712-32-3
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1147:Categories
1135:Review of
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622:. Page 62.
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472:Judenrat
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318:agronomy
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