The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan

New York: Collier Books, 1973. Revised Edition. First Collier Books Edition [stated]. Presumed First Printing. Trade paperback. Good.. 410, [2] p. maps. 21 cm. Occasional footnotes. Index. Previous owner's mailing label on half-title page. Embossed stamp on title page. Format is approximately 5.5 inches by 8 inches. Translation of Megilat yisurin. Originally published as The Scroll of Agony, this is a classic depiction of the Holocaust. Carefully hidden and preserved in a kerosene can, twenty years after the annihilation of the Warsaw Ghetto, it was discovered. Now reissued with recently found entries spanning April 4, 1941 through May 2, 1942, and a new Preface by Abraham H. Katsh, it is an extraordinary first-person record of the Nazi occupation and destruction of Warsaw's Jewish community. From an on-line posting on Abraham I. Katsh: "Polish-born American educator and researcher who was a scholar of Judaica and was credited with the addition of modern Hebrew to the curricula of American colleges; during the Cold War he persuaded Soviet officials to allow him to study and microfilm--and thus make available to scholars--thousands of Jewish documents they had seized and hidden (b. Aug. 10, 1908, --d. July 21, 1998)." Excerpts from The Jewish Virtual Library biography "Kaplan, Chaim Aron (1880-1942), educator and diarist of the Holocaust. In 1902 Kaplan founded a pioneering elementary Hebrew school, of which he was principal for 40 years....Kaplan began a personal diary as early as 1933. This trained him for the mission he undertook at the beginning of World War II, to devote all his efforts to preserving a record for posterity....his intention of objectivity is carried out with remarkable tenacity, and with increasing dedication in the face of hardship, as the dreadful events increased his own physical and emotional suffering and his anguish at the mounting tragedy around him....The diary has been preserved in toto, having been smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto before its total destruction. In 1942, he gave it to a Jewish friend named Rubinsztejn, who was working daily at forced labor outside the ghetto. Rubinsztejn smuggled the notebooks out one by one. At the worst moments, on the brink of destruction, Kaplan sustained himself with the hope that the diary would be saved; the fate of his chronicle was his main concern. The diary has been translated into English, German, French, Danish, and Japanese.