Opening the drawer

For the first time in a single volume, Opening the Drawer brings together illustrated profiles of three0generations of Poles who discovered their hidden Jewish identity in often surprising ways. Drawing on0interviews with child survivors of the Holocaust; the post-war second generation; and the post-Communist0third generation, these voyages of discovery are not simply variations on a theme, but memorable depictions0of unearthing long-buried family histories and secrets. They include the stories of an outstanding Catholic0priest, a former anti-Semitic football hooligan, students, academics and renowned writers. Each generation has confronted a specific Polish environment which shaped their lives. Holocaust survivors were usually raised as Catholics, deprived of knowledge of their biological parents. Ironically some even grew up in anti-Semitic families. The Second Generation are frequently the offspring of dedicated Communists or leftists who shunned any kind of Jewish identification, and many discovered their roots in traumatic circumstances. Yet they have been resourceful in creating and taking part in new Jewish religious and cultural organisations like Limmud. Younger Poles are very much the product of the democratic society that emerged after the fall of Communism. Growing up in a more tolerant civil society, they were spared the challenges faced by previous generations, and were less constrained in developing and sharing their new identity.The profiles reveal the particular Polish contradictions in coming to terms with their upbringing, although not all embraced some form of Jewish identity, as some merely sought the secrets of their past while retaining their previous identity.