I found it difficult to get through this one because it moves a bit slowly, but I was determined to finish it. It is the complicated story of a Polish Jew that immigrated to Argentina a decade before Hitler began his mass persecution and acts of genocide. He struggles to know his family is suffering when he could have saved them, but didn’t push as hard as he could have. He also struggles with the fact that growing up he always wanted to be German and as World War Two goes on, and he sees his fellow Jews and fellow Poles being murdered by Germans he is unable to reconcile his feelings from the past with the present. He ultimately shuts down completely and stops talking all together. Eventually he abandons his wife and kids. The title is about himself. In his self isolation he places himself into a ghetto within his mind that tortures and ultimately kills him.

Stories about Jewish persecution during WWII always make me so sad; even more, I get more saddened when learning about the mutts of Europe who were tossed around and kicked out into the streets because they didn't fit the mold of the average European citizen. I think publishing media and books about this societal issue is very important to ensure that we as humans don't continue to make the same mistakes again, kicking off generations of trauma and brokenness that we need to heal.

By condensing the writing so exactly, Vincente's overwhelming emotions are delivered in a straightforward manner, mirroring his periods of silences, yet allows the reader to fill in the left over space with their own feelings of grief and guilt.

The work is rare in its approach to the Holocaust, providing truths of the loss and lasting damage on a man, a family, and a community.

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The Ghetto Within by Santiago H. Amigorena (translated by Frank Wynne) tells of a Polish Jew living in Argentina, feeling lost during World War II, and worrying about his mother in Europe. Mr. Amigorena is an award-winning French author.

Three friends, all Polish exiles, meet in a café in Buenos Aires. It is 1940 and they wonder why they got out of Europe a few years earlier, but not their friends or families.

Vincente Rosenberg’s ties to Poland involve his family, not necessarily his nationality. He has embraced Argentina’s life and culture got married, and is raising his three kids. When his mother’s letters lessen in frequency and stop, Vincente is racked with guilt and falls into a deep depression.

The Ghetto Within (Le Ghetto intérieur) by Santiago H. Amigorena has a unique take on a “holocaust novel”. The story about Vincente Rosenberg, who managed to escape before the atrocities began. Vincente, however, is suffering from tremendous guilt about leaving his mother and siblings behind.

The story, of course, is over several years. During those years Vincente sees the letters from his mother, a lifeline, as hopeful instead of a chore. And when they, at last, stop arriving, he falls into a deep depression. Vincente’s every need is fulfilled, a wonderful wife, family, great job, money, and friends, meanwhile his mother is suffering under the Nazi boot. Vincente and his friends find out, like the rest of the world, what is happening through newspapers. A slow, probably agonizing, way for news which might already be irrelevant by the time they’re reading them.

The Ghetto Within by Santiago H. Amigorena also deals with issues of identity, as many immigrants do. Are they Argentina? Polish? Polish-Argentinian? Jewish? Do they belong anywhere at all?

Even though this book is short, the style is gripping and the narrative moves quickly. It was also difficult for me to realize that this book is translated, kudos to Frank Wynne on the fantastic job.

The author represents the silence that Shoah victims are known for by having Vincente stop talking. He simply can’t bring himself to speak, building a wall around himself and everyone else. Vincente’s silence is so tremendous that he can’t even touch his kids, or say a nice word to his beloved wife.

I don’t know why the novel takes place in Argentina, maybe because it’s semi-biographical. I found it ironic, with history in hindsight, that Vincente and others escaped to the same country which would later shelter war criminals.

I’ve read many books about World War II and the Holocaust, and I never thought I’d find an original one. The author combines fiction, prose, as well as history into a deep, and very personal novel.

If I said I enjoyed reading this book I would probably be lying. It’s an emotionally heavy tale of crippling survivor’s guilt and how it consumes and eventually ruins one man’s life. Vicente survives the Holocaust while the rest of his family perished. He can’t come to terms with this and it eats him alive. This book is written with so much feeling and is incredibly nuanced and intelligent. The characters are based on and named after the author’s own grandparents and their real experiences as Jewish immigrants to Argentina after WWI. My only complaint is that I did find it a bit repetitive at times but I think it may have been purposeful in order to really make the reader see the inner turmoil that Vicente feels.

Not a light read but I respect it and am glad I read it.

This is an absolutely amazing book that I read in one sitting. Though there is plenty written about the Holocaust, this book approaches it from a rare setting and a complex point of view. It concerns a young man who immigrates to Argentina well before things got dangerous in Europe due to the Nazi Party. However, his family is still in Poland.
He explores his own identity, what it means to be a Jew or not be a Jew and as he's unable to continue ignoring and denying what is happening in Poland, he loses his ability to function normally.

There is a lot to digest here. It's perfect fodder for a university level class or a book group. The book seems to be part fiction, part memoir and part biography, but it works. Originally written in French, there are some points where the translation feels a little awkward, but frankly that just adds to the atmosphere.

If you're Jewish, do yourself a favor and READ THIS BOOK. If you're not Jewish, but you care about humanity, then this will be an eye opener that will enrich your knowledge of trauma.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I sincerely hope that it becomes a best seller in America.

4.3 stars

I am grateful to the publisher HarperVia for sending me an advanced copy of this book for review.

I typically avoid books concerning WWII or the holocaust, but I decided to read this one since it offers a perspective I haven't experienced before; the perspective of Jewish people outside of Europe during these events. It was fascinating and extremely sad.

This book focuses on loss in an interesting way, and really takes into account the complexities of being Jewish and Polish and living in the Americas, far removed from these historic events. It gave me a window into the conflicting ideas that constitute Jewish identity, and how the idea of identity evolves over time. Our main character is a complicated individual in both his relationships with family and friends, and his relationships with his homeland (Poland) and current home (Argentina). This makes his POV layered and compelling.

Though short, this book was well written and had an interesting story structure. It was a compelling and intense read, intensifying the emotional parts. The use of the device where the narrator mentions all the things that the MC does not know was used to great effect here, but some of those descriptions were brutal.

Overall this short book is a fascinating yet harrowing read that I would recommend to historical fiction readers but also fans of memoirs.

A depressing and repetitive novel about a man who lapses into silence because he is wracked with guilt over his mother and brother being trapped in Poland during the German Occupation.

In 1928 Vicente Rosenberg left his family behind in Warsaw and made a new life for himself in Buenos Aires. For years he was busy getting his education, socialising with friends, then marrying and starting a family and career, too busy to pay close attention to the ugliness that was happening in Poland and Germany, or to answer his ageing mother's letters from home. And then after years and years of escapism, of denying his heritage and minimising Nazi evil, the realities of the Shoah caught up with Vicente with a vengeance, driving him inward to a silent lonely place in his head where he avoided his wife and 3 children, his friends, his responsibilities, and dwelled among his own nightmares. The psychological trauma Vicente goes through, and in turn subjects his wife and children to, is a cycle so realistically presented, its complexity and dynamism is palpable.

This story is as uncomfortable as any on this subject, and I've read a lot of books on this subject in addition to having lived in Germany for 3 years, and having family of my own who died in Treblinka; but this book or this translation stands out in the solid, relentless way factual information is hurtled, with perspective and context that can't but really give one pause. For example: "The wall that the Germans had just built to confine the Jews of Warsaw enclosed an area of barely 1.3 square miles, where four hundred thousand people would be forced to live. Four hundred thousand people in a couple of city blocks; 40 percent of the population of the city imprisoned in a 4 percent of of its area. One hundred and twenty-eight thousand people per square kilometre .A population density six times greater than that of inner Paris today. Three times greater than that of Dhaka, the most densely populated city in the world."

Vicente isn't the only one who avoided confronting the evil taking place on a distant continent, as Amigorena points out, the New York Times covered the gas chambers and crematoriums and extermination camps, the massacres of young and old victims, but it appeared on page 10, and, like others, was not taken up by other newspapers. 11 million Jews murdered, and how many people were complicit?

This book was emotional, devastating and completely absorbing. I am glad I had the chance to read it.

This story hits hard in different ways for different reasons. I'm happy to have had the opportunity to read this book and will reflect on it in the future as well.

Thank you to NetGalley for this free copy of “ The Ghetto Within” which tells the story of Vincente who has escaped the Nazi’s realm of terror in Poland by emigrating to Argentina where he marries his wife Rosita and has 3 children.While still keeping in contact with his mother and brother and sister, he learns they have been relocated to the Warsaw ghetto..Through the years they have resisted his pleas to relocate ,When their fate and demise seem imminent, Vincente retreats to the “ Ghetto Within” his body and loses contact with the world around him.. A sad story about a man who when he realizes he can’t save his family, loses all will to live.Lots of interesting facts about Germany’s plan for the Final Solution and how it became a reality.Very thought provoking.

Santiago Amigorena, who himself fled Argentina, the land of his birth, to escape the rising despotic climate, honors his grandfather, Vicente who left Warsaw in 1928. Unable to persuade his mother to join him, Vicente becomes more and more guilt-ridden as news from Europe reveals the fate of the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto. Gut wrenching, this slim example of metafiction covers the the holocaust, or shoah, in a way that due to the author's personal connection is powerful, haunting. Vicente finds himself questioning his identity (is he a Jew? a Pole? a Argentinian? all of the above?) Included is an almost clinical approach to the "final solution," actions that had been previously unthinkable. What propels the power of this narrative is its counterpart encountered every night on the news. A reader in 2022 cannot help but be struck by the repetition of history.

Unfortunately I don't think this book is for me. I appreciated the writing style and the characters' development, but I didn't feel myself drawn into the story enough to fully enjoy it. I'm grateful for the chance I had to read it though!

emotionally devastating and beautifully written--amigorena masterfully tells his grandfather's story and expresses the guilt and despair from knowing that your family is overseas and suffering, yet you cannot do anything about it, and the crisis of identity that comes out of migration. i love the monologues both vincente and rosita have, where we fully experience the emotional depths of these situations.

thank you to harpervia for the translation arc!

I will always remember when I read Santiago Amigorena’s moving debut, “The Ghetto Within”: the day Putin decided to fully invade Ukraine. The parallels are many, especially the human tragedy. Much has changed since the horrors of the Holocaust, but the world is still threatened by autocrats bent on terrifying, invading, and occupying peaceful, democratic countries.

“The Ghetto Within” is a tapestry weaving in historical elements of Hitler’s reign of terror by sharing painful elements of the author’s own family history. The protagonist chose to leave his mother and two siblings behind in Poland in order to relocate to Argentina in the build-up to WWII. As communication with his mother becomes ever more sporadic and disturbing, the relocated son/brother becomes ever more despondent and dysfunctional.

The most difficult and resonant aspects of this tragic story concerned the protagonist’s conflicted issues of identity. He does not initially recognize his Jewish heritage as fundamental. Rather he chooses to identify as Polish, Argentinian, even longingly German, before he is forced to acknowledge that it is Jewishness that is key to understanding the horrors that are befalling his family. The guilt, regret, remorse, and shame threaten to overcome his ability to function as son, husband, father, friend. Amigorena reminds us that the victims were not solely the 6 million plus Jews who were exterminated by the “Final Solution” or those few who stayed and survived. It was also those who left and forever questioned their decisions, having to live with survivor’s guilt in the deepest way. Life goes on, but scars forever remain.

Thanks to HarperVia and NetGalley for the eARC.

A tragic and real story about the disconnect so many jews felt during the Holocaust that still rings true today for many.

This is the first book I have ever read that handles the emotional toll of the Holocaust left on people who weren’t actually present during the Holocaust. Reading this book felt like I was reading someone’s dairy and as uncomfortable as it made me feel; I left thankful to have experienced reading it.

The most impactful scene was the furniture store stockroom with the noose ready when Rosita showed up. The detail that went into describing the almost suicide was beautifully handled.

I did notice a few grammar/capitalization issues within the chapters but as this isn’t the finished copy I am sure those will be fixed before publication.

Overall this is a 5 star story with a 4 star execution. The jump from merely thinking about Vincentes mothers to his selective mutism depression was too harsh. As a reader I blinked and had to imagine a small span of time where he simply spiraled to the floor. I went back to re-read more of the how that happened and couldn’t find the connection. Obviously his mothers letters were impactful and a catalysts, but his absolute despair started before the last letter and the differences between the prior two letters weren’t that different. He was also spiraled before the visit from someone who escaped the ghetto. As a reader, I think more.:.even a few paragraphs, would have helped that transition.

This book is tricky. As a portrait of a man coming apart at the seams, overcome with guilt and hopelessness as he watches (or avoids watching) the Holocaust engulf his homeland and family from the safety of Buenos Aires, it was effective and compelling. As a meditation on identity, exile, Jewishness, or the Holocaust as a historical event, I thought it was less successful, often both heavy-handed and a little surface-level in exploring its themes. In the epilogue, the author/narrator admits that he does not know what his grandfather (the subject of the book) had really thought or gone through, but that he felt called to imagine it (due in part to his own experience of exile). I wish this framing had appeared throughout the book. The conflicted narrator trying to decide how to portray his subject's reactions and thoughts would have been more compelling to read than the intrusive interior monologues, presented in quotations despite them not seeming authentic to a character's voice as presented elsewhere.

Worth reading. The main character's perspective on the events of the Holocaust is not one that frequently appears, and the writing as translated by Frank Wynne is striking and evocative. But I found myself wanting much more.

This perhaps wasn't the book for me. I am usually extremely fond of emotional historical fiction, but perhaps this book was just a bit too short and a bit beyond me. The way it was written was hard for me to follow, personally.