Thank you Algonquin Books for allowing me to read and review We Must Not Think of Ourselves on NetGalley.

Published: 11/28/23

Stars: 4.5

Historically respectful story centered around a man being held in the Warsaw Ghetto during 1940. The man is recruited to take the testimony of those he meets so their lives will not be misrepresented or forgotten. The people that he spoke to were from all different walks of life. As I read, I imagined a journal where every page was a person's dream. But that imagery was short-lived: I know the outcome. A young lady, when asked what she missed the most admits after coaxing and anger, going to the theatre. I may never be the same, even now I cry remembering how she loved the movies and Fred Astair dancing.

The story is beautifully written. It is told through Adam's eyes. I related so well to him. (He has his own trials.)

I thoroughly love that Lauren Grodstein wrote a smart book, not a love story. Once again, I'm left with wondering how a parent chooses their spouse over their child.

Absolutely, more people should read We Must Not Think of Ourselves and reflect on the title. I am a better person for reading this.

Enjoyed this one but wish there was a little more “meat” to it. Found it didn’t really “grab” me. But still really enjoyed this unique take on the Warsaw ghetto

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein. Historical fiction is my favorite genre, and this beautifully written novel truly transported me. It is Poland in the late 1930’s. Jewish families are rounded up and contained in what came to be known as the Ghetto. Widower Adam is mourning the untimely demise of his bride, and he’s forced into an apartment with two other families. They all struggle to adapt and make ends meet. Adam was a professor, and he still meets young students, teaching them English. He’s drafted into duty to interview other Ghetto residents. They want a record of the horrors surrounding them on a daily basis. This novel is actually based upon those real Warsaw archives. We learn all about Adam’s roommates, his students and their families. It’s filled with tragic stories, but it’s also filled with love, hope and resilience. I loved these characters, and I cried for them. Heavy read, but one that I recommend. #thumbsup #bookstagram #whatiread #goodreads #netgalley #libbyapp #laurengrodstein #bookgram #reading #books

A descriptive story of life in the ghetto and the German’s move to extermination. Heartbreaking.. a difficult read.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves is a novel that conveys a powerful and emotive portrayal of the Holocaust, offering a unique and authentic perspective that is informed by historical research. The book is not only a historical account, but also a tribute to the human agency and dignity of the people who lived, loved, and died in the Warsaw Ghetto, and whose stories are worthy of remembrance and dissemination. The book is a remarkable literary achievement, that will appeal to scholars and readers of historical fiction, World War II fiction, and Holocaust fiction. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in gaining a deeper understanding of this dark and tragic period of history, and who is looking for a compelling and moving reading experience.

Grodstein presents a very personal approach to the Polish ghetto. This is not a tale centered on the barbarism or brutality. Instead, the focus is in the everyday lives of those cordoned off from the rest of the world. Inside the ghetto walls, the Jews try to quietly go about the business of living. Conditions worsen, yet the people forge ahead as best they can.

Adam is a language teacher and he has been recruited to chronicle the personal stories of people living in the Warsaw ghetto. The tragedy of Jews being rounded up and exterminated may end their lives, but the hope is to leave a record for the rest of the world, so their stories will be remembered. Adam is to simply record whatever people wish to share. It’s not about interviewing people with pointed questions, or editorializing on what people say. He simply allows them to share a bit of their lives.

The audio was masterfully narrated by Brad Griffith and adds a gentle voice to Adam’s task of chronicling everyday endurance and attempts to retain some normalcy. It’s so touching to see Adam’s students excited to learn English through the poetry he uses as a vehicle for instruction. Lacking books, paper and pens, the students share English poems through oral instruction.

When members of the dwindling Jewish community are interviewed, they tell of everyday aggravations and simple delights. They don’t simply dwell on the horrors they witness on the streets. This is a tale of bravery, of resilience, of sacrifice for the good of others. It is powerfully moving in its quiet way of recalling the everyday lives of people under extreme duress.

The novel is based on the real chronicle called Oneg Shabbat that preserved the stories of many in the Warsaw ghetto. This book is reminiscent of The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris and The Teacher of Warsaw by Mario Escobar. It’s another title that finds humanity amidst the atrocities. A powerful and moving addition to the important list of Holocaust fiction that should not be missed.
4.5*

The world of historical fiction contains a plethora of books documenting the horrors of World War II. Lauren Grodstein's We Must Not Think of Ourselves is a stand out, on par with Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Could Not See and John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Inspired by a true story, Grodstein takes us inside the Warsaw Ghetto where a group of courageous Jewish citizens commit to document the life stories of its inhabitants while struggling with the escalating horrors of daily life. It is profoundly unforgettable and I recommend it without hesitation.

I received a drc from the publisher via NetGalley. Many thanks.

I heard about this book from Today with Hoda and Jenna. It was such a heartfelt story and I really connected with the characters. I have read a lot of fiction books set during this time in history and every one pulls on the heartstrings and never ceases to shock and horrify me with what people went through. This book was no exception. It left me wanting more.

What is it with me and World War 2 stories? I have a love-hate relationship with them. It's like watching the Titanic movie; you know it will be so sad, and yet I'm first in line for a good cry. I loved this book and the stories within it, and I wish we had time machines to go back in time and stop all of that suffering. Read it with a box of tissues.

Heartbreaking story set during the holocaust. Adam Paskow a teacher is a member of The Oneg Shabbat Archive in which he and others chronicle life in the Warsaw ghetto. Based on true happenings and parts difficult to read but important to maintain our history so this cannot happen again. Thank you Lauren Grodstein and Net Galley for opertunity to read this book.

There are some stories that just leave you speechless. You read those last lines, and you absorb, you contemplate. Lauren Grodstein's latest novel is one such story.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves tells the story of a group of people who were caged by monsters. At 2 pm on the 16th of November, 1940, Adam Paskow was locked into the Warsaw ghetto. He and several hundred thousand Jews were forced to live in a tiny 3 sq km area of Warsaw.

A man named Emanuel Ringelblum asked Adam and others to record the stories of their fellow neighbors. Ringelblum wanted the world to know the stories of the Polish Jews. This collection became known as the Oneg Shabbat, Joy of Sabbath.

These are stories of perseverance, of survival, of holding onto your own humanity when you see the failure of it all around you.

Although I've read more than a few fiction and non-fiction books about WWII, this is the first time I learned about the story of the Polish Jews. I had no idea the Warsaw ghetto was the largest ghetto. I had no idea the extent of the atrocities that occurred in Poland and even the Ukraine.

I am thankful Lauren Grodstein and others like her continue telling these important stories. Yes, books like We Must Not Think of Ourselves are hard to read, as they should be, but we cannot forget what happens when we aren't paying attention. We owe them that.

Author Lauren Grodstein believes that had her great-grandparents not left Warsaw twenty years before World War II, she likely would not have been born. She first learned about the Oneg Shabbat Archive in 2019 when she traveled to Poland with her family and they “stumbled into” the Archive, one wall of which bears the words “What we’ve unable to shout out to the world.” Displayed there are notebooks, paintings and drawings, and one of the large milk cans in which those documents were buried so that they, fortunately, withstood the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. Grodstein recalls that as they were leaving, she observed, “There are a thousand novels in that room,” to which her sister replied, “Maybe you should write one.” She then spent a full year researching and pondering the story because she wanted to be sure she could “do justice to those people and their stories, and honor them.”

“It is up to us to write our own history. Deny the Germans the last word.” We Must Not Think of Ourselves opens with that December 1940 entreaty to fictional Adam Paskow. He is enlisted to record “all the details, even if they seem insignificant,” as part of an archival project so that after World War II, the world will know “the truth about what happened.” Adam agrees, accepting the risk that if his activities are discovered, he will likely be executed. The archive group is called Oneg Shabbat, meaning “the joy of the Sabbath.”

Adam begins with his own history. In a first-person narrative, he explains that he is a Jewish English teacher living in a cramped apartment with two other families, teaching about four to six students in the basement of a bombed-out movie theater. He met his wife, Kasia, when they were both studying English literature in college. She was the Catholic daughter of a wealthy and influential official with the Polish government. They married in 1930 and were happy, even though they were never able to have children, until she died tragically. Even after her death, her father, Henryk, who at least ostensibly accepted his daughter’s marriage to a Jewish man, continued serving as Adam’s benefactor, enabling him to continue residing in their stylish apartment on his public teacher’s salary. After being forced to relocate to the Ghetto, Adam resolved to continue teaching, despite having no novels, short stories, or textbooks, and committed to assigning to his pupils only uplifting and joyous poems that he memorized over the years. His students attend class sporadically, largely because they are often engaging in forbidden bartering or stealing in an effort to gather enough food for their families to survive.

A year after Germany invaded Poland, Adam still struggles to understand world events and the purported logic behind them. He remains understandably baffled by the bombardment and decimation of his homeland, and the unbridled atrocities he has already witnessed. He cannot fathom what the Polish people may have done to provoke the “terrorizing of children, the stabbing of old men on the streets, the rape of our young women, and the public hanging of our soldiers.” He could have fled to Palestine to reside with his brother and mother, but like so many others, he stayed. “We had our lives and our livelihoods, and couldn’t envision starting over somewhere” else. “I’ll wait for the Allies, I suppose,” Adam told his father-in-law, when Henryk offered to secure a Polish kennkarte (passport) for him. (Henryk suspiciously sought to retrieve jewelry he gifted Kasia -- items Adam viewed as a potential safety net) Adam could not foresee, of course, that the Germans would rob him and his fellow Jews of much more than their money, prohibiting them from practicing their professions, forcing them out of their homes and synagogues, denying them basic civil rights, and, finally, taking their freedom, insisting they had to be relocated because they “carried disease.” Only when Adam arrives at his new apartment does he realize that he has been double-crossed by Henryk and the apartment he believed he would solely occupy will, in fact, also be home to the Lescovec and Wiskoff families and their total of five rambunctious sons. With no options, they all agree “to try to live our lives peaceably . . . until a better situation presents itself.” The gates to the new district in which they are forced to reside were locked on November 16, 1940.

To relate the stories of those he interviews for the project, Grodstein includes Adam’s notes. Their histories are fascinating, absorbing, and largely heartbreaking. As the days pass, their living conditions worsen and they do not have enough food. But there is a black market and Adam saved some valuable items to trade, a dangerous endeavor, in order to help feed the children who are part of his household. Adam’s narrative is straightforward and candid, his descriptions of the horrors of life in the Ghetto and the brutalities he witnesses unsparing, but essential to an understanding of his experiences and emotions.

Adam is principled, dedicated to his students, and likable. His story is completely gripping and sympathetic. His naivete is evident, as Grodstein illustrates, in part, through his interactions with other characters. He grows close to his housemates, especially Sala Wiskoff, who is focused on keeping her two sons alive. They are actively smuggling food, while her husband, Emil, has been leveled by grief over the death of his mother. Sala ponders whether they are “really are just waiting here to die.” Adam rationalizes that “they can’t kill all of us. What would be the gain in that? It’s illogical. And the Nazis pride themselves on being logical.” Isolated and cut off from the rest of the world, Adam and his fellow prisoners in the Ghetto have no idea what is actually taking place beyond the locked gates. But their musings and struggle to find reason in a world gone mad is fascinating, thought-provoking, and enlightening, especially when considered through the lens of history.

Grodstein has deftly created a cast of vibrant characters whose stories are mesmerizing. Szifra Joseph, a beautiful and intelligent fifteen-year-old who was Adam’s student before the war, is one of the most memorable. Her family was wealthy – her father owned a clothing factory which was commandeered by the Germans – but now her mother, on the verge of complete mental collapse, toils in a brush factory and her younger brothers risk their lives foraging for food. Her family has connections to the Warner Brothers in Hollywood, and she plans to use those connections to make her way to California once the Ghetto is liberated. Because of all she has been through, she is angry, outspoken, cynical, and jaded. She believes she can secure her family’s safety through manipulation and persuasion, relying on her charms to gain favor with their captors. She is certain she can obtain kennkartes that will enable them to escape. “It is my choice to take charge of my life and my goals and protect my family and rely on the good graces of whomever can help me,” she tells Afam.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves is moving and emotionally impactful because, remarkably, Grodstein manages, seemingly effortlessly, to craft an engrossing story that is both uplifting and life-affirming. Despite everything he must ensure, Adam finds love and it helps sustain him as, with each passing day, matters grow more dire. The relationship is undeniably born from the circumstances in which Adam and the woman find themselves, but the ways in which they cling to and comfort each other are believable, understandable, and deeply affecting. Grodstein says it was “very important to me to shine a light in the darkness. Even with material as serious as this, to provide some sense that life could get better at the end.” Indeed, as the late Harvey Milk wisely observed, “You cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living.” Despite his experiences, Adam – in part because he is too naïve and inherently decent to imagine the extent and types of evil the Nazis will eventually unleash – is able to maintain hope that the Allies will in fact rescue him and the others. His commitment to the archive is evidence of his optimism and belief that the world will someday know the truth about exactly what transpired in the Ghetto. Which is not to say that his confidence is unfailing. He fights not to fall into permanent dispair, at one point convinced that "we are creating a portrait of Polish Jews at the end of our history.” However, Grodstein credibly shows that holding on to optimism and hope leads to triumph, even if not without sacrifice.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves is one of the best books of 2023, a stand-out tale on bookshelves crowded with volumes of World War II historical fiction. Grodstein elevates the genre because of the compassionate, measured, and seamless way she relates the various ways in which Adam and the other characters refuse to give up, give in, or relinquish their identities and histories . . . or abandon their commitment to the truth. In addition to being an absorbing and deeply moving exploration of events that occurred in a particular time and place to a specific group of people, it is also both contemporary and timely, a warning against complacency and a conviction that history is incapable of repeating itself. She says her motivation for penning the book was a “desire to honor those who remained, who died, and who left us their words. . . . I did my best to hear, and to share, what they could not shout out to the world.” We Must Not Think of Ourselves is inarguably the loving and riveting homage she envisioned.

Moving and heartbreaking story about the Warsaw ghetto that I will not soon forget.
Adam Paskow becomes a prisoner in the ghetto and is soon approached to take testimonies from other prisoners to preserve their stories. Stories that are filled with unspeakable horrors and how can they possibly survive long enough to get out of the ghetto.
An important book that should be read by everyone.

Beautiful haunting story about many of the individual stories in the Warsaw ghetto during WWII. Set in a desolate backdrop, Lauren Grodstein's words had a beautiful, timeless quality and brought so much life and emotion to the characters.

Lauren Grodstein writes a great story in this book, it had everything that I was hoping for from this type of book. It was beautifully written and had characters that I cared about. It was a great story and I enjoyed the historical pieces to this book.

I loved this historical fiction novel by Lauren Grodstein. The author takes to the horrors of The Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. It is sad but powerful. I really enjoyed it.

A novel of the Holocaust, inspired by the Warsaw Ghetto's Oneg Shabbat Project
On September 1, 1939, Hitler's forces invaded Poland. His administration established the Warsaw Ghetto, a fenced and guarded area of Warsaw to which all Poland's Jews were forced to relocate just over a year later. At its height it was inhabited by approximately 460,000 people, about 85,000 of whom were children. As conditions in the Ghetto deteriorated, a Jewish Polish historian, Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum, recruited people to create a secret record of the lives of the incarcerated Jews, an effort that became known as the Oneg Shabbat Project (see Beyond the Book). Novelist Lauren Grodstein uses this real-life archive as a basis for her book We Must Not Think of Ourselves.

Adam Paskow, who narrates the novel, is a 42-year-old widower. As the book opens, he's been recruited by Ringelblum to join the project. "Our task is to pay attention," Ringelblum tells him, "to listen to the stories." Paskow is assigned to write down "everything that's happened, from the time we wake up to when we go to sleep." When he asks why, Ringelblum responds that "It's up to us to write our own history…Deny the Germans the last word…perhaps after the war we can tell the world the truth about what happened." The rest of the novel comprises Paskow's entry for the Oneg Shabbat archive, containing not only his own experiences, history and what he's observing day-to-day, but also interviews with his neighbors in the Ghetto.

The result is a detailed, vivid portrait of Ghetto life. Much of what Paskow's narration conveys is rather mundane—a beleaguered population making the best of an increasingly intolerable situation—particularly in the novel's first half. Through Paskow's interviews we learn how the housewives and children around him cope with such deprivation. We read about people's former lives, their desires and dreams, their loves, and their hopes for a better future. These characters leap off the page; each is unique and beautifully drawn, with their own perspective on their ordeal. These sections read like actual transcripts, with realistic digressions and segues. Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, sometimes harrowing, the stories form a beautiful mosaic describing the lives of those trapped in the Ghetto.

Also remarkable is the author's depiction of Paskow himself. As his story progresses, he relays his struggle to maintain his humanity, to continue to care about those around him even as doing so jeopardizes his own survival. He gradually transforms from a relatively optimistic individual ("They can't kill all of us…it's illogical") to someone who knows the situation is beyond hope ("But now I realize that we are creating a portrait of Polish Jews at the end of our history—not one peculiar moment, but the very last moment"). He's a character readers come to care deeply about.

Needless to say, any novel about the Warsaw Ghetto is unlikely to be a happy one, and this one is no exception. Even the chapters depicting the commonplace are peppered with random acts of violence and scenes of horror ("[S]ome of us had to step over starved corpses on the sidewalk"). A late plot twist sends the action into overdrive, but until then the book is mostly concerned with little things, like teaching poetry to school children or enjoying the rare treat of dried apricots. As a result, this is a slow burn of a novel, one that almost imperceptibly gets under your skin—and then remains lodged in your thoughts long after the final page.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves is a worthy addition to the genre of Holocaust literature. It's a must-read for anyone interested in World War II history—a rare novel that depicts the ordinary in a compelling way. I highly recommend it for all audiences, including book groups who enjoy historical fiction.

At the urging of his father-in-law, widower and English teacher Adam Paskow leaves his nice apartment, full of memories of his late wife, for a different apartment in the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw. What his father-in-law neglected to mention was that he would be sharing the tiny apartment with two other families. Adam and his fellow Jews suffer unbelievable privations, abuse, poverty, and abuse. Adam is selected to participate in a project to document the experience through the written word. He interviews his students and fellow residents. Despite the bleakness and constant tragedy, Adam finds moments of joy, especially with Sala, one of his apartment mates.

Unbelievably sad--all the more so because it is based in fact--this novel brings to life the suffering of a people during Hitler's reign, punished purely due to their religion. A slightly optimistic end elevates this otherwise depressing story. #WeMustNotThinkofOurselves #NetGalley

I had to take small bites of this story set in the Warsaw Ghetto during the first years of WWII.

Grodstein drew on the historical documentation of the Oneg Shabbat Archive -- contemporary accounts of the lives of Polish Jews inside the Ghetto during the war. The Oneg Shabbat was a project within the Jewish community to memorialize the experience, to keep track of the history and way of life that they understood would –– one way or another –– be forgotten at the end of the war.

There are passages that feel so poignant and so immediate that I feel as if they must come directly from the source material.

Language teacher Adam Paskov is a recent widower and language teacher who has been removed into a crowded apartment inside the ghetto. He is recruited the Oneg Shabbat, interviewing his many flatmates and people he meets as they survive under increasingly miserable and unsurvivable conditions.

Early on he writes of his bewilderment at the Germans' persecution of the Jews, "But, truly, what would be the point of killing all of us? And how on earth could they pull such a thing off? And would the world really...let them?"

And amid the starvation, the cholera, the privations and brutality, Paskov observes how life continues inside the ghetto. He finds pleasure in language, in his students, in a surprise love-affair. He witnesses a joyful wedding, unexpected kindnesses, and incredible resilience. But the sound of marching feet, metaphorically speaking, and the train carriages bound for concentration camps grow ever louder.

"For so long, we had lived under the illusion that our lives were still worth something to the broader community of mankind, and even though that illusion was shattered brick by brick (a 5:00 pm curfew, no going to the movies, no mailing letters abroad, no libraries, no telephones), we still refused to let go of it. Even though the truth was right in front of our faces! How could this ghetto be anything but the logical end of all we had endured from the moment the Germans invaded."

Grodstein's novel is haunting, powerful, and full of passages that break the heart. Is it possible to read this –– the literature of the Holocaust revolving around "Never Again" ––and look at the news without thinking, "Again"? Wickedness is dreary and ever present, but, as Paskov demonstrates, kindness and bravery persist as well.

Thank you NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the eARC in exchange for my unfettered opinion.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein is a story of the Holocaust. Given that the history in this book is the collecting of stories, a significant portion of the book is narrated through interviews. As such, the story is "told" rather than "shown," and the emotional connection that should be the heart of such a book seems distant. Nevertheless, the book does introduce me to the Oneg Shabbat Archive, an aspect of history with which I was unfamiliar.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2023/12/we-must-not-think-of-ourselves.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and a publisher’s blog tour.