ABSTRACT
Friedrich Hollaender's description of the gradual encroachment of death has an extraordinary resonance with the irreversible decline of the small Jewish towns of Eastern Europe. The fate of the Polish shtetl Kuzmir, a small town near Lublin, is emblematic for thousands of such places. The People of Godlbozhits deal with the symptoms of the decline of the shtetl. The effects of the economic measures taken against the Jews, the difficulties the young people face in finding employment outside the Jewish milieu, and the severe limitations on employment in the shted that are suffocating the Jewish community are all prominent themes of the novel. The moral degeneracy and hypocrisy of the Jews of Godlbozhits achieve their most piquant linguistic expression in the sales pitch of the procurer Khaykl to the town magistrate. Sonia Broderzon is not the only woman to inspire Shimen Shifres, who was her first pupil.
