“The Jewish Diaries . . . Undergo One Edition after the Other”: Early Polish Holocaust Documentation, East German Antifascism, and the Emergence of Holocaust Memory in Socialism

“Iclearly remember where this book, which was an integral part of my youth, was to be found in my parents’ library,” writes the historian and orientalist Hermann Simon about a collection of five accounts of Polish Jews on Nazi Occupation in 2009,

which appeared under the title “Im Feuer vergangen” [Gone with the Fire] ¹ in the GDR in 1961 [sic] and achieved seven editions in only four years. These texts, translated from Polish, were available on virtually every bookshelf of our friends and acquaintances at that time. When I had to liquidate my parents’ library two years ago, one could clearly see the traces of regular use on the 18.5 by 12.5 centimeter small but 600 pages’ strong book. ²