1111 Days in My Life Plus Four

Download or read book 1111 Days in My Life Plus Four written by Ephraim Sten and published by University of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literary Nonfiction. Jewish Studies. Memoir. Translated from the Hebrew by Moshe Dor. On July 4, 1941, 13-year old Ephraim Sten began a diary in Polish in Nazi-occupied Z oczow, Poland. Hidden with other Jews by a Catholic Ukrainian family for more than three years, he recorded the day-to-day circumstances of his life in hiding. However, the defining character of 1111 DAYS IN MY LIFE PLUS FOUR results from Sten's commentaries fifty years later to each of his youthful journal entries they make for a chilling revelation of the author's inner world, buried as it was under a seemingly successful post-WWII life in Poland until 1957, then in Israel: Sten discovered that he had been living in a psychological hell. "For decades," he writes, "I was not conscious of the load crushing my soul. This damned writing has newly rediscovered everything." Ephraim Sten's book is also a contribution to the history of the unsung actions of ordinary people like Hyrc Tyz who, at the greatest of risks to themselves and their families, rescued Jews from certain death."