There Once Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok

I feel renewed horror that, to this day, Polish and Lithuanian reviewers use this format to try to deny their participation in the murder of the Jews who lived in Eishyshok and all over Poland.. even blame the victims. They murdered Jews, stole their property, and beat, murdered, and intimidated Jews who survived the holocaust and tried to return to their homes, tried to reclaim any small portion of their property. I am disgusted by the cowardliness of those naysayers and blamers who try to pass their crimes off onto the victims even to this day, further abusing people that they killed or helped kill and who are unable to defend themselves.

In her very detailed and extensive account of life in a jewish market town of Eastern Europe, the author gives a vivid glimpse of the daily life, emotions and longings of its members. A real interesting book that transports us to the middle of a vibrant community that lived, cried, and smiled during all their history until the bitter end.A must read for anyone intereste in the jewish culture and it's ethos.

This meticulously researched book chronicles the 900-year-old settlement of Eishyshok, a center of culture and tradition that was virtually extinguished by the Holocaust. Rather than focus on the terrible end, the author has endeavored to revive the town and its inhabitants through salvaged photographs, narratives, and history gathered over many years of travel and research. The author has produced a moving and well documented book that serves history while respecting and memorializing the individual people who gave the town its spirit. I have to doubt the motives of those who are using this review space to disect the author's own life and memories, which are not the subject of this book.

Professor Eliach has provided readers with a moving look into a world that has disappeared --stolen from humanity by the horrors of Nazism and anti-Semitism. Researched with academic precision, and written with heartfelt, first hand knowledge and humanity, it is rich in detail and in remarkable photographs, that will give all readers - Jewish and non-Jewish - new understanding of the wealth that was Eastern European Jewish life.

The pictures and captions alone make this book worth the price of admission. You can pick up this book, and randomly turn to any page, and find it intriguing. Once you start, it is difficult to close the book, to put it down. The reader is stunned by the amount of research and the wearying journeys that must have gone into the compiling of this volume. It is a masterpiece with all the photos, the descriptions, the minute details of the once-beautiful life in Eishyshok. It is a heartbreaking book, that so many of those beautiful, shining lights were snuffed out so callously and brutally. Yaffa Eliach has produced unforgettable scenes of a lost world. It is amazing that she could find so many of those wonderful pictures of handsome families, enjoying life in Eishyshok. One feels as though one knows the people, as we look into their faces and read about their lives from long, long ago. This is one of the finest books on any subject that I have ever seen. It definitely deserves to be in every home.