Children of the Ghetto by Sheva Glas-Wiener

In ‘Children of the Ghetto’, Sheva tries to tell the stories of as many of these children as possible, as she experienced them. Some had lived outside the ghetto and some hadn’t. Some came from more traditional homes, some from secular homes. The children and adolescents under her care came from different countries and from different backgrounds. In total, Sheva would end up working at the orphanage in Marysin for two, heart-wrenching years. This area, slightly nicer than the main area of Lodz Ghetto, was nevertheless included by the Germans in the area which made up the ghetto because a main road that passed through the town was the only route to the Jewish cemetery. The orphanage, which housed 1600 children, was a part of a town called Marysin. Sheva, meanwhile, decided to remain in Lodz where she worked as a teacher in an orphanage from mid-1940. Around the time that World War II began, Sheva’s family decided to move back to their hometown, as they thought they would be safer there. By this stage, her family was living in Lodz. In the summer of 1938 she graduated as a school teacher, much to the delight of her parents. Sheva was born into a family that struggled to make ends meet, in the town of Radoszyce. The remaining thirty five chapters (211 pages) describe the years in the orphanage during the war, introducing the reader to the children who were under Sheva’s care and telling their stories. The first two chapters (pages 1-9) tell briefly of Sheva’s life before World War II and the beginnings of her career as a teacher, as well as introducing the orphanage and ‘setting the scene’ for the rest of the book. Though written in the first person, the book is mostly devoted to describing the children who came under Sheva’s care. 220 pages in length, the book tells of Sheva Glas-Wiener’s years in the Lodz Ghetto as a teacher in an orphanage. ‘Children of the Ghetto’ was originally published in Yiddish in 1974, and was translated by the author and Shirley Young in 1983.

Note: those cities/towns/camps underlined are those which are most central to the narrative

Location of Book: Makor Jewish Community Library, Melbourne Jewish Community Library, MelbourneĬities/town/camps: Poland: Lodz, Marysin, Radoszyce

Like a Family: An Investigation into Gender in Melbourne's Jewish Organisations Gender, Resilience and Adaptation in Melbourne’s Holocaust Survivor CommunityĮsotericism and exotericism in old Yiddish texts

Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation

Children of the Ghetto by Sheva Glas-Wiener