Janina Lewinson / Janina Bauman (F / Poland, 1926-2009), Holocaust survivor
Janina Bauman / Janina Lewinson (F / Poland, 1926-2009), Holocaust survivor.
- KEYWORDS: <Poland> <Warsaw Ghetto> <Hidden Children>
- MEMOIRS : Winter in the Morning (1986) -- A Dream of Belonging (1988) -- Both were republished in one volume as: Beyond These Walls (2009)
Biography
During World War II she was a prisoner of the Warsaw Ghetto with her mother and sister. They managed to escape and were sheltered by a peasant family in the countryside. After the war she studied journalism at the Warsaw Academy of Political and Social Science, where she met her future husband, Zygmunt Bauman. She subsequently worked in the film industry as a translator, researcher and script editor. She left Poland with her husband in 1968 after antisemitic purges, that followed the March 1968 events. They initially went to Israel, however, after three years they decided to settle permanently in Leeds, England, where she lived to the end of her life.
Book : Winter in the Morning (1986)
- Janina Bauman, Winter in the Morning: A Young Girl's Life in the Warsaw Ghetto and Beyond (London: Virago Press, 1986).
"The coming-of-age of a young girl during World War II. She was born to a wealthy doctor, then she and her family were rounded up and imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto to live a disease-ridden, hand-to-mouth existence, always in the presence of death. The family then escaped to the "Aryan" side where they had to slip from one safe-house to another, in constant fear of discovery and under the constant threat of blackmail ... Janina Bauman was a year older than Anne Frank when the Second World War began but, unlike The Diary of Anne Frank, this is a story of survival. When Hitler's decree forced her family into the Warsaw Ghetto, Janina, an intelligent, lively girl, suddenly found herself in a cramped flat, hiding with other Jewish families. At first even curfews and the casual cruelty meted out by the German occupiers could not dim her passion for books, boys and romance. Then came the raids, and Janina, with her sister and mother, had to keep on the move, hiding in the ruins of the ghetto to avoid being one of thousands rounded up every day and deported to the camps. Their escape to the 'Aryan' side was followed by two years in hiding, taking shelter with those willing to help them and living in constant fear of betrayal. Told through her teenage diaries, giving her story a rare immediacy, this is the extraordinary tale of a passionate young woman's courage and survival."--Publisher description.
Book : A Dream of Belonging: My Years in Postwar Poland (1988)
- Janina Bauman, A Dream of Belonging (London: Virago Press, 1988).
The life of a Holocaust survivor.
Book : Beyond These Walls (2009)
- Janina Bauman, Beyond These Walls (London: Virago Press, 2009).
"Janina Bauman was a year older than Anne Frank when World War II began and Hitler's decree forced her family into the Warsaw Ghetto. Janina, an intelligent, lively girl, suddenly found herself in a cramped flat, hiding with other Jewish families. At first even curfews and the casual cruelty meted out by the German occupiers could not dim her passion for books, boys, and romance. Then came the raids, and Janina, with her sister and mother, had to keep on the move, hiding in the ruins of the ghetto to avoid being one of thousands rounded up every day and deported to concentration camps. Their escape to the "Aryan" side was followed by two years in hiding, taking shelter with those willing to help them, and living in constant fear of betrayal. Told through her teenage diaries, giving her story a rare immediacy, this is the extraordinary tale of a passionate young woman's courage and survival."--Publisher description.