Deník varšavského ghetta

Adam Czerniaków was born on 30 November 1880 in Warsaw. In the interwar period he held a number of positions in Polish and Jewish political, cultural and economic organizations For many years he was a member of the council of the Warsaw Jewish community. Just before the German army entered the destroyed Warsaw, Mayor Starzyński appointed him chairman of the Jewish Religious Community. He held this position until his death in July 1942.
From a historical and literary point of view, Czerniakow's Diary is a document of paramount importance. In addition to information of immeasurable historical value, it is also a testimony to the author's inner life, his attitudes, thoughts and feelings. At times, the seriousness and tragedy border on the grotesque, irony and wit, which often comes as a surprise given the horror of the facts involved. The diary, written in the form of laconic, sometimes disjointed and fragmentary notes, as a whole forms a work of unprecedented dramatic communication. The notes, which the author writes down regularly day after day from 6 September 1939 to 23 July 1942, are not only an authentic source of the history of one of the greatest horrors of the Second World War - the Warsaw Ghetto - but also a picture of the tragic fate of a man who was at the head of the Warsaw Jewish community and actively faced the cruelties of the time alone.

Czech edition