“We Must Not Think of Ourselves” by Lauren Grodstein tells the story of the Warsaw Ghetto through the eyes of Adam Paskow, a young widower and English teacher, who becomes involved in a secret archival project code-named Oneg Shabbat. As the book unfolds, we learn not just more about Adam’s story but, through the interviews he collects, also get insights into the lives of his neighbours and friends both before the war began and during their time in the Ghetto.

Based on the true story of a group of people who collected and preserved archives of daily life in the Ghetto, I was fascinated to learn about this aspect of the history of the Warsaw Ghetto that I had been previously unaware of. As someone who loves spending time in archives and a family historian that relies on the record keepers of previous generations, I have so much respect and admiration for the bravery shown by these individuals who were passionate about preserving their community’s stories knowing that they would likely not live long enough to tell their stories themselves. In doing research after reading this book, I found out that of the three capsules of archive materials hidden within the Ghetto, only two have ever been found and recovered.

I appreciate that this book brought a new perspective to a subsection of historical fiction that can often feel saturated. In addition to the fast-paced, gripping plot, the writing in this book was very poignant and beautiful with numerous passages where I highlighted quotes that particularly stood out to me. If you are a reader who seeks out Holocaust/WWII-era stories, I would definitely recommend picking up “We Must Not Think of Ourselves”.

*DISCLAIMER: I received an eARC of this book from Algonquin Books through NetGalley for the purposes of providing an unbiased review.*

Adam Paskow is moved into the Warsaw Ghetto in November, 1940. He is approached about a special, secret project to archive the events happening within the ghetto. Adam agrees and begins speaking with his students about their lives. Adam also speaks with friends and neighbors. When speaking with them, Adam records their hopes, dreams, and passions.

Adam is a widower and a teacher. He enjoys working with his students, teaching them English. He moves in with two other families in the ghetto. Adam interviews his flatmate, Sala Wiskoff, who is strong and funny. She is married with two children. While living together, the two fall in love. This chemistry keeps them alive.

When Adam discovers a way to escape, he needs to decide who he can save and live with the decision.

Each character shares their own tales of survival, love, and hope, a huge contrast to the horrors of the ghetto. The human spirit is so strong.

Thank you to @netgalley and @algonquinbooks for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the ARC! We Must Not Think of Ourselves is set during World War Two and follows Adam Pascow, who has been moved into the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto. Adam joins an activist group and interviews residents of the ghetto. The book is told both through Adam's narrative of his past and the current events happening inside the ghetto and the many interviews. Throughout the narrative, Adam becomes close to his flatmate Sala and embarks on a mission to get out of the ghetto if the chance arrises in order to escape the escalating horrors of the Nazi-run society and the long-fought war. We Must Not Think of Ourselves is based upon the testimony-gathering project with the code name Oneg Shabbat and is a poignant tale of loss and legacy.

Such a well written story. As always, books about this time in history are such a hard read but it is so important that these stories are told.

"We Must Not Think of Ourselves" by Lauren Grodstein masterfully transports us back to one of the darkest chapters in human history - the Warsaw Ghetto of 1940. In the shadow of despair, Grodstein paints a vivid and harrowing portrait of life within those unforgiving walls. The book is a poignant reminder of the indomitable human spirit that persists even in the face of unimaginable horror.

Grodstein skillfully weaves together the gruesome and heartbreaking images that come to mind when thinking of the Warsaw Ghetto. We are confronted with the stark reality of bodies lying dead in the streets, innocent children risking their lives to barter for meager goods, and the constant threat of random shootings. The dwindling supply of food becomes a constant torment, a daily reminder of the inhumanity of the situation. The reader is left haunted by the specter of suffering that lingers on every page.

Amidst this sea of suffering, a glimmer of humanity emerges in the character of Adam Paskow. As a language teacher, he imparts the gift of English and poetry to a small group of students. Through the prism of literature, he forges connections with these young souls, bridging the chasm created by his own childlessness. Grodstein poignantly depicts the power of education and the arts to provide solace and hope in the most dire circumstances.

Widowed and relegated to an overcrowded apartment shared by two families, Adam Paskow's daily life is a testament to resilience. A simple sheet hanging from the ceiling offers his only semblance of privacy, a stark reminder of the loss of personal space and dignity. It is in this setting that the true heart of the story unfurls. Paskow is tasked with interviewing individuals to chronicle their everyday life in the ghetto, creating a pictorial montage based on their testimonies.

This narrative technique is a stroke of genius, as it allows Grodstein to introduce us to a rich cast of characters, each with their own tales of survival, love, and hope. These testimonies provide a poignant counterpoint to the horrors of the ghetto, reminding us that even in the darkest of times, the human spirit can find glimmers of light. The reader is immersed in a rollercoaster of emotions, from heartbreak to moments of love, from anger at the injustice to moments of decency and humanity.

"We Must Not Think of Ourselves" is a gut-wrenching and powerful portrayal of one of the most painful episodes in history. Grodstein's prose is eloquent and evocative, drawing the reader into the heart of the Warsaw Ghetto and making us feel the weight of its history. The characters are vividly drawn, their struggles and triumphs etching themselves into our hearts.

In the end, Grodstein's novel is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of art, education, and connection to transcend even the darkest of times. "We Must Not Think of Ourselves" is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the depths of human suffering and the enduring capacity for hope and love in the face of unimaginable adversity. This book is a haunting reminder that we must never forget the lessons of history and the enduring strength of the human spirit.

I enjoyed this book immensely! Written in a sightly different format and really bringing home the experiences in the ghetto while infusing some light humor made this book a top pick for me. I highly recommend this book!

This is my first book that I have read by this author and it most certainly will not be my last. I have to say that this book has the emotional depth of the most famous "The Nightingale" by Kristin Hannah and the heart-pounding, page-turning plot and writing of my favorite Ariel Lawhon book "Code Name Helene". I never thought I would ever find a book as haunting and wonderful as those. I was wrong. This book was absolutely captivating from start to finish and I am just stunned by how much it affected me. I will be telling, no shouting from the rooftops to everyone to read this. It MUST be on your to-read-list. If I could give it 100 stars I would.

A big thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to preview this amazing work by author Lauren Grodstein. We Must Not Think of Ourselves is a work of fiction based on historical figures and facts about the Warsaw Ghetto. I wanted to read this because of my interest in the Holocaust and because of an amazing trip to Poland where we spent some days in Warsaw.

The main character, Adam Paskow, taught languages at a prestigious school in Warsaw. His wife, Kasai, was a Catholic who came from both a wealthy and well-connected family.

After the death of his wife, Adam was forced to give up his apartment and to move into the Warsaw Ghetto. He lived in an apartment there with two other families with children. He continued to teach, however it was now in a basement and He taught English to a handful of students.

Adam was recruited to be a part of the One Shabbat. He was one of a group of people who interviewed various people, students, friends to get their life story or their memories. This was an actual group that documented the history of hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust so that they would be remembered along with the suffering they endured during their stay in the Ghetto.

This was a tender read and one that I will keep close to my heart.

“We Must Not Think of Ourselves” is a historical fiction WWII book by Lauren Grodstein. I thought that this book took a different look, in this case through the eyes of someone living in the Polish Ghetto, at the horrors of WWII. In many cases this book didn’t hold back punches - people go mad, people are killed, people are hurt - but in other ways there is humor and good things that do happen, even while bad things also occur. I wanted to feel more for the characters at times - at times the information the main character relays is rather dry (which is what can happen when recording facts, I’ll admit). I’d recommend this book to others interested in WWII life during Poland in the ghetto.

WE MUST NOT THINK OF OURSELVES, a book by Lauren Grodstein, is a historical fiction based on a true story that follows Adam (Pan) Paskow during WWII in Warsaw. He is a Jewish widower and a former English teacher who has been asked to covertly record every Jewish person's time during WWII while in the ghetto. He records himself, children, housewives- everyone.

This book takes place right when the Jewish communities are being rounded up and placed in the ghetto; the storyline goes on until they start shipping the people to the concentration camps. I have read almost every iteration of WWII novels, and I confess that it is one of my favorite historical fiction genres to read. This is the first I've heard of being a record keeper, as the whole premise of the novel.

Because the premise is him, Pan, being a record keeper, the book reads like a journal entry. The book is well written, with few grammatical errors, but it fell flat. WWII and the Holocaust are such a rich time in history, and as stated before, it is a popular genre with many types of fiction. Romance, Spy, Thriller, and Intrigue; it was disheartening to take this time in history and make it a journal entry. There was NO intrigue, no heart pounding, no climax. A part from him having a love affair with a married woman that he boarded with. At about 63% of the book, I started to skim, and I was not invested in Pan as a character.

His father-in-law remarks in the book that Pan has no drive and that he is such a realist. He accepts things as they happen. That was also how I see him as a character. Yes, he continued to teach students while in the ghetto; yes, he kept a record. But he did nothing but survive. Maybe there was nothing more to do, and it was because it was based on a true story, but it held no interest to me, and I was happy to end the book ended.

Overall, I'll give this book three stars. I liked that it was based on a true story, that it was terribly heartbreaking, and that this author's prose was excellent. Would I read more by her? No, probably not.

This book is set to publish on November 28, 2023. Thank you, Netgalley and the publishers, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I just reviewed We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein. #WeMustNotThinkofOurselves #NetGalley
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This was alright. Not the best WW2 historical fiction I've read, but certainly not the worst. I enjoyed the mild romance, and that it took place in the ghetto, which was a new perspective for me. I could see the potential of this story, but it fell flat emotionally most of the time. I think the diary format and writing style may have contributed to this...lots of telling vs. showing. On the whole though, this book is a good pick for broadening one's perspective of the Holocaust events.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me this ARC!

We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein is a fascinating and sobering look at life within the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII. In order to document and preserve experiences and memories, Adam records interviews he has with fellow Jews. He includes details such as weight and height along with daily existence...and death. What people went through is impossible to fathom, especially the fate of children. Though a work of Historical Fiction, the story is based on true events.

The premise is incredibly interesting and I like the format and multiple perspectives. Reading about the Holocaust is always challenging due to the subject matter but it is also extremely important to know about. I appreciate the author's riveting writing style and the fact that she draws information from her own visit to Poland.

My sincere thank you to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this compelling book.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves takes place in a Jewish ghetto in Warsaw. Adam Paskow, a Jew who lived in this ghetto, is asked to keep a record, or an archive, of life in the ghetto, people’s daily lives, their memories and anything really about the Jewish people. He takes this task very seriously and the reader gets to live vicariously through his words.

There were so many horrors and injustices suffered by both children and adults alike in the ghetto. This book is incredibly emotional and heartbreaking. It is the first account I’ve read of life in a Jewish ghetto. Lauren Grodstein did an amazing job of researching this topic and I’m grateful to have learned something new about the lives of these prisoners and their will to survive. This is a must read if you enjoy historical fiction novels.

Thank you, NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the advanced copy of this 4-star read.

Thank you NetGalley and Algonquin publishers for the opportunity to read an advanced ebook copy. This is my feedback which I give voluntarily. I did submit a review to Goodreads previously.

Although this novel included the many atrocities occurring in Poland and the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII, it did so from the perspective of an educated man with some wealth and a job within the Ghetto. This tale was able to illustrate how people were somewhat fooled into accepting their circumstances. They did not realize they would be locked into the ghetto walls and left to suffer. We see how one might tell themselves things to make it bearable, such as, The war is almost over and we will be freed. This is how people keep hoping and find the will to survive. In the meantime, people find a way to adapt and survive. I felt it was a thoughtful portrayal and enjoyed reading it. I would recommend it to others.

This isn’t a genre that I normally read, but the writing kept me interested until the end. The Holocaust is one of the most horrific events, and this book does well to remind the reader of that. The main character Adam has a strong voice and a peaceful presence that is shown through his POV and as he writes down interviews with other Jewish people. I felt like there was a portion of the book that dragged a bit, but overall I enjoyed it. The ending was very good.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves, by Lauren Grodstein focuses on the lives of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Once everything has been taken, what remains? That is what Grodstein hopes to relate in this novel of historical fiction. The answer, of course, is nothing remains. People hope to leave behind their stories and their names. This is who they were--the lives of those who had once existed. A life is not height and weight. Those data points are unimportant. What are their stories is what matters in a novel. The Warsaw Ghetto was horrific, as were all the ghettos. As was true in every ghetto, it is the individual story that makes this horrific event memorable.

The book fits the title. No one is an individual. Each person is just another body waiting to die or to board a train headed toward their deaths. They all know where the trains go and that the trains represent death. And while that is the novel's strength, it is also its failing. Every day and every person is the same. They watch one another die and each one walks away, as if the fallen was just another body, another Jew, and had ceased to be an individual.

The basis of We Must Not Think of Ourselves is the Oneg Shabbat Archive, which Grodstein uses to structure this narration. At the same time, the basis for the novel also provides the novel's major failing. The Oneg Shabbat Archive was an attempt to preserve the names, data, and family histories of the Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto. Grodstein attempts to structure her novel as if the people immortalized in the archive have been brought to life. The Oneg Shabbat Archive is a wonderful resource to learn facts about the Jews who inhabited the ghetto. Unfortunately data can be quite dry, which is what happens in this novel.

Grodstein tries to create tension by including an affair, but that effort is too little and not particularly interesting. The affair is only a very small part of the story. Grodstein needs a more in-depth narrative technique. Bring the characters to life! Grodstein attempts to do so is by providing the central character, Adam Paskow, with a background story. But his story is done in a series of vignettes and lacks the drama it should have created. Except for brief sections, there is no real emotion, but of course that happened in the ghettos, when people were starved to death and where people lived with death all around them. They lacked the strength to have emotions. That is why backgrounds, stories of their lives and more details about their lives before the war are so important. The effort to collect data lacks emotion and depth, and as a result, the narration is dry. Grodstein relies too thoroughly on the Oneg Shabbat Archive to structure her novel.

Thank you to Algonquin Books for providing this ARC for me to read and review. I wish I could be more excited about We Must Not Think of Ourselves. The description sounded far more exciting than the book turned out to be. That is always a huge disappointment. Thank you also to NetGalley for suggesting this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-copy of We Must Nit Think of Ourselves by Lauren Goldstein in exchange for a honest review. This is a haunting, at times horrific account of life in the Warsaw ghetto as told by the main character Adam Paskow who is a widower living in the ghetto with 2 other families tricked by his father in law into turning over his house in exchange for these cramped quarters . While living in the ghetto he teaches English to some of the wealthier children living there while embarking on an undertaking to record the life histories of many of the residents . He falls in love with his married roommate and in the end has to make an unthinkable choice . Very riveting.

Adam Paskow, a 40-year-old Jewish widow, finds himself locked into the Warsaw Poland ghetto in 1940, housed along with two other families of four. All of the residents learn to share tight spaces, endure starvation, find hope, love, and joy where they can while they are stuck in the ghetto. Adam, a teacher of the English language for a few of the ghetto's children, watches the disintegration of humanity while attempting to retain his own dignity. The book is sorrowful, from beginning to end, and yet resilience breeds hope for Adam, as he seeks escape and tries to salvage those he can with the limited means he has available to him. Adam finds purpose in chronicling the stories of those with whom he lives in an archive project, capturing the testimonies of lives snuffed out too soon in the nightmare that was the Holocaust.

I loved the framing of the story with the testimonials of the various people Adam interviewed. The mundanity of their testimonials served to emphasize their humanity, which was slowly and heinously being robbed from them by the Nazis. This isn't really the kind of book you can say you enjoyed, but I am glad I encountered it, especially as it gives me another perspective on an era of time I have read much about.

The idea of a diary style account that brings together several people sounded intriguing, but the execution fell flat. All the characters blended together and weren't unique. The story lacks the visceral emotion that comes from reading actual diaries. I didn't feel I was gaining a new perspective as I read this book.

Loved the idea of this book and thought it was almost a guaranteed 5 star, but unfortunately this fell flat. Even though this is sort of a diary fiction, I just couldn't bring myself to feel anything for these characters. I've read books on the ghetto of Warsaw before, and it was interesting to get a new point of view of trying to stay positive, but it felt like it glossed over how awful life truly was for these people. The narrator was just so factual and pragmatic in a situation that calls for emotion, desperation, with hope that things will get better. And maybe it was just lack of description. Like stating people were starving vs describing the starvation with little remorse. So factual- in a bad way.
Then we have interviews on other characters and they were.... boring. I did like the small mention of Wladyslaw Szpilman, author of The Pianist. But because I've read his book, it was hard not to compare the Warsaw in "The Pianist" to this book.
Towards the end, we get a little more desperate and less realist, but then the book is over and done and we are left wondering- that's it? Then what happened!