Lauren Grodstein'd novel is reminiscent of Leonard Cohen's 'Anthem'. The idea is that everything is flawed. Yet, there is also hope despite the flaws. It is through the cracks where the light comes in. The story of Pan Paskow and the families whose lives parallel his in the warsaw ghetto are at once hesrt wrenching but also find ways for the light, hope, to seep in. The format of the novel is really interesting and I never knew there were archivists capturing so many stories, memories and histories through Europe during the time of the Holocaust and German invasion. A sad and yet hopeful novel that is surely to stay with for time to come.

Thank you net galley for giving me this opportunity to read this book.
This story takes place in Poland at the beginning of 1940.
Adam Paskow is a happily married man but his wife has an unfortunate accident and dies.
Adam and the other Jewish people are forced from their homes and are resettled in the Warsaw ghetto.
Adam is an English teacher and has a few students that he is teaching in the basement of house he lives in with two other families.
Adam is asked to take testimonials from the other ghetto residents of their lives, so their stories are never forgotten.
Living in close quarters Adam falls in love with Sala who lives in the same appartment with her family.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a honest review.

This story was utterly captivating and based on the true stories of efforts inside the Warsaw ghettos. As always, stories set in this time tug at your emotional heartstrings as they compel you to think critically about both that time and the echos of it today.
The characters in this book are interesting and complex. which doesn't mean they are entirely likable as they reflect real people who are flawed and irritatingly complex. The story is moving and worth the read, but I suggest you take your time instead of speeding through it like me!

On a November day in 1940, Adam Paskow becomes a prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jews of the city are cut off from their former lives and held captive by Nazi guards, and await an uncertain fate. Weeks later, he is approached by a mysterious figure with a surprising request: Will he join a secret group of archivists working to preserve the truth of what is happening inside these walls? Adam agrees and begins taking testimonies from his students, friends, and neighbors. He learns about their childhoods and their daydreams, their passions and their fears, their desperate strategies for safety and survival. The stories form a portrait of endurance in a world where no choices are good ones.
One of the people Adam interviews is his flatmate Sala Wiskoff, who is stoic, determined, and funny—and married with two children. Over the months of their confinement, in the presence of her family, Adam and Sala fall in love. As they desperately carve out intimacy, their relationship feels both impossible and vital, their connection keeping them alive. But when Adam discovers a possible escape from the Ghetto, he is faced with an unbearable choice: Whom can he save, and at what cost ?

"We Must Not Think of Ourselves" y Lauren Grodstein, is yet another book about the Holocaust and the Jewish experience. While I typically love reading about the event and learning more about what Jewish people experienced, this book did not do it for me.

The story follows Adam Paskow, who finds himself being held prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940. Convinced to leave his apartment for safety, he finds himself living inside a small apartment with two other families. Suddenly, he is approached by a group of defiers and is asked to keep record of his experiences for the purpose of history. This story follows Adam as he interviews people and writes about his everyday life and experiences. During the course of his time, we watch as he finds bits of hope and inspiration in some of the smallest places. The characters in the story are all extremely like-able and truly reflect people of the time. We watch characters struggle with finding food, comfort, and companionship in order to stay alive.

The premise of the book was fine - I felt like it started off a little slow and then ended abruptly. I will say that I enjoyed the format and the inclusion of Adam's "interviews."

Like the best novels, We Must Not Think of Ourselves is based on a true story of the people who documented life in the Warsaw Ghetto. The story follows Adam, a secular Jew mourning the loss of his Polish wife. He is a teacher and an utterly likable character. His heart and determination to survive, despite the terrible circumstances of life in the ghetto are inspiring. He deals with so many emotions yet seeks to keep his dignity and humanity intact, especially as he continues teaching English to a small but interested group of students.

This book is a hard read because of the subject matter, but is compelling and engaging. The ending was a bit of a surprise to me, in a good way, and I am so curious to know what the future holds for this man. I definitely encourage others to read this book, whether you are typically a reader of WWII fiction or not. It is beautifully written, well researched, and worth your time.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley. I read a lot of WWII historical fiction, but this was the first one that takes place entirely inside the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw. The main character is quite likeable as an English teacher with a tragic backstory whose grief from before the war stays with him as he must adjust to new circumstances. The characters were well-developed and I really got into this story. I was a bit disappointed when it ended where it ended because I wasn't ready to say goodbye yet. I wonder if there will be a sequel so we can see what happens next?

World War II historical fiction is a hard genre to get into, but I liked this one. It’s set in Poland, and it’s really sad, but it’s pretty important.

The characters are well rounded and dynamic. I wouldn’t categorize this as young adult, but I think that young, mature adults should read this.

Thank you to Netgalley and Algonquin Books for the ARC of "We Must Not Think of Ourselves" by Lauren Grodstein.

Shortly after the death of English teacher Adam Paskow's wife, Kasia, the Germans invade Poland. Adam is not only an English teacher, but also a Jew. As a result, he and hundreds of thousands of other Jews are rounded up throughout Warsaw and moved to what will become the Jewish Ghetto.

At the time of his forced move, Adam is living in a comfortable apartment that he had shared with Kasia. His father-in-law, a wealthy Gentile, appears to help Adam in finding a suitable living space in the ghetto. Upon Adam's arrival at his new apartment, he finds that he will be sharing it with two other families, bringing the total occupancy of the two bedroom apartment to eleven. The families soon learn to cohabitate, with just a sheet separating Adam’s space with that of one of the other couples.

“We Must Not Think of Ourselves” is a story about survival. Survival of a people who are facing complete and total eradication. They deal with hunger, unsanitary living conditions, and the constant fear of death at the hands of an occupying army who irrationally hate Jews. However, it is also a story of perseverance and hope. With characters who, despite facing overwhelming challenges, continue to find joy, love, and the strength to do what they need to do to live.

I really like the way that Lauren Grodstein chose to tell Adam’s story. As a part of a group of people charged with recording the life stories of those confined to the ghetto, Adam interviews his students and apartment mates. In addition to teaching English to the children of the ghetto, Adam’s responsibility of chronicling the life stories brings purpose to his life.

I recommend “We Must Not Think of Ourselves” to readers of historical fiction and those who want to learn more about the plight of Jews during WWII.

Lauren Grodstein delivers a moving and heartfelt story set in a Jewish Ghetto during the Holocaust in We Must Not Think of Ourselves. Grodstein excels at writing characters who feel real and I felt that the overall story was also good with all these different characters being affected by the Ghetto and the ongoing events during the Holocaust.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for this advance readers copy, in exchange for an honest review. We Must Not Think of Ourselves is a fictional WWII story inspired by true events from the Warsaw Ghetto. Adam Paskow is a Jew who is forced to relocate and live in the Ghetto and shortly after relocating, is approached with a task to record as much about the people, daily events, and experiences of others trapped inside. As part of the story, we read his fictional interviews with other characters and also, in his own narrated story, we watch him slowly fall in love with his married flat mate, which prompts many questions and ultimately tough choices.

This is a great story that from what I could tell, did justice to the horrors faced by those in the Warsaw Ghetto. No details were sugarcoated and it was definitely a tough read. However, I appreciated that the author shone a light on the day to day experiences of other characters, as well, in order to give a sense of what small activities (in contrast to the stark, major tragic events) like cooking, laundry, and essential shopping were like in that time and how difficult they became. I enjoyed the interview format interspersed within the book and I think that contributed to my ability to understand the character at hand better; some of the levity and conversational anecdotes within these interviews also helped uplift the story and highlighted the resiliency of these people, especially in the face of such tragedy. The mixed formats also helped keep this book fast paced and it was a quick read for me.

While it’s hard to say that I “enjoyed” this book, I think it is fair to say that I thought it was a great read and helped shine a light on this important piece of history. I’d recommend this book to historical fiction fans!

*NO SPOILERS *

As Emanuel Ringelblum emphasizes to Oneg Shabbat: "'we must continue to concentrate on the things we can do, the stories we can record, the history we can record. I know that this is a difficult time for all of us, but we need to continue to do the work that will outlast this moment in history.'" So much emotion and history is packed within this 300-page novel by Lauren Grodstein, a writer who is already long-vetted and deeply appreciated by this reviewer. I had the good fortune to review an advance galley of We Must Not Think of Ourselves thanks to #NetGalley and this book took no time to fall right into and stay put. Told through the personal experiences of Adam Paskow, who has become a Jewish prisoner within the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, it is the story of many others as well. Adam was removed from an entirely different life, and is now locked away, with untold numbers of others (many arriving, many departing/disappearing throughout the novel). Over time, rumors and stories circulate about the fate of the prisoners within the ghetto and day-to-day life becomes more daunting and terrifying to navigate as they await word on the outside war, allies, and a potential resolution. I do not typically seek out, nor regularly read, historical fiction. Regardless, this novel was gripping and heartbreaking, with layered characters you truly get to know and care about as the story progresses. Adam is asked to become a "historian" of the truth: the testimonies of those who also live captive behind the walls...men, women, and children--their past and present lives, and uncertain future(s). These are stories of resilience, desperation, treachery, and enduring love. Adam confesses, "In the absence of any real rituals for grief, I relied on what I remembered from my own father's death: We must not be comfortable. We must not think of ourselves."

Inspired by true events, this is a novel NOT to miss. It's release date is 11/28/23 and it can be preordered. Beautifully written, as all of Grodstein's novels are, this one is especially powerful in its recount of the tragic truth -- as it was recorded, both within the novel and in real life, by the courageous and resilient prisoners of a Warsaw Ghetto in WWII.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. Reading “We Must NotThink Of Ourselves” by Lauren Grodstein I was immersed in what it would have been like to live in the ghetto of Warsaw during the Second World War. The horrors that the Jewish population had to endure and eventually turn a blind eye to was a painful reminder of how evil humans can be. What hit me the hardest was the indifference of the children. They had to grow up so quickly to help provide for their families and seemed not phased by the death and hardship that surrounded them. The fact that they eventually became desensitized to it all was quite frightening. It was a good story but I was a little disappointed in the way it ended. I found it to be anticlimactic otherwise I would have given it 5 stars. Overall a good piece of historical fiction.

Lauren Grodstein has written a novel about the Warsaw ghetto and the prisoners who lived in horrific conditions that most of us could never envision. This is the story of Adam Paskow, a widower, who taught English before and continued to teach to a small group of children once they were forced into the ghetto. Adam belonged to the Oneg Shabbat which was an actual group of archivists that recorded the stories of the Jewish prisoners so the world would know the people and their stories. The resilience of the children was, for me, one of the most memorable parts of this novel. They adapt, and find ways to exist in conditions that are utterly unimaginable. Not since I read Leon Uris's "Mila 18"many years ago, have I read a novel that completely captures the slowly dawning realization of the hopelessness of their situation...and the ways they find to cope, fight back and even find joy where they can. 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars. I want to thank NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

My first introduction to Lauren Grodstein was in 2009 with her novel ‘A Friend of the Family”: The psychological drama was so good, I remember it like yesterday. I became an Instant fan.
I’ve read most of her books — all different— yet all written with engrossing fascination.

“We Must Not Think of Ourselves” is a short historical WWII novel. (304 pages). After the Nazis occupied Poland, and 1939, they began segregating Jews in ghettos, usually in the most rundown area of the city. Some Jews were transported by train to other locations, (Australia or Canada), but for those who stayed, (and most did, as they couldn’t imagine leaving).
The Jews could no longer withdraw their money from the banks. They could no longer own radios or go to movie theaters. Jews could no longer teach in public schools. They had to declare their property. They could no longer travel by train. Synagogues were closed. They could no longer mail letters abroad. They couldn’t visit parks, and no sitting on public benches. They could not see Polish doctors. They could no longer employ polish maids. They had to wear yellow stars on arm bands over their clothing. And eventually they were forced to leave their homes completely.
They moved to a new district which was densely packed apartments and businesses in the old Jewish section in the middle of Warsaw. The new district was gated. Once the Jews were in, they were to be locked in like animals. They had taken their homes, their businesses, their money, their jobs, their schools.

Lauren Grodstein tells us that although this is a book a fiction, it is based on historical events. Real people make cameo appearances.
Diary entries were taken from a real place—‘The Oneg Shabbat Archive’, that people can still visit today at 3/5 Tlomackie Street in Warsaw.

The novel begins December 14, 1940, at 4:40 p.m.
Emanuel Ringelblumn visits Adam Paskow (our main narrator), was teaching English at a prestigious educational institution/ the lyceum.
Emanuel came to speak to Adam — asking him to join an important mission….
“Our task is to pay attention”, Emanuel Ringelbaum said.
“To listen to the stories. We want all political background, all religious attitude. The illiterate and the elite. Every ideology. Interview everyone. Learn about their lives. I need the best minds here to help. He paused, as if trying to decide whether to add some thing. Will you join us?”
Adam was flattered. He said he would join..

“If they find the notebook, you will be killed, Emanuel said”.
“They won’t find it”, Adam said.
Emmanuel said that they would meet Saturday at the library at 3/5 Thomackie Street.
“You’re not religious, are you”, Emanuel asks Adam.
Before all this, Adam had barely remembered he was a Jew. He told Emanuel as much”.
“Well, they won’t let you forget now, Emanuel said”.
“Surely not”, Adam said.

“Our group is called Oneg Shabbat, he said. The joy of the Sabbath”.

Adam was a victim — as much as the other Jews he interviewed. Adam — and the others were moved into tiny shabby apartments packed with a dozen people. Food wasn’t exactly plentiful…everyone was starving and malnourished. Bathroom plumbing was a nightmare. Death was a way of life.

The format for the interviews throughout the storytelling looks somewhat like this beginning with Adam’s statistics and bio:

Name: Adam Paskow
Date: December 14, 1940
Age: 42
Height: 180 cm
Weight: 75 kg

Printers, dentists, ornithologists, calligrapher,
English teacher.
Adam was an English teacher who taught in the basement under the bomb-crushed cinema on Mila Street.
Adam had been married to Kasia. She was the fourth and favorite daughter of a government bigwig with some distant ties to nobility, a father, who indulged her, even after her mother openly, mused about disowning her for becoming involved with a Jew.

Kasia and Adam married May 20, 1930.
They had lived in Warsaw. They were never able to have children.
Kasia died from an accident in their seventh year of marriage.

There’s a diverse group of people - both kids and adults we come to know through Adam’s interviews.

Watching Adam evolve throughout was moving (grief, love, and loss for his wife Kasia)…..to much later a heartwarming connection he forms with another married woman.

We meet wonderful characters: Szifra Joseph - a blonde hair, blue eye flirtatious Jewish starlight.
Charlotte Grosstayn was an eleven year old girl. Sala Wiskoff where is a 35 year old active housewife.

Most of Adam’s students were Polish-Jewish. Add him to poetry because he believed poetry was where the English language really soared. He had no textbooks but thankfully he had memorized hundreds of poems of the years, and he taught from memory. His teaching created hope and possibly during horrific bleak times.

Another sample-partial-interview:
[between Adam and Sala]
“S.W. You just want me to tell my life story?”
“A.P. You can tell me whatever you want”.
“S.W. And what is this for it again?”
“A.P. It’s just to have a record of our time in the ghetto. So that we can remember what happened to us”.
“S.W. You think we could forget?”
“A.P. Well, the best way to remember anything is to write it down while it’s happening, so memory doesn’t shift around them become unreliable”.
—etc. there is more….about S.W.’s marriage, children, in-laws….
(beautiful-joy-despair- and so intimate and real)

I will read anything Lauren Grodstein reads. I love the way she writes — on any topic — she always holds my interest.

Ultimately……
this book was written with depth and breadth… It’s a significant novel— written with warmth — tenderness and truth.

Highly recommend!!!

The style of this novel kept my interest- I liked the interviews throughout. The story is of course devastating and heavy, a widower surviving in the Warsaw ghetto and the people around him. As a teacher, his interactions with the children help lighten parts of the novel. Sometimes this subject matter can be difficult to get through, but I found this to be a quick read that I did not avoid. Adam does spend a lot of time talking about different languages- Polish, Yiddish, English and German- I would have liked to see more integration of those languages throughout (there is some, but sparing). Overall, a good read and would recommend to others.

At the end of a school day in 1940 Warsaw, a man approaches Adam Paskow in his classroom and hands him a small notebook. He asks him to write down everything about the people around him, their families, their routines, “without deciding what is significant” he says. Be a camera, a dictaphone, he says.
Paskow is told that others have been recruited for this project, too, and he accepts the assignment. The man, Emmanual Ringelblum, explains it is an archival project in which Paskow will help write the history of the Jews and their lives in Warsaw before and after the ghetto.
The opening chapters of Lauren Grodstein’s novel, We Must Not Think of Ourselves, are filled with foreshadowing. The interviews, observations, and notations he records carry us into Paskow’s world. Through them, the reader becomes acquainted with his students, neighbors, and friends. The introspective first-person point of view also serves to immerse the reader in Paskow’s world as he remembers happier times as a teacher and when he and his wife, as newlyweds, planned their future. Although widowed when the story begins, his roots in Warsaw still run deep, and despite the urging of some, he resists leaving Poland believing that England and America’s declaration of war on Germany is imminent. As the oppression of the Jews in the city tightens, families flee, Paskow’s classroom dwindles to a handful of students, and he also is forced to give up his apartment and move to the ghetto. There, conditions are ever more suffocating, ever tightening, ever more desperate, and life is reduced to the barest forms of day-to-day existence. Paskow is forced to ponder his own fate.
Grodstein based her novel on the Oneg Shabbat Archive which can be visited in Warsaw today. It consists of diary entries, sketches, postcards, and all manner of ephemera such as candy wrappers, tram tickets, and posters collected by the dozens of archivists recruited by the real-life Emmanuel Ringelbaum, the man who approached Grodstein’s fictional protagonist Paskow.
While we may understand the magnitude of historic events, it is the everyday, personal things to which we hardly give notice, such as those candy wrappers and postcards that give poignancy to those historic events and remind us all that such events happen to real people.

Heartbreaking and beautiful. The characters are complex and true, the author’s attention to historical detail is exacting, and it raises wonderful, complex questions about hope, human nature, and morality. Grodstein captures grief, desperation, and cruelty as well as the indomitability of the human spirit.
This is a 2023 must-read and a perfect book club pick.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves is a mostly fiction novel about a real-life group of testimony gatherers called Oneg Shabbat who collected stories of those living in the ghetto of Warsaw during the WWII. As someone who has read a lot of WWII historical fiction, I appreciated reading about another piece of history I had not known before. Though I would have appreciated more of an afterward about the real-life people, it is still a well written, gripping and provoking novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I feel humbled and quite small after finishing that. Humbled because of what the people who went before us went through, simply for the fact that they existed. Quite small comes from feeling like I know nothing of struggles in life. Reading historical fiction (based on true life events) has become a recent pleasure (if that's even the right word). It makes me feel like I forgot to pay close enough attention in school or that I've relegated those things to the back of my mind. We really must never forget this happened and could/will happen again (at the very least on a smaller scale) because people cherish power more than human life. Now I will climb down off my soapbox and go think about this some more!!

Typically I love WW2 novels, especially when they show a tale of resistance. This book, was pretty slow moving. It didn't get very exciting. The characters weren't developed well enough to really care too much about them. It's unfortunate that this book fell a little flat because it has good bones and a lot of potential.