Events

A story inspired by a little-known piece of history in the lives of Jewish occupants of the Warsaw Ghetto in World War II, a project with the code name “Oneg Shabbat.” In 1940, Adam Paskow becomes a prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto, cut off from his former life and awaiting an uncertain fate. Weeks later, he receives a surprising request: would he join a secret group of archivists preserving the truth of what is happening? Its mission was to record interviews with confined Jews, collect their testimonies, archive them and preserve them for posterity. Told with immediacy and heart, We Must Not Think of Ourselves is a piercing story of love, determination and sacrifice.

Lauren Grodstein is the author of five novels including The New York Times bestseller A Friend of the Family and the Washington Post book of the year, The Explanation for Everything. She is a professor of English at Rutgers University-Camden, where she teaches creative writing in the MFA program.

Sponsor: The Sharon and Joel Freimuth Memorial Fund