Editor’s Note to Readers
R eaders will notice that Kaddishel utilizes two distinct “voices.” Aharon’s first-person narrative is based on my audio-taped interviews with him, the transcripts of which were edited, reorganized, and reasonably augmented. The background sections, located in the Historical Background and Interviews, are based on interviews with individuals whose lives intersected with Aharon’s life before, during, and after the Holocaust, supplemented by extensive archival research in Poland and Germany and previ- ously published reports. These two “voices” speak back and forth, but appear in separate sections. The background sections located in the Historical Background and Interviews provide additional de- tails or corroboration to Aharon’s first-person story. Through this device, the reader can access useful historical information and con- textualize Aharon’s personal experiences. The statements by his contemporaries enrich Aharon’s story and, we hope, provide per- spective. When Ben Golub first approached me to interview his father and produce his as-told-to memoirs, with additional research to fact-check and add context to the story, I little realized how deep- ly involved I would become in all aspects of Aharon’s story and the history of Poland, the Holocaust, and Israel. Nor did I foresee how much I would come to admire Aharon, his wife Ruth, and Ben himself. It was, perhaps, basherte (meant to be) that facilitating this book coincided with my becoming an adult bat mitzvah. It is my sincere hope that Aharon Golub’s story will not only keep the memory of his family alive, but will so enlarge our
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