Confession - The Story of a Jewish Family During the Nazi Occupation of Poland

"Once again, I take hold of my pen, once again I sit down at the table to write....The process of our family’s collapse with its inexorable consequences is reaching its end; all that remains for me is the sad task of the chronicler and final victim."

When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, agronomist Calek Perechodnik lived with his wife, Anka, in the small resort town of Otwock near Warsaw. The situation for local Jews deteriorated quickly, and soon, the Perechodniks with their infant daughter, Athalie, were forced to relocate to the newly established Otwock ghetto, where many Otwock Jews were stripped of their livelihoods. To keep his family alive, Calek joined the Jewish Ghetto Police.
In August 1942, as the ghetto was liquidated, Perechodnik believed assurances that his position would protect his family, and so he brought Anka and Athalie to the assembly point, only to realize too late that he had been deceived. His wife and daughter were deported to Treblinka and murdered.
Left behind with the other Jewish policemen, Perechodnik blamed himself for his family’s death. After escaping into hiding, he wrote his unflinching account of wartime events, addressing them directly to his wife and daughter whom he could not save. Calek Perechodnik perished during the Warsaw Uprising, leaving only his manuscript and the hope that his testimony would one day be published. His brother, who survived the war, later entrusted the manuscript to the Yad Vashem Archives.
This new English publication of Confession fulfills Calek Perechodnik’s hope. Edited with the utmost precision by Professor David Engel, this faithful translation from the original manuscript presents Perechodnik’s stark and haunting testimony in full, exactly as he left it—raw, unaltered, and impossible to forget.