Reading practices and the formation of ‘interpretive communities’ in the Lodz ghetto

Abstract

ABSTRACTJews’ reading pursuits in the ghettos have been variously described as intellectual resistance, mental resilience and an attempt to make sense of the confusion amid the extreme conditions. The article examines neglected aspects of reading activities in the Lodz ghetto. It is shown that the consumption of texts changed from a public activity before the war to a largely private pursuit in the ghetto. Alongside this spatial dimension, the article elucidates how ‘interpretive communities’ arose in the ghetto. These groups, which encompassed different levels of the population from select political groups to the entire populace, used reading material to cultivate ways of thinking. In the case of the Lodz ghetto, a dominant ‘interpretive community’ constituted the working masses. Without connections to the privileged stratum, this layer of the population suffered. The masses used books about worker subjugation from other contexts and texts pertaining to the Jewish ethical tradition as a lens to consider social stratification in the Lodz ghetto. The article’s focus on meaning making contributes to a new historiographical approach in Holocaust history that seeks to uncover the Jewish people’s consciousness and the formation of their social and cultural worldviews during the war years.