Biography and Memory discusses the return of Jews to their places of birth in Poland. A biographical urge to come full circle often leads to symbolic journeys to one’s roots, but in the case of Shoah survivors, such journeys are unexpected, defying the generational definition of their biography, which mostly draws a demarcation line between wartime trauma and a new post-Holocaust life. Analyzed biographical stories collected from Israeli survivors indicate that such returns may be considered the last chapters of their wartime experiences. Survivors’ biographies are examined in the context of both Jewish and Polish memory. This book will be of interest to sociologists, historians, and to general readers.

"The author has faced quite a task: of bringing together and, simultaneously, meeting the requirements of many various perspectives characteristic of sociology, psychology/social psychology, anthropology, narratology and generally discourse theories, and–on the other hand–history, in its inevitable entanglement in the perspectives of other social and cultural studies, transcending today’s traditional historiography, which tries to answer the question, “how was it?” I am convinced that this book will generate a keen interest among researchers from various fields; it has the makings of resonating with a wider, non-academic audience as well." - Professor of Sociology, University of Lodz

"This amazingly well-written book, whose author makes use of the methodology of social qualitative analysis, takes up many issues vital to Polish people. To name but a few: 1. Consequences of the recent transformations in Eastern and Central Europe for many other societies and their members, 2. Our disparate perception of “Polish returns” to the Eastern Borderlands and the Jewish and German returns to Poland, 3. The separation of fates, concerning various national or religious groups living together." - Professor of Sociology, AGH University of Science and Technology