SOURCES

THIS paper attempts to analyse the Polish-language section of a collection of autobiographies of Jewish young people from the archives of YIV0 in New York. This collection derives from competitions organized by YIVO in Vilna in 1932, 1934, and 1939; the institute also collected and copied some older diaries. In this way it managed to collect about 900 autobiographies, of which 300 have survived in the YIVO archive in New York. A large proportion of the surviving pieces were written in Yiddish, 71 in Polish, nearly sixty in Hebrew, and a few in other languages such as German and Spanish. The oldest one was written between 1916 and 1924, but some were sent in as late as July 1939. The diaries belonged to people aged between 15 and 24.

Who were these young people who took up their pens to respond to the YIVO appeal in Polish? Contrary to what might be expected, not many of our group came from assimilated families, and not one declared affiliation to the Assimilationist movement. Half, i.e. thirty-five persons, belonged to various Zionist organizations or a least sympathized with them. Three declared their Socialist views, without, however, belonging to any party; five were Communists. Five considered themselves to be Orthodox, and two of this group combined their religious position with Zionist sympathies. The rest did not state any specific political convictions. Only six came from assimilated families, and six others described their parents as ‘progressive' or ‘moderately religious', by which, as appears judging from the context, they really meant that their parents maintained a tolerant stance while continuing to preserve a traditional lifestyle. The majority came from large Orthodox families, either poor or destitute. Fifteen writers, among them all those who had been brought up in Polonized families, described their homes as prosperous or rich.

Only one participant had had no formal education: this is the oldest diary of 1916-24, belonging to Jula Wald. Fifteen had had only four to seven years of primary education, eighteen had completed secondary school, in either a grammar or a technical school, and seven were enrolled in higher education.