Mikrohistoria o wielkiej sprawie. Kilka uwag i refleksji po lekturze

Monika Sznajderman’s book, reminiscent of a strange title, is a family saga devoted to Polish-Jewish and Jewish-Polish relations. The micro (family) perspective is only a starting point and point of reference for the analysis of phenomena with a much broader horizon of problems – economy, social, political or cultural relations, where family relations, named by name and surname, remain the essential context. The two most important epochs of these relations are clearly stressed in this work – interwar, war and ccupation (the Holocaust). The author, the next generation, but also a great writer, with great talent, but also the insight of the gaze, analyzes difficult issues – semitism and anti-Semitism, wealth and poverty, attitudes and behaviors, difficult relationships. The title “pepper” is obviously the subject of trade, but also a contribution to hard work, solid education, existential reality, undoubtedly also wealth. Great reading not only for experts in Polish-Jewish and Jewish-Polish relations (this is not the same in my opinion), but also for those interested. Great language, many interesting, not easy, also for the author, threads.