Zol zayn Shulem Book-Series (may there be peace)
by Daniel Zylbersztajn-Lewandowski
Zol Zayn Shulem I: Zores, 386 pages, with full colour images and illustrations ISBN:978-1-78324-378-5, UK retail price 25 GBP
Zol Zayn Shulem II: Faroys!, 468 pages, with full colour images and illustrations ISBN: 978-1-78324-381-5 UK retail price 30 GBP
Review:
* * * *
... recounts numerous fates of family members from the author's extended family and is well-researched. I found the exemplary account of the exterminations and persecutions in a Polish village particularly powerful, as the details of these events were completely unknown to me, unlike the persecution of Jews in Germany. In its diversity, it offers an excellent overview of the Shoah, from the murdered victims and camp survivors to people in exile and those from interfaith marriages who, for that reason, somehow remained under the Nazis' radar.
Carol, Verified Reader (amazon.de)
ABOUT:
The English two-part series Zol Zayn Shulem by Daniel Zylbersztajn-Lewandowski, originally published in January 2025 in German as “Soll sein Schulem“ (Yiddish for May there be Peace) documents the history of two distinct Jewish families, one from a small Yiddish speaking Jewish “stadtl” in Poland, the other in Germany having risen to become a major trade name iand royal merchants around 1910.
Book I Zores (yid. troubles) details many of the pathways before, during and after the holocaust. Some are brutally murdered in death camps, whilst others manage to flee.
After the war, the two separate family-stories merge in Munich, where thousands of Jewish survivors reside after the war, barely being tolerated by German officials. It is here where the author’s parents meet and marry.
Uniquely, Daniel Zylbersztajn-Lewandowski discovered a photograph the Nazis took of his father and grandfather inside one of the factory-halls of Skarzisko Kamienna one of the most ferocious Third Reich labour-camps in which they were held as enslaved forced laboureres, “loaned” by the SS.
The second book “Faroys!” (yid. forward) begins with the birth of the author in the late 1960s in postwar Germany. There he grows up in a world between Jewish survivors and German perpetrators and their children.The 1972 terrorism-attack against the Israeli Olympic team plays an accidental central theme in his life.
At 15 years of age Daniel Zylbersztajn-Lewandowski leaves his home-town Munich to follow promises of the Israeli Youth Agency concerning an Israeli boarding school. It turns out to become a difficult time, but after three years he manages to complete school with a high-school diploma in his pocket. When German Bavarian officials put stumbling blocks in his way to access university, Zylbersztajn-Lewandowski ends up accepting an offer from Soas, University of London.
As long standing Great Britain correspondent of the German newspaper taz, Daniel Zylbersztajn-Lewandowski describes many of the distinct layers of British society he encountered, from the diversity of Portobello Road and North Kensington to racist police and antisemitism encountered during his student days. Both his Kreo Sierra Leonean wife and he himself become victims of numerous racist and antisemitic attacks. Daniel Zylbersztajn-Lewandowski is declared a lost and dead son by his father after his marriage. There is also a full chapter describing how in 2022 he becomes the victim of an antisemitic attack in front of his then synagogue on the day of his daughter’s Batmitzwa.
“Zol zayn Shulem” is a courageous and generous book-series. Whilst it openly discusses the trauma Rand after-effects of the Shoah, it upkeeps hopes for a better future in spite of setbacks.
Written over a span of 14 years, the books were brought to life with the help of generous communal crowd-funds and support of two trusts.
Published by Wordzworth, the books can be ordered from most bookstores.
BUY:
Foyles:
Zores: https://www.foyles.co.uk/book/zol-zayn-shulem-i/daniel-zylbersztajn-lewandowski/9781783243785
Waterstones:
Zores: https://www.waterstones.com/book/zol-zayn-shulem-i/daniel-zylbersztajn-lewandowski//9781783243785
Amazon:
Hive (indep. bookstores): https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Daniel-Zylbersztajn-Lewandowski/Zol-Zayn-Shulem-I–Family-History-in-the-Shadow-of-the-Holocaust/32627855
There is an eight hour long Spotify / Tidal playlist accompanying the books.
https://tidal.com/playlist/4a33a984-8b4e-44f7-93f2-ced32f4ba64f
Media Coverage:
April 2021: Prisoners tore the planks from the floor of the wagon, thus escaping from the death transport near Blížejov (Denik), https://domazlicky.denik.cz/zpravy_region/vezni-vytrhali-prkna-z-podlahy-vagonu-a-u-blizejova-utekli-z-transportu-smrti-20.html
May 2022: What Nazism did still affects my family (Indes): https://www.idnes.cz/plzen/zpravy/blizejov-valka-holokaust-transport-smrti-kniha-novinar.A220509_121233_plzen-zpravy_vb
May 2023: A British man seeks for answers. (Lausitzer Rundschau) https://www.lr-online.de/lausitz/herzberg/kz-aussenlager-schlieben-berga-ein-brite-sucht-antworten-in-schlieben-70449905.html
February 2025: In spite of Hate going football! (reprint of chapter ) https://taz.de/Holocaust-Ueberlebende-beim-FC-Bayern/!6066621/
March 2025: Article: Before and after 7th of October (taz) https://taz.de/Vor-und-nach-dem-7-Oktober/!6069967/
June 2025: Interview with Jan Fedderson, taz talk: https://youtu.be/eFOPverD8v8
July 2025: Family Stories in Jüdische Allgemeine (German Jewish weekly), https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/unsere-woche/familiengeschichten-6/
Topics / Subjects covered: Survival – holocaust – shoah – second generation – postwar Germany – Jews of Germany – Jews of Poland – racism – antisemitism – migration – holocaust survivor – Auschwitz – Treblinka – death camps – persecution of Jews – Jews of Britain – Israel – Netherlands – Mixed families – labour camps – forced labour – escape stories – Skarzisco Kamienna – German SS enslaved Jews – KZ Schlieben – KZ Flößberg – KZ Dachau – prominent German Jews – Antisemitic Attack – Hope – Peace – Britain 1990s – second generation – trauma – PTSD – refugee stories – Tel Aviv – Third Reich – Remembrance – Holocaust Education – Memoirs – Terezin – DP – Szekocziny – Sosnowic – Berlin – New York – Munich – Kreo – Freetown -Trawniki – Progressive Education – German Postwar period – 1930 – 1940s – 1950s – Wiedergutmachung – compensation claims – Gestapo – Israeli-Palestinian conflict – reconciliation –
Daniel D. Z. Zylbersztajn - Lewandowski 
You must be logged in to post a comment.