Thoughts of a Polish Jew

To Kasieka from Grandpa is a document of a personal and family memory, authored by Artur Lilien-Brzozdowiecki (18901958) in 1944/45. This memoir, which was written in Polish and translated to English for the family circulation alone, now becomes a public asset.

Lilien invites his new-born granddaughter to encounter her family, generations of Polish Jewry: merchants, lease-holders, bankers, industrialists, politicians, communal leaders, army officers, scholars, physicians, artists, and art collectors. They dwell in a broad Jewish and Christian world, integrated into the national life of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Habsburg Empire, and the Second Polish Republic. The reader is encouraged to enjoy reminiscences of this worthy life and bitter choices that challenged Polish-particularly Galician-Jewry in the twentieth century.