Review of The Ghetto Within by Santiago Amigorena

*The Ghetto Within* by Santiago Amigorena, translated by Frank Wynne (2020). Published by HarperVia.

I’m going to admit: I had never heard of The Ghetto Within until I spotted it in the new section of my library. It was the title on the spine that lured me into picking up the book, and when I read the synopsis, I knew it was time for me to read it throughout the week to come.

It’s a really short read to be honest, and it took me about an hour to get through completely. Less than two weeks after I had gone and checked it out of the library, it was already back in its home at the new fiction section of our local library.

Anyways, I read this book when I was having a bit of a moment when it came to the kind of literature that was produced about World War II.

It kind of kickstarted when I stayed in a VRBO rental in Siesta Key, Florida, and the company had put a ton of books about World War I and II in the library section. Having run out of my own books to read on the beach by day three, I ended up tapping into their collection out of sheer boredom.

I feel I’ve rambled enough, so let’s get into this, shall we?

In the middle of World War II, a Jewish man in Argentina disassociates with what’s happening in Europe.

Before I get into the nuts and bolts of this book, I think it’s important to note that the novel is actually about someone who existed in real life: the author’s grandfather. Amigorena is descended from a Polish immigrant, who happened to be Jewish, living in Argentina when World War II consumed Poland and the rest of Europe.

The novel takes place in Buenos Aires in 1940, and the main character has established a life in Argentina. He has a wife, friends, and now deeper connections to the city he now calls home, and, like many other people during this time, doesn’t know the extent of what’s happening back at home.

But when he gets letters from his mother, he initially brushes off her concerns about what’s happening, but as the war progresses, they become darker and more desperate when it comes to describing her life.

His entire family is back in Poland and is Warsaw, and his mother used to write to him three times a month. That gradually begins decreasing as time passes on, and, one day, he despairs when he realizes they may never come again.

His wife and three children are unable to understand his anguish. In Argentina, the news of the war seems to be filtered, and what ends up happening is that a ton of people don’t think that what’s happening to the Jews in Europe isn’t that bad.

This isn’t because they believe it’s right—no, it’s because they have no genuine idea about what’s going on in Europe. This is partially why the main character, Vicente, feels isolated from his family physically present with him.

The novel very much is about the agony and sadness he faces when it comes to his mother, who was unable to leave behind their native country and join him in this new life. When it’s eventually revealed how she ends up dying, it comes as a form of liberation when thinking about what her fate was, but it opens up the realization that his mother truly is never coming back.

Her doting letters are gone forever, and when he took them for granted at the beginning of the novel, they are never going to end up in his hands ever again.

And, at the same time, Vicente has to realize the full extent of his own identity over what has happened to his family. He left behind his mother, his siblings, and his home in order to start over in Latin America.

Now, because he has left it all behind and started a new family, he survived. But at what cost? In the beginning he rejected his Jewishness, but it’s his Jewishness that led him to this situation in the first place.

Overall Thoughts

Although I mentioned earlier this is a novel that’s easy to read when it comes to length and that I finished it quickly, it’s important to remember that this is a read that sticks with you because of how painful it is.

Vicente doesn’t realize the gravity of the situation at first, but when he comes to terms with the fact his mother is slowly starving to death inside of the Warsaw Ghetto, and that his siblings might join her in this fate as well. That’s something difficult to swallow for anyone, even if we’re not Jewish ourselves.

This is an interesting mix of fiction and nonfiction though, and I’m glad I read this book—which is the first translation of the author’s work into English.