We all have hopes and expectations for the new year. Mine are topped by the coming publication of a project I’ve been working on for three years: The translation of Aharon Pick’s Holocaust memoir, written from 1942-44 in the ghetto of Šiauliai.
“Notes from the Valley of Slaughter,” is a direct translation of Pick’s own Hebrew title: “Reshimot mi-ge ha-haregah.” Its publication is scheduled for April by Indiana University Press. The publisher has set up a web page here to promote it and enable early orders.
I described the memoir in greater detail in an earlier post here. Translating and annotating it, along with the skilled and affable Gabriel Laufer, was among the most engrossing and rewarding projects I’ve ever done. I only hope that many readers will agree with us that Pick’s memoir offers a rich and moving account of the Lithuanian Holocaust experience.
