We Must Not Think of Ourselves: A Novel

We Must Not Think of Ourselves (2023) is a historical novel by Lauren Grodstein. It follows Adam Paskow, a Jewish man in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II, as he records the lives of his community for Emanuel Ringelblum’s project: The Oneg Shabbat Archive. The book explores the themes of The Resilience of the Human Spirit, The Importance of Memory and Documentation, and The Moral Complexities of Survival Under Oppression.

Grodstein is an American author and creative writing professor. We Must Not Think of Ourselves was a Read With Jenna Today Show selection. Grodstein’s other work includes the New York Times bestseller A Friend of the Family (2009) and a Washington Post Book of the Year, The Explanation for Everything (2013).

This guide refers to the 2023 Algonquin Books Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss the Holocaust, antisemitism, gun violence, death, and suicide.

Plot Summary

Adam Paskow is the novel’s first-person point-of-view narrator. He is a Polish Jew who is being relocated to the Warsaw ghetto with the rest of the Jewish community in 1939 after Germany has invaded Poland. Adam was married to a Polish Catholic woman, Kasia, who died of a brain injury some months before the invasion. Her father, Henryk Duda, who is a wealthy and well-connected man, convinces Adam to give up the apartment he and Kasia lived in, in exchange for a good place in the ghetto. He also asks Adam to hand over Kasia’s wedding jewelry in exchange for papers and safe passage out of Poland, but Adam holds onto these as a safety net.

Once Adam arrives in the ghetto, he realizes that Henryk promised the same apartment to two other families: Emil and Sala Wiskoff and their two sons, as well as the Lescovecs, a family of five. With no other option now, Adam and the two families decide to share the space. Adam gets a job at the Aid Society in the ghetto. He used to teach foreign languages before the German invasion, and on the request of one of his old students, Szifra Joseph, Adam also begins English classes for some of the children in the ghetto.

One day, a man named Emanuel Ringelblum asks Adam to join his project, the Oneg Shabbat Archive, in which people are documenting their lives in the ghetto. Adam agrees, despite the danger it poses to his life if the Germans find out, and begins interviewing people and recording the lives of those around him. He attends the Oneg Shabbat meetings regularly, hearing the other members’ reports of Jewish life in the ghetto and sharing his own observations as well.

Adam hears rumors that blond-haired, blue-eyed Szifra, who was once mistaken for being “Aryan” (i.e., ethnic German), is fraternizing with the Nazi guards. On Ringelblum’s prompting, Adam interviews her for the archive, but she divulges no details, simply stating that she is doing whatever she can to help her family. Adam’s suspicions are confirmed when he accidentally discovers Szifra having sex with a Nazi guard. Szifra’s mother passes away of typhus shortly after, and Szifra is left to take care of her two younger brothers. She stops coming to classes, but her brothers ask Adam to teach them German; they confide in Adam that Szifra is organizing papers for them to leave the ghetto.

Months pass in the ghetto, with people managing to barter their few remaining belongings for food and other essentials. Children regularly risk their lives to smuggle in supplies from the outside while Adam grows closer to Sala and develops romantic feelings for her. The youngest Lescovec boy is caught smuggling and is shot dead, and his mother, Mariam Lescovec, is killed when she attacks a guard in grief. The remaining Lescovecs never return to the apartment, and Sala and Adam begin an affair.

As the global situation continues to worsen, with constant news of deportations and mass exterminations, people become desperate to leave the ghetto. Nowak, a Polish guard who occasionally smuggles things in for a price, delivers a message from Henryk to Adam: He wants Kasia’s pearl and diamond necklace in exchange for papers for Adam. Adam doesn’t trust Henryk, but when the deportations begin, Adam decides to give him the necklace. However, he is too late—Henryk was caught double-dealing to both the Nazis and the Polish Army, and he and his entire family were shot as punishment. Nowak promises that he can get Adam the papers instead, and with no other alternative, Adam hands over the necklace.

Szifra comes to meet Adam one last time, asking him to teach her to say that she is a virgin in German. By this time, everyone in the ghetto is aware that Szifra is trading sex for food, money, and luxuries for herself and her brothers. Adam tries to warn her against it, but she refuses to listen. Soon after, Szifra’s brothers let slip that Szifra has organized papers for all of them to leave the ghetto in a couple of days.

Adam and Sala discuss ways to survive. He confides in her about Nowak and the necklace, and she encourages him to escape if he can. Although she would never leave Emil behind, she would do anything to save her two boys. Shortly after, Szifra is murdered for her ties with the Nazi guards. Adam finds her body in his classroom with two authentic Polish kennkartes (small identification books) in her coat pocket, which are meant for her brothers. He takes them home to Sala, who replaces the boys’ photographs with her sons’.

Nowak delivers on his promise and brings Adam an authentic Polish kennkarte, tram tickets, ration cards, and some money in exchange for the necklace. Adam reiterates his love for Sala and asks her to leave with him, but she persuades him to take her sons and escape the ghetto instead. Adam hands over his notebook with his archival data to the Ringelblums, thanking them for the opportunity to take part in the project. He successfully leaves the ghetto with Sala and Emil’s sons, reflecting on how they are his responsibility now. As they embark on their new lives, the three of them are certain that they will never see any of the ghetto’s inhabitants again.