Karin Wolff, a translator of great merit of Polish literature into German, a German in her middle age living in the German Democratic Republic, has contributed greatly to familiarizing East German readers with Polish writing on the experiences of Poles and Jews during the war and the occupation of 1939-1945. Her work was recognized and rewarded in 1981 when she was given the Polish Pen Club annual award for the most outstanding translator of works from Polish into another language. Some of Karin Wolff's work has also appeared in the German Federal Republic, including the invaluable and successful anthology of poetry and prose entitled Hiob 1943. A Requiem for the Warsaw ghetto. The anthology contains 50 literary texts and accounts by authors of all ages, Poles and Polish Jews, including texts by people who did not manage to survive the war, such as Janusz Korczak, Władystaw Szlengel and Szmul Zygielboym. There are also prominent pieces by universally acclaimed writers of the older and middle generation such as Czesław Miłosz (Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1980), Władystaw. Broniewski, Antoni Słonimski, Józef Wittlin, Mieczystaw Jastrun, Roman Brandstaetter,Julian Tuwim, Jerzy Ficowski, Anna Kamieńska, Zofia Nałkowska, Adolf Rudnicki, Tadeusz Borowski, Bogdan Wojdowski. We also find a number of moving texts which are not the work of professional writers, but which belong to the important documents of the epoch. The following names at least should be noted: Noem Szac-Wajkranc, Janka Heszeles, Marek Edelman and Professor Ludwik Hirszfeld.

The extracts have been selected with a sound feeling for and knowledge of the theme, and the editing (introductions and biographical notes and relevant material) is exemplary.