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SUNDAY, November 1, 2026 | 4:00pmVILNA Shul
18 Phillips Street, BOSTON 02114
We are pleased to invite you to a meeting with Patrycja Dołowy, author of Back Before You Wake, translated into English by Anna Blasiak.
Back Before You Wake tells the deeply moving stories of Jewish mothers, children, and caregivers during the Holocaust — and the impossible choices they faced in their struggle to survive.
Among the stories are those of mothers who made heartbreaking decisions to save their children: a child hidden in a wooden crate with a silver spoon engraved with her name and date of birth; a mother who gave her son a cyanide pill; a girl thrown from a window during the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto who survived when her skirt caught on a lamppost; and children rescued again and again by caregivers who became, in many cases, their second mothers.
Based on conversations with some of the last surviving child survivors, Dolowy’s book offers a powerful perspective on the Holocaust through motherhood, childhood, survival, memory, identity, and the bonds between biological and adoptive families.
First published in Poland in 2019, Back Before You Wake has been praised for its profound and empathetic approach to the experiences of children who survived the Holocaust and for bringing a distinctive female perspective to these stories.
Book has been published by Holland House Books
The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews is a partner for the American edition of the book.
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About the Author
Patrycja Dołowy is an artist, writer and journalist. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1978, and lives and works in Warsaw, Poland. She is the author and co-author of several books (including Przecież ich nie zostawię / How Could I Leave Them On Their Own, collective work by 8 authors, 2018; Wrócę, gdy będziesz spała / Back Before You Wake, 2019, Skarby / Treasures, 2022 and her most recent book Pęknięte lustro/Broken Mirror which is a biography of the head of Adam Czerniaków, the Jewish Council (Judenrat) in the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII), as well as essays and theatre plays. She lectures at the Artes Liberales department at the University of Warsaw, serves as specialist for the Communication with Jewish Diaspora in Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews and is the president of the Miszupcha Foundation in Warsaw.
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About the Translator
Anna Blasiak is a poet, translator, managing editor of the European Literature Network and Head of Literature at the Polish Cultural Institute in London. She has published two bilingual poetry and photography books with Lisa Kalloo, Kawiarnia przy St James’s Wrena w porze lunchu / Café by Wren’s St-James-in-the-Fields, Lunchtime and Deliverance /Rozpętanie; and Lili: Lili Stern-Pohlmann in conversation with Anna Blasiak.
Her translation of Maciej Hen’s According to Her was shortlisted for the EBRD Literature Prize in 2023, and her translation of Radosław Wiśniewski’s Psalm to Saint Sabina won the inaugural Trafika Europe’s Andrew Singer Prize for Verse. She is one of the editors of Babiniec Literacki.
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About the Moderator
Katka Reszke is an author, documentary filmmaker, activist, and researcher specializing in Jewish history, memory, and identity. She is the author of "Return of the Jew: Identity Narratives of the Third Post-Holocaust Generation of Jews in Poland" (2013).
A former Hadassah-Brandeis Scholar-in-Residence and Director of Boston’s ReelAbilities Film Festival, Katka lives in Massachusetts and lectures internationally on different aspects of the Polish-Jewish experience.
Her upcoming book, "The Meshugene Effect: Of Hunches and Remembering", is an irreverent exploration of Jewish identity, grief, memory, and the uncanny hunches that lead people to discover their heritage - hunches that, more often than not, turn out to be right.
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Meet the author: Patrycja Dołowy in conversation with Katka Reszke
SUNDAY, November 1, 2026 | 4:00pm
The Vilna Shul
18 Phillips Street, BOSTON 02114
The meeting is FREE and open to the public. RSVP required to [email protected]
Books will be available for purchase.
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Join us for an evening of literature and memory, and conversation about the stories that must not be forgotten.
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REVIEWS OF THE POLISH EDITION: Back Before You Wake
“… should serve as a point of departure for a very profound, empathetic reflection.”—Daria Czarnecka, histmag.org.
“… a real masterpiece. The author, using the form of conversations with people, shows the fates of children who had survived the Holocaust… filled with love, sadness, despair and hope.”—Karolina Charchowska, Historykon.
“…every single word in it is valuable, important.”—Agnieszka Caban-Pusz, papherowestrony.blogspot.com.
“… painful choices, dramatic partings, the miracle of survival, the tragedy of searching for one’s own identity. About mothers, children, caregivers.”—Przewodnik Katolicki, no 14
“The story of the Holocaust from the perspective of motherhood and the needs of small children which makes it easier to identify with the victims’ experiences. One needs a lot of courage to read Dołowy’s book.”—Marta Duch-Dyngosz, Znak, no. 779, 2020
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