Janina Dawidowicz (born 19 March 1930 in
Kalisz
(The oldest city of Poland)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = ''Top:'' Town Hall, Former "Calisia" Piano Factory''Middle:'' Courthouse, "Gołębnik" tenement''Bottom:'' Aerial view of the Kalisz Old Town
, image_flag = POL Kalisz flag.svg ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
),
better known as Janina David, is a Holocaust survivor and a British writer and translator.
Biography
Janina David was born as the only child to a Jewish Polish family, and moved with them to
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
in 1939.
After she escaped from the
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...
in 1943,
taking refuge with a Polish family of Henryk Rajski and then in a convent,
[ and her parents had died as victims of the ]holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
, she left Poland in 1946 and moved to Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
with an uncle.[ She then emigrated to Australia where she completed school and studied at the ]University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...
, gaining a B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
She then took Australian citizenship.[ In 1958, she moved to ]London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, where she was a social worker in some hospitals. In 1959 she began to write her three-volume autobiography, ''A Square of Sky'', ''A Touch of Earth'' and ''Light over the Water''.[ Since 1978, she has been working as an author and translator of children's and young people's books, and of radio plays, for the ]BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
* 1964 A Square of Sky: A Jewish Childhood in Wartime Poland
* 1966 A Touch of Earth: A Wartime Childhood
* 1995 Light Over the Water: Post-war Wanderings 1946-48
* 1969 Part of the Main
* 1992 A Square of Sky: A Wartime Childhood from Ghetto to Convent (a republication of ''A Square of Sky'' and ''A Touch of Earth'' in a single volume)
Janina David's autobiography ''A Square of Sky'' was the basis for a theatre show with the same title.