To precede the Lord God

“Ahead of the Lord God” is one of the most powerful books about the Holocaust and human dignity. Based on conversations with Mark Edelman, a doctor and leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Anna Kral creates an emotionally charged story about life, death, and moral choice. It is not only a document of the time, but also a philosophical dialogue about the meaning of human presence in the midst of catastrophe.

For more than forty years, Anna Kral's book "To Ahead of the Lord God" has remained a classic of Polish reporting and one of the most moving stories about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 1943 and the fate of Polish Jews created by 20th-century literature.

This is a book that emerged from conversations with Mark Edelman, a doctor, one of the leaders of the uprising during the war. Mark Edelman talks about war and about medicine. About what a dignified death and a dignified life are. It is also a story about the people who surrounded him - about the rebels, the nuns, the former prisoners, the women he loved, about the patients and the doctors.

The Lord God is about to blow out the candle, and I must very quickly take advantage of His momentary inattention and snuff out the light. Let it burn at least a little longer than He pleases.

This is important, because He is not so fair. And, besides, it is nice: if something works out, then, one way or another, you are His.

wrapped around my finger...

"Rivalry with the Lord God? What arrogance!"

— You know, when a person sends other people into the carriages, then, probably, he will have a couple of questions for him later. And everyone passed me, because I stood at the gate from the first day to the last. All four hundred thousand passed me. (excerpt from the book)