Don't Run! Walk! How We Survived the Holocaust

“It sometimes became unbearable to live, but it hardly saddened me. Children get used to everything quickly. They only pine when they are separated from their parents. And the pain I felt came from exactly that—then I would think about the time when we would be together again, without parting for even a minute. I even thought about it in my sleep.” In 2006, during an interview for the Shoah Foundation, Roman Polanski—Oscar-winning director, actor, and producer—spoke about his childhood in Poland during the Second World War. These memories were edited almost not at all; they preserved the authentic tone of a child’s perspective and sound like a living spoken account. Harsh—and necessary.

This audio book also includes letters from his father, written at the son’s request in 1973. They are being published for the first time.

The occupation of Kraków, the ghetto, escape, loneliness, hunger and fear, clashes with violence, the camp logic of imprisonment, a struggle for survival—testimony to catastrophe firsthand and an important historical memory conveyed through the experience of personal trauma.