Skip to main content
profile image
Selected Works of Carolyn Ellis
Article
Lechem Hara (bad bread), Lechem Tov (good bread): Survival and Sacrifice during the Holocaust
Qualitative Inquiry (2010)
  • Carolyn S Ellis, University of South Florida
Download Find in your library
Abstract

In Judaism, human nature is understood as existing on a spectrum between yetzer hara (evil inclination) and yetzer tov (good inclination). Jews struggle to suppress the yetzer hara and exercise the yetzer tov. Based on an oral history interview and co-created by a survivor of the Holocaust and a researcher, this story focuses on bread (lechem) and hunger in a Polish ghetto. The narrative encourages reflection about good and evil and about the tangled intermingling of the generosity of self-sacrifice and the instinctive drive for survival.

Keywords
  • Holocaust,
  • survivors,
  • oral history,
  • interactive interviewing,
  • collaborative witnessing
Disciplines
Publication Date
2010
Citation Information
Carolyn S Ellis. "Lechem Hara (bad bread), Lechem Tov (good bread): Survival and Sacrifice during the Holocaust" Qualitative Inquiry Vol. 17 Iss. 2 (2010)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/carolyn_ellis/1/