Toronto Reference Library Blog

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, April 19-May 16, 1943

70 years ago, on April 19, 1943,  the Nazi occupiers of  Warsaw,  Poland, planned to liquidate the remaining inhabitants of the Jewish ghetto they had created in that city.   But those inhabitants rose up in organized resistance, and despite the far superior German numbers and weaponry,   held out for almost a month,  until May 16.

 

This year, the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews opened in Warsaw, to commemorate the uprising, and to remember the long history of the Jewish people in Poland.  The Polish Jewish community was the oldest and largest in Europe at the start of World War II, with  over 3 million members.  Today, after the Holocaust and the upheavals of post-war Europe, there are approximately 20,000 Jews living in Poland.

    



 

 

 

The Toronto Reference Library has books and memoirs on the ghetto uprising and  the Jews of Poland in English, French and Polish. The Bravest Battle: the twenty-eight days of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, provides a day-by-day account of the uprising, portraying the experiences of Jewish fighters and ghetto residents, Polish underground fighters, and their Nazi tormentors.

In The Jews of Warsaw: 1939-1943: ghetto, underground, revolt, resistance fighter and survivor Israel Gutman drew upon huge amounts of archival material to write a comprehensive history of the ghetto from beginning to end. Warsaw Ghetto: a guide to the perished city, is a masterwork by two Polish historians drawing on archives in Poland, Germany, Israel, and the United States. Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto is by Emmanuel Ringelblum, chronicler of the Warsaw Ghetto. He and his friends collected detailed information and buried their archive before the final destruction.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Berg was one of several dozen American Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto. Thanks to her mother’s American citizenship, she and her family were allowed to leave for the United States. Her diary records the horrors of the ghetto and the agonizing months spent waiting for return to the USA. Adam Czerniakov, chairman of the Warsaw Ghetto’s Jewish Council, tried for two years to soften the Nazis’ blows against the Jews of Warsaw. He committed suicide in protest against the deportation of the ghetto’s children, and his wartime journals are reproduced in The Warsaw diary of Adam Czerniakov: prelude to doom.  The Pianist, which became an award winning film by Roman Polanski in 2007, is the memoir of Władysław Szpilman, a celebrated musician who survived the ghetto and its destruction. See also books by Marek Edelman, Janusz Korczak, and Pawel Szapiro .

 

Doors Open(ed)

Who doesn't like to take a peek at something that has been hidden? We are curious beings by nature and when someone hides something from us - well, we just love to find out what the big secret is all about.

Doors Open Toronto is this wonderful opportunity to see and be inside buildings we just can't get into most of the time. Toronto was the first city in North America to launch this prestigious event dedicated to built heritage, architecture and design.                                                           

The 14th annual Doors Open offers everyone an opportunity to take a peek behind the doors of over 150 architecturally, historically, culturally and socially significant buildings across the city on  Saturday, May 25 and Sunday, May 26, 2013. Developed as a millennium project in 2000 by the City of Toronto, Doors Open Toronto has since attracted over 1.5 million visitors to hundreds of buildings throughout the city. 

Want to have a peek before Doors Open? Come to the Toronto Reference Library, Humanities and Social Sciences on the 2nd floor. Look for the Toronto Collection by the Reference Desk. Have a look at some of our Toronto architecture and history books.

Piqued your interest? Here are a few titles:

Free Screening: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

As part of its Asian Heritage Celebrations, Toronto Reference Library will be screening the documentary Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry in the Beeton Auditorium on Tuesday May 14th at 2:00 pm.

Last year he transformed his own (rather late) version of internet meme Gangnam Style into a protest for free speech.

 

Rachel Arons in the New Yorker writes:

Ai Weiwei’s version of “Gangnam Style” is as stupid-silly as any other, and more poorly made...but it’s also an ingenious response to the attitude toward creativity put forth in the Chinese media. Ai called his video “Grass Mud Horse Style,” after a made-up creature, invented in 2009, that has become a symbol of anti-censorship in China...and, by embedding it in otherwise harmless content, it has become a way for dissenters in China to give the finger to government censors.

In support, sculptor Anish Kapoor (of Chicago's "Cloud Gate" fame) answered with his own "Gangnam for Freedom"

 

From August 17 – October 27, the Art Gallery of Ontario will be hosting a major retrospective of his work Ai Weiwei: According to What?

Recent visitors to the AGO will have seen the Snake Ceiling commemorating the over 5,000 school children killed by the 2008 earthquake--and what Weiwei calls "tofu construction"--in China's Sichuan province.

   

 The library has lots of resources on this important artist and dissident, but you might want to get prepared for the AGO exhibition with one the following:

Ai Weiwei : circle of animals by Ai, Weiwei.(with Susan Delson) Prestel, c2011.	Ai Weiwei's blog : writings, interviews, and digital rants, 2006-2009 by AiWeiwei (with  Lee Ambrozy,) MIT Press, 2011.	Ai Weiwei : So Sorry by A  Weiwei. (with Mark Siemons) Prestel 2009

 

 

 

 And remember the screening this Tuesday:

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Tuesday May 14, 2013

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Toronto Reference Library Elizabeth Beeton Auditorium

 

The Most Dangerous Job in Journalism?

Writing obituaries can be a mine field.

Margaret Thatcher’s death re-opened fierce debate on the legacy of her political policies. A recent New York Times obituary of rocket scientist Yvonne Brill drew scathing  arguments about the trivialization of  women’s accomplishments.

From her last ten years at the Globe and Mail, Award winning journalist Sandra Martin knows all about the complications writing the first and often final summation of someone's life. She will talk about her book Working the Dead Beat  in the Beeton Auditorium on Thursday May 2^nd at Toronto Reference Library. The book features Martin’s obituariesof key Canadian figures who died in the first decade of the twenty-first century. The result provides not only a portrait of some remarkable Canadian individuals but also a chronicle of our country's contemporary history.

Martin’s subjects include Pierre Berton,  William Hutt  and Supreme Court Judge Bertha Wilson:

 

 If you can't wait till Thursday, CBC’s Fresh Air also has a wonderful interview with Martin.

 

 

Working the Dead Beat: 50 Lives that Changed Canada by  Sandra Martin
The title is also available for downloading as an ebook.

 

Another one of Martin’s subjects who had a lasting impact on Canadian life is June Callwood.The 2013 June Callwood Lecture will be given by Olympic swimming champion Mark Tewksbury

Here are the details:

2013 June Callwood Lecture: Mark Tewksbury

Mon May 27, 2013  7:00 p.m. -8:30 p.m.

Toronto Reference Library Bram & Bluma Appel Salon

 

And don't forget Sandra Martin this Thursday:

 

The eh List Author Series:

Sandra Martin: Working the Dead Beat

Thu May 02, 2013 12:30 p.m. -1:45 p.m.

Toronto Reference Library Elizabeth Beeton Auditorium

 

 

 

 

April Anniversaries: Utrecht & York, Peace & War

History is not so fashionable in this time of the next i- or e-thing, and yet the only way to the present and future is through the past.  War can be exciting, the politics of peace less so, but our country and our city were both shaped by two long ago April events.

April 11, 2013 marks the 300th anniversary of the signing of the series of treaties at Utrecht, Netherlands, that ended the War of the Spanish Succession, (also known as “Queen Anne’s War”) in Europe.  The treaty brought Newfoundland, Acadia and Rupert’s Land (the area drained by Hudson Bay) under British rule.  France retained Île-Saint-Jean (now Prince Edward Island), as well as Île Royale (now Cape Breton Island).  They proceeded to build the Fortress of Louisbourg to help hold what was left of their North American lands.

 

 

You can read the 1713 publication of the treaty in the Baldwin Room at the Toronto Reference Library.  Text in Latin, English, Spanish and French:   

 Treaty of peace and friendship between the most serene and most potent princess Anne, by the grace of God, Queen of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, and the most serene and most Potent prince Lewis the XIVth, the most Christian king, concluded at Utrecht the 31 / 11 day of March / April 1713.

...arrival of the American fleet prior to the capture of York, 27 April 1813 Toronto Reference Library

On April 27, 1813, two hundred years ago this month, American forces landed near the Boulevard Club in what is now Marilyn Bell Park.  With support from naval guns, the American land army fought the British troops, Upper Canadian militia and First Nation allies east to Fort York.  After a six hour battle, Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, ordered his troops to blow up the fort’s magazine.  The explosion killed both American and British soldiers and wounded many more, but the British were outnumbered and outmanoeuvred and retreated overland to Kingston.
American forces occupied York for the next six days, burning the legislature and many other buildings, smashing the Printing Office and looting empty houses, claiming their owners were militia. They left with captured munitions on May 2.

 

Robert Malcolmson’s award winning Capital in Flames: the American attack on York, gives a detailed account of the fire, bloodshed and questions of loyalty that greatly influenced both the remainder of the war, and the Town of York which became the City of Toronto.

 See also Pierre Berton’s classic popular account Flames Across the Border, which chronicles not only the capture and burning of York, but of Niagara-on-the Lake, Buffalo and the sortie by British and Upper Canadians who attacked and burned the White House and the Capitol in Washington D.C. in 1814.

 

Want to see some living history?  The City of Toronto is holding a Sunrise Ceremony and other events throughout the day on April 27, 2013 to commemorate the battle.  At the Toronto Reference Library, see the exhibit in the TD Gallery: War Stories: Toronto and the War of 1812-14, on until June 22. You can also visit the multimedia display online.

York in the early 19th century, Arthur Cox, 1840-1917, Toronto Reference Library

 

War of 1812: Celebrated in Song

 

Toronto's commemoration of the War of 1812 hits close to home this month as April 27, 2013 marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of York.

Here at the Toronto Reference Library we celebrate with a new exhibit in the Gallery (March 30 to June 22, 2013) and with, a special event, The Return of the Books (April 28 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., featuring dramatic readings by R.H. Thomson and music by Mike Ford.

Given all these celebrations, I shouldn't have been surprised to get a question at the desk asking about songs of the period. But it really was a surprise to me when I found an unexpected gem in the music collection of the Toronto Reference Library, Arts Department 5th floor: Ballads of the War of 1812, sung by Wallace House, published by Folkways Records in 1954.

 

This set of two vinyl records also includes liner notes with lyrics and background on each of the songs. Short samples of the songs can be found online along with the liner notes [PDF, large 16MB file].

Traditionally, soldiers have kept up their spirits during war time with song. In more recent decades anti-war and protest songs have dominated but, in the past, war songs also included celebrations of victories, calls to arms, recruitment songs, or even complaints about rations and drilling. The soldiers of the War of 1812 were no different [click on each image below to see a full version of the Battle of Lundy's Lane].

 

 

The Folkways music collection is decidedly American, but it gives the listener a unique perspective on the conflict. A book in TRL's collection, The Annals of the War : illustrated by a selection of historical ballads, by J. M. Harper, published in 1914, broadens the perspective to include the songs of British troops fighting in Canada. And the Ontario Historical Society published The Bold Canadian : a ballad of the war of 1812, attributed to Pte Flumerfelt, in 1926.

 

Folkways Records (the publishers of Ballads of the War of 1812) was founded in 1948 by Moses Asch and Marian Distler. Together they create an outstanding catalogue of 2,168 albums until Asch's death in 1986. Folkways was acquired by the Smithsonian Institute in 1987.

Asch is best remembered for recording such folk and blues singers as Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Cisco Houston, Ella Jenkins, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Pete Seeger. But he also pioneered the release of music from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean and documented a full range of African American culture, from jazz and poetry to children's songs.

To learn more about the label, the recordings, and its founders, check out these terrific books on Folkways Records:

 

Making people's music : Moe Asch and Folkways records by Peter David Goldsmith, 1998.
Folkways records : Moses Asch and his encyclopedia of sound by Anthony Olmsted, 2003.
Worlds of sound : the story of Smithsonian Folkways 1st ed. by Richard Carlin, Richard, 2008.

Toronto Reference Library's Arts Department has an enourmous collection of Folkways recordings in both vinyl and CD . We provide listening stations for both formats here at the library and encourage you all to visit and enjoy some of the nearly 40,000 recordings available.

 

Chopping up an English Professor with a Machete

 

Poet, playwright, Officer of the Order of Canada, University of Toronto Professor, George Elliott Clarke is a heck of a busy guy.

Here he is talking about his upcoming projects at a recent appearance at the Academy of the (Im)possible:

 

He’s also Toronto’s Poet Laureate, (following Dennis Lee in 2001 , Pier Giorgio Di Cicco in 2004 and Dionne Brand in 2009) which makes him the City’s literary ambassador for poetry, language and the arts.

April is National Poetry Month (this is actually the fifteenth year that Canada has been celebrating it)  so on Monday April 15 at 7pm, Clarke will be hosting a night of poetry and spoken word performance at Toronto Reference Library with guests Andrea Thompson and Pamela Mordecai.

The first thing one notices about Clarke in performance is his infectious good humour, a contagious happiness which lets him cross ALL sorts of boundaries and taboos, whether he's discussing chopping up an English professor with a machete or reinventing Othello as a big sweetie:

  

He's joined by slam poet, spoken word performer, freelance writer, TV and Radio Host Andrea Thompson. Here she is a clip from Paul Devlin's 1998 documentary SlamNation:

   

Pamela Mordecai rounds out the trio. Her new collection, Subversive Sonnets, comments on love, history politics and family.

 

 

Books by George Elliott Clarke:

Illicit Sonnets by George Elliott Clarke Eyewear Publishing 2013	I & I by George Elliott Clarke Goose Lane Editions, 2009	Whylah Falls by George Elliott Clarke Polestar Book Publishers, 2000

 

Books by Andrea Thompson

Eating the Seed by Adrea Thompson Ekstasis Editions, 1999.	Other tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out Editors: D.A. Adebe Andrea Thompson Inanna Publications and Education Inc., 2010

Books by Pamela Mordecai

Subversive sonnets by Pamela Mordecai TSAR, 2012.	Certifiable by Pamela Mordecai Goose Lane Editions	De Man by Pamela Mordecai Sister Vision Press, 1995

 

Toronto's Poet Laureate: George Elliott Clarke and Friends

Monday April 15, 2013

7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Toronto Reference Library Atrium

Measure for Measure "On Stage" at Toronto Reference Library 2013

Professor Alexander Leggatt on Measure for Measure Toronto Public Library and the Stratford Festival present four thought-provoking lectures by noted theatre experts on the Shakespeare plays to be presented at Stratford in 2013. Preceded by a cash bar reception; doors open at 6 pm. A question and answer session will follow each talk. Tue Mar 26, 2013 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. 60 mins Toronto Reference Library, Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, 2nd Floor Book for your free ticket for this lecture - and all the other On Stage Shakespeare lectures. Note: separate ticket required for each lecture. A draw for a pair of Stratford tickets will follow the Q&A.

 
Want to learn more about Measure for Measure, why not try these reading and viewing suggestions?

  

Speaker’s Choice: suggested by Dr. Alexander Leggatt

 

Measure for Measure by Harriet Hawkins.  Twayne’s New Critical Introductions to Shakespeare.  Twayne, 1987.

The Myth of Deliverance: Reflections on Shakespeare’s Problem Comedies by Northrop Frye.  University of Toronto Press, 1993.

The Problem of Measure for Measure by Rosalind Miles.  Vision, 1976.

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare (DVD).  Ambrose Video Publishing, 2000.  Originally produced in 1979 by BBC Television, starring Kenneth Colley, Kate Nelligan and Tim Pigott-Smith.

 

     

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and even more about Measure for Measure

Measure for Measure:

Measure for Measure edited by Graham Nicholls.  Text and Performance Series.  Macmillan, 1986. Stage history of the play and discussion of representative productions.

 

 

 

Shakespeare on Love and Friendship by Allan David Bloom.  University of Chicago Press, 2000. Focuses on five plays including Measure for Measure to trace the full variety of erotic connections encountered in Shakespeare’s drama. 

 

 

William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure edited by Harold Bloom.  Chelsea House, 1987.  A collection of contemporary critical essays by various authors, arranged in chronological order.

 

William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure (CD).  Audio Partners Publishing, 2003.  Fully-dramatized recording based on the Pelican Shakespeare starring Roger Allam as the Duke, Simon Russell Beale as Angelo and Stella Gonet as Isabella. 



 

Shakespeare:

The Life of William Shakespeare: a Critical Biography by Lois Potter.  Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Explores Shakespeare’s life and works, emphasizing the literary and theatrical influences that shaped them.

 

 

Nine Lives of William Shakespeare by Graham Holderness.  Continuum, 2011. Nine scenarios in various literary styles depicting different aspects of Shakespeare’s life, with accompanying essays discussing the factual sources for each.


 

 

 

Related Reading:

Art of the Public Grovel: Sexual Sin and Public Confession in America by S. Wise Bauer.  Princeton University Press, 2008.   A history of public confession in modern America, revealing the rhetoric, theology, and history that lie behind every successful public plea for forgiveness. 

 

 

Cambridge Companion to Puritanism edited by John Coffey and Paul C.H. Lim.  Cambridge University Press, 2008.  Examines Puritanism through many lenses including gender, literature, politics and popular culture along with core concerns such as theology and devotion.

 

 

Head and Heart: American Christianities by Garry Wills.  Penguin Press, 2007.  Traces the history of Christianity in the United States and the ongoing tension between church and state.

 

 

Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction by J. David Kuo.  Free Press, 2006.  A personal account of church and state interconnectedness in America by a former member of George W. Bush’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.  


 

 

 

Go Digital:

Shakespeare  Collection.  Full-text electronic database from Gale Publishing, including The Arden Shakespeare, criticism, performance, literary and interdisciplinary journals.   [TPL library card required to login.]

Italian Film Series: Io non ho paura (I'm Not Scared)

Join us for a series of three contemporary Italian films at the Toronto Reference Library, with a discussion to follow led by Anthony Cristiano from the University of Toronto. Anthony Cristiano is an Italian-born Canadian film director, educator, and writer.

 

FILM #1: Io non ho paura (I'm Not Scared), 2003 by Gabriele Salvatores 108 min. [In Italian with English sub-titles] Sat. March 23, 2013 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Toronto Reference Library Elizabeth Beeton Auditorium

Io non ho paura is the story of Michele, a teen who makes a shocking discovering about a secret activity involving his own parents and the community he lives in. It is an unusual coming-of-age story where early adolescent angst and friendship pair up in unexpected ways.

Our host Anthony Cristiano's most recent release is a DVD collection of ten short films, made in Toronto between 1998 and 2008, titled A Self-Conscious Mise-en-scene: 10 Short Films by Anthony Cristiano.

 

Italian Film Series:
The Italian film series 2013 begins with a look at the relationship between children and adults, family values, and memory. The history and socio-political context of contemporary Italy, a country rich in cultural traditions and family values, is re-examined and challenged through the lenses of masterful film directors. What is compelling about these films is the realistic representation of its characters, enmeshed as they are in moral and psychological dilemmas. The stories are told with utter realism, and yet the subtlety and ability to cut deep into the viewer's consciousness, a recurring characteristic of Italy's cinematic tradition, makes these works a remarkable experience.


Visit the Toronto Reference Library to learn more about Italian film. Here is just a sample of what you will experience:

Filming the nation : Jung, film, neo-realism and Italian national identity
by Spinelli Coleman, Donatella, 1963-
Hove, East Sussex; New York: Routledge, 2011.

 

 

 

Italian cinema : gender and genre
by Günsberg, Maggie.
Houndmills, Basingstoke ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

 

 

The body in the mirror : shapes of history in Italian cinema
by Dalle Vacche, Angela, 1954-
Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1991.

 

 

 

Le cinéma futuriste
by Lista, Giovanni.
Paris : Éditions Paris expérimental, 2008.

 

 

Il cinema italiano contemporaneo : da "La dolce vita" a "Centochiodi"
by Brunetta, Gian Piero.
[Roma]: Laterza, 2007

 

 

 

Renovation Update - March 21, 2013

This is the latest construction photo of the rotunda of the Marilyn & Charles Baillie Special Collections Centre.  The blue area is the titanium installation still protected by film - imagine the blue film peeled away and visualize the titanium chrome in its place.  It's going to be quite stunning!

 

To the left, you see the stairs to the new mezzanine area.  Again, replace the particle boards in your mind's eye with glass to get a sense of the dramatic sweep of the stairs. 

 

 

 

And finally, below, inside the rotunda, a view of the mezzanine area - just picture the treasures from special collections spread out in front of you behind the raillings.  It's exciting!  The Marilyn & Charles Baillie Special Collections Centre is finally taking shape.