This book is a reflection on the Jewish presence in two European capitals, Warsaw and Berlin, in the first half of the 20th century. It was inspired by the works of Polish-Jewish, Yiddish and German-Jewish authors, as well as by the connections between urban spaces and the formation of different varieties of modern Jewish identity. The spotlight is cast on images preserved in literary works, namely those concerning separate Jewish neighborhoods and the sphere of cultural interethnic contacts. By attempting to restore the presence of Jewish inhabitants of both cities, destroyed by the Holocaust, it may become possible to see how the imagined communities of the time were created and preserved in the texts, even if, in reality, the metropolises were transformed into necropolises.

In the Fall of 1918 it became clear the Polish-Ukrainian ethnic borderlands would become a battlefield for the two nations. Both wanted to incorporate the disputed territory. On November 1st 1918, Ukrainian conspirators managed a successful military and political coup, taking control of Lviv with hardly any bloodshed. Several hours afterwards, Polish underground forces already began preparing a counterattack. A few days later, front lines stretched across the city. The fighting concluded on November 22nd with a Ukrainian retreat and an ethnic cleansing of the local Jewish population. The events that took place in Lviv in November 1918 to this day remain at the epicenter of Polish-Ukrainian conflict. The book tackles the themes of this unrest and its symptoms, from the 1920s to present day.