The Holocaust Books

Book SynopsisIn Prevail until the Bitter End, Alexandra Lohse explores the gossip and innuendo, the dissonant reactions and perceptions of Germans to the violent dissolution of the Third Reich. Mobilized for total war, soldiers and citizens alike experienced an unprecedented convergence of military, economic, social, and political crises. But even in retreat, the militarized national community unleashed ferocious energies, staving off defeat for over two years and continuing a systematic murder campaign against European Jews and others. Was its faith in the Führer never shaken by the prospect of ultimate defeat?Lohse uncovers how Germans experienced life and death, investigates how mounting emergency conditions affected their understanding of the nature and purpose of the conflagration, and shows how these factors influenced the people''s relationship with the Nazi regime. She draws on Nazi morale and censorship reports, features citizens'' private letters and Trade ReviewAlexandra Lohse provides a salutary analysis of how German soldiers and civilians dealt with bad news in the second half of World War II. * Michigan War Studies Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The World at War 1. Stalingrad: The Right to Believe in Victory 2. Mobilizing the National Community: Do You Want Total War? 3. Genocide and Mass Atrocities: A Page Never to Be Written 4. Enemies Within and Without: A Sign of Providence 5. Dissolution: History Is the Arbiter Conclusion: Understanding What National Socialism Is

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Book SynopsisHow do states and societies confront the legacies of war and occupation, and what do truth, guilt, and justice mean in that process? In Ghosts of War, Franziska Exeler examines people''s wartime choices and their aftermath in Belarus, a war-ravaged Soviet republic that was under Nazi occupation during the Second World War.After the Red Army reestablished control over Belarus, one question shaped encounters between the returning Soviet authorities and those who had lived under Nazi rule, between soldiers and family members, reevacuees and colleagues, Holocaust survivors and their neighbors: What did you do during the war?Ghosts of War analyzes the prosecution and punishment of Soviet citizens accused of wartime collaboration with the Nazis and shows how individuals sought justice, revenge, or assistance from neighbors and courts. The book uncovers the many absences, silences, and conflicts that were never resolved, as well as the truths that could oTrade ReviewGhosts of War is a major achievement and should lend itself to wide use in classrooms and by researchers. It is poised to become standard reading for anyone interested in the Soviet postwar period. * The Russian Review *Overall, Exeler provides a multifaceted and well-narrated overview of Belarusian society during World War II and its aftermath * Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs *Ghosts of War is a well-researched and impressive work that deserves extensive attention. * Journal of European Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Truth, Guilt, and Justice in an Illiberal State 1. Contested Space: An East European Borderland before 1941 2. At the Heart of Darkness: Wartime Choices, 1941–1944 3. Post-1944: The Moment of Return 4. Determining Guilt: The Soviet Politics of Retribution 5. Loss, Grief, and Reckonings: Personal Responses to the Ghosts of War 6. Belarus, the Partisan Republic: Narrating the Years of War and Occupation Afterword Note on Wartime Losses

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Book SynopsisThe Holocaust is usually understood as a European story. Yet, this pivotal episode unfolded across North Africa and reverberated through politics, literature, memoir, and memory—Muslim as well as Jewish—in the post-war years. The Holocaust and North Africa offers the first English-language study of the unfolding events in North Africa, pushing at the boundaries of Holocaust Studies and North African Studies, and suggesting, powerfully, that neither is complete without the other. The essays in this volume reconstruct the implementation of race laws and forced labor across the Maghreb during World War II and consider the Holocaust as a North African local affair, which took diverse form from town to town and city to city. They explore how the Holocaust ruptured Muslim–Jewish relations, setting the stage for an entirely new post-war reality. Commentaries by leading scholars of Holocaust history complete the picture, reflecting on why the history of the Holocaust and North Africa has been so widely ignored—and what we have to gain by understanding it in all its nuances. Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.Trade Review"This fascinating and original volume profoundly challenges inherited understandings of the Holocaust as a purely European phenomenon. Offering far-ranging original research, the contributors illustrate how one of modernity's defining horrors played out in North Africa. In so doing, they convincingly show that Vichy's race laws, anti-Semitic agitation, and deportations represented ruptures—but also continuities—with North Africa's colonial order."—Joshua Schreier, Vassar College"The Holocaust and North Africa extends the geographical and historical horizons of Holocaust studies. It challenges a Eurocentric focus, exploring the diverse persecution experiences and memories of Jews in North and West Africa, and raises interesting questions about the interdependencies of Nazi, Vichy, and fascist policies with colonial practices."—Wolf Gruner, Founding Director, USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research"As the contributors to this volume demonstrate, it is important to understand how ordinary Muslims comprehended what was happening to their Jewish neighbors, to their country, and to themselves under Nazi and Vichy oversight. Even more importantly, we must understand the experience of the North African Jews themselves. Boum and Stein's book is a good start."—Lawrench Rosen, Jewish Review of Books"This collection of fifteen essays and commentaries by noted scholars constitutes an invaluable contribution to the growing body of literature on the Holocaust, North Africa, and the Middle East....The wealth of new sources both primary and secondary that they have uncovered bodes well for the expansion of our knowledge and understanding of the Shoah in its connections with North Africa."—Francis R. Nicosia, Holocaust and Genocide Studies"[This] is an important and timely book....a unique and welcome addition to our understandings of the mid-twentieth century Maghreb, the death throes of European colonization, the Shoah, and the ways in which these sites, events, and memories continue to shape the Mediterranean region today."—Nicholas Ostrum, EuropeNow"[A] rich and illuminating volume, which, in my view, fully achieves its aims. The essays enrich our understanding of how the Holocaust unfolded in North Africa, most notably by unveiling the deep entanglement between colonialism and fascism....[The Holocaust and North Africa] shows the fruitfulness of a joint work of reflection, scrutiny, and interpretation."—Piera Rossetto, Quest"[A] exceptionally valuable volume focusing on an area of study far too long in the shadows....The Holocaust and North Africa is an absorbing work that will undoubtedly whet the appetite of many a student of the Holocaust, eager to know more about what happened to Jews in that part of the world during the war years."—Diane Cypkin, Martyrdom & Resistance"The underlying agenda of The Holocaust and North Africa is to encourage further, in-depth research in this hitherto neglected area of study. Even at this relatively late stage of Holocaust historiography, there are archives and testimonies waiting to be examined and deciphered. As shown in these essays, comparative research does not imply the drawing of similarities between situations, but rather a deeper understanding of the complex mosaic of the Holocaust—confined neither to Europe nor to European Jews."—Denis Charbit, Studies in Contemporary JewryTable of ContentsIntroduction —Aomar Boum and Sarah Abrevaya Stein 1. Between Metropole and French North Africa: Vichy's Anti-Semitic Legislation and Colonialism's Racial Hierarchies —Daniel J. Schroeter 2. The Persecution of Jews in Libya Between 1938 and 1945: An Italian Affair? —Jens Hoppe 3. The Implementation of Anti-Jewish Laws in French West Africa: A Reflection of Vichy Anti-Semitic Obsession —Ruth Ginio 4. "Other Places of Confinement": Bedeau Internment Camp for Algerian Jewish Soldiers —Susan Slyomovics 5. Blessing of the Bled: Rural Moroccan Jewry During World War II —Aomar Boum and Mohammed Hatimi 6. la recherche de Vichy: The Commissariat Général aux Questions Juives and the Implementation of the Statut des Juifs in Tunisia —Daniel Lee 7. Eyewitness Djelfa: Daily Life in a Saharan Vichy Labor Camp —Aomar Boum 8. The Ethics and Aesthetics of Restraint: Judeo-Tunisian Narratives of Occupation —Lia Brozgal 9. Fissures and Fusions: Moroccan Jewish Communists and World War II —Alma Heckman 10. Recentering the Holocaust (Again) —Omer Bartov 11. Paradigms and Differences —Susan Rubin Suleiman 12. Sephardim and Holocaust Historiography —Susan Gilson Miller 13. Stages in Jewish Historiography and Collective Memory —Haim Saadoun 14. A Memory That Is Not One —Michael Rothberg 15. Holocaust and North Africa —Todd Presner

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Book SynopsisThis book, the first-ever collection of primary documents on North African history and the Holocaust, gives voice to the diversity of those involved—Muslims, Christians, and Jews; women, men, and children; black, brown, and white; the unknown and the notable; locals, refugees, the displaced, and the interned; soldiers, officers, bureaucrats, volunteer fighters, and the forcibly recruited. At times their calls are lofty, full of spiritual lamentation and political outrage. At others, they are humble, yearning for medicine, a cigarette, or a pair of shoes. Translated from French, Arabic, North African Judeo-Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, Moroccan Darija, Tamazight (Berber), Italian, and Yiddish, or transcribed from their original English, these writings shed light on how war, occupation, race laws, internment, and Vichy French, Italian fascist, and German Nazi rule were experienced day by day across North Africa. Though some selections are drawn from published books, including memoirs, diaries, and collections of poetry, most have never been published before, nor previously translated into English. These human experiences, combined, make up the history of wartime North Africa.Trade Review"Wartime North Africa is an essential and groundbreaking addition to scholarship of the Second World War. With great care and intelligence, Aomar Boum and Sarah Abrevaya Stein draw an intimate picture of the region. This is a book as beautiful as the people it portrays."—Laila Lalami, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Moor's Account"This brilliantly curated selection of personal histories illuminates the diversity and complexity of the North African region, culturally and politically, before, during, and just after the war. Wartime North Africa captures a broad spectrum of the lived experience of civilians across the region. Revelatory!"—Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews"A game-changer. Wartime North Africa comes as a revelation. This archive of little-known, multilingual sources makes it possible—no, necessary!—to include discussion of North Africa, with its complex layering of colonialism, nationalism, and fascism, in any classroom that takes up World War II and the Holocaust."—Michael Rothberg, author of Multidirectional Memory and The Implicated SubjectTable of ContentsIntroduction: Introduction 1. The rise of fascism and Nazism as seen from North Africa (1934-1940) 2. Race laws, internment, & spoliation (1940-1943) 3. The late and post-war era (1943-1950)

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Book SynopsisThe true story of a vigilante group of Holocaust survivors who conspired to kill six million Germans Nakam (Hebrew for "vengeance") tells the story of "the Avengers" (Nokmim), a group of young Holocaust survivors led by poet and resistance fighter Abba Kovner, who undertook a mission of revenge against Germany following the crimes of the Holocaust. Motivated by both the atrocities they had endured and the realization that murderous antisemitic attacks on survivors continued long after the Nazi surrender, these fifty young men and women sought retaliation at a level commensurate with the devastation caused by the Holocaust, making clear to the world that Jewish blood would no longer be shed with impunity. Had they been successful, they would have poisoned city water supplies and loaves of bread distributed to German POWs, with the aim of killing six million Germans. Kovner and his followers went to great lengths to carry out their plans, going so far as to obtain the schematics for Nuremberg's municipal water system, secure large quantities of poison, infiltrate a POW camp and the bakery that supplied it, and distribute poisoned bread to prisoners—but their plots were ultimately stymied. Most of the members of Nakam eventually returned to Israel, where for decades many of them refused to speak publicly about their roles in the group. While the Avengers' story began to come to light in the 1980s, details of the relations between the group and Zionist leadership and the motivations of its members have remained unknown. Drawing on rich archival sources and in-depth interviews with the Avengers in their later years, historian Dina Porat examines the formation of the group and the clash between the formative humanistic values held by its members and their unrealized plans for violent retribution. Trade Review"Completely engrossing, Nakam reads like the best detective novel, while also being a first-class work of historical research."—Saul Friedländer, author of Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945"A thoughtful and meticulously researched study of the postwar Jewish plan to murder six million Germans in retaliation for the Holocaust, a topic that had been written out of history for too long because of its moral ambiguity and political sensitivity. A must-read for anyone interested in post-traumatic recovery of victims after genocide.—Laura Jockusch, author of Collect and Record!: Jewish Holocaust Documentation in Early Postwar Europe"This elegantly written book gives pause to ponder how great and awful can be the consequences when the law fails to protect those most in need of protection.—David Engel, author of The Assassination of Symon Petliura and the Trial of Sholem Schwarzbard 1926-1927"Written by one of Israel's most eminent historians, this fascinating book demonstrates the impossibility of just retribution for genocide, and the vast gap between the integrity of the Avengers and the horrific nature of their goal. Nakam is a deeply-researched, empathetic, and compelling account of the men and women who vowed to avenge the murderers of their families and communities."—Omer Bartov, author of Tales from the Borderlands: Making and Unmaking the Galician Past"In the wake of the Holocaust, the overwhelming priority of Jewish activists in Europe and the Palestine Mandate was the rescue and emigration of survivors and the founding of a Jewish state. Nakam tells the story of the most notable exception to these efforts: the close-knit group of former resistance fighters who resolved on killing six million Germans in a stunning act of vengeance. A deeply-researched, insightful, but also empathetic study."—Christopher R. Browning, author of Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland"This meticulous and empathetic study gives an overlooked chapter of Jewish history its due."—Publishers Weekly"[Nakam is] part riveting tale, part scholarly disquisition. Porat thoroughly and sensitively interrogates their motivations, their tactics and strategies, and the ramifications of their highly controversial actions, which never fully materialized. Carefully incorporating dozens of interviews with the now-nonagenarian remnants of the group, Porat, a renowned Holocaust scholar and onetime chief historian of Israel's Holocaust museum, adroitly surveys the origins and ultimate futility of the innate human instinct for revenge."—Michael M. Rosen, Washington Examiner"[Porat's] writing is scholarly yet accessible, tender yet bold. It draws on hitherto unstudied archival sources and in-depth interviews with the surviving avengers themselves....Nakamdelivers new insights about war, trauma, healing, and the ethics of revenge."—Linda F. Burhardt, Jewish Book Council"The book sets out to solve several historical mysteries. With the drive to avenge, the means to avenge, the targets identified, and the tools to do so: 'Why didn't they manage to take vengeance? Who betrayed them and why?' And how was it possible that this seemingly warm, humane, ethical group of individuals was equipped to carry out such a barbaric plan? This is where Porat's expertise regarding the Yishuv and its relationship to the Holocaust helps to inform the power dynamics at play after the war."—Avinoam Patt, Yad Vashem"[The Nokmim] were a secretive group, survivors of the Holocaust, who refused to divulge any hard facts about their activities. Dina Porat, a professor of modern Jewish history at Tel Aviv University, has researched their story in meticulous (and, it should be said, reverential) detail."—Colin Shindler, History Today

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Book SynopsisThis book, the first-ever collection of primary documents on North African history and the Holocaust, gives voice to the diversity of those involved—Muslims, Christians, and Jews; women, men, and children; black, brown, and white; the unknown and the notable; locals, refugees, the displaced, and the interned; soldiers, officers, bureaucrats, volunteer fighters, and the forcibly recruited. At times their calls are lofty, full of spiritual lamentation and political outrage. At others, they are humble, yearning for medicine, a cigarette, or a pair of shoes. Translated from French, Arabic, North African Judeo-Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, Moroccan Darija, Tamazight (Berber), Italian, and Yiddish, or transcribed from their original English, these writings shed light on how war, occupation, race laws, internment, and Vichy French, Italian fascist, and German Nazi rule were experienced day by day across North Africa. Though some selections are drawn from published books, including memoirs, diaries, and collections of poetry, most have never been published before, nor previously translated into English. These human experiences, combined, make up the history of wartime North Africa.Trade Review"Wartime North Africa is an essential and groundbreaking addition to scholarship of the Second World War. With great care and intelligence, Aomar Boum and Sarah Abrevaya Stein draw an intimate picture of the region. This is a book as beautiful as the people it portrays."—Laila Lalami, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Moor's Account"This brilliantly curated selection of personal histories illuminates the diversity and complexity of the North African region, culturally and politically, before, during, and just after the war. Wartime North Africa captures a broad spectrum of the lived experience of civilians across the region. Revelatory!"—Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews"A game-changer. Wartime North Africa comes as a revelation. This archive of little-known, multilingual sources makes it possible—no, necessary!—to include discussion of North Africa, with its complex layering of colonialism, nationalism, and fascism, in any classroom that takes up World War II and the Holocaust."—Michael Rothberg, author of Multidirectional Memory and The Implicated SubjectTable of ContentsIntroduction: Introduction 1. The rise of fascism and Nazism as seen from North Africa (1934-1940) 2. Race laws, internment, & spoliation (1940-1943) 3. The late and post-war era (1943-1950)

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Book SynopsisDuring the Holocaust, 99 percent of all Jewish killings were carried out by members of state organizations. In this groundbreaking book, Stefan Kühl offers a new analysis of the integral role that membership in organizations played in facilitating the annihilation of European Jews under the Nazis. Drawing on the well-researched case of the mass killings of Jews by a Hamburg reserve police battalion, Kühl shows how ordinary men from ordinary professions were induced to carry out massacres. It may have been that coercion, money, identification with the end goal, the enjoyment of brutality, or the expectations of their comrades impelled the members of the police battalion to join the police units and participate in ghetto liquidations, deportations, and mass shootings. But ultimately, argues Kühl, the question of immediate motives, or indeed whether members carried out tasks with enthusiasm or reluctance, is of secondary importance. The crucial factor in explaining what they did was the integration of individuals into an organizational framework that prompted them to perform their roles. This book makes a major contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust by demonstrating the fundamental role played by organizations in persuading ordinary Germans to participate in the annihilation of the Jews. It will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of organizations, violence, and modern German history, as well as for anyone interested in genocide and the Holocaust. Trade Review“In this masterly researched and subtly conceptualized in-depth analysis of the infamous Police Battalion 101, Stefan Kühl shows hauntingly how the ‘normality’ of constraints, enrichment, comradeship, routine, and legality enabled Nazi perpetrators to achieve the ultimate abnormality. Ordinary Organizations will soon be considered as one of the key inquiries into the Holocaust.” Thomas Kühne, Clark University “An extremely interesting book, engaging with theoretical approaches to understanding the Holocaust. Kühl makes a strong case for the explanatory power of organizational sociology in understanding how ‘ordinary men’ could be brought to engage in acts of killing without seeing themselves as perpetrators. A controversial and stimulating read.” Mary Fulbrook, University College London"Kühl’s analysis takes us as step further than Browning’s and Goldhagen’s by emphasizing how state organizations produce results that would be incomprehensible if they were based solely on individual actions and motives."Augustine Brannigan, Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish StudiesTable of Contents Introduction 1. Beyond “ordinary men” and “ordinary Germans” 1.1. The failure of easy answers 1.2. From the search for motives to the presentation of motives 1.3. The motivation of organization members 2. Identification with the goal 2.1. The formation of an antisemitic fictional consensus 2.2. How ideological indoctrination secured an antisemitic fictional consensus 2.3. From “impassive acceptance” to “active participation” 3. Coercion 3.1. Forced recruitment and barriers to exit 3.2. Avoiding the membership issue in coercive organizations 3.3. The limits of leeway 3.4. The freedom in coercion 4. Comradeship 4.1. The pressure of comradeship and the formation of informal norms 4.2. Levels in the formation of comradeship 4.3. How are comradeship norms enforced? 4.4. Mobilizing comradeship by granting leeway 5. Money 5.1. The function of regular remuneration for the battalion members 5.2. Legalized enrichment through the dispossession of the Jewish population 5.3. Enrichment beyond official forms of remuneration and reward 5.4. The functionality of misappropriation 6. The attractiveness of activities 6.1. Inhibitions against killing and organizational strategies for overcoming them 6.2. The production of motives: Dehumanizing the victims 6.3. An organizational culture of brutality 7. The generalization of motives 7.1. The different ways of portraying personal engagement 7.2. Managing one’s self-presentation 7.3. The separation between goals and motives 8. From killers to perpetrators 8.1. The legalization of the state’s use of violence 8.2. Using violence in the gray zones of legality 8.3. The shift in the concept of law under the Nazis 8.4. Facilitating killing by legalizing it 9. The normality and abnormality of organizations 9.1. Beyond the notion of “abnormal organizations” 9.2. The expansion of zones of indifference in organizations 9.3. Understanding organizations: Conclusions Appendix: The sociological approach and empirical basis Archives Notes Literature Index

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Book SynopsisDuring the Holocaust, 99 percent of all Jewish killings were carried out by members of state organizations. In this groundbreaking book, Stefan Kühl offers a new analysis of the integral role that membership in organizations played in facilitating the annihilation of European Jews under the Nazis. Drawing on the well-researched case of the mass killings of Jews by a Hamburg reserve police battalion, Kühl shows how ordinary men from ordinary professions were induced to carry out massacres. It may have been that coercion, money, identification with the end goal, the enjoyment of brutality, or the expectations of their comrades impelled the members of the police battalion to join the police units and participate in ghetto liquidations, deportations, and mass shootings. But ultimately, argues Kühl, the question of immediate motives, or indeed whether members carried out tasks with enthusiasm or reluctance, is of secondary importance. The crucial factor in explaining what they did was the integration of individuals into an organizational framework that prompted them to perform their roles. This book makes a major contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust by demonstrating the fundamental role played by organizations in persuading ordinary Germans to participate in the annihilation of the Jews. It will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of organizations, violence, and modern German history, as well as for anyone interested in genocide and the Holocaust. Trade Review�In this masterly researched and subtly conceptualized in-depth analysis of the infamous Police Battalion 101, Stefan Kühl shows hauntingly how the �normality� of constraints, enrichment, comradeship, routine, and legality enabled Nazi perpetrators to achieve the ultimate abnormality. Ordinary Organizations will soon be considered as one of the key inquiries into the Holocaust.� Thomas Kühne, Clark University �An extremely interesting book, engaging with theoretical approaches to understanding the Holocaust. Kühl makes a strong case for the explanatory power of organizational sociology in understanding how �ordinary men� could be brought to engage in acts of killing without seeing themselves as perpetrators. A controversial and stimulating read.� Mary Fulbrook, University College LondonTable of ContentsIntroduction page 1 1 Beyond “Ordinary Men” and “Ordinary Germans” 18 1.1 The failure of easy answers 21 1.2 From the search for motives to the presentation of motives 31 1.3 The motivation of organization members 36 2 Identification with the Goal 44 2.1 The formation of an antisemitic fictional consensus 46 2.2 How ideological indoctrination secured an antisemitic fictional consensus 52 2.3 From “impassive acceptance” to “active participation” 55 3 Coercion 58 3.1 Forced recruitment and barriers to exit 61 3.2 Avoiding the membership issue in coercive organizations 65 3.3 The limits of leeway 68 3.4 The freedom in coercion 71 4 Comradeship 74 4.1 The pressure of comradeship and the formation of informal norms 75 4.2 Levels in the formation of comradeship 78 4.3 How are comradeship norms enforced? 81 4.4 Mobilizing comradeship by granting leeway 85 5 Money 88 5.1 The function of regular remuneration for the battalion members 89 5.2 Legalized enrichment through the dispossession of the Jewish population 91 5.3 Enrichment beyond official forms of remuneration and reward 95 5.4 The functionality of misappropriation 99 6 The Attractiveness of Activities 102 6.1 Inhibitions against killing and organizational strategies for overcoming them 104 6.2 The production of motives: dehumanizing the victims 108 6.3 An organizational culture of brutality 111 7 The Generalization of Motives 114 7.1 The different ways of presenting personal engagement 115 7.2 Managing one’s self-presentation 120 7.3 The separation between goals and motives 124 8 From Killers to Perpetrators 129 8.1 The legalization of the state’s use of violence 135 8.2 Using violence in the gray zones of legality 139 8.3 The shift in the concept of law under the Nazis 148 8.4 Facilitating killing by legalizing it 152 9 The Normality and Abnormality of Organizations 153 9.1 Beyond the notion of “abnormal organizations” 155 9.2 The expansion of zones of indifference in organizations 159 9.3 Understanding organizations: conclusions 167 Appendix: The Sociological Approach and Empirical Basis 169 Archives 179 Notes 181 References 258 Index 306

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Book SynopsisIn 1945, soon after the liberation of Auschwitz, Soviet authorities in control of the Kattowitz (Katowice) camp in Poland asked Primo Levi and his fellow captive Leonardo De Benedetti to compile a detailed report on the sanitary conditions they witnessed in Auschwitz. The result was an extraordinary testimony and one of the first accounts of the extermination camps ever written. Their report, published in a medical journal in 1946, marked the beginnings of Levi’s life-long work as writer, analyst and witness. In the subsequent four decades, Levi never ceased to recount his experiences in Auschwitz in a wide variety of texts, many of which are assembled together here for the first time, alongside other testimony from De Benedetti. From early research into the fate of their companions to the deposition written for Eichmann’s trial, Auschwitz Testimonies is a rich mosaic of documents, memories and critical reflections of great historic and human value. Underpinned by his characteristically clear language, rigorous method and deep psychological insight, this collection of testimonies, reports and analyses reaffirms Primo Levi’s position as one of the most important chroniclers of the Holocaust. Trade Review"One of the most important and gifted writers of our time."—Italo Calvino "The triumph of human identity and worth over the pathology of human destruction glows virtually everywhere in Levi's writing.... Time and time again we are moved by his narratives of how men refuse erasure."—Toni Morrison "Primo Levi's poise was one of the greatest achievements in the history of the human spirit. His writing restored the honor of humanism after Auschwitz."—Leon Wieseltier "Whether as witness or imaginative artist, Levi stands high among the truly essential European writers of the past century."—Michael Dirda, Washington Post "Their unvarnished testimony speaks volumes about the weight of responsibility felt by survivors such as Levi to ensure that the world never forgot the 'insane dream of building a thousand-year empire upon millions of corpses and slaves'."—The Sydney Morning Herald "Levi writes of unspeakable things with charity, clarity and objectivity."—Sunday Times "The publication of Auschwitz Testimonies may go some way to fulfil Levi's 40-year post-war odyssey to bear witness to 'the history of today, whose violence is the child of that violence which, by sheer chance, we managed to survive'."—The Morning Star

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Book SynopsisIn 1938 and 1939, some 10,000 children and young people fled to the UK to escape Nazi persecution. Known as the ‘Kindertransport’, this effort has long been hailed as a wartime success story – but there are uncomfortable truths at its heart. The Kindertransport was a complex visa waiver scheme, and its organizers did not necessarily act with altruism. The British government required a guarantee to indemnify itself against any expenses, and refused to admit the child refugees’ parents. The selection criteria prioritized those who were likely to make the best contribution to society, rather than the most urgent cases. And some children and young people were placed in unsuitable homes, where many arrangements irrevocably broke down. Written with striking empathy and insight, Andrea Hammel’s expert analysis casts new light on what really happened during the Kindertransport. Revelatory and impassioned, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of migration and refugees, and offers thought-provoking lessons for how we might make life easier for children fleeing conflict today.Trade Review‘Andrea Hammel’s overview of the Kindertransport is a remarkable achievement. With compassion and sensitivity, the author has managed to convey the full complexities of the scheme and has put at the forefront the experiences of these Jewish refugee children which ranged from love and understanding to economic and sexual abuse.’Tony Kushner, Parkes Institute, University of Southampton‘An impressively well researched account that is at once fascinating and deeply moving. Hammel skilfully balances compassion and insight to lay bare the detail of the Kindertransport in a remarkably detailed and nuanced way. It is sure to become a definitive text on the subject.’James Bulgin, Head of Public History, Imperial War Museums‘The Kindertransport…has always been regarded as a symbol of British generosity towards those in peril and seeking asylum. But it was all rather more complicated, as Andrea Hammel sets out to show.’The Spectator‘Andrea Hammel aims to dig deeper and remind the world that the story does not quite sparkle as brightly as some, particularly successive British governments, have wished to portray.’The Irish Times‘a model for good history writing... Hammel takes nothing for granted but examines all aspects with relentless precision. She gives us a welcome guide to critical thinking along with a compelling story.’New York Journal of BooksTable of Contents1. Myth 2. Persecution 3. Escape 4. Organisation 5. Placements 6. War 7. Death 8. Together/Apart 9. Life 10. Memory

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Book SynopsisAccident of Fate is a first-hand account of persecution, rescue, and resistance in the Axis-occupied former Yugoslavia. At the age of thirteen, Imre Rochlitz fled to Yugoslavia from his childhood home in Vienna following the Nazi Anschluss, leaving his family behind. In January 1942 the Ustashe (Croatian Fascists) arrested and interned him in the Jasenovac death camp, where he dug mass graves. On the verge of death, Rochlitz was released due to the extraordinary intervention of a Nazi general. He escaped to the Adriatic coast, where he and several thousand other Jewish refugees were protected by the army of Fascist Italy. After Italy's surrender, he joined Tito's Partisans, becoming an officer and army veterinarian, and rescued dozens of downed Allied airmen. In 1945, he fled Yugoslavia's Communist regime and reached liberated southern Italy. In 1947, at the age of twenty-two, he emigrated to the United States. With unique personal photographs and documents supporting the text, this eyewitness narrative covers little-known topics and provides a revealing historical account of the period. The book helps clarify and render accessible the complexities and contradictions of conflict and genocide in wartime Yugoslavia.Trade ReviewRochlitzs memory is fresh...and while his account benefits from knowledge acquired later, it is primarily the view of a young person living through the most difficult period of European history.... [A] well-written and humane memoir which I would highly recommend to anyone interested in the history of Europe. The book is well illustrated with personal photos and documents and well-drawn maps. Vesna Domany Hardy, Jewish Renaissance Jewish Renaissance September 2011-10-25``With Accident of Fate we have a first-hand record of the much darker period between 1938 and 1945 which, as Rochlitz insists, he survived by pure chance. And very convincingly, after one discovers that over these few years Rochlitz was imprisoned several times, forced to dig mass graves at the Jasenovac death camp and fought alongside fugitive Partisans. It is not, however, Rochlitz's tribulations that distinguish this book, but his sombre observations and unbiased perspective. As a foreign Jew in Yugoslavia, Rochlitz was an outsider, but being young, having learnt the language and being in possession of an amiable character, Imre easily became the Yugoslav Mirko. This peculiar double-sidedness gives Rochlitz's memoir invaluable significance for the historiography of Yugoslavia's wartime fratricide.... The value of Imre Rochlit'z memoir is that it does not attempt to conceal the ordinary. Thus we find rare and rather unpleasant descriptions of how biological needs were met in death transports and camps, or of matters of hygiene during prolonged guerilla resistance. There are also vivid descriptions and scrutiny of the Partisans' sex lives or lack thereof, which remains a taboo for Yugoslav veterans and a controversial subject in historiography to this day. Equally valuable are Rochlitz's stories of how food was procured and provisioned, as well as everyday pastimes and entertainment in zones of war. Finally, he describes how the Partisans perceived the Jews, how they treated dissent and Otherness, and how they navigated between allies and enemies to emerge as sole victors, although at a high price.... Rochlitz proves himself to be a shrewd, incisive and very critical observer.... [In] this book which so impresses with its thoroughness of historic detail, its meticulous research and contextualization, illustrated with authentic photographs, and reprints of original documents and maps. This is a book both for scholars and for the general reader, but especially for young readers who find the horrors of the Holocaust to hard to imagine. While gruff at times, Rochlitz's recollections are never ill-hearted. Behind his criticisms we find a deep, unchallenged humanity and an inspiring passion for life.'' -- Bojan Aleksov -- SEER, 91, 2, April 2013``Imre Rochlitz's book is a memoir of his unique coming of age as a Jewish teenager first in Austria until 1938, and then in Croatia before and during World War II. It manages to combine several books' worth of material in barely two hundred pages. It is simultaneously a Holocaust memoir, a testimony about the Yugoslav Partisan movement from one of its participants, and a lucid reflection on the past by an amateur historian.... Interspersed with the text are the author's comments about the postwar fates of some of the people mentioned, as well as reproductions of wartime documents he found in various archives, and even a bit of his 1995 interview with Fitzroy Maclean, former head of the Allied Mission to Yugoslavia. More interesting for the professional historian are Rochlitz's thought-provoking and occasionally provocative comments about the survivor's burden of memory, Holocaust research, and the very nature of survival. Though he is adamant that he survived by pure chance, not by courage or wits or the intervention of a higher power, the ambiguous title of the book is reflected in the multiple layers of memory and narrative interpretation it contains.'' -- Mirna Zakic, Ohio University -- Austrian History Yearbook, 43, 2012``Imre Rochlitz's book is enlightening and relevant. Sparse and understated, it is all the more powerful and emotionally moving. The author suffered many devastating personal losses during the war, and retains to this day a profound sorrow about mishaps and mistakes, bad timing, and sheer bad luck. He never expresses self-pity, but writes of what he might have done better and what he learned from his experiences. His readers acquire a deep respect for his courage and humanity under the most horrifying of circumstances. Accident of Fate is one of the best Holocaust memoirs I have read in a long time.'' -- Susan Zuccotti, author of The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescueand Survival and Under His Very Windows: The Vatican andthe Holocaust in Italy``Rochlitz intersperses his taut, lively narrative with both textual and visual documentary material.... Here too he interjects his own later discoveries or encounters with characters from the main story. The documents come from private and general archival sources, all of which are cited in the acknowledgements at the end. The book also includes a helpful glossary of names and places, an index, a short bibliography of works in English for the general reader, and a list of the some sixty Allied airmen and POWs whom the young Imre encountered during the war in Yugoslavia.... American readers will appreciate the book's illumination of the complex Yugoslav political landscape as battleground between the Allied and the Axis powers, and among the different ethnic groups. The young Rochlitz himself, fighting with the Yugoslav partisans and struggling to negotiate anti-Semitic, anti-German, and anti-Hungarian (since at that point the Hungarians were allied with the Germans) sentiment, claimed to be a Slovene, a group ânot particularly hated by either the Serbs or the Croats, who were busy hating each otherâ.'' -- Cecile Cazort Zorach, Franklin and Marshall College -- Yearbook of German-American Studies, Volume 46, 2011Table of Contents Accident of Fate: A Personal Account, 1938-1945 by Imre Rochlitz and Joseph Rochlitz List of Illustrations Preface Prologue: Vienna 1. Anschluss 2. Zagreb 3. Invasion 4. Prison 5. Jasenovac 6. Release and Escape 7. Split 8. Novi 9. Kraljevica 10. Rab 11. Lika 12. Joining the Partisans 13. Veterinarian 14. A Communist Regime 15. Friendships and Hardships 16. Airmen 17. Seventh Offensive 18. The Captain and the Commissar 19. Vlado 20. Departure Epilogue Acknowledgements Appendix Glossary of Names and Places Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBlowing the Whistle on Genocide tells the story of Josiah E. DuBois, Jr., a young Treasury Department lawyer who risked his career to alert the world to the Holocaust. As Nazism rose in Germany, many countries refused to allow Jewish immigration. The United States spurred on by the America First Committee wanted to remain neutral during the early days of World War II. Anti-Semitic influences kept the United States from filing its quotas for refugees supposedly to keep Nazi spies out of the country. Dubois exposed the inequities in America's refugee policy and forced the United States government to take action to rescue the displaced Jews. Josiah E. DuBois, Jr. was a different kind of hero of the Holocaust. He was not a rescuer, and he did not shelter refugees. He was a whistle-blower and opened the eyes of the global community to Nazi atrocities.Trade ReviewWell, let's face it. There's no question in my mind that some of the people over there [US State Department] -- I put their names in my book -- were actually just plain anti-Semitic. It's just that simple, there's no question"— transcript of Josiah E. DuBois, Jr during a tape-recorded interview conducted for the Harry S. Truman Library, 1973

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Book SynopsisBetween December 1938 and September 1939, nearly ten thousand refugee children from Central Europe, mostly Jewish, found refuge from Nazism in Great Britain. This was known as the Kindertransport movement, in which the children entered as "transmigrants," planning to return to Europe once the Nazis lost power. In practice, most of the kinder, as they called themselves, remained in Britain, eventually becoming citizens. This book charts the history of the Kindertransport movement, focusing on the dynamics that developed between the British government, the child refugee organizations, the Jewish community in Great Britain, the general British population, and the refugee children.After an analysis of the decision to allow the children entry and the machinery of rescue established to facilitate its implementation, the book follows the young refugees from their European homes to their resettlement in Britain either with foster families or in refugee hostels. Evacuated from the cities with hundreds of thousands of British children, they soon found themselves in the countryside with new foster families, who often had no idea how to deal with refugee children barely able to understand English. Members of particular refugee children's groups receive special attention: participants in the Youth Aliyah movement, who immigrated to the United States during the war to reunite with their families; those designated as "Friendly Enemy Aliens" at the war's outbreak, who were later deported to Australia and Canada; and Orthodox refugee children, who faced unique challenges attempting to maintain religious observance when placed with Gentile foster families who at times even attempted to convert them. Based on archival sources and follow-up interviews with refugee children both forty and seventy years after their flight to Britain, this book gives a unique perspective into the political, bureaucratic, and human aspects of the Kindertransport scheme prior to and during World War II.

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Book SynopsisGermany's acceptance of its direct responsibility for the Holocaust has strengthened its relationship with Israel and has led to a deep commitment to combat antisemitism and rebuild Jewish life in Germany. As we draw close to a time when there will be no more firsthand experience of the horrors of the Holocaust, there is great concern about what will happen when German responsibility turns into history. Will the present taboo against open antisemitism be lifted as collective memory fades? There are alarming signs of the rise of the far right, which includes blatantly antisemitic elements, already visible in public discourse. But it is mainly the radicalization of the otherwise moderate Muslim population of Germany and the entry of almost a million refugees since 2015 from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan that appears to make German society less tolerant and somewhat less inhibited about articulating xenophobic attitudes. The evidence is unmistakable-overt antisemitism is dramatically increasing once more.The Future of the German-Jewish Past deals with the formidable challenges created by these developments. It is conceptualized to offer a variety of perspectives and views on the question of the future of the German-Jewish past. The volume addresses topics such as antisemitism, Holocaust memory, historiography, and political issues relating to the future relationship between Jews, Israel, and Germany. While the central focus of this volume is Germany, the implications go beyond the German-Jewish experience and relate to some of the broader challenges facing modern societies today.Table of Contents Acknowledgments The Future of the German-Jewish Past Starts Here, by Gideon Reuveni THE PERSONAL, THE HISTORICAL, AND THE MAKING OF GERMAN-JEWISH MEMORY "No More Mr. Nice Guy": Questioning the Ideal of Assimilation, by Alan Posener Generation in Flux: Diasporic Reflections on the Future of German-Jewishness, by Sheer Ganor Home on the Balcony: New Initiatives for the Preservation of Documents and Material Objects Relating to German-Jewish History, by Joachim Schlör From Object to Subject: Representing Jews and Jewishness at the Jewish Museum Berlin, by Michal Friedlander Past Imperfect, Future Tense: A Mother's Letter about Loss, Storytelling, and the Profound Ambivalence of the German-Jewish Legacy, by Nicola Glucksmann LOOKING BACK TO FUTURE VISIONS OF THE GERMAN-JEWISH PAST The Ever-Dying Jewry? Prophets of Doom and theSurvival of European Jewry, by Michael Brenner The Thin Crust of Civilization: Lessons from the German-Jewish Past, by Mathias Berek The Dialectics of Tradition: German-Jewish Studies and the Future, by Galili Shahar "Noch ist unsere Hoffnung nicht dahin!" Fritz Pinkuss's View on Germans, Jews, and the Universal Value of the German-Jewish Past, by Björn Siegel GERMAN-JEWISHNESS AND DIFFERENCE On the Possibilities and Impossibilities of Being Jewish in Postwar Germany, by Sandra Anusiewicz-Baer Jewish Studies without the "Other", by Klaus Hödl Rethinking Jews, Antisemitism, and Jewish Differencein Postwar Germany, by Lisa Silverman Newspaper Feuilletons: Reflections on the Possibilities of German-Jewish Authorship and Literature, by Liliane Weissberg THE GERMAN-ISRAELI COMPLEX Navigating Mythical Time: Israeli Jewish Migrants and the Identity Play of Mirrors, by Dani Kranz "The Sun Does Not Shine, It Radiates": On National(ist) Mergings in German Philosemitic Imagery of Tel Aviv, by Hannah C. Tzuberi Does the German-Jewish Past Have a Future in Israel?, by Moshe Zimmermann NEW PERSPECTIVES FOR GERMAN-JEWISH STUDIES The Psychology of Antisemitism Revisited, by Anthony D. Kauders Jewish and German: The Leo Baeck Institute Archives and Library, by Frank Mecklenburg Toward a Transnational Jewish Historiography: Reflections on a Possible Future Path for the German-Jewish Past, by Guy Miron Digital German-Jewish Futures: Experiential Learning, Activism, and Entertainment, by Kerry Wallach Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisBetween 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany systematically destroyed an estimated 100 million books throughout occupied Europe, an act that was inextricably bound up with the murder of 6 million Jews. By burning and looting libraries and censoring ""un-German"" publications, the Nazis aimed to eradicate all traces of Jewish culture along with the Jewish people themselves.""The Holocaust and the Book"" examines this bleak chapter in the history of printing, reading, censorship, and libraries. The topics include the development of Nazi censorship policies, the celebrated library of the Vilna ghetto, the confiscation of books from the Sephardic communities in Rome and Salonika, the experience of reading in the ghettos and concentration camps, the rescue of Polish incunabula, the uses of fine printing by the Dutch underground, and the suppression of Jewish books and authors in the Soviet Union. Several authors discuss the continuing relevance of Nazi book burnings to the present day, with essays on German responses to Friedrich Nietzsche and the destruction of Bosnian libraries in the 1990s.The collection also includes eyewitness accounts by Holocaust survivors and a translation of Herman Kruk's report on the Vilna ghetto library. An annotated bibliography offers readers a concise guide to research in this growing field.Trade ReviewBecause the essays are anchored so soundly in historical sources, Rose's premise of history itself as 'book-bound' is amply supported and illustrated throughout the volume. The scholarship is not only sound, but such an extended collection is a breakthrough for Holocaust scholarship - the first of its kind. It adds cultural and literary destruction to the terrible sum of human losses suffered during the Holocaust. - James E. Young, author of The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning ""Jewish scholars and students of modern history will find this volume to be a significant and unusual supplement to Holocaust research and a convincing argument for the centrality of books and reading as subjects of historical research."" - Publishers Weekly ""Fascinating and wrenching reading for any booklover."" - Umbrella

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Book SynopsisA long-overdue study of the East German view of the Holocaust over the years 1946-1989. Stated Memory: East Germany and the Holocaust investigates communist Germany's attempt to explain the Holocaust within a framework that was at once German and Marxist. The book probes the contradictions and self-deceptionsarising from East Germany's official self-understanding as an enlightened, modern society in which Jewishness did not constitute "difference" or otherness. The study examines East German historiography of the Holocaust, includingits reflection in schoolbooks; analyzes East German concentration camp memorials; discusses the situation of Jews who remained in East Germany; and surveys East German cinematic and literary responses to the Nazi murder of the Jews. The book shows that regardless of the sincerity of the individuals involved in constructing these various forms of memory, the state attempted to orchestrate Holocaust discourse for its own purposes. Thomas C. Foxis professor of German at the University of Alabama. He has written extensively on East German literature and the Holocaust.Trade ReviewEspecially valuable to scholars and students of German studies, but intensely interesting to the educated public as well. -- Nancy A. Lauckner, Univ. of TennesseeShows how...the Holocaust, antisemitism, and Nazism always were viewed through the lens of communist theory....Inclusion of the treatment of the Holocaust in East German literature and film adds an important dimension to this work. * CHOICE *Fox writes with style and verve. [The study] should proivde new impetus for specialists in East German and Holocaust studies. * GERMANIC NOTES AND REVIEWS *Those familiar with the scholarly work on the role of the Holocaust within the GDR's foundling narrativeof antifascism will ... gain a more complex and historicized understanding of the East German Holocaust discourse. * JEGP *An excellently researched study, methodologically advanced and marked by good critical judgment. * FILMBLATT *Because of the richness of its documentation, this work constitutes ... an excellent reference work on the recent past of Germany. * ETUDES GERM. *Table of ContentsINtroduction: Stating German Holocaust Memory The State of Memory: The Holocaust in East German Historiography The Texture of Memory: East German Concentration Camp Memorials In the Melting Pot of Socialism: East German Jews Berlin, Moscow, and the Imagined Jerusalem: The Holocaust in East German Literature and Film Epilogue: Stated Memory Index

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Book SynopsisEnglish translation, analysis, and contextualization of Walser's notorious but little-examined Peace-Prize speech and related writings. The German novelist Martin Walser's 1998 speech upon accepting the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade remains a milestone in recent German efforts to come to terms with the Nazi past. The day after the speech, Ignatz Bubis, leader of Germany's Jewish community, attacked Walser for inciting dangerous right-wing sentiment with controversial passages including the notorious statement "Auschwitz is not suited to be a moral bludgeon," thus igniting the protracted public battle of opinions known as the "Walser-Bubis Debate." The speech continues to loom large in Germany's struggle to acknowledge responsibility for Nazi crimes yet escape a suffocating burden of remembrance. But in spiteof its notoriety, little attention has been paid to what the speech actually says, as opposed to the public outcry and debate that followed it. This book presents the text of the speech, along with several of Walser's other essays and speeches about the Holocaust and its impact on German identity, in English translation. It examines them as texts, a process that involves a discussion of literary complexities and an attempt to distinguish valid criticism of German intellectual life from what is justifiably problematic. And it places this textual examination in the context of Walser's and other postwar German intellectuals' attempts to deal with the Nazi past, of German-Jewish relations in the postwar era, and of the once hidden and now -- due in part to Walser's speech -- increasingly open discourse about Germans as victims during and immediately after the Nazi era. Thomas A. Kovach is Professorof German Studies at the University of Arizona.Trade Review[T]he 80-year old Walser has been identified as Germany's leading spokesman for the 'enough already' intellectual position that Germany has absorbed enough guilt over the Holocaust.. This volume offers Kovach's translations of Walser's explosive acceptance speech when he was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (1998) and of several of Walser's earlier speeches.. Especially valuable to those who do not read German, this is an elegant companion to studies of post-WW II Germany's struggle to deal with its past. * CHOICE *

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Book SynopsisInvestigates the connections between German writers H.G. Adler and W.G. Sebald and reveals a new hybrid paradigm of writing about the Holocaust in light of the wider literary-political implications of Holocaust representation since 1945. Since 1945, authors and scholars have intensely debated what form literary fiction about the Holocaust should take. The works of H. G. Adler (1910-1988) and W. G. Sebald (1944-2001), two modernist scholar-poets who settled in England but never met, present new ways of reconceptualizing the nature of witnessing, literary testimony, and the possibility of a "poetics" after Auschwitz. Adler, a Czech Jew who survived Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, was a prolific writer of prose and poetry, but his work remained little known until Sebald, possibly the most celebrated German writer of recent years, cited it in his 2001 work, Austerlitz. Since then, a rediscovery of Adler has been under way. This volume of essays by international experts on Adler and Sebald investigates the connections between the two writers to reveal a new hybrid paradigm of writing about the Holocaust that advances our understanding of the relationship between literature, historiography, and autobiography. In doing so, the volume also reflects on the wider literary-political implications of Holocaust representation, demonstrating the shifting norms in German-language "Holocaust literature." Contributors: Jeremy Adler, Jo Catling, Peter Filkins, Helen Finch, Frank Finlay, Kirstin Gwyer, Katrin Kohl, Michael Krüger, Martin Modlinger, Dora Osborne, Ruth Vogel-Klein, Lynn L. Wolff. Helen Finch is Associate Professor in German at the University of Leeds. Lynn L. Wolff is assistant Professor at Michigan State University.Trade ReviewIn the most illuminating essays, the intertextual relationship that connects Adler to Sebald serves as a springboard to a more expansive, contextual discussion of universal issues of postwar German literature. . . . [A]ll the essays provide insightful analyses of the works of these two signi?cant writers. While this volume would be of particular interest to scholars of postwar literature, the essays in sections 2 and 3 are particularly appealing to those interested in broader themes such as the relationships between history and literature, the role of the artist in society, the nature of trauma narrative, and questions of authenticity. * JOURNAL OF AUSTRIAN STUDIES *[C]ombine[s] in-depth investigations of [the two authors'] writings with several unique approaches to understanding their relationship within the context of Holocaust and post-war German literature. Although focused on Adler and Sebald, the volume will also be of interest to those working in Holocaust testimonial, historical, and ?ctional writing, both survivor and second-generation writers, and in particular the developing ?eld of German-language Holocaust literature. * HOLOCAUST STUDIES *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Adler-Sebald Intertextual Relationship as Paradigm for Intergenerational Literary Testimony The Connections between H. G. Adler and W. G. Sebald, from a Personal Perspective Memory's Witness-Witnessing Memory Writing the Medusa: A Documentation of H. G. Adler and Theresienstadt in W. G. Sebald's Library Poetics of Bearing Witness: H. G. Adler and W. G. Sebald "Schmerzensspuren der Geschichte(n)": Memory and Intertextuality in H. G. Adler and W. G. Sebald "Der Autor zwischen Literatur und Politik": H. G. Adler's "Engagement" and W. G. Sebald's "Restitution" Memory, Witness, and the (Holocaust) Museum in H. G. Adler and W. G. Sebald History, Emotions, Literature: The Representation of Theresienstadt in H. G. Adler's Theresienstadt 1941-1945, Antlitz einer Zwangsgemeinschaft and W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz The Kafkaesque in H. G. Adler's and W. G. Sebald's Literary Historiographies Generational Conflicts, Generational Affinities: Broch, Adorno, Adler, Sebald "Der verwerfliche Literaturbetrieb unserer Epoche": H. G. Adler and the Postwar West German "Literary Field" Afterword Bibliography Notes on the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisNew essays by prominent scholars in German and Holocaust Studies exploring the boundaries and confluences between the fields and examining new transnational approaches to the Holocaust. In studies of Holocaust representation and memory, scholars of literature and culture traditionally have focused on particular national contexts. At the same time, recent work has brought the Holocaust into the arena of the transnational, leading to a crossroads between localized and global understandings of Holocaust memory. Further complicating the issue are generational shifts that occur with the passage of time, and which render memory and representations of the Holocaust ever more mediated, commodified, and departicularized. Nowhere is the inquiry into Holocaust memory more fraught or potentially more productive than in German Studies, where scholars have struggled to addressGerman guilt and responsibility while doing justice to the global impact of the Holocaust, and are increasingly facing the challenge of engaging with the broader, interdisciplinary, transnational field. Persistent Legacy connects the present, critical scholarly moment with this long disciplinary tradition, probing the relationship between German Studies and Holocaust Studies today. Fifteen prominent scholars explore how German Studies engages with Holocaust memory and representation, pursuing critical questions concerning the borders between the two fields and how they are impacted by emerging scholarly methods, new areas of inquiry, and the changing place of Holocaust memory in contemporary Germany. Contributors: David Bathrick, Stephan Braese, William Collins Donahue, Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann, Katja Garloff, Andreas Huyssen, Irene Kacandes, Jennifer M. Kapczynski, Sven Kramer,Erin McGlothlin, Leslie Morris, Brad Prager, Karen Remmler, Michael D. Richardson, Liliane Weissberg. Erin McGlothlin and Jennifer M. Kapczynski are both Associate Professors in the Department of Germanic Languages andLiteratures at Washington University in St. Louis.Trade ReviewA central concern of the volume is to 'to overcome [the] disciplinary divide and to provide a productive interface between the fields of German and Holocaust studies.'...Fifteen renowned scholars attempt to make good on this in six very different sections...To a great extent they succeed in doing so. -- Sascha Feuchert * GERMANISTIK *No matter whether one's entry point into the text is a single discipline or interdisciplinary, the essays offer the reader considerable reward. Contributions are uniformly well-researched, bringing new knowledge and perspectives to light; the essays are written in accessible and jargon-free prose. . . . [This book] should be added to library collections in Holocaust Studies, Jewish Studies, German Studies, and African Studies, and would be a useful text in graduate classrooms in those ?elds. * MONATSHEFTE *Table of ContentsIntroduction Never Over, Over and Over - Jennifer M. Kapczynski The Voice of the Perpetrator, The Voices of the Survivors - Erin McGlothlin Teaching Holocaust Memories as Part of "Germanistik" - Stephan Braese "Aber das ist alles Vergangenheitsbewältigung": German Studies' "Holocaust Bubble" and Its Literary Aftermath - William Collins Donahue Epistemology of the Hyphen: German-Jewish-Holocaust Studies - Leslie C. Morris Writing Before the Shoah, and Reading After: Charlotte Salomon's Life? Or Theater? and Its Reception - Liliane Weissberg The Power of Paratext: Jewish Authorship and Testimonial Authority in Benjamin Stein's Die Leinwand - Katja Garloff Identifying with the Victims in the Land of the Perpetrators: Iris Hanika's Das Eigentliche and Kevin Vennemann's Nahe Jedenew - Sven Kramer Laying Claim to Painful Truths in Survivor- and Perpetrator-Family Memoirs - Irene Kacandes Pinpointing Evil: Nazi Family Photographs, Remediated - Brad Prager Felix Moeller's Harlan: Im Schatten von Jud Süss as Family Drama - David Bathrick Goebbels's Fear and Legacy: Babelsberg and Its Berlin Street as Cinematic Memory Place - Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann Hitler in the Age of Irony: Timur Vermes's Er ist wieder da - Michael D. Richardson Remembering Genocide in the Digital Age: The Afterlife of the Holocaust in Rwanda - Karen Remmler The Memory Work of William Kentridge's Shadow Processions and His Drawings for Projection - Andreas Huyssen Bibliography Notes on the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThis is a personal and insightful portrait of Pope Pius XII, the memories of Sister M. Pascalina Lehnert, who served as his housekeeper for forty years. Her book, most of it written just a few months after the Pope’s death, shares insights into the person, the life, and the thinking of Pius XII, from his time as Nuncio in Munich until his death. Much of Sister’s motivation in writing this work was to correct the many distortions of fact and interpretation regarding this great pope. This book was a best seller in the original German, as well as in the Italian and French translations. This is the first edition in English. These reminiscences were written down at the instructions of Sister’s Superior General, but were not made known to the public until 1982, when it was published in German at the express wishes of Pope John Paul II to publish the work without any changes. So the work remained a lively, flowing account of memories and anecdotes in a simple, spontaneous style. It is a powerful and insightful account of Pius’s daily life, his treatment of those around him, and his concern for the upholding of the traditional teaching of the Church in the face of his awesome burden to lead the Church during World War II.Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsPreface: Sister Pascalina LehnertTranslator’s foreword: Susan JohnsonPrologue: From the diary of a fifteen-year-oldChapter 1. An envoy of peace to the worldChapter 2. Happy times at “Stella MarisHN and in MunichChapter 3. Farewell to Munich and the move to BerlinChapter 4. Cardinal Secretary of StateChapter 5. Pastor AngelicusChapter 6. The tiara as a crown of thorns: the Second World WarChapter 7. Preparing for the 1950 Holy YearChapter 8. A feast as a symbol: St. Joseph the WorkmanChapter 9. Creation of cardinals and first illnessChapter 10. The Marian Year and a further illnessChapter 11. Anima Christi . . . and testamentChapter 12. Eightieth birthday and fortieth episcopal jubileeChapter 13. Serviendo consumerChapter 14. Consummatum estIndex

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Book SynopsisMy Seven Lives is the English translation of the best-selling memoir of Slovak journalist Agneša Kalinová (1924-2014): Holocaust survivor, film critic, translator, and political prisoner. An oral history written with her colleague Jana Juráňová My Seven Lives provides a window into Jewish history, the Holocaust, and the cultural evolution of Central and Eastern Europe. The conversational approach gives the book a relatable immediacy that vividly conveys the tone and temperament of Agneša, bringing out her lively personality and extraordinary ability to stay positive in the face of adversity.Each chapter reflects a distinct period of Agneša's long and tumultuous life. Her idyllic childhood gives way to the rise of Nazism and restrictions of the anti-Jewish legislation, which led to deportations and her escape to Hungary, where she found refuge in a Budapest convent. Surviving the Holocaust, she returned to Slovakia and married writer J?ín Ladislav Kalina. They embraced communism, and Agneša began her career as a journalist and film critic and became involved in the Prague Spring, ending with the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Agneša and her husband lost their jobs and were imprisoned, which led to their decision to immigrate to West Germany. She found a new career as a political commentator for Radio Free Europe, and after decades of political oppression, Agneša lived to see the euphoric days of the Velvet Revolution and its freeing aftermath.My Seven Lives shows the impact of an often brutal twentieth century on the life of one remarkable individual. It's a story of survival, perseverance, and ultimately triumph.Trade Review"This book is not a conventional autobiography, but takes the form – commonly used in Central Europe – of a transcribed dialogue between the subject and a friendly interlocutor [...] As impressive as Kalinová’s recall of names and events is her lack of bitterness. Refusing to let herself be defined by the loss of family in the Holocaust and of her career in middle age, she says: “I’ve always regarded life as a kind of adventure: let’s see what it throws at me and how things will pan out.”" - Times Literary SupplementTable of Contents Preface 1. Childhood and Adolescence 1924–1942 2. War—Deportations—Escape—Return 1942–1945 3. Bratislava After the War 1945–1956 4. From Oppression to Freedom and Back Again 1956–1969 5. Normalization and Emigration 1969–1978 6. Exile 1978–1990 7. Returns 1990–1995 What Happened Next Farewell to Agneša Kalinová Appendix: Biographical Notes on Selected Individuals Mentioned Notes Index

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Book SynopsisMost accounts of the Holocaust focus on trainloads of prisoners speeding toward Auschwitz, with its chimneys belching smoke and flames, in the summer of 1944. This book provides a hitherto untold chapter of the Holocaust by exploring a prequel to the gas chambers: the face-to-face mass murder of Jews in Galicia by bullets. The summer of 1941 ushered in a chain of events that had no precedent in the rapidly unfolding history of World War II and the Holocaust. In six weeks, more than twenty thousand Hungarian Jews were forcefully deported to Galicia and summarily executed. In exploring the fate of these Hungarian Jews and their local coreligionists, A Summer of Mass Murder transcends conventional history by introducing a multitude of layers of politics, culture, and, above all, psychology—for both the victims and the executioners. The narrative presents an uncharted territory in Holocaust scholarship with extensive archival research, interviews, and corresponding literature across countries and languages, incorporating many previously unexplored documents and testimonies. Eisen reflects upon the voices of the victims, the images of the perpetrators, whose motivation for murder remains inexplicable. In addition, the author incorporates the long-forgotten testimonies of bystander contemporaries, who unwittingly became part of the unfolding nightmare and recorded the horror in simple words. This book also serves as a personal journey of discovery. Among the twenty thousand people killed was the tale of two brothers, the author's uncles. In retracing their final fate and how they were swept up in the looming genocide, A Summer of Mass Murder also gives voice to their story.Table of Contents List of Illustrations The Main Characters: Survivors, Witnesses, Rescuers, Perpetrators Author's Note Preface 1. Prologue: A Primer to the Holocaust 2. The Ostjuden: The Galicianer in the Hungarian Imagination 3. Galicia: An Exile into the Unknown 4. Kamenets-Podolsk: The Anatomy of a Massacre 5. Galicia 1941 – 1942: The Delirium of Murder 6. Weapon of War: Rape and Sexual Violence 7. Return from the Abyss: Rescue and Survival 8. Opening Old Wounds: Responsibility and Consequences 9. Requiem for a Deportation: Unanswered Questions Epilogue: Looking for Closure Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisOn October 16, 1943, the Jews of Rome were targeted for arrest and deportation. The Nazis, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome examines why—and more importantly how—it could have been avoided, featuring new evidence and insight into the Vatican's involvement. At the time, Rome was within reach of the Allies, but the overwhelming force of the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, and SS in Rome precluded direct confrontation. Moral condemnations would not have worked, nor would direct confrontation by the Italians, Jewish leadership, or even the Vatican. Gallo underscores the necessity of determining what courses of actions most likely would have spared Italian Jews from the gas chambers. Examining the historical context and avoiding normative or counterfactual assertions, this book draws upon archival sources ranging from diaries to intelligence intercepts in English, Italian, and German. With antisemitism on the rise today and the last remaining witnesses passing away, it is essential to understand what happened in 1943. The Nazis, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome grapples with this particular, awful episode within the larger, horrifying story of the Holocaust. Despite the inadequacy of memory, we must continue to attempt to make sense of the inexplicable.Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1. Chief 2. Germany's Fanatic Determination to Fight 3. I'll Go Right into the Vatican 4. I Wanted to Make an Air Drop in Rome 5. The Worst Horrors of the Nazi Regime 6. Do Not Worry 7. Like a City of the Dead 8. The Reincarnation of the Dying Corpse 9. I Have a Special Mission for You 10. A Final Solution to the Jewish Question 11. We Must Disperse the People 12. The Byzantine Christ 13. If You Pay, No Harm Will Come to You 14. We Had the Moral Right 15. Keep Out of All Questions Concerning Jews 16. Like Autumn Leaves Lay Waiting 17. Los! Raus! Schnel! 18. It Is Simply Impossible to Refuse 19. Let's Go Make a Few Phone Calls 20. Train X70469 21. Numbers 1581–158639 22. These Jews Will Never Return to Their Homes 23. He Is No Longer Our Rabbi 24. A Connection to the Pope 25. We Have Contended with Diabolical Forces 26. I Was Only an Executor of Orders Epilogue: I Must Go Back and Tell Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisOn October 16, 1943, the Jews of Rome were targeted for arrest and deportation. The Nazis, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome examines why—and more importantly how—it could have been avoided, featuring new evidence and insight into the Vatican's involvement. At the time, Rome was within reach of the Allies, but the overwhelming force of the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, and SS in Rome precluded direct confrontation. Moral condemnations would not have worked, nor would direct confrontation by the Italians, Jewish leadership, or even the Vatican. Gallo underscores the necessity of determining what courses of actions most likely would have spared Italian Jews from the gas chambers. Examining the historical context and avoiding normative or counterfactual assertions, this book draws upon archival sources ranging from diaries to intelligence intercepts in English, Italian, and German. With antisemitism on the rise today and the last remaining witnesses passing away, it is essential to understand what happened in 1943. The Nazis, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome grapples with this particular, awful episode within the larger, horrifying story of the Holocaust. Despite the inadequacy of memory, we must continue to attempt to make sense of the inexplicable.Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1. Chief 2. Germany's Fanatic Determination to Fight 3. I'll Go Right into the Vatican 4. I Wanted to Make an Air Drop in Rome 5. The Worst Horrors of the Nazi Regime 6. Do Not Worry 7. Like a City of the Dead 8. The Reincarnation of the Dying Corpse 9. I Have a Special Mission for You 10. A Final Solution to the Jewish Question 11. We Must Disperse the People 12. The Byzantine Christ 13. If You Pay, No Harm Will Come to You 14. We Had the Moral Right 15. Keep Out of All Questions Concerning Jews 16. Like Autumn Leaves Lay Waiting 17. Los! Raus! Schnel! 18. It Is Simply Impossible to Refuse 19. Let's Go Make a Few Phone Calls 20. Train X70469 21. Numbers 1581–158639 22. These Jews Will Never Return to Their Homes 23. He Is No Longer Our Rabbi 24. A Connection to the Pope 25. We Have Contended with Diabolical Forces 26. I Was Only an Executor of Orders Epilogue: I Must Go Back and Tell Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBorn a German Jew in 1915, Rudy Baum was eighty-six years old when he sealed the garage door of his Dallas home, turned on the car ignition, and tried to end his life. After confronting her father's attempted suicide, Karen Baum Gordon, Rudy's daughter, began a sincere effort to understand the sequence of events that led her father to that dreadful day in 2002. What she found were hidden scars of generational struggles reaching back to the camps and ghettos of the Third Reich.In The Last Letter: A Father's Struggle, a Daughter's Quest, and the Long Shadow of the Holocaust, Gordon explores not only her father's life story, but also the stories and events that shaped the lives of her grandparents—two Holocaust victims that Rudy tried in vain to save in the late 1930s and early years of World War II. This investigation of her family's history is grounded in eighty-eight letters written mostly by Julie Baum, Rudy's mother and Karen's grandmother, to Rudy between November 1936 and October 1941. In five parts, Gordon examines pieces of these well-worn, handwritten letters and other archival documents in order to discover what her family experienced during the Nazi period and the psychological impact that reverberated from it in the generations that followed.Part of the Legacies of War series, The Last Letter is a captivating family memoir that spans events from the 1930s and Hitler's rise to power, through World War II and the Holocaust, to the present-day United States. In recreating the fatal journeys of her grandparents and tracing her father's efforts to save them an ocean away in America, Gordon discovers the forgotten fragments of her family's history and a vivid sense of her own Jewish identity. By inviting readers along on this journey, Gordon manages to honor victim and survivor alike and shows subsequent generations—now many years after the tragic events of World War II—what it means to remember.

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Book SynopsisSet in Nazi Germany’s only all-female concentration camp, Across the Lake is a story of survival amid overwhelming brutality. With a keen eye towards historical accuracy, this is an unflinching portrayal of how prisoners supported each other while holding onto their humanity. This is also a story of the female guards—the Aufseherin—who were every bit as vicious as the SS in Buchenwald, Dachau, and Auschwitz. What did it mean to be a woman in a concentration camp like RavensbrÜck?Across the Lake is an unforgettable story about gender and violence in the Holocaust. As Svea Fischer struggles to survive yet another day, she has to forget her past and endure the brutal reality swirling around her. Meanwhile, a new guard, Anna Hartmann, enters RavensbrÜck and sees not horror, but opportunity. As the story unfolds, these two women find their futures inextricably tied together. Told with historical insight, Across the Lake explores a concentration camp that was totally unique in the Third Reich.

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Book SynopsisIn 1943, Charlotte Delbo and 229 other women were deported to a station with no name, which they later learned was Auschwitz. Arrested for resisting the Nazi occupation of Paris, Delbo was sent to the camps, enduring both Auschwitz and RavensbrÜck for twenty-seven months. There, she, her fellow deportees, and millions of others were subjected to slave labor and nearly succumbed to typhus, dysentery, and hunger. She sustained herself by reciting MoliÈre and resolved to someday write a book about herself and her fellow deportees, a stunning work called None of Us Will Return. After the camps, Delbo devoted her life to the art of writing and the duty of witnessing, fiercely advocating for the power of the arts to testify against despotism and tyranny. Ghislaine Dunant's unforgettable biography of Delbo, La vie retrouvÉe (2016), captivated French readers and was awarded the Prix Femina. Now translated into English for the first time, Charlotte Delbo: A Life Reclaimed depicts Delbo's lifelong battles as a working-class woman, as a survivor, as a leftist who broke from the Communist Party, and most of all, as a writer whose words compelled others to see.Trade Review"Deeply researched and deeply empathetic, this is a spectacular biography.” - CHOICE “This splendid biography brings to life a woman of uncommon courage and intellect who needs to be better known and understood in America, in a fine translation by Kathryn Lachman. Detailed and fully documented, A Life Reclaimed is a gripping narrative told with empathy and deep understanding of the issues and traumas faced by so many in the unhappy history of France in the twentieth century.”- David Bellos, author of Georges Perec: A Life in Words; "Five years after its 2016 publication in French, Ghislaine Dunant’s award-winning biography of Auschwitz and RavensbrÜck survivor and writer Charlotte Delbo has found its voice in English in this lyrical, even musical translation by Kathryn Lachman. Delbo’s life and work have long been regarded as essential reading for all students of the Holocaust era, and now this staggeringly beautifully translation of Dunant’s brilliant biography is no less essential, a must-read for all who ask how art and literature shape and have been shaped by the concentration camp universe.”- James Young, author of The Stages of Memory: Reflections on Memorial Art, Loss, and the Spaces Between; “Charlotte Delbo is one of the most important testimonial writers of the Holocaust, alongside Primo Levi. She is also one of the rare witnesses to have focused on the lives of women in Nazi concentration camps. As the first biography of Delbo to appear in English, A Life Reclaimed is likely to become a reference for anyone seeking context for Delbo’s work. The translation is excellent.”- David Caron, author of The Nearness of Others: Searching for Tact and Contact in the Age of HIV ; “The force and focus of Dunant’s biography is its evocation of the lived experience of its subject. Given the extremity, indeed horror, of the central episode of that life, no one should, would, or could suggest that Dunant’s biography allows its readers to share Delbo’s point of view. What it does do, however, is bring us closer to that perspective, and make unmistakable its importance, not just for understanding (if such a thing is possible) one of the most unspeakable episodes of human history, but for responding to the political exigencies of our own times.”- Jim Hicks, executive editor of the Massachusetts Review

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Book SynopsisThe first English-language monograph on Hermann Broch's literary and theoretical work on mass hysteria. Winner of the 2023 Radomír Luža Prize for the Best Manuscript in Austrian/Czechoslovak Studies in the World War II Era Austrian Jewish author Hermann Broch (1886-1951), a leading figure of European Modernism, spent decades attempting to understand the phenomenon of mass hysteria. With his work, he hoped to help protect society from the allure of mass hysteria, embodied in the fanatical appeal of National Socialism. He was torn between two approaches to the problem: using literature to diagnose and expose the irrational knowledge that underpins mass hysteria, and employing theory as a more precise and effective means of doing the same. In this first English-language monograph on the topic, Brett E. Sterling traces the development of Broch's understanding of the mass from an initial confrontation in 1918 to a recurring theme in his fiction and ultimately to the monumental but incomplete Massenwahntheorie (Theory of Mass Hysteria, 1939-48). In thorough readings of Broch's major fictional and theoretical works, the analysis centers on the question of how his literature and theory provide distinct but complementary approaches to conceiving and representing the elusive figure of the mass and the attendant experience of mass hysteria. With political extremism and conspiratorial thinking on the rise, Sterling makes the case that Broch's insights into mass hysteria - literary as well as theoretical - are of renewed relevance to a contemporary audience.Trade ReviewThis is one of the best and clearest investigations of Hermann Broch's work that has appeared in recent years. . . . It is the first monograph devoted to the representation and analysis of the modern mass in Broch's narrative and essayistic works. * Journal of Austrian Studies *Notoriously, Hermann Broch never makes it easy for his readers, be it in the tortuous style or the challenging subjects of his writing. Yet as Sterling shows throughout this lucid and thought-inducing study, everything that so exercised Broch during the 'age of extremes' has, alas, become current again today. * Modern Language Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction 1: First Encounters, 1918-1929 2: The Power of Literature 3: The Mass Takes Shape: Literary Representations 4: Theory and Its Discontents: The Massenwahntheorie 5: The Threshold of Experience: Die Verzauberung Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFirst English translation of the memoirs of Austrian Romani Holocaust survivor, writer, visual artist, musician, and activist Ceija Stojka (1933-2013), along with poems, an interview, historical photos, and reproductions of her artworks. "Is this the whole world?" This question begins the first of three memoirs by Austrian Romani writer, visual artist, musician, and activist Ceija Stojka (1933-2013), told from her perspective as a child interned in three Nazi concentration camps from age nine to twelve. Written by a child survivor much later in life, the memoirs offer insights into the nexus of narrative and extreme trauma, expressing the full spectrum of human emotions: fear and sorrow at losing loved ones; joy and relief when reconnecting with family and friends; desire to preserve some memories while attempting to erase others; horror at acts of genocide, and hope arising from dreams of survival. In addition to annotated translations of the three memoirs, the book includes two of Stojka's poems and an interview by Karin Berger, editor of the original editions of Stojka's memoirs, as well as color reproductions of several of her artworks and historical photographs. An introduction contextualizes her works within Romani history and culture, and a glossary informs the reader about the "concentrationary universe." Because the memoirs show how Stojka navigated male-dominated postwar Austrian culture, generally discriminatory to Roma, and the patriarchal aspects of Romani culture itself, the book is a contribution not only to Holocaust Studies but also to Austrian Studies, Romani Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies.Table of ContentsPreface Abbreviations Introduction Writings by Ceija Stojka 1: "Auschwitz Is My Overcoat": Poem 2: We Live in Secrecy: Memories of a Romni-Gypsy: Memoir (1988) 3: "Slobodoj Mange"/"I Have the Freedom": Poem 4: Travelers in This World: From the Life of a Romni-Gypsy: Memoir (1992) 5: Am I Dreaming I'm Alive? Liberated from Bergen-Belsen: Memoir (2003) "You mustn't be anyone else": Interview with Ceija Stojka 6: "Ceija Stojka in Conversation with Karin Berger (1987) Glossary Appendix: Notes on Names and Family Members Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe first transnational study of the memory of the Kindertransport and the first to explore how it is represented in museums, memorials, and commemorations. The Kindertransport, the rescue of ca. 10,000 Jewish children from the Nazi sphere of control and influence before the Second World War, has often been framed as a "British story." This book recognizes that even though most of the "Kinder" were initially brought to the UK and many stayed, it was more than that. It therefore compares British memory of the Kindertransport to that of other host nations (the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). It is the first book to ask how the Kindertransport is remembered both in the countries of origin, particularly Germany, and in the host nations, as well as the first to analyze how it is represented in museums, memorials, and commemorations. Seeing memory of the Kindertransport in the host nations and in Germany as significantly different, the study argues that the different national memory discourses around the Nazi persecution of Jews shape the respective countries' images of the Kindertransport, and that those images in turn shape the discourses - especially in Britain. Yet while national memory frameworks remain crucial to how the Kindertransport is remembered, the book also documents the increasing significance of transnational memory trends that link the host nations with each other and with the countries from which the children originated.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Kindertransport Memory and Representation 1: British Memory of the Kindertransport 2: American and Canadian Memories of the Kindertransport 3: Memories of the Kindertransport in Australia and New Zealand 4: German Memory of the Kindertransport Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA profoundly original historical inquiry, this work offers a critical reflection on the silences of the past and the remembrance of the Holocaust. During World War II, even though Bulgaria was an ally of the Third Reich, it never deported its Jewish community. Until recently, this image of Bulgaria as a European exception has prevailed—but at a cost. For it ignored the roundup of almost all the Jews living in the Yugoslav and Greek territories under Bulgarian occupation between 1941 and 1944, who were in fact deported to Poland, where they were murdered. In this new English translation of her work originally published in French, Nadège Ragaru presents a riveting, wide-ranging archival investigation encompassing 80 years and six countries (Bulgaria, Germany, the United States, Israel, North Macedonia and Serbia), in doing so exploring the origins and perpetuation of this heroic narrative of Bulgaria's past. Moving between legal and political spheres, from artistic creations to museum exhibits, from the writing of history to transnational public controversies, she shows how the Holocaust north of the Danube became a "rescue" to the river's south. She traces how individual merits were turned into "national" achievements, while blame for the deportations was planted squarely on Nazi Germany. And she illuminates how discussions on the Holocaust in Bulgaria were held hostage to Cold War dynamics before 1989, only to yield to political and memorial struggles afterwards. Ultimately, she restores Jewish voices to the story of their own wartime suffering. On publication this book is available as an Open Access eBook under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Introduction On the "Rescue of the Jews" and National Exceptionalism: A Riddle of Received Wisdom Knowledge about the Holocaust: Justice, Fiction, and Controversies Contours of an Investigation Nationalizing the Past, Internationally Reassessing the Cold War Era The Way Forward Chapter 1. The Judicial Production of an Account of Anti-Jewish Persecution: The Genesis of a Heroic Narrative Judging in Time of War The (In)visibility of Anti-Jewish Crimes in the "General Trials" The Construction of a Judicial Cause by Bulgarian Communist Jews A Sketch of the Trial Scene Courtroom 11 The Germans, the Fascists, and the "Good People": Drawing the Perimeter of Guilt A Fascist is an Anti-Semite... and Vice Versa The Euphemization of Jewish Suffering The Posterity of the Court: A Central Elision Chapter 2. Deportation of the Jews, from Belomorie to the Screen: Negotiating a "Socialist" Reading of the War Cinemas on Unequal Terms in Bulgaria and East Germany Elusive Presences of the Holocaust on the Screens One Co-production, Two Institutions, Several Agendas Konrad Wolf and Angel Wagenstein, a Dear Friendship Shooting Notes, and Other Digressions Script, Storyboard, and Film: Effects of Cutting and Framing Two Very Different Wars: The Bulgarian Lens Negotiating an East-East Reading of Nazism: German Polychromy? Jewish Fates, in a Minor Key Jewish Passivity: A Question of Gender? Christian Signs forJewish Suffering? A Transnational Symbolic Repertoire Chapter 3. The Deportation of Jews from Northern Greece: The Mysterious Journeys of a 1943 Film Footage Archival Inventories as Texts and Gaze A Film withoutan Author or Instructions? Scrutinizing Frames that Resist Analysis From Visual Document to Legal Evidence: The Beckerle Case Judicial Cooperation between West Germany, the United States, Israel, and Bulgaria: A Tale of the Cold War When Art Meets the Intelligence Community Cultural Diplomacy and the "Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews" The "Rescue" Goes West: Managing Scarcity and Acquisition Competitions Managing Scarcity and Acquisition Competitions Epilogue Chapter 4. Accounts of "Rescue" and Deportation in Dialogue: Memory Controversies after 1989 Bringing Back the Polyphony of the Past: (In)divisible Truths When History takes Center Stage Re-negotiating the Territorial Span of Bulgaria's Historical Narrative Words and Walls of Conflict in Balkan Jewish Communities The "Blagovest Sendov" Affair: A Bulgarian Forest in the (Domestic) Political Arena Dimităr Pešev: A New Topography of Memory Chapter 5. Fruitful Disputes? Transnational Mobilizations and the Institutionalization of a Space of Dissensus Charting a New Historiography Bulgarian-Macedonian Holocaust Controversies When European Institutions Discuss History and Memory Games of Scale, Games of Chess: Debating Bulgaria's Memory Policies Remembering the Holocaust to Fight Anti-Semitism: A Room forConvergence? In the Spotlight of Euro-Atlantic Integration Conclusion Historiographical Disputes What We Talk About When We Talk About the Holocaust Jewish Voices in the Writing of the Past Challenges of the Page: Leafing Through Time, Speaking the Seen Appendix: The March 1943 Deportations from Territories Occupied by Bulgaria Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn March of 1944, at age 10, little Eva was arrested with her entire family, including her twin sister, Miriam, for the "crime" of being Jewish. Nazis loaded Eva and her family into a cattle car with other men, women, and children headed to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Within moments of their arrival, the twins lost their entire family to the gas chambers without a chance to say goodbye. Because twins were considered valuable for research, the girls were spared immediate death by Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor and war criminal, in favor of experimentation and torture. This stunning, heartbreaking illustrated biography tells the story of a tenacious girl's fight to survive a horrific childhood ravaged by tragedy; her growing anger as an adult who settled in Terre Haute, Indiana; and her eventual discovery that forgiveness might just save her life.Trade ReviewThe art is detailed and conveys the terror, grief and fear of the Nazis' victims as well as the depravity of the Nazis themselves. The simple black and white drawings suggest an old movie or a nightmare. Most of the illustrations in the first part of the book are very dark, some with large areas of solid black, especially the illustration of Hitler. This is contrasted by the illustrations in the last part of the book, which have more white space, and many more curves as opposed to the sharp lines and angles of the first section. Readers who enjoyed Art Spiegelman's "Maus," and more recently George Takei's "They Called Us Enemy" or Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis," will also appreciate this book. -- Rebecca Bennett * Austin American-Statesman *This passionately told graphic biography delves into the horrors of the Holocaust twin experiments conducted by Joseph Mengele. . . . [Lee's] dedication to translating Eva's message to comics results in a memorable work that joins a growing chorus of graphic biographies of the Holocaust, one of a survivor speaking out against cruelty and complacency. * Publishers Weekly *Lee's insightful narrative moves us boldly, compellingly, across a century of political and economic turmoil, compelling us to flip back to page one with its stark enumeration of devastation and death of sixteen million. . . . Anyone who hasn't been living under a rock knows about Eva Kor and her journey to be at one with herself through the strength of forgiveness. Lee gets it manifestly right. -- Rita Kohn * NUVO *Every personal, community, college, and university library Holocaust Studies and 20th Century Jewish Biography collection should include a copy of Forgiveness: The Story of Eva Kor, Survivor of The Auschwitz Twin Experiments. * Midwest Book Review *[Lee's] drawings provide visual recreations of scenes that Kor described. Lee turned her words into depictions of the heartbreaking, gut-wrenching moments the Jewish people suffered during the Holocaust. . . . As a graphic novel, Lee's paperback tells the story through the eyes of a child "who suffered only because she was Jewish." Lee condenses the saga into a digestible 120 pages with vivid illustrations and captivating storytelling. -- Mark Bennett * Herald-Times *Joe Lee's book does superb justice to this remarkable woman, keeping Eva's inspiring story, and spirit, alive. -- Beverley Chalmer * Jewish Book Council *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments1. How Could This Happen?2. Portz3. Auschwitz/Birkenau4. The Way Home5. Forgiveness

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Book SynopsisIn 1932, Isay Rottenberg, a Jewish paper merchant, bought a cigar factory in Germany: Deutsche Zigarren-Werke. When his competitors, supported by Nazi authorities, tried to shut it down, the headstrong entrepreneur refused to give up the fight.Isay Rottenberg was born into a large Jewish family in Russian Poland in 1889 and grew up in Lodz. He left for Berlin at the age of eighteen to escape military service, moving again in 1917 to Amsterdam on the occasion of his marriage. In 1932 he moved to Germany to take over a bankrupt cigar factory. With newfangled American technology, it was the most modern at the time. The energetic and ambitious Rottenberg was certain he could bring it back to life, and with newly hired staff of 670 workers, the cigar factory was soon back in business.Six months later, Hitler came to power and the Nazi government forbade the use of machines in the cigar industry so that traditional hand-rollers could be re-employed. That was when the real struggle began. More than six hundred qualified machine workers and engineers would lose their jobs if the factory had to close down. Supported by the local authorities he managed to keep the factory going, but in 1935 he was imprisoned following accusations of fraud. The factory was expropriated by the Deutsche Bank. When he was released six months later thanks to the efforts of the Dutch consul, he brought a lawsuit of his own. His fight for rehabilitation and restitution of his property would continue until Kristallnacht in 1938.The Cigar Factory of Isay Rottenberg is written by two of Rottenberg's granddaughters, who knew little of their grandfather's past growing up in Amsterdam until a call for claims for stolen or confiscated property started them on a journey of discovery.Table of Contents 1. Isay Rottenberg 2. Döbeln Junction 3. Merchant from Amsterdam 4. Krenter’s Rise and Fall 5. The Nazis in Power 6. The Machine Ban 7. A Complaint Filed with the Gestapo 8. German virtue 9. Arbeit und Brot 10. The Workers Reined In 11. Sword and Lightning 12. Münchner Platz 13. Undauntable 14. And then, War DZW under new ownership Sources and bibliography Photo credits List of persons Glossary of terms and abbreviations Family tree Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisA book about bitter fates—both already known and yet to unfold—and the many kinds of organized machinery built to destroy people. Alexander Kluge’s work has long grappled with the Third Reich and its aftermath, and the extermination of the Jews forms its gravitational center. Kluge is forever reminding us to keep our present catastrophes in perspective—“calibrated”—against this historical monstrosity. Kluge’s newest work is a book about bitter fates, both already known and yet to unfold. Above all, it is about the many kinds of organized machinery built to destroy people. These forty-eight stories of justice and injustice are dedicated to the memory of Fritz Bauer, a determined fighter for justice and district attorney of Hesse during the Auschwitz Trials. “The moment they come into existence, monstrous crimes have a unique ability,” Bauer once said, “to ensure their own repetition.” Kluge takes heed, and in these pages reminds us of the importance of keeping our powers of observation and memory razor sharp. Trade Review"A short collection of anecdotes, very short forays, and observations, one that highlights the atrocities of the Holocaust but at the same time highlights how we continue to ignore the warning signs, has history taught humans anything? A collection that reads like forty-eight scraps for potential further investigation by Fritz Bauer." * Messenger's Booker *Table of ContentsN

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Book Synopsis"To this day I am unable to understand how I managed to survive against all odds." So relates the memoir of a young woman, Eva Szek (later Eisenkeit), who survived the Nazi onslaught against Jews in her beloved city of Lublin in Poland, an important centre of Jewish religion and culture. Eva recounts with compelling testimony her fearless fight not to fall into German hands and to save her family. Her experiences under German occupation, her struggle to survive and her subsequent liberation is an historical account of the tragedy of a Jewish community destroyed. The memoir describes Jewish Lublin life before the war, its religious institutions and charities; Polish-Jewish relations; the German bombing and invasion; the Russian escape options; the German occupation and registration of Jews; Eva's escape from the ghetto and two labour camps; her hiding in villages and farms, and complex wartime relations with Poles; her negotiated freedom with Mr. X (a Polish man who hid Jews for money, and cannot be considered a "Righteous"; life in liberated Lublin, including the first Passover celebration; meeting other survivors and trying to make a living; and Eva's postwar move to Lodz and marriage, and then to a Displaced Persons (DP) camp in Germany. As her eighty-fifth birthday approached, Eva asked her daughter Esther to take down her life story "so the whole world will know what the Germans did." A Lublin Survivor: Life is Like a Dream not only provides an extraordinarily complete and descriptive picture of life in pre-war and liberated Lublin but a first-hand account of the obliteration of its Jewish community and one individual's indomitable determination to survive against all odds.

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Book SynopsisEugenio Pacelli, Pius XII, was one of the few unalloyed heroes of World War II. At great Personal risk, he saved some 800,000 Jews from extermination by the Nazis. Jewish refugees were given asylum in the Vatican, swelling the number of Swiss Guards. No allied leader can match his glorious record. Glolda Meir lauded Pius XII after the war, and the chief rabbi of Rome became a Roman Catholic, taking the name of Eugenio in tribute to Eugenio Pacelli. Why then has such a man been vilified and all but accused of being responsible for the Holocaust? Rolf Hochhuth's infamous play, 'The Deputy', marked the turning point. The outrageous distortions of this play turned the greatest friend the Jewish people had during World War II into an anti-Semite. This book restores Pius XII to the rank of hero, demolishes the ludicrous charges against him, and identifies the true target of this infamous calumny: the Church, the papacy, and the Christian moral teaching which confronts and condemns the Culture of Death.

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Book SynopsisOn March 15, 1939, Helen Waldstein’s father snatched his stampedexit visa from a distracted clerk to escape from Prague with his wifeand child. As the Nazis closed in on a war-torn Czechoslovakia, onlyletters from their extended family could reach Canada through thebarriers of conflict. The Waldstein family received these letters asthey made their lives on a southern Ontario farm, where they learned tobe Canadian and forget their Jewish roots. Helen Waldstein read these letters as an adult – this changedeverything. As her past refused to keep silent, Helen followed thetrail of the letters back to Europe, where she discovered livingwitnesses who could attest to the letters’ contents. She has hereinterwoven their stories and her own into a compelling narrative ofsuffering, survivor guilt, and overcoming intergenerational obstacleswhen exploring a traumatic past.Table of ContentsForeword Preface Acknowledgements Map Family Tree Opening the Box Leaving Home Letters to Antwerp Starting Over Letters to Canada Searching In Europe: 1997–1998 My Aunts and Uncles My Grandparents War Breaks Out The Family Copes The Letters Stop Imagining After the War Finding Home Searching for Family Again Searching for Family One Last Time Epilogue Endnotes Selected Bibliography

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Book SynopsisPlanet Auschwitz explores the diverse ways in which the Holocaust influences and shapes science fiction and horror film and television by focusing on notable contributions from the last fifty years. The supernatural and extraterrestrial are rich and complex spaces with which to examine important Holocaust themes - trauma, guilt, grief, ideological fervor and perversion, industrialized killing, and the dangerous afterlife of Nazism after World War II. Planet Auschwitz explores why the Holocaust continues to set the standard for horror in the modern era and asks if the Holocaust is imaginable here on Earth, at least by those who perpetrated it, why not in a galaxy far, far away? The pervasive use of Holocaust imagery and plotlines in horror and science fiction reflects both our preoccupation with its enduring trauma and our persistent need to “work through” its many legacies.Planet Auschwitz website (https://planetauschwitz.com) Trade Review"A great text....original in scale and scope." -- Jonathan C. Friedman * author of The History of Genocide in Cinema: Atrocities on Screen *Compelling and persuasively argued ... shows the extent to which Holocaust ideas and images have crept into popular horror and science fiction film and TV. -- Oren Baruch Stier * author of Holocaust Icons: Symbolizing the Shoah in History and Memory *"In this deeply researched and insightful study, Crim lucidly reveals how the Nazi genocide has left an indelible and often unsettling mark on American popular culture." -- Gavriel Rosenfeld * author of Hi Hitler! How the Nazi Past Is Being Normalized in Contemporary Culture *"The industrialized murder of the Shoah, forever associated with concentration camps during World War II, was coined with the term Planet Auschwitz as another world, but is hardly imaginable for younger generations. Brian E. Crim explains astutely how the ripple effect of the Holocaust resonates in American popular culture, especially in the genres of Science Fiction and Horror. This book studies the imagery that persists in visual media but avoids the normalization of the genocide. It keeps the study of the Holocaust alive to guarantee that the “torrent of testimony” will not perish with the last witnesses." -- Karen A. Ritzenhoff * Co-editor of New Perspectives on the War Film *"History professor writes about life on ‘Planet Auschwitz’" https://www.lynchburg.edu/news/2020/04/history-professor-writes-about-life-on-planet-auschwitz/?fbclid=IwAR38ua3a_14Gehg9cY2D7Xi9JzHCfSyTFaUlARdIVemESFGuIsWId20uFQ0 * University of Lynchburg *"Planet Auschwitz: Holocaust Representation in Science Fiction and Horror Film and Television" interview with Brian Crim https://newbooksnetwork.com/brian-crim-planet-auschwitz-holocaust-representation-in-science-fiction-and-horror-film-and-television-rutgers-up-2020/ * New Books Network - New Books in German Studies *"Crim contributes to the scholarship exploring how the Holocaust has filtered down and across popular culture, leaving its trace in numerous ways. His focus is on how it has influenced and shaped science fiction and horror film and television over the past half-century but particularly over the past 20 years." * Times Higher Education *"Crim offers an engaging interdisciplinary consideration of the Holocaust in horror and science fiction. Across chapters, this book engages with many primary film and television sources [and] supplies an excellent resource for identifying media imprinted by the legacy of the Holocaust." * Journal of Popular Culture Review *"Crim provides a valuable contribution to Holocaust scholars by having us pay attention to metaphorical representations in works of horror and science fiction." * Central European History *"Planet Auschwitz ends on a strong note. The book’s deceptively simple premise –reading sf and horror for Holocaust metaphor –reveals its complex layers piece by piece as it goes on, showing how film and television reflect the enduring influence of the Holocaust in the psyche of Western society." * Science Fiction Film and Television *"His research is up-to-date and meticulous, demonstrating his long familiarity with the complexities and vicissitudes of modern German culture." * SFRA Review *"A great text....original in scale and scope." -- Jonathan C. Friedman * author of The History of Genocide in Cinema: Atrocities on Screen *Compelling and persuasively argued ... shows the extent to which Holocaust ideas and images have crept into popular horror and science fiction film and TV. -- Oren Baruch Stier * author of Holocaust Icons: Symbolizing the Shoah in History and Memory *"In this deeply researched and insightful study, Crim lucidly reveals how the Nazi genocide has left an indelible and often unsettling mark on American popular culture." -- Gavriel Rosenfeld * author of Hi Hitler! How the Nazi Past Is Being Normalized in Contemporary Culture *"The industrialized murder of the Shoah, forever associated with concentration camps during World War II, was coined with the term Planet Auschwitz as another world, but is hardly imaginable for younger generations. Brian E. Crim explains astutely how the ripple effect of the Holocaust resonates in American popular culture, especially in the genres of Science Fiction and Horror. This book studies the imagery that persists in visual media but avoids the normalization of the genocide. It keeps the study of the Holocaust alive to guarantee that the “torrent of testimony” will not perish with the last witnesses." -- Karen A. Ritzenhoff * Co-editor of New Perspectives on the War Film *"History professor writes about life on ‘Planet Auschwitz’" https://www.lynchburg.edu/news/2020/04/history-professor-writes-about-life-on-planet-auschwitz/?fbclid=IwAR38ua3a_14Gehg9cY2D7Xi9JzHCfSyTFaUlARdIVemESFGuIsWId20uFQ0 * University of Lynchburg *"Planet Auschwitz: Holocaust Representation in Science Fiction and Horror Film and Television" interview with Brian Crim https://newbooksnetwork.com/brian-crim-planet-auschwitz-holocaust-representation-in-science-fiction-and-horror-film-and-television-rutgers-up-2020/ * New Books Network - New Books in German Studies *"Crim contributes to the scholarship exploring how the Holocaust has filtered down and across popular culture, leaving its trace in numerous ways. His focus is on how it has influenced and shaped science fiction and horror film and television over the past half-century but particularly over the past 20 years." * Times Higher Education *"Crim offers an engaging interdisciplinary consideration of the Holocaust in horror and science fiction. Across chapters, this book engages with many primary film and television sources [and] supplies an excellent resource for identifying media imprinted by the legacy of the Holocaust." * Journal of Popular Culture Review *"Crim provides a valuable contribution to Holocaust scholars by having us pay attention to metaphorical representations in works of horror and science fiction." * Central European History *"Planet Auschwitz ends on a strong note. The book’s deceptively simple premise –reading sf and horror for Holocaust metaphor –reveals its complex layers piece by piece as it goes on, showing how film and television reflect the enduring influence of the Holocaust in the psyche of Western society." * Science Fiction Film and Television *"His research is up-to-date and meticulous, demonstrating his long familiarity with the complexities and vicissitudes of modern German culture." * SFRA Review *Table of ContentsContents List of Images Introduction 1 From Muselmann to “Walker”: Holocaust Imagery in the Zombie Genre 2 Silent Screams: Representing Trauma and Grief in The Pawnbroker and The Leftovers 3 Nazi Monsters and the Return of History 4 The View from Hell: Demons, Antichrists and the Persistence of Evil after the Holocaust 5 “A World That Works”: Astrofascism Across Time and Space 6 “All of this has happened before”: Cyborgs, Humans, and the Question of Genocide Conclusion Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisNobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer once described Dr. Leon Thorne’s memoir as a work of “bitter truth” that he compared favorably to the works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Proust. Out of print for over forty years, this lost classic of Holocaust literature now reappears in a revised, annotated edition, including both Thorne’s original 1961 memoir Out of the Ashes: The Story of a Survivor and his previously unpublished accounts of his arduous postwar experiences in Germany and Poland. Rabbi Thorne composed his memoir under extraordinary conditions, confined to a small underground bunker below a Polish peasant’s pigsty. But, It Will Yet Be Heard is remarkable not only for the story of its composition, but also for its moral clarity and complexity. A deeply religious man, Rabbi Thorne bore witness to forced labor camps, human degradation, and the murders of entire communities. And once he emerged from hiding, he grappled not only with survivor’s guilt, but also with the lingering antisemitism and anti-Jewish violence in Poland even after the war ended. Harrowing, moving, and deeply insightful, Rabbi Thorne’s firsthand account offers a rediscovered perspective on the twentieth century’s greatest tragedy. Trade Review"[This] is a tremendous document of the Jewish Holocaust, written from someone who experienced the worst but came out intact, not only physically but also spiritually." -- Isaac Bashevis Singer * winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature *"This remarkable and moving autobiography, here published for the first time in full in English, gives a vivid and unsparing account of the miraculous survival of a young rabbi, from the oil town of Schodnica, near Drohobych, in Galicia, during the Nazi occupation and his travails in Poland after liberation. It is essential reading for all those interested in the history of the holocaust and of Polish-Jewish relations." -- Antony Polonsky * emeritus professor, Brandeis University and chief historian, Museum of Polish Jews in Warsaw *"Leon Thorne has given us an important Holocaust memoir. His extensive Rabbinic and secular education allowed him to evaluate the larger historical and ethical aspects of the Jewish tragedy, whereas his uncommon narrative talent emerge in a wide range of fascinating individual stories. Never sentimental or self-pitying, Rabbi Thorne writes as both victim and witness. Of particular significance is the narration of the aftermath of the war. Thorne’s vivid account of the terrifying odyssey from devastated Poland to the American Zone sheds light on this little known chapter in the history of Jewish survivors." -- Rachel F. Brenner * Max and Frieda Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Wisconsin *"Leon Thorne’s fascinating and moving memoir—written in part during a year of hiding in a cellar and expanded not long after—recounts the experiences of an individual and several communities with a powerful abundance of detail. It Will Yet Be Heard is a major contribution to studies of the Holocaust and the immediate post-Holocaust era in Poland. Rutgers has done well to restore this document for a new generation of readers." -- Meri-Jane Rochelson * author of Eli's Story: A Twentieth-Century Jewish Life *"This book is at once a testament to the resurrection of the Holy Remnant in the State of Israel and a summons to its readers to engage in that testimony. Written in the masterful style of an accomplished storyteller, it will be an important addition to any library on the Holocaust and the Jewish people." * Holocaust and Genocide Studies *"Thorne’s memoir brings a vision of the Holocaust that (to a degree) has been suppressed. Few realize just how personal, local, intimate, and relational the Holocaust was in West Ukraine. Every death was someone’s sister, daughter, cousin, friend, and partner. The theory of Nazi killing as 'cogs in a machine' is disputed in every page....It Will Yet Be Heard adds an essential voice to what is now a pretty crowded genre, but its wisdom warrants remembering: the people involved knew one another and in many cases knew one another very well." * The Polish Review *Table of ContentsTable of Contents Epigraph Dedication Contents Introduction “Out of the Ashes” by Yitzhok Varshavski (Isaac Bashevis Singer), Forverts Newspaper, August 20, 1961 Author’s Preface Part I 1. The Cellar 2. Schodnica 3. Sambor 4. An Act of Defiance 5. The Storm 6. Janover Camp 7. Clean Rags for Dirty Ones 8. Even the Dead Are Not Immune 9. Escape to the Lemberg Ghetto 10. In the Ghetto 11. Black Thursday 12. Despair in the Jewish Quarter 13. The Poor Cannot Afford Suicide 14. The Situation of the Christians 15. In the Shadow of Death 16. The Executions 17. Last Days of the Sambor Ghetto 18. The Last Days of the Drohobycz Ghetto 19. The Camp 20. Hyrawka 21. Why There Was No Resistance 22. Naftali Backenroth 23. Beginning of the End Part II 1. August 1944 2. Can These Bones Live? 3. A Jewish Chaplain in the Polish Army 4. Breslau Revisited 5. Fishke, My Rescuer 6. A Rabbi at Work 7. No. 6 Tannenbaum Street 8. The Żydowica’s Story 9. My Farewell to Poland 10. Arrest in Dresden 11. Our Return to Poland 12. Breslau Again 13. The Story of Simon Becker 14. A Reunion Aboard a Train 15. A Narrow Escape 16. Our Second Exodus from Poland 17. We Go Free Afterword About the Contributors Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisIn Holocaust Graphic Narratives, Victoria Aarons demonstrates the range and fluidity of this richly figured genre. Employing memory as her controlling trope, Aarons analyzes the work of the graphic novelists and illustrators, making clear how they extend the traumatic narrative of the Holocaust into the present and, in doing so, give voice to survival in the wake of unrecoverable loss. In recreating moments of traumatic rupture, dislocation, and disequilibrium, these graphic narratives contribute to the evolving field of Holocaust representation and establish a new canon of visual memory. The intergenerational dialogue established by Aarons’ reading of these narratives speaks to the on-going obligation to bear witness to the Holocaust. Examined together, these intergenerational works bridge the erosions created by time and distance. As a genre of witnessing, these graphic stories, in retracing the traumatic tracks of memory, inscribe the weight of history on generations that follow. Trade Review"Aarons has made a significant contribution to the discourse surrounding graphic narratives dealing with the Shoah. Her discussion of the relationship between word and image is always enlightening...Aarons has offered her readers an intellectual road map with which to read the ever-increasing number of third- and—as the prophet Joel foretold—soon-to-be fourth-generation of Holocaust graphic narratives."— Shofar "Holocaust Graphic Narratives brims with shrewd perceptions, making a necessary case for the significance of this formerly marginalized medium in its grappling with the impossible task of remembrance."— Philip Roth Studies "Holocaust Graphic Narratives is a thoroughly engaging exploration of the history and memory, with applications far beyond comic studies. In what should become a commonly assigned and suggested text, Aarons opens the doors to new ways of approaching the act of bearing witness through graphic narratives."— Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics "[Aaron's] use of memory as a lens and her selection of contemporary graphic narratives make this an insightful and important exploration of the ways in which the medium of the graphic novel is ideally suited for examining the Holocaust and other such complex narratives. Highly recommended."— Choice This is the book that many of us have been waiting for. Aarons's brilliant book offers readers genuinely exciting theoretical and deeply revelatory close explorations of both image and language in a wide range of Holocaust graphic narratives. The author's critical insights into the profound intersectionality of modern Jewish identity, language, memory, modern midrash and testimony are dazzlingly sophisticated, her prose always lucid and appealing. This nuanced and pathbreaking study should be at the top of the list for anyone curious about how graphic artists explore their subjectivities in relation to the weight of painful history; Aarons provides a truly essential resource for classrooms and scholars of the Holocaust as well as intergenerational trauma and commemoration in a wide variety of contexts.— Ranen Omer-Sherman, author of Imagining the Kibbutz: Visions of Utopia in Literature & Film "Holocaust Graphic Novels is a gem. The author is a master of her subject, discussing the many contributions made by graphic Holocaust novels with great erudition. In Aarons' intelligent and insightful readings, the caesura induced by the Shoah continues to send intergenerational psychological shock waves." — Alan Berger, author of Children of Job: American Second-Generation Witnesses to the Holocaust "Aarons shows how the graphic novel’s rich juxtapositions of text and image extends the monumental arc of the Holocaust’s photographic legacy from the immutable past into the subjective and ever-evolving present." — H-Net "Holocaust Graphic Narratives offers a brilliant analysis of central, representative works that have appeared in the wake of Spiegelman’s Maus and provides a vital way for us to re-envision the landscape of post-Holocaust testimony."— Eric Sundquist, author of Strangers in the Land: Blacks, Jews, Post-Holocaust AmericaTable of ContentsContents Acknowledgments Introduction: Holocaust Graphic Narratives: Visual Testimonies of Memory 1 The Performance of Memory: Miriam Katin’s We Are On Our Own, A Child Survivor’s (Auto)Biographical Memoir 2 Memory Frames: Mendel’s Daughter, A Second-Generation Perspective 3 “Replacing absence with memory”: Bernice Eisenstein’s Graphic Memoir I Was the Child of Holocaust Survivors 4 Flying Couch: A Third-Generation Tapestry of Memory 5 Yossel: April 19, 1943: Possible Histories 6 Visual Landscapes of Memory: Fracturing Time and Space Epilogue: An Inheritance of Memory Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisIn Holocaust Graphic Narratives, Victoria Aarons demonstrates the range and fluidity of this richly figured genre. Employing memory as her controlling trope, Aarons analyzes the work of the graphic novelists and illustrators, making clear how they extend the traumatic narrative of the Holocaust into the present and, in doing so, give voice to survival in the wake of unrecoverable loss. In recreating moments of traumatic rupture, dislocation, and disequilibrium, these graphic narratives contribute to the evolving field of Holocaust representation and establish a new canon of visual memory. The intergenerational dialogue established by Aarons’ reading of these narratives speaks to the on-going obligation to bear witness to the Holocaust. Examined together, these intergenerational works bridge the erosions created by time and distance. As a genre of witnessing, these graphic stories, in retracing the traumatic tracks of memory, inscribe the weight of history on generations that follow. Trade Review"Aarons has made a significant contribution to the discourse surrounding graphic narratives dealing with the Shoah. Her discussion of the relationship between word and image is always enlightening...Aarons has offered her readers an intellectual road map with which to read the ever-increasing number of third- and—as the prophet Joel foretold—soon-to-be fourth-generation of Holocaust graphic narratives."— Shofar "Holocaust Graphic Narratives brims with shrewd perceptions, making a necessary case for the significance of this formerly marginalized medium in its grappling with the impossible task of remembrance."— Philip Roth Studies "Holocaust Graphic Narratives is a thoroughly engaging exploration of the history and memory, with applications far beyond comic studies. In what should become a commonly assigned and suggested text, Aarons opens the doors to new ways of approaching the act of bearing witness through graphic narratives."— Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics "[Aaron's] use of memory as a lens and her selection of contemporary graphic narratives make this an insightful and important exploration of the ways in which the medium of the graphic novel is ideally suited for examining the Holocaust and other such complex narratives. Highly recommended."— Choice This is the book that many of us have been waiting for. Aarons's brilliant book offers readers genuinely exciting theoretical and deeply revelatory close explorations of both image and language in a wide range of Holocaust graphic narratives. The author's critical insights into the profound intersectionality of modern Jewish identity, language, memory, modern midrash and testimony are dazzlingly sophisticated, her prose always lucid and appealing. This nuanced and pathbreaking study should be at the top of the list for anyone curious about how graphic artists explore their subjectivities in relation to the weight of painful history; Aarons provides a truly essential resource for classrooms and scholars of the Holocaust as well as intergenerational trauma and commemoration in a wide variety of contexts.— Ranen Omer-Sherman, author of Imagining the Kibbutz: Visions of Utopia in Literature & Film "Holocaust Graphic Novels is a gem. The author is a master of her subject, discussing the many contributions made by graphic Holocaust novels with great erudition. In Aarons' intelligent and insightful readings, the caesura induced by the Shoah continues to send intergenerational psychological shock waves." — Alan Berger, author of Children of Job: American Second-Generation Witnesses to the Holocaust "Aarons shows how the graphic novel’s rich juxtapositions of text and image extends the monumental arc of the Holocaust’s photographic legacy from the immutable past into the subjective and ever-evolving present." — H-Net "Holocaust Graphic Narratives offers a brilliant analysis of central, representative works that have appeared in the wake of Spiegelman’s Maus and provides a vital way for us to re-envision the landscape of post-Holocaust testimony."— Eric Sundquist, author of Strangers in the Land: Blacks, Jews, Post-Holocaust AmericaTable of ContentsContents Acknowledgments Introduction: Holocaust Graphic Narratives: Visual Testimonies of Memory 1 The Performance of Memory: Miriam Katin’s We Are On Our Own, A Child Survivor’s (Auto)Biographical Memoir 2 Memory Frames: Mendel’s Daughter, A Second-Generation Perspective 3 “Replacing absence with memory”: Bernice Eisenstein’s Graphic Memoir I Was the Child of Holocaust Survivors 4 Flying Couch: A Third-Generation Tapestry of Memory 5 Yossel: April 19, 1943: Possible Histories 6 Visual Landscapes of Memory: Fracturing Time and Space Epilogue: An Inheritance of Memory Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisDiaries, testimonies and memoirs of the Holocaust often include at least as much on the family as on the individual. Victims of the Nazi regime experienced oppression and made decisions embedded within families. Even after the war, sole survivors often described their losses and rebuilt their lives with a distinct focus on family. Yet this perspective is lacking in academic analyses. In this work, scholars from the United States, Israel, and across Europe bring a variety of backgrounds and disciplines to their study of the Holocaust and its aftermath from the family perspective. Drawing on research from Belarus to Great Britain, and examining both Jewish and Romani families, they demonstrate the importance of recognizing how people continued to function within family units—broadly defined—throughout the war and afterward.Trade Review"Charting how both Jewish and Romani families dealt with Nazi persecution, this volume offers a long-overdue and innovative attempt to integrate the histories of these two racially persecuted groups." -- Ari Joskowicz * author of The Modernity of Others: Jewish Anti-Catholicism in Germany and France *In an innovatively comparative and integrated framework, the diverse contributions to this groundbreaking volume examine the variety of intimate ties that Jews and Roma built and broke in their efforts to survive the onslaught of the Holocaust. This outstanding book should top the reading list of anyone interested in the effects of genocide on the most fundamental of human relationships. -- Benjamin Frommer * co-editor of Intermarriage from Central Europe to Central Asia: Mixed Families in the Age of Extreme *Table of ContentsContents Introduction: Why the Family? Kateřina Čapková and Eliyana R. Adler Part 1 - Family in Times of Genocide The Romani Family before and during the Holocaust - How Much do We Know? An Ethnographic-Historical Study in the Belarusian-Lithuanian Border Region Volha Bartash Separation and Divorce in the Łódź and Warsaw Ghettos Michal Unger Narrating Daily Family Life in Ghettos under Nazi Occupation: Concepts and Dilemmas Dalia Ofer Uneasy Bonds: On Jews in Hiding and the Making of Surrogate Families Natalia Aleksiun Part II - Intervention of Institutions Siblings in the Holocaust and its Aftermath in France and the United States: Rethinking the “Holocaust Orphan”? Laura Hobson Faure The Impact of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s Aid Strategy on the Lives of Jewish Families in Hungary, 1945–49 Viktória Bányai ‘For Your Benefit’: Military Marriage Policies, European Jewish War Brides, and the Centrality of Family, 1944–1950 Robin Judd Part III - Rebuilding the Family after the Holocaust ‘Returning to Normality?’: The Struggle of Sinti and Roma Survivors to Rebuild a Life in Postwar Germany Anja Reuss ‘I Could Never Forget What They’d Done to My Father’: The Absence and Presence of Holocaust Memory in a Family’s Letter Collection Joachim Schlör ‘Looking for a Nice Jewish girl ...’: Personal Ads and the Creation of Jewish Families in Germany before and after the Holocaust Sarah E. Wobick-Segev The Postwar Migration of Romani Families from Slovakia to the Bohemian Lands: A Complex Legacy of War and Genocide in Czechoslovakia Helena Sadílková Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2020 Ernst Fraenkel Prize from the Wiener Holocaust Library Jewish Childhood in Kraków is the first book to tell the history of Kraków in the second World War through the lens of Jewish children’s experiences. Here, children assume center stage as historical actors whose recollections and experiences deserve to be told, analyzed, and treated seriously. Sliwa scours archives to tell their story, gleaning evidence from the records of the German authorities, Polish neighbors, Jewish community and family, and the children themselves to explore the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland and in Kraków in particular. A microhistory of a place, a people, and daily life, this book plumbs the decisions and behaviors of ordinary people in extraordinary times. Offering a window onto human relations and ethnic tensions in times of rampant violence, Jewish Childhood in Kraków is an effort both to understand the past and to reflect on the position of young people during humanitarian crises.Trade Review"Sliwa’s book is an essential contribution to Holocaust scholarship, but even more significantly, she offers us the opportunity to learn about children’s experiences, which often are absent from Holocaust literature. Their concealed presence, which Sliwa spends so much time discussing, is precisely what makes it difficult to tell their stories. But Sliwa’s persistence and ability to dig through a multitude of sources to find even the smallest pieces of information resulted in this remarkable account that will hopefully encourage future scholars to explore the experiences of children in other parts of Poland and Europe." — Rachel Rothstein, H-Poland "A well-researched book. An important addition to Holocaust literature."— Jan T. Gross, author of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland "Joanna Sliwa offers a nuanced and compelling picture of what it meant to grow up Jewish under the German occupation of Kraków, one of the oldest Jewish communities in Poland. By giving voice to Jewish children and their fears, heartbreaks, loss, and survival, she allows readers to learn of children’s vulnerability and resilience, agency and helplessness firsthand. These voices will become central to the ways we think about Jewish children’s experiences during the Holocaust."— Natalia Aleksiun, author of Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust :This well researched book on the history of Jewish Childhood in Kraków will become a standard work on the subject, inviting other scholars to investigate Jewish childhood in other ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe.:— Joanna Beata Michlic, author of Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the PresentTable of ContentsNote on Terminology Introduction 1 Navigating Shifts in the City 2 Adapting to Life inside the Ghetto 3 Clandestine Activities 4 Child Welfare 5 Concealed Presence in the Camp 6 Survival through Hiding and Flight Epilogue Acknowledgments Abbreviations Used in Notes Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2020 Ernst Fraenkel Prize from the Wiener Holocaust Library​Jewish Childhood in Kraków is the first book to tell the history of Kraków in the second World War through the lens of Jewish children’s experiences. Here, children assume center stage as historical actors whose recollections and experiences deserve to be told, analyzed, and treated seriously. Sliwa scours archives to tell their story, gleaning evidence from the records of the German authorities, Polish neighbors, Jewish community and family, and the children themselves to explore the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland and in Kraków in particular. A microhistory of a place, a people, and daily life, this book plumbs the decisions and behaviors of ordinary people in extraordinary times. Offering a window onto human relations and ethnic tensions in times of rampant violence, Jewish Childhood in Kraków is an effort both to understand the past and to reflect on the position of young people during humanitarian crises.Trade Review"A well-researched book. An important addition to Holocaust literature." -- Jan T. Gross * author of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland *:This well researched book on the history of Jewish Childhood in Kraków will become a standard work on the subject, inviting other scholars to investigate Jewish childhood in other ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe.: -- Joanna Beata Michlic * author of Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present *"Joanna Sliwa offers a nuanced and compelling picture of what it meant to grow up Jewish under the German occupation of Kraków, one of the oldest Jewish communities in Poland. By giving voice to Jewish children and their fears, heartbreaks, loss, and survival, she allows readers to learn of children’s vulnerability and resilience, agency and helplessness firsthand. These voices will become central to the ways we think about Jewish children’s experiences during the Holocaust." -- Natalia Aleksiun * author of Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust *"A well-researched book. An important addition to Holocaust literature." -- Jan T. Gross * author of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland *:This well researched book on the history of Jewish Childhood in Kraków will become a standard work on the subject, inviting other scholars to investigate Jewish childhood in other ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe.: -- Joanna Beata Michlic * author of Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present *"Joanna Sliwa offers a nuanced and compelling picture of what it meant to grow up Jewish under the German occupation of Kraków, one of the oldest Jewish communities in Poland. By giving voice to Jewish children and their fears, heartbreaks, loss, and survival, she allows readers to learn of children’s vulnerability and resilience, agency and helplessness firsthand. These voices will become central to the ways we think about Jewish children’s experiences during the Holocaust." -- Natalia Aleksiun * author of Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust *"Sliwa’s book is an essential contribution to Holocaust scholarship, but even more significantly, she offers us the opportunity to learn about children’s experiences, which often are absent from Holocaust literature. Their concealed presence, which Sliwa spends so much time discussing, is precisely what makes it difficult to tell their stories. But Sliwa’s persistence and ability to dig through a multitude of sources to find even the smallest pieces of information resulted in this remarkable account that will hopefully encourage future scholars to explore the experiences of children in other parts of Poland and Europe." -- Rachel Rothstein * H-Poland *Table of ContentsNote on Terminology Introduction 1 Navigating Shifts in the City 2 Adapting to Life inside the Ghetto 3 Clandestine Activities 4 Child Welfare 5 Concealed Presence in the Camp 6 Survival through Hiding and Flight Epilogue Acknowledgments Abbreviations Used in Notes Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisMost of the roughly 140,000 Holocaust survivors who came to the United States in the first decade after World War II settled in big cities such as New York. But a few thousand chose an alternative way of life on American farms. More of these accidental farmers wound up raising chickens in southern New Jersey than anywhere else. Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is the first book to chronicle this little-known chapter in American Jewish history when these mostly Eastern European refugees – including the author’s grandparents - found an unlikely refuge and gateway to new lives in the US on poultry farms. They gravitated to a section of south Jersey anchored by Vineland, a small rural city where previous waves of Jewish immigrants had built a rich network of cultural and religious institutions. This book relies on interviews with dozens of these refugee farmers and their children, as well as oral histories and archival records to tell how they learned to farm while coping with unimaginable grief. They built small synagogues within walking distance of their farms and hosted Yiddish cultural events more frequently found on the Lower East Side than perhaps anywhere else in rural America at the time. Like refugees today, they embraced their new American identities and enriched the community where they settled, working hard in unfamiliar jobs for often meager returns. Within a decade, falling egg prices and the rise of industrial-scale agriculture in the South would drive almost all of these novice poultry farmers out of business, many into bankruptcy. Some hated every minute here; others would remember their time on south Jersey farms as their best years in America. They enjoyed a quieter way of life and more space for themselves and their children than in the crowded New York City apartments where so many displaced persons settled. This is their remarkable story of loss, renewal, and perseverance in the most unexpected of settings.Author Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/YiddishtoChickens) Trade Review"I grew up Jewish on a chicken farm. This book gets it right...Stern not only pinpoints the economic hardships and social dislocation the survivors experienced...The beauty of Speaking Yiddish to Chickens lies in Stern’s skill at conveying the ups and downs of some 1,000 survivors, each with their unique hardscrabble story." -- Barbara Finkelstein * The Forward *"Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is much more than one man’s story about his grandparents. Stern’s journalistic expertise allows him to broaden his scope, deftly layering different perspectives and narratives throughout the book." -- Rokhl Kafrissen * Tablet *"Seth Stern has cre­at­ed a nuanced, sen­si­tive, and even affec­tion­ate account of an impor­tant, albeit neglect­ed, out­growth of the Jew­ish dias­po­ra in North Amer­i­ca. It will be of great inter­est to any­one who has a per­son­al, social, or aca­d­e­m­ic inter­est in the post­war peri­od, oral his­to­ry, and/or post-Holo­caust immigration." * Jewish Book Council *“Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is attentive to the ways in which Holocaust survivors who took up poultry farming in Vineland built upon the achievements of their Jewish predecessors. Stern's individual stories are easy to follow, upbeat, and colorful. Stern is a seasoned and skilled journalist.” -- Ellen Eisenberg * author of Jewish Agricultural Colonies in New Jersey, 1882-1920 *“Seth Stern skillfully brings to life a remarkable chapter in the little-known history of modern Jewish farming in the Diaspora. Lovingly written, Speaking Yiddish to Chickens travels with Stern’s grandparents and other European Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust to new lives in and around Vineland, New Jersey’s poultry farms, where these survivors healed their wounds and embarked upon their American journeys. Through meticulous research, Stern captures the extraordinary cooperation between the American government, Jewish philanthropic agencies, and the farmers themselves who made this bold experiment possible.” -- Jonathan Dekel-Chen * author of Farming the Red Land: Jewish Agricultural Colonization and Local Soviet Power, 1924–1941 *Table of ContentsAuthor’s Note Prologue 1 Passage 2 New York 3 Finding a Farm 4 Settling In 5 Small-Town Jews 6 Word-of-Mouth Migration 7 Mixed Reception 8 Getting Noticed 9 Vicissitudes 10 Comfort Zones 11 Community Building 12 New Connections 13 Family and Friends 14 Downturn 15 Rural Childhoods 16 Hurricanes 17 Coping 18 Grief and Faith 19 Feed Men and a Record-Breaking Hen 20 Laborers 21 The Golden Egg 22 Seeking Help 23 Alternative Livelihoods 24 Teenagers 25 Valedictory 26 After Farming Postscript Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisMost of the roughly 140,000 Holocaust survivors who came to the United States in the first decade after World War II settled in big cities such as New York. But a few thousand chose an alternative way of life on American farms. More of these accidental farmers wound up raising chickens in southern New Jersey than anywhere else. Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is the first book to chronicle this little-known chapter in American Jewish history when these mostly Eastern European refugees – including the author’s grandparents - found an unlikely refuge and gateway to new lives in the US on poultry farms. They gravitated to a section of south Jersey anchored by Vineland, a small rural city where previous waves of Jewish immigrants had built a rich network of cultural and religious institutions. This book relies on interviews with dozens of these refugee farmers and their children, as well as oral histories and archival records to tell how they learned to farm while coping with unimaginable grief. They built small synagogues within walking distance of their farms and hosted Yiddish cultural events more frequently found on the Lower East Side than perhaps anywhere else in rural America at the time. Like refugees today, they embraced their new American identities and enriched the community where they settled, working hard in unfamiliar jobs for often meager returns. Within a decade, falling egg prices and the rise of industrial-scale agriculture in the South would drive almost all of these novice poultry farmers out of business, many into bankruptcy. Some hated every minute here; others would remember their time on south Jersey farms as their best years in America. They enjoyed a quieter way of life and more space for themselves and their children than in the crowded New York City apartments where so many displaced persons settled. This is their remarkable story of loss, renewal, and perseverance in the most unexpected of settings.Author Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/YiddishtoChickens) Trade Review"I grew up Jewish on a chicken farm. This book gets it right...Stern not only pinpoints the economic hardships and social dislocation the survivors experienced...The beauty of Speaking Yiddish to Chickens lies in Stern’s skill at conveying the ups and downs of some 1,000 survivors, each with their unique hardscrabble story." -- Barbara Finkelstein * The Forward *"Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is much more than one man’s story about his grandparents. Stern’s journalistic expertise allows him to broaden his scope, deftly layering different perspectives and narratives throughout the book." -- Rokhl Kafrissen * Tablet *"Seth Stern has cre­at­ed a nuanced, sen­si­tive, and even affec­tion­ate account of an impor­tant, albeit neglect­ed, out­growth of the Jew­ish dias­po­ra in North Amer­i­ca. It will be of great inter­est to any­one who has a per­son­al, social, or aca­d­e­m­ic inter­est in the post­war peri­od, oral his­to­ry, and/or post-Holo­caust immigration." * Jewish Book Council *“Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is attentive to the ways in which Holocaust survivors who took up poultry farming in Vineland built upon the achievements of their Jewish predecessors. Stern's individual stories are easy to follow, upbeat, and colorful. Stern is a seasoned and skilled journalist.” -- Ellen Eisenberg * author of Jewish Agricultural Colonies in New Jersey, 1882-1920 *“Seth Stern skillfully brings to life a remarkable chapter in the little-known history of modern Jewish farming in the Diaspora. Lovingly written, Speaking Yiddish to Chickens travels with Stern’s grandparents and other European Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust to new lives in and around Vineland, New Jersey’s poultry farms, where these survivors healed their wounds and embarked upon their American journeys. Through meticulous research, Stern captures the extraordinary cooperation between the American government, Jewish philanthropic agencies, and the farmers themselves who made this bold experiment possible.” -- Jonathan Dekel-Chen * author of Farming the Red Land: Jewish Agricultural Colonization and Local Soviet Power, 1924–1941 *Table of ContentsAuthor’s Note Prologue 1 Passage 2 New York 3 Finding a Farm 4 Settling In 5 Small-Town Jews 6 Word-of-Mouth Migration 7 Mixed Reception 8 Getting Noticed 9 Vicissitudes 10 Comfort Zones 11 Community Building 12 New Connections 13 Family and Friends 14 Downturn 15 Rural Childhoods 16 Hurricanes 17 Coping 18 Grief and Faith 19 Feed Men and a Record-Breaking Hen 20 Laborers 21 The Golden Egg 22 Seeking Help 23 Alternative Livelihoods 24 Teenagers 25 Valedictory 26 After Farming Postscript Acknowledgments Notes Index

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