The Holocaust Books

Book SynopsisA total of 160,000 people, a mix of résistants and Jews, were deported from France to camps in Central and Eastern Europe during the Second World War. In this compelling new study, Philip Nord addresses how the Deportation, as it came to be known, was remembered after the war and how Deportation memory from the very outset, became politicized against the backdrop of changing domestic and international contexts. He shows how the Deportation generated competing narratives Jewish, Catholic, Communist, and Gaullist and analyzes the stories told by and about deportees after the war and how these stories were given form in literature, art, film, monuments, and ceremonials.Trade Review'American historians of France strike again, as Philip Nord has powerfully unsettled our history. His book explains the evolving memories of resistance heroes and martyrs and victims of the Holocaust with unmatched political, intellectual, cultural and artistic subtlety.' Annette Becker, author of Messengers of Disaster: Raphael Lemkin, Jan Karski and Genocides'After Auschwitz, French survivors wrote poetry – and they staged plays, published memoirs, and built monuments – hoping to awaken minds and consign fascist barbarism to the past. In this riveting work, Nord brings their desperate efforts to life, and he does so with a moral urgency that is rare in any writing, prose or poetry.' John Connelly, author of From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933–1965'A fascinating and sensitive exploration of France's memory wars over the wartime deportation of resisters and Jews, in which the resistance legend ultimately lost out to the Holocaust. New angles and new voices are constantly thrown up. A masterly work by a historian at the top of his game.' Robert Gildea, author of Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance'The Germans forcibly deported about 160,000 people from occupied France during 1940-1944. While nearly all the 76,000 Jews among them perished, about half the others survived the camps. Philip Nord takes a fresh and probing look at how the French later reckoned with this searing experience.' Robert O. Paxton, author of Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944'Philip Nord offers a fascinating account of the diverse ways France's wartime deportations have been remembered. For the first time, memoirs by Jews, Communists, Resistance figures and Holocaust survivors are considered together in an analysis that sheds new light on the polyphonic voices battling to recover history.' Claire Zalc, author of Denaturalized: How Thousands Lost Their Citizenship and Lives in Vichy France'Exhaustively researched and admirably synthesizing a vast scholarly literature, After the Deportation marks a culminating, late-if-not-last word on the scholarly debates on French memory that have been underway since the 1980s.' Julian Bourg, H-Diplo'By opening our eyes to these diverse sources, and especially by offering a perceptive analysis of the pertinent monuments and commemorative ceremonies, Nord succeeds admirably in recasting the memory of the deportation and the Holocaust.' Vicki Caron, H-Diplo'… masterful …' Maurice Samuels, H-Diplo'This rich, nuanced, and often moving book uses a wide range of sources and methods-literary criticism, art history, and an analysis of philosophical debates-to make a major contribution to our understanding of how the French have remembered one of the most painful periods in their history.' Julian Jackson, The Journal of Interdisciplinary HistoryTable of ContentsList of Figures; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Heroes and Martyrs; 1. Le Parti des Déportés; 2. The Concentrationary Universe; 3. Monster with One Eye Open; 4. The Triumph of the Spirit; 5. The Six Million; 6. The Thirty Years' War; Part II. Shoah; 7. Holocaust; 8. The Teaching of Contempt; 9. Witnesses; 10. Generation; 11. 'The Return of the Repressed'; 12. Shoah; Epilogue and Conclusion.

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Book Synopsis''That nickname . . .''''Little bird. It wasn''t mine. I found out later he gave it to every little girl that came in to be injected. Little Bird didn''t mean anything. It was a trick. There were thousands of little birds, just like me, all thinking they were the only one.''As a reporter, Jacques Peretti has spent his life investigating important stories. But there was one story, heard in scattered fragments throughout his childhood, that he never thought to investigate. The story of how his mother survived Auschwitz.In the few last months of the Second World War, thirteen-year-old Alina Peretti, along with her mother and sister, was one of thirteen thousand non-Jewish Poles sent to Auschwitz. Her experiences there cast a shadow over the rest of her life.Now ninety, Alina has been diagnosed with dementia. Together, mother and son begin a race against time to record her memories and preserve her family''s story

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Book Synopsis'An extraordinary book . . . vivid and heart-breaking'The Jewish ChronicleThrough the discovery of a precious friendship album which belonged to 12-year-old Alie, a Jewish schoolgirl in Amsterdam, Claudia Carli has traced and preserved the lives of an entire class of girls, most of whom did not survive the War. Alie and her friends are brought touchingly and vividly to life, along with their writings, in this extraordinary book. Their everyday hopes, pleasures and longings are offset by the constant fear of a knock on the door, a missing friend from class, a family member taken away. Alie and her mother were to die in Sobibor in 1943. Alie's sister Gretha survived Auschwitz and kept her promise to her sister to preserve the friendship album so long as she hoped to live. This book will sit alongside Anne Frank's diary and The Cutout Girl as a unique window into occupied Amsterdam and the girls who will now never be forgotten.Trade Review'An extraordinary book ... vivid and heart-breaking' * The Jewish Chronicle *

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Book SynopsisIn recent years, much has been written on how the moral meaning and significance of the Holocaust has been appropriated in popular and political discourses in the United States. Authors such as Peter Novick and Norman Finkelstein have argued that the Holocaust has been "Americanised", often detracting from its European origins and the problematic moral questions it poses. This work goes further by focusing on the particular framing of the Holocaust in U.S. official and public discourses with particular reference to foreign policy debate and how this contrasts with the "civil religion" of Holocaust commemoration in the United States. It traces the way in which such debates have been structured around various assumptions made about the victims on the one hand, and executioners on the other. It also traces how the relationship between the Jewish victims and German executioners in American public discourse has been affected by pragmatic and political considerations at various historical junctures, particularly those concerning the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel.

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Book Synopsis“With this timely book in Hackett Publishing's Passages series, Michael Bryant presents a wide-ranging survey of the trials of Nazi war criminals in the wartime and immediate postwar period. Introduced by an extensive historical survey putting these proceedings into their international context, this volume makes the case, central to Hackett's collection for undergraduate courses, that these events constituted a 'key moment' that has influenced the course of history. Appended to Bryant's analysis is a substantial section of primary sources that should stimulate student discussion and raise questions that are pertinent to warfare and human rights abuses today.” —Michael R. Marrus, Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at the University of TorontoTrade Review"An excellent text for students. Cutting through the vast literature on Nazi criminality and efforts to bring the culprits—not just the 'major perpetrators,' as these are usually understood, but ordinary professionals as well—to justice, Bryant's masterful study boils down the essential facts and complex historiography. The inclusion of the actual indictments, court verdicts, and laws upon which the trials were based shows students how the legal scaffolding of modern international criminal law was constructed." —Michael Bazyler, The 1939 Society Scholar in Holocaust and Human Rights Studies and law professor, Fowler School of Law, Chapman University"Bryant's Nazi Crimes and Their Punishment 1943-1950 is a significant contribution to not only our understanding of the Holocaust, but the punishment of those responsible for these monstrous crimes in the aftermath of the Second World War. It should prove a welcome text to undergraduate courses in both areas as well as a ready reference for those also interested in this important topic. Its value is further enhanced by its historiographical essay and the selection of key documents." —Steven Leonard Jacobs, Emeritus Aaron Aronov Endowed Chair of Judaic Studies, The University of Alabama

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Book Synopsis On 18 July 1943, one-hundred and twenty Jews were transported from the concentration camp at Drancy to the Lévitan furniture store building in the middle of Paris. These were the first detainees of three satellite camps (Lévitan, Austerlitz, Bassano) in Paris. Between July 1943 and August 1944, nearly eight hundred prisoners spent a few weeks to a year in one of these buildings, previously been used to store furniture, and were subjected to forced labor. Although the history of the persecution and deportation of France’s Jews is well known, the three Parisian satellite camps have been subjected to the silence of both memory and history. This lack of attention by the most authoritative voices on the subject can perhaps be explained by the absence of a collective memory or by the marginal status of the Parisian detainees - the spouses of Aryans, wives of prisoners of war, half-Jews. Still, the Parisian camps did, and continue to this day, lack simple and straightforward descriptions. This book is a much needed study of these camps and is witness to how, sixty years after the events, expressing this memory remains a complex, sometimes painful process, and speaking about it a struggle.Trade Review “…[an] important, …well-documented and instructive monograph.” • H-France “In this well-written and expertly organized book, Jean-Marc Dreyfus and Sarah Gensburger skillfully chart the trajectories of three forced labor camps for Jewish prisoners in Occupied Paris… Because of the interest that it will have for scholars working on the difficulty of defining a Jew during the period of National Socialism and on memory studies, this book deserves to be read by a larger audience. Fortunately, the book’s excellent translation from the original French and its lucid and concise style makes it very readable. It will provide food for thought for the professional historian and a stimulating read for the non-specialist.” • French Politics, Culture & Society “Full of fascinating detail and admirably connecting the story of the Paris camps to larger developments in Nazi Europe, this important book could easily gain a wide audience, including university students, because it is well organized, ably translated, and easy to read. Moreover, its core chapters take the reader smoothly from why and how the camps were established, to what life was like for the inmates, and to a final section on the dismantling of the camps and their slide into obscurity (until recently).” • The Historian “An association of the camps’ survivors was created in the mid-1990s, after newspaper articles drew attention to the existence of a concentration camp near the site of the new French National Library. The association, whose goal is to retrace the history of these camps, invited Dreyfus and Gensburger to write an academically rigorous study. The result is a well-researched analysis that has helped bring Möbel Aktionand its labor camps into the public eye.” • German Studies Review “Given that the Germans destroyed virtually all records of [the camps] as they withdrew, the authors have done a remarkable job reconstituting the story. They also have explained the complicated story of how the memory of these events was almost lost, ignored by historians, distorted in commemorative plaques, and inaccurately recounted in fiction. Fortunately it is now available in this sophisticated, thoughtful, and authoritative account.” • Holocaust and Genocide StudiesTable of Contents List of Illustrations Foreword Denise Weill Introduction Chapter 1. ‘Operation Furniture’ Chapter 2. The Implementation of ‘Operation Furniture’ Chapter 3. The Creation of the Parisian Camps Chapter 4. Forced labour in Paris Chapter 5. A place of fragile safety Chapter 6. Everyday life Chapter 7. The end of the Parisian camps Chapter 8. The Silence of History Conclusion: Around a Memory Hole Appendix References

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Book SynopsisVicky Unwin had always known her father – an erstwhile intelligence officer and respected United Nations diplomat – was Czech, but it was not until a stranger turned up on her doorstep that she discovered he was also Jewish.So began a quest to discover the truth about his past – one that perhaps would help answer the niggling doubts she had always had about her ‘perfect’ father. Finally persuading him to allow her to open a closely guarded cache of family books and papers, Vicky discovered the identity of her grandfather: the tormented author and diplomat Hermann Ungar, hugely controversial in both life and in death, who was a protégé and possible lover of Thomas Mann, and a friend of Berthold Brecht and Stefan Zweig. How much of her father’s child was Vicky – and how much of his father’s child was he? As Vicky worked to uncover deeply buried family secrets, she would find herself slowly unpicking the lingering power of ‘survivors’ guilt’ on the generations that followed the Holocaust, and would learn, via a deathbed confession, of the existence of a previously unknown sister.Together, the sisters attempted to come to terms with what had made their father into the deeply flawed, complex, yet charismatic man he has always been, journeying together through grief and heartache towards forgiveness.Trade Review'Vicky Unwin has written a personal history which highlights our very current, global concerns with identity and our place in the world. It is an intimate exploration of family – and the damage that can be passed from every generation to the next. A fascinating read, filled with secrets and suspense.' JoAnne Richards, prize-winning South African author of The Innocence of Roast Chicken‘The Boy from Boskovice tells the compelling story of a daughter’s quest to find out the disturbing truth of who her own father really was ... This is an intimate narrative, cleverly woven, which sees the author courageously coming to terms with her father’s legacy. –Sarah Helm, author of If This is a Woman'In her engaging memoir, Vicky Unwin approaches her family’s hidden history with all the care of an archeologist and bears out Faulkner’s assertion that, “No man is himself, he is the sum of his past.' – Peter Godwin, author of Mukiwa: A WhiteBoy in Africa and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun "A fascinating, rich tale, which explores the infinite complexity of human nature when squeezed by the forces of history.” — Michela Wrong, author of Do Not Disturb

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Book SynopsisJackie Kohnstamm's mother rarely talked about what had happened during the war and had kept little evidence of her early life. It was only after her uncle and aunt had died that Jackie inherited an archive of material relating to the family back in Germany. Jackie's mother had managed to get out of Berlin in 1936, following her brother and sister who had already escaped. But Jackie's grandparents had remained. One night, on a whim, Jackie Googled her grandparents' names. What she found felt like a sign: four days earlier two Stolpersteine ('stumble stones') had been laid in their names outside the house in Berlin where they had once lived. Someone had commissioned this memorial to her grandparents. Each listed their name, year of birth, date of deportation to Theresienstadt and date of their murder by the Nazis. Here, then, was the first step, and what followed was a remarkable story of loss, discovery and memory.Trade ReviewMemoirs about family experiences of the Holocaust continue to proliferate, but when they are as poignant as The Memory Keeper, they are a necessary reminder of an apparently unfathomable evil that happened not so long ago. Kohnstamm's account is unashamedly personal . . . and she proves a warm and witty guide to what turns into an anguished journey into her past * * Observer * *A moving and original real-time history of what it was like for ordinary Germans who happened to be Jewish to carry on as each new repressive law made their lives smaller and scarier until eventually, having failed to get out, they are ordered to the train station . . . Heartbreaking * * Telegraph * *Jackie Kohnstamm has created a beautifully heartbreaking book about remembering and forgetting, loving and missing, the deep impact of absences in any life and the wonderful, terrible interconnectedness of our selves. She wears her research lightly, deftly and just writes so well. Kohnstamm becomes historian for her family and, in a way, for millions of families shattered and evaporated by hatred, obsession and war. Our journey with her has great darkness, but also great tenderness, wisdom, joy -- A. L. KENNEDYOne of the most moving accounts of Holocaust family research that I have read, insightfully penned by a British Holocaust descendant who does not wish to be defined by the past * * Family Tree Magazine * *Following years of tireless research, The Memory Keeper is the powerful and thought-provoking account of Jackie's journey . . . a moving narrative * * Jewish Telegraph * *Personal and compelling . . . Readers walk alongside Kohnstamm as she travels to Germany and discovers intimate details about her family and their lives * * Who Do You Think You Are? * *

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Book Synopsis**A Telegraph Best History Book 2023 and Spectator Book of the Year**The inspirational story of the ordinary people who forged the documents that saved thousands of Jewish lives in World War Two.'Powerful ... gripping ... inspiring' JONATHAN DIMBLEBYBetween 1940 and 1943, a small group of Polish diplomats and Jewish activists in Switzerland engaged in a wholly remarkable - and until now, almost completely unknown - humanitarian operation. Under the leadership of the Polish Ambassador, Aleksander Lados, they undertook a systematic programme of forging identity documents for Latin American countries, which were then smuggled into German-occupied Europe to save the lives of thousands of Jews facing extermination in the Holocaust.The Lados operation was one of the largest rescue missions of the entire war, and The Forgers tells this extraordinary story for the first time. We follow the desperate bids of Jews to obtain these life-saving documents, and their painful uncertainty over whether they will be granted protection from the Nazis' murderous fury. And we witness the quiet heroism of those who decided to act in an attempt to save thousands of lives.'Fascinating' The Times'Remarkable' Sunday Times'As gripping as it is moving' JULIA BOYD'An astonishing book' KATJA HOYERTrade ReviewThe Forgers is a well-constructed and agreeably concise book with a clear narrative drive and fascinating detail ... Moorhouse's most laudable achievement is the light he shines on Lados and his team, who saved at least 2,000 Jews from extermination. Until now, they have not received the recognition they deserve * Gerard de Groot, The Times *Among the many remarkable aspects of The Forgers is the fact that the prime movers were Poles, many of whom were notorious for antisemitism ... [Moorhouse] does well to highlight that some Poles displayed admirable compassion. * Max Hastings, Sunday Times *Roger Moorhouse, the leading historian on Poland's war, publishes a full account of Lados's efforts in an excellent book on the passport ring * Daniel Finkelstein, The Times *Absorbing... It is a story that seems not to have been told much outside the academic literature, and it is deeply researched and well reported here * Spectator *In this fascinating book, Roger Moorhouse shines a light on extraordinary, audacious and little-known rescue operation * Mail on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisNaryshkin Park is a place where lovers once walked. On 2 October 1941, it became the site of a mass grave. Rose Zwi deftly weaves together clues from survivors’ accounts, old photographs, official documents and archival research to form a many-layered account of the proud history and tragic destruction of the Jews of Lithuania.

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Book SynopsisForced to work in a Hungarian slave labour battalion under the command of Hitler''s Third Reich, Steve Floris managed to survive thanks to his skills as a cook and the decency of his commanding officer. After escaping and returning to Budapest, he married his sweetheart, who had also survived the Holocaust. Together they escaped Soviet occupied Hungary and went to Austria. They worked in UN refugee camps, then made their way to Salzburg and were accepted for immigration to Canada.

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Book SynopsisAn amazing story of survival against all odds and a great achievement for the writer who was a teenager during World War 2, 1939-1945. This is the personal story of a family torn apart, always on the run from country to country, hiding, hoping not to be discovered and praying to survive. Lili Rebecca Kahan grew up trying to stay alive and helping others do the same. She survived dangers as a member of the underground in Budapest, often thanks to her knowledge of languages including German. There, under the Germans noses, she also helped other Jews by giving them new identities in order to escape death. Today, when survivors are leaving this world, she wants to honor the silent command of those who perished -- remember and never forget. We, the last survivors, have a solemn obligation to testify, in the name of the dead and the living, that what we endured was a gruesome reality but also a permanent warning to mankind of horrors that might still lie ahead. Former president of France Nicolas Sarkozy so aptly put it when he said, The tragedy of the Holocaust should be etched onto our consciousness as it is onto our hearts.

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Book SynopsisText in English & German. This volume assembles 22 English and German contributions dealing with the literature and culture of the Holocaust in the years since 1989 thereby focussing on Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany. It becomes apparent from these essays that the Nazi genocide continues to be a pivotal issue in literature, theatre and film even at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. Included are overviews of the literary and cultural developments of the last decades, comparative studies and numerous analyses of the works of individual authors of the older as well as the middle and younger generation. Among the authors whose works are discussed are R. Klüger, R Ligocka, L Weliczker, A Bart, M Bienczyk, M Tulli, Z Rudzka, O B Kraus, M Uhde, A Goldflam, J Topol, I Dousková, R Denemarková and H Andronikova. The growing use of provocative and taboo-breaking forms of expression turns out to be an important instrument in keeping the memory of the horrible events alive in the collective memory.

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Book SynopsisFrom summer 1941 onwards, Romania actively pursued at its own initiative the mass killing of Jews in the territories it controlled. 1941 saw 13,000 Jewish residents of the Romanian city of Iaşi killed, the extermination of thousands of Jews in Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia by Romanian armed forces and local people, large-scale deportations of Jews to the camps and ghettos of Transnistria, and massacres in and around Odessa. Overall, over 300,000 Jews of Romanian and Soviet or Ukrainian origin were murdered in Romanian- controlled territories during the Second World War. In this volume, a number of renowned experts shed light on the events, the contexts, and the aftermath of this under-researched and lesser-known dimension of the Holocaust. 75 years on, this book gives much-needed impetus to research on the Holocaust in Romania and Romanian-controlled territories.Trade ReviewWe desperately need to know more about the Holocaust in Romania and the territories occupied and administered by Romanians during World War II. For too long this subject has not gotten the prominence it deserves. This volume gathers together many of the best scholars on the subject and promises to yield important new knowledge and insights. -- Jeffrey Kopstein, University of California, IrvineTable of ContentsIntroduction, by Simon Geissbuhler Jewish-Communist Gangs in Czernowitz? The Origin and Impact of a Constructed Enemy Stereotype, by Mariana Hausleitner The Story Created Afterward: Iasi 1941, by Henry L. Eaton A Village Massacre: The Particular and the Context, by Alti Rodal Anti-Jewish Violence in the Summer of 1941 in Eastern Galicia and Beyond, by Kai Struve The Pogroms in the Former Soviet Occupation Areas in the Summer of 1941, by Witold Medykowski The Djurin Ghetto in Transnistria through the Lens of Kunstadt's Diary, by Sarah Rosen Two-Front Battle: Opposition in the Ghettos of the Mogilev District in Transnistria 1941-44, by Gali Tibon Challenging Stalinist Justice: A Review of Holocaust Crimes after 1953, by Diana Dumitru The International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania: A Personal "Behind the Scenes" Perspective, by Tuvia Friling Public Discourse and Remembrance: Official and Unofficial Narratives, by Michael Shafir What We Now Know about Romania and the Holocaust-and Why It Matters, by Simon Geissbuhler Contributors

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Book SynopsisConceived as the answer to all of mankinds seemingly insoluble health and social problems, and promoted as a substitute for orthodox religious beliefs, the pseudo-science of eugenics recruited disciples in many countries during the latter years of the nineteenth and early years of the twentieth centuries. Nowhere was this doctrine more enthusiastically endorsed than in Germany, where the application of eugenic theory received its most fervent support. A programme born of what were often contradictory opinions began, under Nazi rule, with the compulsory sterilization of thousands of Germanys citizens before morphing into the mass murder of the most vulnerable of the states own population under the guise of so-called euthanasia, before ultimately escalating into a continent-wide policy of extermination of those who did not fit the Nazi eugenic template. The progress of this inexorable descent into barbarity was marked by successive stages of development. From the practical application of euthanasia through the organisation dedicated to it -- later on called Aktion T4 -- and the killing centres that this institution spawned, to the centrality of Aktion T4 to Aktion Reinhard and the Holocaust, important elements of the historical record can be seen to emerge. How did it happen? What impact has it had on contemporary society? And what of the character and fate of the individuals involved in the gestation and implementation of this murderously inhumane quasi-religion? Deceptively simple questions that require complex and often disturbing answers.

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Book SynopsisThis volume retraces Carl Lutzs diplomatic wartime rescue efforts in Budapest, Hungary, through the lens of Jewish eyewitness testimonies. Together with his wife, Gertrud Lutz-Fankhauser, the director of the Palestine Office in Budapest, Moshe Krausz, fellow Swiss citizens Harald Feller, Ernst Vonrufs, Peter Zürcher, and the underground Zionist Youth Movement, Carl Lutz led an extensive rescue operation between March 1944 and February 1945. It is estimated that Lutz and his team of rescuers issued over 50,000 lifesaving letters of protection (Schutzbriefe) and placed persecuted Jews in 76 safe houses -- annexes of the Swiss Legation. Based on interviews with Holocaust survivors in Canada, Hungary, Israel, Switzerland, the UK, and the United States, this volume shines a light on the extraordinary scope and scale of Carl Lutzs humanitarian response.

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Book SynopsisA number of books have been written on the death camp of Treblinka, but The Treblinka Death Camp: History, Biographies, Remembrance is unique. Webb and Chocolaty present the definitive account of one of history's most infamous factories of death where approximately 800,000 people lost their lives. The Nazis who ran it, the Ukrainian guards and maids, the Jewish survivors and the Poles living in the camp's shadow -- every angle is covered in this astonishingly comprehensive work. The book attempts to provide a Roll of Remembrance with biographies of the Jews who perished in the death camp as well as of those who escaped from Treblinka in individual efforts or as part of the mass prisoner uprising on 2 August 1943. It also includes unique and previously unpublished sketches of the camp's ramp area and gas chamber, drawn by the survivors. For this second, revised edition, the authors incorporated new information and provided sources for the Jewish Roll of Remembrance. A significant number of new entries have been added. The Roll of Remembrance has also been greatly expanded to include the names of Jews deported from Germany to Treblinka. In addition, more names have been added to the Perpetrators biographies, and other entries have also been enhanced with additional information.Trade Review"A mightily important book, one sure to contribute to both scholarly and popular understandings of this human infernohighly relevant for those wanting to better understand the Nazis' unprecedented, industrialized mass-murder that formed such a horrifically integral part of the Holocaust." Dr. Matthew Feldmann, Teesside UniversityTable of ContentsForeword; Penal Labor Camp: Treblinka I; Construction of the Death Camp: Treblinka II; Initial Phase under Dr. Eberl: JulyAugust 1942; Chaos and Reorganization; Industrialized Mass Murder: SeptemberDecember 1942; Deceptions and Diversions: Late 1942early 1943; Visit by the Reichsführer-SS: Orders to Erase Evidence of Crimes; Jewish Work Brigades; The Camp Revolt: August 2, 1943; The End of Treblinka and Aktion Reinhardt: AugustNovember 1943; Interviews with Treblinka survivors; Wartime Reports about the Death Camp; Transports and Death Toll; Treblinka War Crimes Trials; From Trawniki to Treblinka; The Real Ivan the Terrible; Roll of Remembrance: Jewish survivors and victims; The Perpetrators; Postscriptum: Lublin Concentration Camp (Majdanek); A part of Aktion Reinhardt?; Supplementary Documents; Appendix 1; Appendix 2; Appendix 3; Appendix 4; IIustrations and Sources; Maps, Documents and Drawings; Selected Bibliography; Acknowledgements; Index of Names.

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Book SynopsisThe Sobibor Death Camp was the second extermination camp built by the Nazis as part of the secretive Operation Reinhardt -- with intent to carry out the mass murder of Polish Jewry. Following the construction of the extermination camp at Belzec in south-eastern Poland from November 1941 to March 1942, the Nazis planned a second extermination camp at Sobibor, and the third and deadliest camp was built near the remote village of Treblinka. Sobibor was similarly designed as the first camp in Belzec, it was regarded as an 'overflow' camp for Belzec. This account of the Nazis' remorseless and relentless production line of killing at the Sobibor death camp tells of one of the worst crimes in the history of mankind. Chris Webb's painstakingly researched volume ranges from the survivors and the victims to the SS men who carried out the atrocities. What makes this work special is the research which has been gathered on the survivors, who by good fortune, courage, and determination survived Sobibor and built new lives for themselves, new families, but bore the scars of this terrible place for all of their lives. Closing a gap in the existing literature, Webb focuses on the victims and presents details of their lives which have been found and re-tells them to keep their memory alive, to show they are not forgotten. The cruel and barbaric murder process is described in great detail, as well as the confiscation of the valuables and possessions of the unfortunate Jews who crossed the threshold of this man-made hell. One cannot fail to be moved by the personal accounts of those who survived, their loved ones perished in this factory of death. The book covers the construction of the death camp, the physical layout of the camp, as remembered by both the Jewish inmates and the SS staff who served there, and the personal recollections that detail the day-to-day experiences of the prisoners and the SS. The courageous revolt by the prisoners on 14 October 1943 is re-told by the prisoners and the German SS, with detailed accounts of the revolt and its aftermath. The post-war fate of the perpetrators, or more precisely those that were brought to trial, and information regarding the more recent history of the site itself concludes this book. There is a large photographic section of rare and some unpublished photographs and documents from the author's private archive.

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Book SynopsisThe true story of four young Hungarians seeking inner direction at a time of outer upheaval, the holocaust. The intense experience depicted in this book provides them with new direction and hope. In the darkest hours of World War II, these friends, three of them Jewish, seek orientation and meaning in their shattered lives. During seventeen months, one of them, Hanna Dallos, delivers oral messages which Gitta Mallasz and Lili Strausz record in their notebooks. These messages, or teachings as they came to be known, end abruptly with the deportation of Hanna and Lili to Ravensbrück in December of 1944. Gitta Mallasz, the only survivor of the quartet, first published the notes in France in 1976. The dialogues document an extraordinary light-filled spiritual resistance in the midst of Nazi darkness and barbarous cruelty. Hanna Dallos and Gitta Mallasz, both born in 1907, became friends at the School of Applied Arts in Budapest. Together with Hannas husband, Joszef Kreutzer, they later established what became a successful graphic arts atelier. The three were soon joined by movement therapist Lili Strausz. The dialogues presented in this document took place between June of 1943 and November of 1944 in Budaliget and Budapest.Hanna and Lili died in Germany during a prisoner transport and Joszef in a Hungarian concentration camp in 1945. Gitta emigrated to Paris in 1960, where she edited and published the record of their experience. This document has subsequently been translated and published in numerous languages throughout the world. Gitta Mallasz died in 1992 in France. Twenty years later, she was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for having saved more than a hundred Jewish women and children.

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Book SynopsisThis book addresses the personal and collective abysses that may open when, albeit many years after the Holocaust, but in the very country of the murderers, one examines the legacy of the National Socialist extermination of Jews. Jewish Lebenswelt in Germany entails involvement of survivors and their sons and daughters, born after the Shoah, with the non-Jewish German world of Nazi perpetrators, supporters, bystanders and their children. Love relationships probably represent the most intimate contact between former victims and perpetrators, or their supporters. This exploration of second-generation relationships in post-National-Socialist Germany is aimed at gaining deeper insights into what Theodor W. Adorno called the "culture after Auschwitz". The true extent and significance of the chasm that did indeed emerge during the course of this endeavour only became apparent in retrospect. Therefore, an article about the "history" of working on "Love after Auschwitz" has been included.

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Book SynopsisGuiding principles: Do chronicle the past as it really happened, Leopold von Ranke stressed long ago. Abiding by his spirit, this volume narrates the Hungarian nations quest for defending a sovereign existence while caught in the middle of a German-Soviet geopolitical struggle decisively influencing life and death. The narrative also considers the diligent Hungarian Jewish communitys attempt of carrying on a normal life despite facing severe domestic and foreign impediments, eventually leading to the enormous Holocaust tragedy. The author is mindful of Baruch Spinozas plea of ridicule not, bewail not, nor scorn human actions, but understand them. Rationality also dictates reflection upon Albert Einsteins appeal: Morality is of the highest importance for our very existence depends on it. Historical observations: Despite attending to Hungarys destabilizing irredentism, Hitler sought no Hungarian invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, and demanded large Honved forces only after his defeat in Moscow; The Holocausts intrusion into Hungary was triggered by a German military occupation, while local collusion and collaboration assisted it; Horthy was a calculating politician but not an anti-Semite, resulting in his uneven, positive and negative treatment of the Jewish Magyars; Szalasi was an anti-Jewish zealot proposing expulsion, but not genocide; Christians individuals and institutions saved many Jewish Magyars; Swedish humanitarian Wallenberg was an American secret agent; Not an Alpine redoubt, but Festung Budapest defended the Reich; 1941-1945, circa 500,000 Jewish and 600,000 non-Jewish Magyars died; Intervention, war, and a coup ended the Old Order and the Magyar monarchy.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisOn 1 February 1940, a thirty-three-year-old Jewish woman arrived alone in New York Harbor bearing, in her womb, the person who would eventually become the author of this book. Ernestyna Goldwasser had left behind her family, steeped in the rich Jewish culture of Krakow, to seek sanctuary from the marauding Germans, who had invaded Poland the previous fall. As the child of a father who held US citizenship, Ernestyna enjoyed a special status that became priceless when the war broke out. She, too, was deemed a US citizen and thereby eligible to emigrate out of Poland. Unfortunately, Ernestyna''s husband, Chaskel Goldwasser, enjoyed no such status. As his wife, pregnant with their first child, embarked on her journey, Chaskel was forced to remain behind, trapped in the inferno that was soon to engulf and incinerate one third of the world''s Jewish population. Ernestyna entered the US through the famed golden door mentioned in the final words of the Emma Lazarus poem that graces the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, because of the anti-Semitic policies of the US State Department, that door remained shut tight to Chaskel. During Ernestyna''s valiant struggle to reunite with her husband, they were able to maintain an intimate and highly emotional correspondence. Many of their letters have been preserved and are presented in this volume as a first-person account of their desperate struggle to find the key that would unlock Chaskel''s imprisonment... before it was too late.

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Book SynopsisThis book surveys the rich history of Lithuanian Jewry from the turn of the first millennium to its devastating conclusion during the Second World War, when the Lithuanian Jewish communities were totally wiped out by the Nazis and their collaborators. The participation of many Lithuanians in the persecution of the local Jews is a topic that is hardly popular in the modern independent state of Lithuania. PONDERING THE PAST counters Lithuanian historians attempt to justify the mass murder. Archival materials disprove various false accusations and myths that the Lithuanians fabricated against the Jews. Dr Pinsk has travelled to Lithuania many times, both to the major cities and small towns. The war monuments and killing pits serve as a constant reminder of the tragedy of the Jews on Lithuanian soil. These emotional visits inspired him to reflect on the past and the present of Lithuania, whose Jewish population today numbers merely four thousand individuals. He surveys the enduring anti-Semitism of this country. He also relates the story of several hundred brave Lithuanians who saved some Jews and describes the new generation of Lithuanians.

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Book SynopsisRudy Brook had just passed the German bar exam and married his childhood sweetheart. Hitlers coming to power put an end to Rudys law career, and his wife, Eva, dashed his Zionist dream, insisting they emigrate to America instead of Palestine. Their arrival in 1938 on Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) spared them that calamity and the even graver one to follow. But thats only half the story. Evas connections to the upscale refugee colony in Los Angeles led Rudy to become a gardener to stars such as Judy Garland, and Eva to become a masseuse to other celebrities, actor Alexander Granach among them. Granach was a big name in pre-Nazi Germany and featured in Ninotchka with Greta Garbo. His affair with Eva would wreak havoc on the budding Brook family and leave Eva with a life-altering decision about herself and the authors older brother. Harrowing yet uplifting, All About Eva combines elements of the memoir and the historical novel to tell a compelling tale of three remarkable individuals and the tumultuous times in which they lived.

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Book Synopsis“Extraordinary storytelling about unfathomable horror.” — Library Journal (starred review)"[A] worthy tribute to the extraordinary bravery of a remarkable woman.” — Publishers WeeklyIn World War II's Poland, thirty year old Zofia Sterner and her husband Wacek refuse to be classified as Jews destined for extermination.Instead, they evade the Nazis and the Soviets in several dramatic escapes and selflessly rescue many Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto and a labor camp, later becoming active participants in the Warsaw Uprising where they are taken prisoner. This retelling, captured through diaries, interviews, war crime trial testimonies, and letters, detail the Sterners' heroic rescues, escapes, and ultimate survival. A true story of hope amid horrifying tragedy, How We Outwitted and Survived the Nazis illustrates how war brings out the worst and the best in people, and how true humanity and heroism of ordinary people are revealed by their willingness to risk everything and help others. This story is about being human under the most inhumane conditions.Trade Review“The book reads like a fast-paced thriller with stories about … escapes, participation in the Warsaw Uprising and subsequent arrests… Extraordinary storytelling about unfathomable horror. At the core of it is a remarkable woman and her family who not only refused to allow the Nazis to exterminate them, but they also saved others. For readers who enjoy history, Judaic studies, and human-interest stories.” — Library Journal (starred review)“Dziarski debuts with a dynamic narrative … [and] renders in palpably urgent, first-person, present tense writing the remarkable story of a woman who was driven by her belief that ‘every life was precious’ to save strangers. … It’s a worthy tribute to the extraordinary bravery of a remarkable woman.” — Publishers Weekly“In the vast literature on the Holocaust, few memoirs are told from the point of view of the rescuers. Roman Dziarski’s reconstruction of the story of a Polish-Jewish couple under German occupation stands out for its presentation of events from the perspective of Zofia, an ethnic Pole married to her Jewish husband and member of the Polish resistance, Wacław Sterner. Under Nazi racial laws, both are to don the Star of David armband and report to the Warsaw ghetto, which they refuse, taking their chances on the so-called Aryan side. With ties to the Polish underground and the milieu of assimilated Warsaw Jewry, the couple is involved in a sort of grassroots ‘Żegota’ rescue operation that helps dozens of Jews escape the ghetto. The story, punctuated by counterintuitive twists, demonstrates the difficulty of generalizing about Polish-Jewish relations during the Second World War and beyond. This creative retelling, pieced together from sources found in the family's archive by the author, a nephew of the protagonists, saves this remarkable story from oblivion.”— Tomasz Frydel, PhD, Concordia University“How We Outwitted and Survived the Nazis reads like a thriller. It is a page-turner. What makes it unique is that the story conveys the precarious lives of Poles under the German occupation and after liberation without whitewashing the antisemitism that existed. If, like Roman Dziarski, Poles and Jews can acknowledge the suffering of each group, perhaps these groups can transcend the argument about ‘who suffered most’ and work together to teach the history of World War II and its aftermath.”— from the foreword by Eva Fogelman, author of Conscience & Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust“[T]here is such a confidence . . ., such a gift, such abandon of Good! I am greatly struck by it, when Zofia Sterner tells me how she led her charges out of the ghetto. . . . [D]uring all the occupation, the Sterners devoted heart and soul to the cause which they had voluntarily chosen: to save Jews, give them comfort, and to help them leave for more secure places, with passes in their pockets.”— Marek Halter, La force du Bien (Stories of Deliverance: Speaking with Men and Women Who Rescued Jews from the Holocaust) Table of ContentsPreface Chapter 1: FleeingChapter 2: Getting helpChapter 3: Mob and lossChapter 4: Reunion and fleeing againChapter 5: Back with the familyChapter 6: EvadingChapter 7: BirthChapter 8: ResistanceChapter 9: RescuesChapter 10: Passing and hidingChapter 11: Working for the enemyChapter 12: BlackmailChapter 13: UndergroundChapter 14: UprisingChapter 15: PrisonerChapter 16: DeportationChapter 17: Escape and freedomChapter 18: ReturnChapter 19: Back homeChapter 20: Epilogue – Zosia and Edek KosmanThe main charactersAfterwordPostfaceJewish situation in Poland before WWIIPolish-Jewish relations, Polish help, and Polish atrocities on Jews in WWIIHuman cost of WWIIA note on terminologyAbbreviations and glossaryAcknowledgementsReferencesList of FiguresFigure creditsIndex

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