The Holocaust Books

Trade ReviewMcKale's book stands out, not only for the detailed review of the war crimes of innumerous Nazis, but because he also chronicles their lives in the years following WWII. The book is graphic and the memories of survivors are painful to absorb, as one prisoner describes a concentration camp like 'Dante's inferno . . . come to life,' while another recounts mass executions in the gas chamber. McKale uncovers a recurring theme of denial during criminal trials: Dr. Warner Best insisted that the first time he heard about the killing of 5–6 million Jews was in the courtroom and Josef Kramer claimed, 'I did not know the purpose of the gas chamber.' But it's the enduring anti-Semitic attitude that resounds throughout the book; many war criminals went unpunished in the years following WWII. Even Adolf Eichmann, one of the most infamous Nazi criminals, went free for nearly twenty years, escaping Germany through a well-established 'rat line.' McKale ends the book with a haunting question: whether life would be different today if the Allies had pursued Holocaust criminals more aggressively after WWII. History buffs and students of the Holocaust will be fascinated with this book. * Publishers Weekly *This is Donald McKale’s eighth book about Nazi history. His knowledge of the subject clearly runs deep. In his latest work McKale conducts a survey—methodically sketching some of Hitler’s most famous henchmen and in particular their postwar lives and how some contributed to the Holocaust denial movement (although most did not themselves deny the Holocaust). McKale’s approach is narrative, blending chronology and biography. Consequently, the structure of the book mirrors the postwar scattering of former Nazis. The reader alternately learns about capture and trial in Nuremberg or Copenhagen, flight to Damascus, or the establishment of residence in Chile. . . . Nazis after Hitler is a recommended read for students of the Second World War in general and of the Holocaust in particular. * Holocaust and Genocide Studies *'It didn't happen!' 'I didn't know anything about it!' 'It's all an exaggeration!' 'The Jews made it up!' 'The Jews caused it!'. . . Donald M. McKale delves into all of this in his well-researched book Nazis after Hitler: How Perpetrators of the Holocaust Cheated Justice and Truth. . . . [M]ost interestingly, he highlights just how these arguments used by the Nazi murderers would become the arguments used by today's Holocaust deniers. * Martyrdom and Resistance *There are probably few scholars as knowledgeable in their special field of study as Donald M. McKale, particularly when that scholar is recognized simultaneously for the excellence of his pedagogy. * New York Journal of Books *This well-intentioned book is a philippic against the persistence of antisemitism since 1945, the postwar inability or refusal of Nazi war criminals to recognize the injustice of what they had done, and the failure of the victorious Allies to identify the Holocaust as a distinct form of crime. * German Studies Review *Donald M. McKale has written a clear and comprehensive history of how Nazi's escaped justice after 1945. . . . Overall, McKale has documented his study well, including much recent research, such as books on Eichmann by historians David Cesarani and Deborah Lipstadt. * Historian *I have just finished reading a book that should be read by every Jew in the world. . . . This book is the most detailed and complete book on the subject. * Cleveland Jewish News *A significant contribution that provides an excellent synthesis of the latest research. Its biographical approach offers a captivating narrative of the postwar lives of infamous Nazi perpetrators who escaped justice. -- Joseph W. Bendersky, author of A Concise History of Nazi Germany and Carl Schmitt: Theorist for the ReichDonald McKale's Nazis after Hitler makes gripping and important reading about a topic that invariably invites serious controversy. His strong argument about the comparatively lenient treatment of Nazi perpetrators, both infamous and obscure, will provoke debate among scholars and should find a wide reading audience. -- Eric A. Johnson, Central Michigan University; author of Nazi Terror and What We KnewIn this book, readers have the opportunity to follow the developments in the years after World War II that made it possible for most of those who had played active roles in the systematic murder of Jews to evade trial and punishment altogether or to suffer delayed and slight justice. The author also shows by reference to those trials that were held how the perpetrators originated in their own defense many of the arguments that would become a part of the stock in trade of those who deny or minimize the Holocaust. By first describing the careers of Holocaust perpetrators—whether famous, like Hermann Goering, or known primarily to specialists, like Werner Best—and then recounting their fate in the postwar years, McKale provides the reader with an opportunity to follow their lives and the real or non-existent pursuit of justice. The context of German and Austrian societies largely eager to forget, judiciaries reluctant to take horrendous crimes seriously, and Cold War shifts on both sides toward leniency and even employment of perpetrators is thoughtfully described. The initial interest of the Americans and the reluctance of the British to conduct trials, the early and the routinized trials by the Soviets, the contrast between a few trials in Poland and the pogroms there against Jews trying to return to their homes, and the lengthy efforts by a tiny number of concerned individuals to find and bring to trial those like Eichmann and Mengele, who had escaped to Syria and South America, are all covered here on the basis of comprehensive research. The author makes a point of showing that essentially all who had played an active part in the killing of vast numbers whose only crime had been their birth never expressed the slightest degree of regret or remorse. They had done what they were supposed to do, and they thought it either entirely proper or of no moral significance. McKale also suggests that the general indifference to the issue at the time contributes to the maintenance and revival of virulent anti-Semitism into the present time. Anyone interested in a major horror of the twentieth century and how so many who played significant roles in it came to live out their lives in a way they had denied to their victims will find an enlightening but sobering account here. -- Gerhard L. Weinberg, author of A World at Arms: A Global History of World War IITable of ContentsChapter 1: World War II and Allied Promises Chapter 2: Four Faces of Genocide: What Happened in the War Chapter 3: Leaving Auschwitz Chapter 4: A Liberation of Contrasts Chapter 5: Soviet “Liberators” Chapter 6: In the Custody of Leniency Chapter 7: Nuremberg, Number Two, and the Substitute Chapter 8: Nuremberg: “King Frank” Chapter 9: Nuremberg: “Fred” the “Endowed Seer” and Verdicts and Sentences Chapter 10: Poland: Occasional Trials amid a Continuing Holocaust Chapter 11: Memory in West Germany: Long and Short Chapter 12: Pseudo-Purges and Politics Chapter 13: Other Trials and Amnesty Chapter 14: Eichmann, Jerusalem, and Eichmann’s Henchmen Chapter 15: Hunting the Comfortable Chapter 16: Four Faces Long after the War: What Didn’t Happen Chapter 17: The Post-Holocaust World

Read more less

Book Synopsis Revised and Updated “Brilliantly reconstructs the degradation and drama of Sobibor. . . . A memorable and moving saga, full of anger and anguish, a reminder never to forget.”—San Francisco Chronicle  On October 14, 1943, six hundred Jews imprisoned in Sobibor, a secret Nazi death camp in eastern Poland, revolted. They killed a dozen SS officers and guards, trampled the barbed wire fences, and raced across an open field filled with anti-tank mines. Against all odds, more than three hundred made it safely into the woods. Fifty of those men and women managed to survive the rest of the war.   In this edition of Escape from Sobibor, fully updated in 2012, Richard Rashke tells their stories, based on his interviews with eighteen of the survivors. It vividly describes the biggest prisoner escape of World War II. A story of unimaginable cruelty. A story of couraTrade Review“A sensitive, thoughtful, and well-researched account of the `biggest prisoner escape of World War II.’” —Samuel Gold, Jewish Chicago “A journalistic account in the tradition of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.” —Choice “The authoritative version of the breakout from the Nazi experimentation camp at Sobibor. . . . Gives us a very good idea of how the will to survive can lead quite ordinary people to surmount the most extraordinary obstacles.” —The Jerusalem Post “This moving and angry book deserves to be read.” —The Washington Post “A unique, unforgettable, deeply moving and effective account of a death camp.” —Detroit Jewish News

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis powerful memoir traces Brazilian-born American Julie Lindahl’s journey to uncover her grandparents’ roles in the Third Reich as she is driven to understand how and why they became members of Hitler’s elite, the SS. Out of the unbearable heart of the story—the unclaimed guilt that devours a family through the generations—emerges an unflinching will to learn the truth. In a remarkable six-year journey through Germany, Poland, Paraguay, and Brazil, Julie uncovers, among many other discoveries, that her grandfather had been a fanatic member of the SS since 1934. During World War II, he was responsible for enslavement and torture and was complicit in the murder of the local population on the large estates he oversaw in occupied Poland. He eventually fled to South America to evade a new wave of war-crimes trials. The pendulum used by Julie’s grandmother to divine good from bad and true from false becomes a symbol for the elusiveness of truth and morality, but also for the false securities we cling to when we become unmoored. As Julie delves deeper into the abyss of her family’s secret, discovering history anew, one precarious step at a time, the compassion of strangers is a growing force that transforms her world and the way that she sees her family—and herself.Trade ReviewA book of immense courage, written with elegance and great power. -- Philippe Sands, author of East West StreetAn extraordinary meditation on evil and complicity, and on the role future generations play when trying to uncover a perfidious past. With a brilliant prose that often reads as poetry, Julie Lindahl explores and discovers her family’s Nazi past. A narrative that is deeply moving as well as informative in its history. -- Marjorie Agosin, Wellesley College; author of I Lived in Butterfly HillJulie Lindahl has a kind of courage that is rarely found. Her truthfulness is a rigorous and raw inquiry into history through her own ancestry. She avoids the quick gloss and embraces the hard work of holding her family’s intergenerational traumas up to the light. What shines through is difficult, but loving. The story is horrible and yet filled with possibility. While her writing is beautiful and effortless, the subject she carries is anything but. I deeply respect her willingness to face the cultural complexity that lives in her own skin. -- Nora Bateson, author of Small Arcs of Larger Circles; award-winning filmmaker of “An Ecology of Mind”I opened The Pendulum and immediately found myself drawn into it. As a historian, I often wondered how we could profit from the determined pursuit of haunted family stories by descendants of individual perpetrators. Here’s the breathtaking answer. -- Jochen Böhler, Friedrich-Schiller University, JenaIn the literature of the Holocaust, the story of the perpetrator is rarely told from ‘the inside.’ Julie Lindahl has taken on this painstaking task when she tells us the story of her family. It is written from the heart but has outstanding literary qualities—a rare but phenomenal combination. The result is a very important book that is difficult to put down before you reach the end. -- Stefan Einhorn, Karolinska Institute; author of The Art of Being KindOutstanding insights into the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust—based on the perspective of both perpetrators and their descendants. The book is indispensable for anyone who wants to see the extent and complexity of the lasting influence of war, not only in its own time but also for future generations. -- Eskil Franck, Uppsala University; Former Director, The Living History ForumA powerful book about good and evil that has become even more important in today’s climate of mounting far-right extremism and alternative facts. -- Hédi Fried, author, psychologist, and Holocaust survivorI have never read a book as perceptive, intuitive, and courageous as Julie Lindahl’s memoir. She is the first of her generation to describe the reverberations of that terrible Darwinism, that ‘Herrenmensch’ orientation, and its overwhelming consequences so profoundly. I thank her with all my heart. -- Gerhard Hoch, theologian and historian of Nazism in Schleswig-HolsteinAn intimate investigation into family truth and lies, shame and grief, anger and indignation. Unfolding like a mystery novel with the very highest stakes, it not only looks with honesty and wisdom at the past but purposefully asks what we're going to make of it for the future. The brilliance and novelty of Lindahl's courageous journey lies in situating her own family history within our collective experience and common pain, thereby reawakening our shared duty to break the silence and go make things better. -- Derek B. Miller, internationally bestselling author of Norwegian by NightAs we travel with Julie Lindahl, we gain a deeper capacity for justice, compassion and commitment to confront today’s unthinkable evils. Her investigation and the publication of her excruciating family history have come at a high personal cost—but also with the joy of discovering long-lost relatives and building a global family of survivors and readers. We all are now deeply indebted to her. -- Piroska Nagy-Mohacsi, Institute of Global Affairs, London School of EconomicsThe Nazi past casts long shadows and leaves many traumatized to this day. Julie Lindahl digs deep into her own family history to uncover dark secrets dating back to the Holocaust. The Pendulum is a deeply engaging and captivating human search for answers, atonement, and closure. -- Gerald J. Steinacher, University of Nebraska, author of Nazis on the RunA powerful, painfully human, and honest work of words and heart...Beautiful in the writing sense, horrific in reflection upon all the lives. -- James Wine, American poet, writer, and filmmakerThe Pendulum is an extraordinary and very timely book. Julie Lindahl keeps the reader deeply engaged with her clear and poetic voice. Reading this book is like reading a mystery story as the reader is experiencing the urgency of the search for truth; we are with her as she is turning over one stone after another, each revealing the undeniable cruelty that had torn her family apart. This is a journey in which every subtle emotional shift is described with great fidelity. The reader will have great appreciation for Lindahl’s fearless introspection and her most engaging way of sharing her insights with us. -- Anna Ornstein, Holocaust survivor and professor emerita of child psychiatry, University of CincinnatiThis deeply impressive book is relentlessly honest and raises many pertinent questions about the aftermath of trauma, who we are in relation to the past, and the ways in which destructive ideologies and bigotry can affect the next generation and must be dealt with. It gave my students an understanding of shame legacies and how they can be unpacked with sincerity and compassion. -- Nancy Harrowitz, Director of Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Boston UniversityA clear-sighted and courageous reckoning with a family's problematic legacy and the trauma that has affected it for generations. The story raises interesting questions about memory, legacy and reconciliation. The language is well crafted with compelling momentum, and the personal portraits are nuanced and credible. The Pendulum is a worthy, at times challenging, read about guilt, trauma, and the difficulty of reconciling with the past. -- BTJ (Swedish Library Service)In a work a lifetime in the making, [Lindahl] writes of her awakening to the pieces missing in her history and the drive that led her to ask difficult questions about her grandparents and their roles in the Nazi SS . . . From discovering unknown family in South America to accepting that wounds were necessary to open in order to heal, Lindahl shows how generations can suffer silence and shame throughout the years, and the importance of coming to terms with the truth in order to find closure. This powerful work reveals how people adversely impacted by the past persevere, even while living alongside the perpetrators who still carry prejudice. * Library Journal *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue Part I: “Quiet Is Best” Chapter 1: Sweden, 2015 Chapter 2: West Germany, 1989 Chapter 3: The United Kingdom, 1990 Chapter 4: Germany, 1997 Chapter 5: Germany, 2010 Chapter 6: Germany, 2012 Chapter 7: Germany, 2012 Chapter 8: Poland, 2012 Chapter 9: Germany, 2013 Chapter 10: Germany, 2013 Chapter 11: Poland, 2013 Chapter 12: Auschwitz, 2013 Chapter 13: Bosnia Herzegovina, 2014 Part II: The Red Dust Chapter 14: Sweden, June 2015 Chapter 15: Latin America, February 2016 Chapter 16: Asuncion, February 2016 Chapter 17: Asuncion, February 2016 Chapter 18: Asuncion, March 2016 Chapter 19: Asuncion, March 2016 Chapter 20: Sao Paulo, March 2016 Chapter 21: Campo Grande, March 2016 Chapter 22: Campo Grande, March 2016 Chapter 23: Maracaju, March 2016 Chapter 24: Maracaju, March 2016 Chapter 25: Brasilia, March 2016 Chapter 26: Stockholm, May 2017 Suggested Reading About the Author

Read more less

Book Synopsis Becoming My Mother's Daughter: A Story of Survival and Renewal tells the story of three generations of a Jewish Hungarian family whose fate has been inextricably bound up with the turbulent history of Europe, from the First World War through the Holocaust and the communist takeover after World War II, to the family's dramatic escape and emmigration to Canada. The emotional centre and narrative voice of the story belong to Eva, an artist, dreamer, and writer trying to work through her complex and deep relationship with her mother, whose portrait she cannot paint until she completes her journey through memory. The core of the book is Eva's riveting recollection of the last months of World War II in Budapest, seen through a child's eyes, and is reminiscent in its power of scenes in Joy Kogawa's Obasan. Exploring the bond between generations of mothers and daughters, the book illustrates the struggle between the need for independence and the search for continuity, the significant impact of childhood on adult life, the reshaping of personality in immigration, the importance of dreams in making us face reality, and the redemptive power of memory. Illustrations by the author throughout the book, some in colour, enhance the story. Trade Review``[A] delicate, poetic exploration of three generations of women in the context of a grieving daughter's attempt to understand her relationship to her mother and reclaim the truth of her childhood experience.... Regretting that she did not paint her mother's portrait while she was still alive, Gottlieb paints a verbal `portrait in time,' and realizes that in searching for her mother's portrait, she has been searching for herself. Ultimately there are no answers to some of her questions about mourning, memory, and forgiveness; despite this, Becoming My Mother's Daughter provides a valued contribution to autobiographical accounts of Jewish-Hungarian life in the twentieth century and a moving examination of how an adult woman comes to terms with her childhood expectation that her mother be omnipotent and omniscient.'' -- Adreinne Kertzer -- Canadian Literature, 200, Spring 2009, 200909``Despite the immediacy of its content the narrative has a complex structure, operating on several differect time levels and employing...a number of recurrent symbols.... [and it] give[s] an insight into one of the lesser-known aspects of the Holocaust. In Hungary the `Final Solution' started late and took an exceptionally brutal course. Within four months of the German invasion in March 1944, nearly 450,000 of Hungary's 750,000 Jews were deported from the provinces to perish in Auschwitz, while 100,000 men were being decimated in the lethal forced-labour service and 200,000 men, women and children remained in Budapest at the mercy of the bloodthirsty Arrow Cross thugs. What Eva, with her sister and mother, suffers in Budapest--with their father and husband on the run--is typical of the ordeal of those who were spared Auschwitz but little else. However, the Holocaust is only one of the two central themes of the book. The other is Eva's--or the author's--personal development, determined mainly by the impact of her mother. The two themes are closely connected, and the relationship of mother and daughter is intensified far beyond the norm by the extraordinary conditions of the Holocaust. Eva's dependence on her mother for her survival against extraordinary odds imposes on her an unusual sense of obligation, but if she is to develop her own individuality she must liberate herself.... Whether [the resolution she achieves] is a profound piece of psychological wisdom or a counsel of despair is for the reader to decide.'' -- Ladislaus Löb, University of Sussex -- East European Jewish Affairs, Vol. 39, #2, July 2009, 200907``Gottlieb's memoir is tender, sad and touching.... The book is...enhanced with reproductions of sketches and paintings of Gottlieb's family, and of the scenes she depicts so vividly.'' -- Catherine Thompson -- The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo), June 14, 2008, 200806``In this deeply moving memoir, Erika Gottlieb--thinly veiled as her narrator Eva--evokes the trauma of her childhood and youth in Hungary during the Second World War, the miracle of her survival, and her triumphant emigration to Canada as a young woman. In writing of herself and probing her formative influences, Gottlieb also writes of her grandmother, her mother, and her two sisters. She weaves a compellingly honest narrative of three generations of women whose personal narratives inform and enrich one another. Eva's grief following the death of her beloved mother leads her to revisit painful wartime memories. As Eva finally realizes, reconciliation is made possible by the sustaining love of her mother--an inspiring and redemptive love that she bequeaths to her own children.'' -- Ruth Panofsky, Ryerson University, author of Laike and Nahum: A Poem in Two Voices -- 200802Table of Contents Becoming My Mother's Daughter: A Story of Survival and Renewal by Erika Gottlieb The Bridge The Maze The Tunnel, 1913-1944 The Tunnel, 1944-1945 The Tunnel, 1952-1982 The Handbag

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe true story of a German-Jewish love that overcame the burdens of the past. Finalist for the 2017 Book of the Year Award by the Chicago Writers Association “A book that is hard to put down.” —Jerusalem Post “This book confirms Annette Gendler as an indispensable Jewish voice for our time." —Yossi Klein Halevi, author of Like Dreamers "The ghosts of the past haunt a woman’s search for herself in this thoughtful, poignant memoir about the transformative power of love and faith.” —Hillary Jordan, author of Mudbound, now a Netflix movie “An exquisitely written conversion story which expounds upon personal and collective identity.” —Washington Independent Review of Books “A compelling, gracefully written memoir about the impact of the past on the present.” —Michael Steinberg, author of Still Pitching History was repeating itself when Annette fell in love with Harry, a Jewish man, the son of Holocaust survivors, in Germany in 1985. Her Great-Aunt Resi had been married to a Jew in Czechoslovakia before World War II―a marriage that, while happy, put the entire family in mortal danger once the Nazis took over their hometown in 1938. Annette and Harry’s love, meanwhile, was the ultimate nightmare for Harry’s family. Not only was their son considering marrying a non-Jew, but a German. Weighed down by the burdens of their family histories, Annette and Harry kept their relationship secret for three years, until they could forge a path into the future and create a new life in Chicago. Annette found a spiritual home in Judaism―a choice that paved the way toward acceptance by Harry’s family, and redemption for some of the wounds of her own family’s past.Trade Review2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Relationships (Non-Fiction) “Interwoven with the story of Gendler's great-aunt and illustrated with family photographs, the author's story offers an intimate and interesting . . . look at one woman's life choices and their outcomes . . . [a] candid and heartfelt memoir.” —Kirkus “Piercing. The silver lining of hope, faith, and healing will leave readers stirred.” —Redbook Magazine “Jumping Over Shadows is a timely and thought-provoking book, one that I urge people of all faiths and backgrounds to read and reread.” —Windy City Reviews “Gendler skillfully integrates the history of her family, which she meticulously researched, with her own modern love story.” —Jewish Book Council “Is it a fair comparison when the author weaves her love story with that of her great-aunt who married a Jew in Czechoslovakia fifty years before? It turns out it is.” —Story Circle Book Reviews

Read more less

Book SynopsisLeora, a juvenile court judge, wife, mother, and daughter, is caught in the routine of work, taking care of her family and aging parents. But she’s also a second-generation Holocaust survivor. It’s an identity she didn’t understand was hers until she accidentally discovered a secret file of handwritten notes addressed to her father. A further discovery of a seemingly random WWII postcard in a thrift store sets her on a collision course with the past in this lyrical memoir about secrets hidden within secrets, both present-day and buried deep within wartime Europe.Trade ReviewPraise for Do Not Disclose:A 2021 Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Book of the Year“This richly detailed memoir will particularly appeal to those whose imaginations are fired by genealogy and historical research. A captivating story smartly recounted.”—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED“Exceptionally well written, organized and presented… Do Not Disclose is an inherently fascinating read from beginning to end. A welcome addition to the growing library of Jewish Holocaust Literature … an extraordinary and unreservedly welcome addition to community, college and university library collections.”—Midwest Book Review, Reviewer’s Choice“Do Not Disclose is hard to put down, a haunting, poetic journey, the search for lost childhood, like a letter from someone we did not want to see anymore, nor want to open for the fear of finding inside it—a truth.”—John Bernstein, prize-winning screenwriter, playwright, and Professor of Holocaust in Film and Israeli Cinema at the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies“Leora Krygier is an exquisite writer and Do Not Disclose is her masterpiece. In lyrical prose, she recounts the bittersweet journey of excavating the truth in her own family and that of a complete stranger. When astonishing twists and turns lead her on a path she never expected to travel, she stays the course with courage and commitment and ultimately finds her way home.”—Linda Schreyer, award-winning screenwriter and author of Tears and Tequila“A remarkable personal journey and deeply moving tale of family secrets. A must-read.”—Eva Nagorski, award-winning screenwriter, director, and author of The Down and Dirty Dish on Revenge“I cannot think of an author alive who writes with the soul-stirring, poetic prose of Leora Krygier. Do Not Disclose is an incredibly touching memoir that elegantly weaves together threads from the Holocaust, family secrets, motherhood and a quest to find a soldier from a discovered postcard. I was captivated from the first page. Here is life in all of its painful, honest, joyful beauty.”—Stephanie Corbett, Head of Circulation, Holmes County District Public Library“Leora Krygier's qualities as a gifted writer and meticulous researcher are evident in her touching and candid memoir. As she searches for a stranger's roots, she explores and acquires a deeper understanding of her own family's complicated legacy.”—Meryl Ain, author of The Takeaway MenPraise for Keep Her:“Krygier's vivid, immersive prose . . . a recommended read for creative romantics everywhere.”—School Library Journal“Keep Her will engage fans of contemporary fiction. Fans of meant-to-be romance stories will not be disappointed.” —Voya Magazine“Krygier writes like she knows the characters personally. I have never read a story as filled with passion and regret as this book.” —TeenReads“This vibrantly dazzling literary cocktail on the restorative powers of love will leave reader's hearts renewed.”—Popsugar“Discussing topics such as environmental protection and adoption, Keep Her is a refreshingly honest read.”—BuzzFeed

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less