The Holocaust Books

Book SynopsisAlan Scott Haft provides the first-hand testimony of his father, Harry Haft, a holocaust victim with a singular story of endurance, desperation, and unrequited love. Haft's account, at once dispassionate and deeply absorbing, is an extraordinary story and an invaluable contribution to Holocaust literature.Trade ReviewThis fascinating account deserves recognition as a distinctive contribution to the literature on the Holocaust, the plight of Jewish survivors in post-war Poland and Germany, and, more generally, European and American Jewish history." - East European Jewish AffairsTable of Contents Forewords The Threat Part One: Nightmares Born Lucky The Occupation Captured Lost Hope The Beating Jew Animal The Cannibals The Escape The Whorehouse Heavyweight Champion Part Two: Dreams Uncle Sam Training Harlem Washington, D.C. Career Bouts Training for Marciano Fighting Rocky Moving On Finding Leah Afterword

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Book Synopsis The tall foreigner living on Port Said Street in a Cairo hotel lived a simple life, reading books and writing letters, known as Uncle Tarek to neighborhood children. They did not know that he was actually Aribert Heim—the concentration camp doctor and fugitive from justice who became the most wanted Nazi war criminal in the world.Dr. Aribert Heim worked at the Mauthausen concentration camp for only a few months in 1941 but left a horrifying mark on the memories of survivors. In the chaos of the postwar period, Heim was able to slip away from his dark past. But certain rare individuals in Germany were unwilling to let Nazi war criminals go unpunished. Among them was a police investigator named Alfred Aedtner, whose quest took him across Europe and across decades, and into a close alliance with legendary Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. This is the incredible story of how Aribert Heim evaded capture, living in a working-class neighborhood of the Egyptian capital, pray

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in two volumes, an abridged edition of the author''s Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the Holocaust examines the anti-Semitism and persecution that led to Nazi Germany''s attempts to systematically exterminate Europe''s Jewish population, focusing on the people and events from the Nazi accession to power in 1933 to the end of World War II. Original. 20,000 first printing.

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Book SynopsisWhy do people participate in genocide? The Complexity of Evil responds to this fundamental question by drawing on political science, sociology, criminology, anthropology, social psychology, and history to develop a model which can explain perpetration across various different cases. Focusing in particular on the Holocaust, the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia, The Complexity of Evil model draws on, systematically sorts, and causally orders a wealth of scholarly literature and supplements it with original field research data from interviews with former members of the Khmer Rouge. The model is systematic and abstract, as well as empirically grounded, providing a tool for understanding the micro-foundations of various cases of genocide. Ultimately this model highlights that the motivations for perpetrating genocide are both complex in their diversity and banal in their ordinariness and mundanity.Download the open access ebook here.Trade Review“Confronting the most challenging moral and historical questions in our field, The Complexity of Evil is exceptionally insightful and wise. Based upon extensive research and deep thought, this book is also remarkably accessible. Williams never loses sight of the human implications of his study, and has made a pathbreaking contribution.” -- John Cox * author of To Kill a People: Genocide in the Twentieth Century *"The Complexity of Evil is a thorough and systematic exploration of genocide perpetration that that marries conceptual precision with a nuanced exploration of the Cambodian Genocide and other case studies. In perhaps his greatest contribution, Williams avoids reproducing conventional wisdom by thoughtfully exploring the complexities of perpetrator motivations in each context." -- Kjell Anderson * author of Perpetrating Genocide: A Criminological Account *"This timely book—grounded in extensive qualitative fieldwork in Cambodia and comparison with the Holocaust and the 1994 Rwandan genocide—offers rich insights for the fields of perpetrator studies and genocide studies. Williams’s complexity of evil model helps us better understand the personal circumstances through which people become perpetrators, while acknowledging the potential for them to simultaneously be victims, bystanders, rescuers, and so on." -- Erin Jessee * author of Negotiating Genocide in Rwanda: The Politics of History *“Confronting the most challenging moral and historical questions in our field, The Complexity of Evil is exceptionally insightful and wise. Based upon extensive research and deep thought, this book is also remarkably accessible. Williams never loses sight of the human implications of his study, and has made a pathbreaking contribution.” -- John Cox * author of To Kill a People: Genocide in the Twentieth Century *"The Complexity of Evil is a thorough and systematic exploration of genocide perpetration that that marries conceptual precision with a nuanced exploration of the Cambodian Genocide and other case studies. In perhaps his greatest contribution, Williams avoids reproducing conventional wisdom by thoughtfully exploring the complexities of perpetrator motivations in each context." -- Kjell Anderson * author of Perpetrating Genocide: A Criminological Account *"This timely book—grounded in extensive qualitative fieldwork in Cambodia and comparison with the Holocaust and the 1994 Rwandan genocide—offers rich insights for the fields of perpetrator studies and genocide studies. Williams’s complexity of evil model helps us better understand the personal circumstances through which people become perpetrators, while acknowledging the potential for them to simultaneously be victims, bystanders, rescuers, and so on." -- Erin Jessee * author of Negotiating Genocide in Rwanda: The Politics of History *Table of ContentsContents List of Abbreviations Introduction Vignette 1 Chandara: a fearful volunteer enters the tiger zone 1 The complexity of evil – introducing the model Vignette 2 Sokong: a coerced killer with a conscience 2 Motivations Vignette 3 Sokphary: a female unit leader with a sense of responsibility for her subordinates 3 Facilitative factors Vignette 4 Sopheak: an interrogator searching to unearth enemy strings 4 Contextual conditions Vignette 5 Sokha: a child guard the regime turned on 5 Diversity, complexity, scope – discussing the model and its empirical application Vignette 6 Ramy: a garment worker participating in the evacuation of Phnom Penh Conclusion Appendix: List of interviewees Acknowledgments Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA remarkable Holocaust memoir, a powerful testament to human courage and fortitude, for readers of Edith Eger''s The Choice.''This memoir is heartbreaking.'' Elie Wiesel, author of Night''Profoundly observed... remarkably lived... ferocious bravery.'' New York Times __________Alicia Jurman is five-years-old when her story begins. It is 1935 and she is living in the East Polish town of Buczacz. Although brought up in an atmosphere of anti-Semitism, nothing could have prepared her for the Russian invasion of Poland and the full horror of the Nazi Occupation.At thirteen, while fleeing the Nazis through war-ravaged Poland, Alicia began saving the lives of strangers. Her family cruelly wrenched from her, Alicia rescued other Jews from the Gestapo, led them to safe hideouts, and lent them her courage and hope. Even the sight of her mother''s brutal murder could not quash this remarkable child''s faith in human goodness - or her determination to prevail against overwhelming odds.After the war, Alicia continued to risk her life, leading Polish Jews on an underground route to freedom in Palestine. She swore on her brother''s grave that if she survived, she would speak for her silenced family. This book is the eloquent fulfilment of that oath.__________What readers are saying about Alicia:***** ''I just kept turning the pages to the end.''***** ''So much bravery... We need to remember history like this.''***** Probably the most astonishing book I have ever read.''Trade ReviewProfoundly observed... amid all this ferocious bravery, small, sweet details emerge with a rending power. * New York Times *Gripping, assiduously detailed... the author serves as a model of active home-front heroism * Kirkus *A powerful, intimate, searingly impressive memoir of a uniquely courageous and unusually intuitive young girl of the Holocaust nightmare and the years following. * Chaim Potok, author of The Chosen and The Promise *

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Book SynopsisNew in paperback - The thrilling true story of an Israel spyâs epic journey to bring the notorious Butcher of Latvia to justice. A page-turner to rival anything by John le Carre, this real-life tale of espionage will leave readers on the edge of their seats.Trade Review‘What a wonderful book. Stephan Talty’s fast-paced account of how Herbert Cukurs, the Latvian aviator turned Nazi war criminal, was eventually brought to justice by Mossad operatives is as gripping as any novel. Hard as it is read the details of Cukurs’ horrific crimes, the outcome is both moving and uplifting, with the Latvian’s demise helping to bring other perpetrators of genocide to justice. Talty is at the top of his game.’ -- Saul David, author of Operation Thunderbolt and The Force‘Stephan Talty’s The Good Assassin is a gripping chronicle of one of the most brilliant operations launched against an escaped Nazi war criminal, and a fitting memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in Latvia and to the brave Israelis who travelled half way around the world to punish one of the key perpetrators of those crimes. At a time when Latvian ultranationalists are trying to rehabilitate Cukurs as a national hero, Talty explains why such a step would be a grave miscarriage of justice.’ -- Dr. Efraim Zuroff, chief Nazi-hunter, Simon Wiesenthal Center‘Talty efficiently mines archival records for vivid details and tracks the complexities of Medad’s undercover mission with flair. The result is a captivating and gruesome real-life spy thriller.’ -- Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisTHE SALTIRE'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARA GUARDIAN'S BEST MEMOIR AND BIOGRAPHY OF 2022 'Remarkable' The Times'Achingly beautiful' GuardianBeautiful in unusual and wonderful ways' Rebecca SolnitThis book is about two unlikely friends. One born in 1970s Britain to Indian immigrant parents, the other arrived from Nazi Germany in 1939, fleeing persecution.This is a story of migration, racism, family, belonging, grief and resilience. It is about the state we're in now and the ways in which we carry our pasts into our futures.Trade ReviewHomelands is beautiful in unusual and wonderful ways, beyond the grace and magic when its prose rises almost to poetry. It is an extravagant exploration of the imaginative possibilities of empathy, of how a friendship can build a bridge across differences in origins and age, how you can enter into another life, why you should, what happens when you do -- REBECCA SOLNITRemarkable * * The Times * *A fabulous piece of work -- CAL FLYNAchingly beautiful * * Guardian * *A spellbinding story of triumph and tragedy, war and sanctuary, emigration and belonging. Fans of Sebald and De Waal are going to love this -- GAVIN FRANCISAn eloquent testament to the tribulations of national belonging * * New Statesman * *A deeply reflective and moving account of a remarkable friendship that bridges a century. Homelands is at once meditative and urgent, humane and journalistic. I learned so much in these pages, and yet couldn't stop smiling at the simple strokes: the love, the kindness, the unlikely places friendship blooms -- DINA NAYERIVivid storytelling . . . Ramaswamy reflects with dreamlike clarity on memory and transience * * Observer * *An astonishing read. It brings all the verve, drama and detail of fiction writing and the solid thinking and reflection of the best non-fiction. What an achievement -- PRIYAMVADA GOPALIt is Henry's life story which is the gripping heart of the matter . . . immersive * * Scotsman * *

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Book SynopsisBetween 1933 and 1945, Germany was under the grip of the Third Reich. Headed by Adolf Hitler, this National Socialist state endeavoured to control every aspect of the nation’s political, social, economic, religious and cultural life, and indoctrinate every German citizen in its ideology. This intrinsically racist regime also embarked on an expansionist foreign policy that, at its peak, brought most of continental Europe under Nazi control. The resulting war – and genocide – killed millions of soldiers and civilians and its effects continue to be felt to this day. Nazism, it has been suggested, was “the ultimate embodiment of evil”, and historians have grappled with one fundamental question since 1945: how was any of this possible in a modern, cultured nation in the heart of 20th century Europe? There is no easy way to sum up the Third Reich, but in this short book Caroline Sharples tells the story of Hitler’s rise to power and looks at the arguments which have raged about the Third Reich, in particular the argument about how much power Hitler actually had. Was he, as some believe, an omnipotent leader with clear ideological goals and a clear programme for implementing them? Or was the Third Reich much more confused, with ad hoc decision making and intense power rivalries generating a “cumulative radicalism” which eventually brought it down?

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Book SynopsisAn intimate look at Elie Wiesel, author of the seminal Holocaust memoir Night and recipient of the Nobel Peace PrizeTrade Review“[A] judicious and well-crafted portrait of this remarkable man.”—Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph“Perceptive. . . . Fair-minded throughout. . . . [Wiesel’s] legacy compels us to bear witness in his absence and continue to confront the silence.”—Diane Cole, Wall Street Journal“An extremely incisive biography. . . . The book makes for excellent reading, bringing insight into a man who kept the memory of the Holocaust and its victims in the public spotlight.”—Jay Levinson, Jewish TribuneFinalist for the 73rd National Jewish Book Award, Biography category, sponsored by the Jewish Book CouncilCHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2023“A necessary and moving biography of a-once-in-a-generation historic figure and irreplaceable moral teacher.”—Cynthia Ozick, author of Antiquities and Other Stories“Joseph Berger has performed a small miracle in offering us this moving, meticulously researched, judicious, and learned biography of Elie Wiesel who willed himself to transcend personal tragedy and bear witness in the hope that humanity might learn from the horrors of the past.”—David Nasaw, author of The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War

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Book SynopsisAlthough Hitler's extermination of the Jews was well under way by the end of 1941, it was at the Wannsee Conference of January 1942 that Reinhard Heydrich officially announced the Nazi party's pursuit of the infamous 'final solution.' This book traces that history.

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Book SynopsisA major re-examination of postwar American Jewry that debunks the assumption of silenceTrade ReviewDiner sets out to drive a stake, once and for all, through the heart of a historical falsehood that has proved remarkably durable. This is the notion that, as Diner's subtitle has it, American Jews were initially & silent about the Holocaustthat the greatest catastrophe in Jewish history was somehow swept under the rug of American Jewrys collective consciousness. . . . Perhaps the & myth of silence was a necessary stage in American Jewrys ongoing struggle to make sense of its place in a post-Holocaust world. But even if that myth once served a need, thanks to Hasia Diners work, it must now be retired for good. * Tablet Magazine *Diners worthy, innovative, diligently researched work should spark controversy and meaningful dialogue among Holocaust scholars and in the Jewish community. * Publishers Weekly *We Remember's real interest lies not only in its polemical conclusion, but also in its primary argument and supporting evidence. -- Simon Perego * Books & Ideas *Diner's superb study effectively shatters this notion of avoidance, and argues effectively that American Jews were engaged with the Holocaust and its impact in deep and meaningful ways for many years preceding the trial. She has uncovered massive amounts of untapped evidence of 'widespread and intense American Jewish engagement with the Holocaust precisely in the years when silence supposedly reigned' (367)....Diner drives her point home with a scrupulous research and clear prose style that is readily accessible to the general public. By successfully proving that historical accounts of Jews avoiding the Holocaust in the postwar era are incorrect, Diner's account is revolutionist history at its best. -- Patricia Kollander * Yearbook of German-American Studies *A powerful book worthy of its important subject. Diner revises our understanding of the critical postwar decades when American Jews incorporated bitter memories of the murder of European Jews into their collective consciousness. -- Deborah Dash Moore,author of GI JewsA startling and passionate work of history. No one has written about the early American Jewish response to the Holocaust with more insight, sophistication, and sensitivity. -- Gary Gerstle,author of American CrucibleFor several years the debate over postwar responses to the Jewish catastrophe has simply recycled the same data, with partisans declaring that the cup is neither half empty or half full depending on their point of view. Now, thanks to the mountain of evidence she has excavated, Hasia Diner has landed a knockout punch on those who assert that after 1945 American Jews were silent about the fate that befell the Jewish communities in Nazi-occupied Europe, preferring to forget about it while busily integrating into American society and enjoying the postwar boom. -- David Cesarani,Royal Halloway, University of LondonFundamentally challenges the now widespread view that before the 1960s American Jewry showed little interest in the Holocaust. With a wealth of fascinating documentation, We Remember with Reverence and Love provides a moving account of the early efforts in the U.S. to document, commemorate, and memorialize the tragic fate of the Jews during the Second World War. -- Antony Polonsky,Brandeis UniversityThis research should convince even the most recalcitrant that American Jewry did care far beyond the mundane purposes to which some misused the Holocaust. . . . No course on the postwar period in American Jewish history can afford to ignore it. * The Journal of American History *In her new book We Remember With Reverence and Love. . . Diner argues that Jews not only did not want to forget the Holocaust in the postwar years, but actually pushed hard to memorialize it. * The Jewish Week *Diner sets out to drive a stake, once and for all, through the heart of a historical falsehood that has proved remarkably durable. This is the notion that, as Diner"s subtitle has it, American Jews were initially & silent about the Holocaustthat the greatest catastrophe in Jewish history was somehow swept under the rug of American Jewrys collective consciousness. . . . Perhaps the & myth of silence was a necessary stage in American Jewrys ongoing struggle to make sense of its place in a post-Holocaust world. But even if that myth once served a need, thanks to Hasia Diners work, it must now be retired for good. * The New Republic *Diner hurls a passionate, well-delineated attack on the conventional view that postwar Jews and survivors wanted to forget the Holocaust rather than memorialize the tragedy. . . . A work of towering research and conviction that will surely enliven academic debates for years to come. * Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review *Diner refutes the conventional wisdom that the American Jewish community ignored, or actively resisted, discussing the Holocaust until the 1960s. She makes a convincing case that in the post-1945 era American Jews, through their communal and religious institutions, assiduously grappled with the question of how to understand and commemorate the Holocaust. . . . An important contribution to American Jewish historiography. * Library Journal *Uncovers a rich and varied trove of remembrances in song, literature, liturgy, public display, and hundreds of other forms. * New Jersey Jewish News *A lively and controversial book, it is sure to spark debate and conversation for years to come. * Jewish Book World *Through her meticulously researched book, Diner helps to restore the vital postwar years to our understanding of American Jewish history and to honor those Jewish men and women who helped pick up the pieces of a shattered Jewish world. * Jewish Woman Magazine *In the last hundred pages of her book, Diner turns to other factors that led to more widespread memorialization of Holocaust victims and discusses the evolution of Holocaust commemoration in the United States. She commands enormous knowledge and her observations are astute. * Holocaust and Genocide Studies *The book details how, nationwide, Jews in those years memorialized the victims, documented the catastrophe, mobilized for survivors, sought justice from Germany, and used the Holocaust both to advance a political agenda and to build a Jewish future in America. * Forward *Diner conclusively disproves American Jewish Holocaust amnesia before 1962 or 1967... In over five hundred pages of massively researched text and notes, including numerous illustrations, we see documented in great detail how American Jews not only remembered and memorialized the six million during those earlier years; they invoked them in almost everything they said and did as a community, particularly in the struggle for civil rights, where they drew from memories of Nazism a special hatred and fear for American racism, segregation, and bigotry. * H-Net Reviews *Dismantles the idea of American Jewish & Forgetfulness about the Shoah in the post-war years. * Detroit Jewish News *Diners book successfully proves that American Jews did remember the Holocaust with reverence and love prior to the early 1960s. Rich in documentation, her work challenges preconceived notions extent in many areas. * American Historical Review *The evidencefrom youth groups programs, to memorial ceremonies, from early (and admittedly failed) efforts to build monuments, to synagogue programsis quite overwhelming. So resourcefully has Diner tracked down sermons and song lyrics, posters and programs, that this reviewer finds it hard to imagine any future historians continuing to perpetrate the claim that an explicit communal consciousness of the Holocaust did not really surface until the 1960s. * AJS *Diner persuasively and methodically demonstrates that American Jews established a strong interest in the genocide of European Jewry as early as the waning months of the war. * American Jewish Archives Journal *Diner’s compelling, albeit lengthy, study is an extremely important addition to the literature. Probing and compassionate, it dynamically challenges the myth of silence that has been so durable in popular and scholarly accounts of postwar American Jewish life. * American Jewish Archives Journal *Only a seasoned, mature, and brilliant scholar such as Professor Diner could take it upon herself to challenge long-accepted beliefs maintained by an entire school of historians who preceded her. . .[her] work is a very important, critical addition to the massive output of Holocaust research. * Association of Jewish Libraries *Diner seeks in this passionate volume to shatter the widespread myth that US Jews from 1945 to 1962 had little interest in thinking about, engaging with, and memorializing the Holocaust. * CHOICE *Diner seeks in the passionate volume to shatter the widespread myth that U.S. Jews from 1945 to 1962 & had little interest in thinking about, engaging with, and memorializing the Holocaust. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: Deeds and Words1 Fitt ing Memorials2 Telling the World3 The Saving Remnant 4 Germany on Their Minds 5 Wrestling with the Postwar World 6 Facing the Jewish Future Conclusion: Th e Corruption of History, the Betrayal of Memory Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisWithout sermonising or assigning an easy explanation to a mysterious drama, the author gives an overview of Italian-Jewish history, a description of war-torn Italy, and a dramatic account of the process of self-understanding in the face of death itself.

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Book SynopsisThis is an innovative account of how the concept of comradeship shaped the actions, emotions and ideas of ordinary German soldiers across the two world wars and during the Holocaust. Using individual soldiers'' diaries, personal letters and memoirs, Kühne reveals the ways in which soldiers'' longing for community, and the practice of male bonding and togetherness, sustained the Third Reich''s pursuit of war and genocide. Comradeship fuelled the soldiers'' fighting morale. It also propelled these soldiers forward into war crimes and acts of mass murders. Yet, by practising comradeship, the soldiers could maintain the myth that they were morally sacrosanct. Post-1945, the notion of kameradschaft as the epitome of humane and egalitarian solidarity allowed Hitler''s soldiers to join the euphoria for peace and democracy in the Federal Republic, finally shaping popular memories of the war through the end of the twentieth century.Trade Review'Probing into the Janus-faced quality of comradeship, Thomas Kühne illuminates the moral world of Nazi Germany on its own terms, a world in which most German soldiers acted as they did, not because they were forced to do so, but because they thought it was right. Obsessed with the 'virtue' of being held in high esteem by their 'masculine' comrades, they had scant concern for their victims. This book makes an essential contribution to understanding the capacity to commit terrible atrocities without remorse in Nazi Germany.' Christopher Browning, University of North Carolina'War is a powerful generator of solidarity. Thomas Kühne explores the rise and decline of the German version of this phenomenon, Kameradschaft. It was a myth that was lived in World War II and came to shape male identity into the late twentieth century. How, why and with what consequences this happened is the subject of this powerful exploration.' Michael Geyer, University of Chicago'An original, comprehensive, and incisive analysis of the concept, myth, reality, and ultimate disintegration of soldiers' comradeship in modern Germany and its profound implications for the manner in which German men imagined war, perpetrated violence, and for long managed to avoid coming to terms with their complicity in the crimes of the Nazi regime. Set within the larger context of European and American ideas and practices of military cohesion, this is an important book that should be read by all students of modern and military history.' Omer Bartov, Brown University, Rhode IslandTable of ContentsAcknowledgements; Introduction: a concept from a different world; Part I. The Myth of Comradeship, 1914–1939: 1. Healing; 2. Coalescence; 3. Steeling; Part II. The Practice of Comradeship, 1939–1945: 4. Assimilation; 5. Megalomania; 6. Nemesis; Part III. The Decline of Comradeship: 7. Privatisation; 8. Integration; 9. Demonisation; Conclusion: protean masculinity and Germany's twentieth century; Index.

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Book SynopsisProtectors of Pluralismargues that local religious minorities are more likely to save persecuted groups from purification campaigns. Robert Braun utilizes a geo-referenced dataset of Jewish evasion in the Netherlands and Belgium during the Holocaust to assess the minority hypothesis. Spatial statistics and archival work reveal that Protestants were more likely to rescue Jews in Catholic regions of the Low Countries, while Catholics facilitated evasion in Protestant areas. Post-war testimonies and secondary literature demonstrate the importance of minority groups for rescue in other countries during the Holocaust as well as other episodes of mass violence, underlining how the local position of church communities produces networks of assistance, rather than something inherent to any religion itself. This book makes an important contribution to the literature on political violence, social movements, altruism and religion, applying a range of social science methodologies and theories that Trade Review'Braun's book should be of considerable interest to organizational scholars, who have increasingly come to situate the selection of organizational activities within a spatial and historical context.' Martin Ruef, Social ForcesTable of Contents1. Introduction; Part I. Theory and Context: 2. Theory; 3. Religious minorities in the Low Countries: from the Reformation: to the Holocaust; Part II. Religious Minorities in the Netherlands: 4. Minority empathy 1900–1942; 5. Religious minorities and evasion in the Netherlands; 6. Religious minorities and clandestine collective action in Twente; 7. Religious minorities and rescue beyond Twente; Part III. Exceptions and Scope Conditions: 8. Off-the-line cases; 9. Christian rescue in Belgium; 10. Conclusion: minority protection across time and space; Bibliography; Index.

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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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