Description
Book SynopsisOriginally published in German in 2012, this comprehensive history of Jewish life in postwar Germany provides a systematic account of Jews and Judaism from the Holocaust to the early 21st century by leading experts of modern German-Jewish history. Beginning in the immediate postwar period with a large concentration of Eastern European Holocaust survivors stranded in Germany, the book follows Jews during the relative quiet period of the fifties and early sixties during which the foundations of new Jewish life were laid. Brenner's volume goes on to address the rise of anti-Israel sentiments after the Six-Day War as well as the beginnings of a critical confrontation with Germany's Nazi past in the late sixties and early seventies, noting the relatively small numbers of Jews living in Germany up to the 1990s. The contributors argue that these Jews were a powerful symbolic presence in German society and sent a meaningful signal to the rest of the world that Jewish life was possible again
Trade ReviewThis very readable book edited by Michael Brenner deals with the continuities and changes in the history of Jews in Germany after 1945 and for the first time constitutes a systematic history of the Jewish community in postwar Germany until the present time. Together with eight modern historians, Brenner presents a thoroughly researched chronicle and always differentiated interpretations of the events.
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Neue Zürcher Zeitung *
This volume, which illuminates a multi-faceted panorama of Jewish life after 1945, will remain the authoritative reading on the subject for the time to come.
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Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung *
A lot of archival work was necessary (for the first chapter). Thus, there is a huge amount of information already on the first 140 pages of this excellent work. This first part clarifies the difficult situation of Liberal, Orthodox, and Zionist Jews, who were looking for a new home.
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Süddeutsche Zeitung *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Michael Brenner
Banished: Jews in Germany after the Holocaust
Dan Diner
Part One: Way Station 1945–1949
Atina Grossmann and Tamar Lewinsky
1. Displaced Persons
2. An Autonomous Society
3. German Jews
4. Dissolution and Establishment
Part Two: 1950–1967
Michael Brenner and Norbert Frei
5. Institutional New Beginning
6. Religion and Culture
7. German Jews or Jews in Germany?
8. After the Deed
9. Germans and Jews during the Decade of the "Enlightenment"
Part Three: 1968–1989 Alignments
Constantin Goschler and Anthony Kauders
10. The Jewish Community
11. The Jews in German Society
Part Four: 1990–2012
New Directions
12. The Russian-Jewish Immigration
Yfaat Weiss and Lena Gorelik
13. A New German Jewry?
Michael Brenner
Appendix
Acknowledgments
Timeline
Chairpersons and Presidents of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
Statistics
Abbreviations
Archives
References
