Holocaust

Controversial indictment of those who exploit the tragedy of the Holocaust for personal and political gain

Una jovencita se ve, de repente, completamente sola y escapando de los nazis en su pueblo natal en Polonia. Después de haber sobrevivido a una aktion ideada para eliminar completamente a los judíos de Czestochowa, ella y su padre tratan de dirigirse de regreso a su casa a altas horas de la noche.Confrontados por un policía, Halina, inexplicablemente, huye y se aparta de su padre y comienza su largo viaje de supervivencia. Cansada ya de escapar, decide ofrecerse como voluntaria en un campo de trabajo. Aquella decisión la hace ganar algo de tiempo; los alemanes necesitan trabajadores para el esfuerzo de guerra. Halina trabaja en tres campos diferentes desde el otoño de 1943 hasta enero de 1945. Al principio, puede tolerar vivir en aquellos campos, a pesar de que trabaja muy duro y la alimentan muy poco, pero cuando los alemanes comienzan a perder la guerra, las condiciones se vuelven deplorables. Los judíos comienzan a infestarse de enfermedades y sus captores se vuelven cada vez más crueles.Al hacerse evidente que los alemanes están perdiendo la guerra, las SS vacían los campos y ponen a más de 2000 mujeres a caminar una marcha durante cuatro meses. En esta marcha caminarían más de 800 kilómetros, durante uno de los inviernos europeos más frío registrados. Halina fue una de las 300 mujeres en sobrevivir la marcha de la muerte a Volary y finalmente sintió la necesidad de contar su terrible historia de supervivencia.

Dokumentation der persönlichen Auseinandersetzung einer "Kriegs-enkelin" mit den Aus- und Nachwirkungen des Holocaust.Anlass sind ihre Reisen zum Stammtisch jüdischer Emigrantinnen und Emigranten bei der Gastgeberin Gaby Glückselig in New York. Zeitlich parallel hat die Autorin bei der Recherche über ihren Großvater Teile der verschwiegenen Geschichte seiner SS-Mitgliedschaft entdeckt. Das Tagebuch ist persönliche Auseinandersetzung mit Schuld in der eigenen Familie und detaillierte Betrachtung von gesellschaftlicher Verflechtung.

Zvi Helmut Steinitz Memoirs for eternal remembranceFor years I was preoccupied with the thought of documenting the tragic fate of my family members, all of them perished in the Holocaust. Yet for almost my whole life, I tried to suppress the sorrowful past, wary of resurrecting the years of tears and suffering. I rarely spoke of the wartime atrocities. I never returned to the country where death resided, where streams of Jewish blood saturated the earth. I couldn¿t bring myself to stand before the silent mass grave in Belzec, where my parents, my brother and my aunt lie buried together with hundreds upon thousands of Jewish victims. I couldn¿t face the death of those I loved, couldn't look into their eyes. In my mind, they live on. Many years later, vivid images from the monstrous war years began to appear frequently, images that cast a shadow over my day-to-day life and burdened my mind. I gradually became aware of my age, too. I was no longer young, and already I felt under pressure to finally write down the story of my family. All my life I had been haunted by the question of how I had survived the war, where I had drawn the mental and physical strength that helped me to survive those tortuous years. There is no explanation for my survival, and yet I am certain that the upbringing that my parents gave me had a significant influence on my steadfastness and determination, particularly in critical situations. My parents brought my brother and me up with love and human values that I have carried with me through my life. In moments of deepest despair and deadly peril, hidden strengths awakened in me, strengths that sharpened my senses and saved my life. I strongly believe that the values installed in childhood will always stay with a person and develop into principles that a young person can take into independent life. Had I not possessed these principles, not even blind luck or sheer coincidence could have saved me. As the only surviving member of my family, I felt a moral obligation to immortalise in writing the fate of my family and their lives before and during the war up until their tragic deaths. I had the extraordinary fortune of surviving, and I have enough mental strength today to enable me to address the horrors of that time and to tell the story of my family. The Nazis will not succeed in their appalling attempt at erasing my family's existence from this earth. My parents and brother have no personal graves and no gravestone.

”I nødens stund – De danske jøders farefulde flugt under Anden Verdenskrig” fortæller den sande historie om modstanden mod nazisterne i Danmark under Anden Verdenskrig, og de helte der reddede de danske jøder ved at hjælpe dem med at flygte til Sverige. I H.C. Andersens eventyr fortælles det, at hvis faren nogensinde kommer til Danmark, vil den mægtige kriger Holger Danske vågne op af sin århundreder lange dvale for at beskytte sit folk. Da nazisterne planlægger en razzia mod de danske jøder for at deportere dem til koncentrationslejre i 1943, er livet for den snart 9-årige Mette, hendes familie og andre danske jøder i alvorlig fare. Men den legendariske Holger Danske rejser sig i form af en modig, medfølende skolelærer, der er blevet modstandsleder, og de andre almindelige borgere som trodser nazisterne for Mette og andre jøder i nødens stund. Det er historien om, hvordan befolkningen i en besat nation – fra konge til fisker– satte deres liv på spil for at hjælpe deres jødiske landsmænd til Sverige i små fiskerbåde. ”I nødens stund – De danske jøders farefulde flugt under Anden Verdenskrig” er en hyldest til de helte, der reddede de danske jøder, og hvordan menneskeheden triumferer i de mørkeste timer.”Der er gået 80 år siden aktionen mod jøderne i Danmark, og vi står nu ved en skillevej, hvor det bliver endnu vigtigere at høre og bevare vidnesbyrdene og huske, hvad der skete. Ralph Shayne har forvandlet sin mors oplevelser til en velfortalt grafisk roman (hjulpet af Tatiana Goldbergs smukke kunstværk), der åbner historien op for et yngre publikum og hjælper os alle til at huske på en nuanceret måde.” - Signe Bergman Larsen Museumsinspektør, Dansk Jødisk Museum.

"[This book] chronicles Kirsten's remarkable, decade-long quest to understand and heal the transgenerational trauma of war on her family. Using historical accounts, interviews and extensive archival research, Kirsten movingly reconstructs scenes of violence and heroism in the lives of everyday people, most notably the extraordinary women who came before her. After years of emotionally intense research reconstructing her mother's and grandparents' past, Kirsten takes Joasia to Poland to uncover the origins of their pain."--

Victor Klemperer was a German-Jewish Professor who somehow survived the Nazi regime, only to find himself under post-war Soviet domination.

Firstly, it tells the story of one of the largest, but least well documented, episodes of the Holocaust, bearing witness to the death of 100,000 people from across Belarus and beyond who were held, humiliated, and murdered in Minsk by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. From Anna's experience of being present during the events swirling around her, it clearly captures the shock and confusion of the early days of the ghetto, the development of the processes of control and repression of the population, and of the disbelief of its victims.Secondly, there is a personal quality which is novel about Anna Machiz's account. It was this factor which made me immediately accept the invitation to help bring this text to a wider audience. As a volunteer with the Together Plan, which works to enhance understanding of Jewish history and culture in Belarus and its communities, and as a descendent of a Jewish family who fled this territory in a previous generation, a stand-out aspect of Anna's text is the way it captures the stories and character of real, everyday people - men, women and children - caught up in dangerous events beyond their control. It gives them names, addresses, and occupations. It reaches into their roles and relationships before the War as doctors, teachers, workers and even as criminals. It brings to life their daily existence in the new and terrible context of the ghetto. It details the many ways that these lives were ended, of how people were taken from their homes and forced into the ghetto, how families and friendships were shattered, and the progressive reality of confusion, fear, disconnection and ultimately death.

Zgierz is one of the oldest cities in central Poland, with the earliest known mention dating back to 1231. Jews first settled there in the mid-18th century. The town is about 73 miles from Warsaw and nine miles from Lodz. In the years prior to the Second World War, Zgierz was a city of about 40,000 people, of which 5,000 were Jews. About 80% of the Jewish population were employed in the textile industry. The others were involved with trade and business. The pages of this book, Volume II, are a supplement to the first Yizkor book of Zgierz that was published eleven years earlier in 1975. The editors of the first book announced their intention at the time to find a home for the large amount of material that remained unused in their hands. Its chapters brim with memories, stories, and personal testimonies regarding communal life, the town's glorious past, and the horrors of the Holocaust. The book begins with "Chapters of History" followed by an exploration of "Orthodox Zgierz," strongly dominated by Hassidic traditions and culture. Memories abound in the sections that include "Sketches of Personalities and Characters" and "Folklore." The accounts in the section on "Holocaust and Destruction" are a continuation of that section in the first book.

Der aus Fürth stammende jüdische Kaufmann Moritz Bendit litt nach einer Erkrankung als junger Mann an Wahnvorstellungen und körperlichen Beeinträchtigungen. Im Jahre 1898 wurde er in die Münchner Kuranstalt Neufriedenheim aufgenommen, in der er fast 42 Jahre verbringen sollte. Im September 1940 fiel er der "Euthanasie" zum Opfer. Die international renommierte Kuranstalt Neufriedenheim war unter der Leitung von Hofrat Dr. Ernst Rehm vorwiegend auf wohlhabende Patienten ausgerichtet. Aber auch weniger bemittelte Künstler wie die Schriftstellerin Marieluise Fleißer gehörten zu den Patienten. Die Eindrücke ihres Aufenthalts im Jahre 1938 verarbeitete sie später zu einer Erzählung, in der sie auch auf die Lage der jüdischen Anstaltspatienten in der NS-Zeit einging. Dieses Buch untersucht die Gründung, den Aufstieg und das Ende der Kuranstalt Neufriedenheim anhand der Lebensgeschichten des national-liberalen und schließlich nationalsozialistischen Psychiaters Ernst Rehm und seines jüdischen Patienten Moritz Bendit.

Marta Tomczok presents all Polish postmodern novels about the Holocaust, starting with "The First Splendor" by Leopold Buczkowski and ending with "The Suspected Dybbuk" by Andrzej Bart. She also presents their rich relationships with selected foreign-language prose, which intensified especially at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The culmination of the entire trend is a discussion around two novels: "Tworki" by Marek Bienczyk and "Fly Trap Factory" by Andrzej Bart, which reveals the aestheticizing and post-memorial profile of Polish postmodernization and its advantage over the historiosophical trend. This monograph is not only the first such collection of post-Holocaust postmodern novels, but also the first comprehensive study of postmodernism in the literature about the Holocaust, which, thanks to comparative analysis, tries to analyze and explain the circumstances of the appearance and later disappearance of this trend from cultural landscape of the world and Poland.

'Viktor Frankl gives us the gift of looking at everything in life as an opportunity' - Edith Eger, bestselling author of The ChoiceAn inspirational new collection on turning tragedy into triumph by Holocaust survivor and multi-million copy bestselling author of Man's Search for Meaning.During his lifetime, world renowned psychiatrist and Auschwitz survivor Viktor Frankl had an unshakably optimistic outlook on life. He believed that regardless of circumstance, we can all find meaning and fulfilment in our lives, even in the face of great adversity.But how much influence do we have on shaping our own lives? How do we seize opportunities and create a meaningful life? And in doing so, can we still respect the dignity of others and tolerate all views?Published in English for the first time, Embracing Hope shows that by exercising our freedoms, we have a duty and responsibility to ourselves, to others and to the world around us. This collection of timeless lessons offers hope and consolation, admonition and warning, and reveals how to turn tragedy into triumph and lead a fulfilled, purposeful life.

Berlin, 1942. Max and Mally, two out of millions murdered in the Holocaust, are deported to Theresienstadt where they will starve to death.Decades later, on a whim, their granddaughter Jackie googles their names to find two commemorative stones recently placed outside their old home. The discovery compels her to open a long-closed cupboard of haunting family papers, piece together the story of the family she never knew and find her place in it.With searing prose and meticulous detective work, Jackie Kohnstamm offers a gripping and poignant portrait of an ordinary family and reveals a remarkable story of loss, discovery and memory.

Jews in Japan: Presence and Perception. Antisemitism, Philosemitism and International Relations is a study on the history of real and imagined Jews in Japan, which discusses the little known cultural, political and economic ties between Jews and Japan, and follows the evolution of Jewish stereotypes in Japan in the last century and a half. The book begins with the arrival of Jews and their image in late 19th to early 20th-century Japan, when the seeds of later stereotyped visions were sown. The discussion then focuses on wartime Japan, delving into the complex and mixed attitudes of the Japanese Empire toward Jews. In postwar Japan, the partial reception of the Holocaust intertwined with earlier antisemitic and philosemitic manifestations, resulting in instances of both hatred and admiration toward Jews. Finally, the book explores the recent reframing of Japanese-Jewish historical encounters within the context of the growing ties between Japan and Israel. This study sheds new light on the little explored relations between Jews and Japan, offering thought-provoking insights into the coexistence of antisemitism and philosemitism, the political and diplomatic uses of Jewish history, and the perpetuation of Jewish stereotypes in a land devoid of a local Jewish population.

Dwight Eisenhower's encounter with the Holocaust altered how he understood the Second World War and shaped how he led the United States and the Western Alliance during the Cold War. This book is the first to blend scholarship on Eisenhower, World War II, and the Holocaust together, constructing a narrative that offers new insights into all three, all while uncovering the story of how he became among the first to vow that such atrocities would never again be allowed to happen. From the moment he stepped foot in the concentration camp Ohrdruf in April 1945, defeating Nazi Germany took on a moral hue for Eisenhower that had largely been absent before. It spurred the belief that totalitarianism in all its forms needed to be confronted. This conviction shaped his presidency and solidified American engagement in the postwar world. Putting these pieces of the story together alters how we view and understand the second half of the twentieth century.

Der Dorotheenstädtische Friedhof in Berlin ist zwischen Hegels Tod und der Gegenwart allmählich zu einem Mausoleum deutscher Kulturgeschichte geworden. Er bezeugt steinern die Größe deutscher Literatur und Philosophie wie die Irrungen und Wirrungen deutscher Geschichte. In sieben Porträts von dort Begrabenen (Hegel, Bonhoeffer, Heinrich Mann, Brecht, Marcuse, Heiner Müller und Christa Wolf) wird ihr letzter Lebensabschnitt, werden ihre letzten Werke, ihre Auseinandersetzungen mit dem nahen Tod, ihre Beerdigungen und ihr Nachleben dargestellt. Ihre Endzeiten reflektieren das Ende der Goethezeit, den Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus, das Exil und das Scheitern der sozialistischen Hoffnungen, die sich mit der DDR verbanden.

With Germany in the World, award-winning historian David Blackbourn radically revises conventional narratives of German history, demonstrating the existence of a distinctly German presence in the world centuries before its unification-and revealing a national identity far more complicated than previously imagined. Blackbourn traces Germany's evolution from the loosely bound Holy Roman Empire of 1500 to a sprawling colonial power to a twenty-first-century beacon of democracy. Viewed through a global lens, familiar landmarks of German history-the Reformation, the Revolution of 1848, the Nazi regime-are transformed, while others are unearthed and explored, as Blackbourn reveals Germany's leading role in creating modern universities and its sinister involvement in slave-trade economies. A global history for a global age, Germany in the World is a bold and original account that upends the idea that a nation's history should be written as though it took place entirely within that nation's borders.

This never-before-told true story of a young woman's escape from Auschwitz with her sister is a remarkable tale of unimaginable courage, family, faith and enduring love."...readers will admire Hinda's devotion to her family and her determination to resist her Nazi captors as they attempt to dehumanize her. There's also a remarkable love story at the heart of this novel-a relationship that will surprise and delight readers for its ability to withstand the most terrible of circumstances... A moving work..."─Kirkus ReviewsHinda was eighteen years old when an axe crashed through the front door of her home in Poland. Nazi soldiers swarmed inside and herded the family into an army truck and hauled them away for one lone reason: They were Jews. World War II and the Hitler-induced Holocaust was in full swing."With its added value of emotional and atmospheric richness, Tatae's Promise is a 'must have' acquisition for any library looking at high-quality fiction and nonfiction accounts of Polish Jewish history, concentration camp experience, and the power of survival. These explorations will also attract book clubs interested in selecting and contrasting a few quality titles on all these subjects, powered by an oral history that comes to life through solid literary excellence and collaborative determination.─Midwest Book Review"Hinda Mondlak's story is nothing short of extraordinary... Inspired by her father's promise and last words to her just before his execution-'You will live; you will tell'-this riveting adaptation urgently demands only one thing from us: we must listen!"─Eli Rubenstein, religious leader, Congregation Habonim Toronto; National director, March of the Living Canada; director, International March of the Living; Appointed to the "Order of Canada" by the Governor General of Canada"This moving and suspenseful book tells the story of Hinda Mondlak, who escaped from Auschwitz with her sister. Based on hours of her taped testimony, it describes in rich detail every phase of the persecutions she endured-Nazi occupation, the village ghetto, the death journey to Auschwitz, beatings, illness, starvation, escape, and then a harrowing flight from Russian troops. Saved occasionally through the unexpected kindness of others and always by her own courage, Hinda is vividly alive in this reweaving of her memories. A memorable story of resilience and enduring love."─Betty Sue Flowers, PhD, Professor Emeritus UT-Austin; former director, Johnson Presidential Library, Editor, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth"As a student of the Holocaust and one who interviewed Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah History Foundation, I thought I had heard it all. Now, I know I was wrong. This is not your ordinary Holocaust story. Do yourself a favor. Find out for yourself."─Mike O'Krent, Founder and CEO, LifeStories Alive; Holocaust survivors interviewer for Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah History FoundationIf you were captivated by the New York Times #1 bestseller The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, or, the Pulitzer Prize Winner All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, you will love Tatae's Promise.

Delve into the remarkable and inspiring life of one of history's unsung heroes, Irena Sendler. This compelling biography chronicles the extraordinary journey of a Polish social worker who, during the darkest days of World War II, risked her life to save over 2,500 Jewish children from the clutches of the Nazi regime.Follow Irena's early years as she becomes a dedicated social worker and activist, driven by her unyielding compassion and sense of justice. Witness her courageous efforts to smuggle Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto, creating a clandestine network that would come to be known as "Zegota." Despite the constant threat of capture and execution, Irena's unwavering determination and cunning ingenuity allowed her to orchestrate daring rescues, ensuring the survival of countless innocent lives.This captivating tale not only explores the dangerous world of resistance during the Holocaust but also delves into Irena's post-war life, where she faced persecution under the Soviet regime and lived in relative obscurity. Unearth the untold chapters of her life as her heroic actions slowly come to light, bringing her the recognition she truly deserved.

Following decades of silence about the involvement of doctors, medical researchers and other health professionals in the Holocaust and other National Socialist (Nazi) crimes, scholars in recent years have produced a growing body of research that reveals the pervasive extent of that complicity. This interdisciplinary collection of studies presents documentation of the critical role medicine played in realizing the policies of Hitler's regime. It traces the history of Nazi medicine from its roots in the racial theories of the 1920s, through its manifestations during the Nazi period, on to legacies and continuities from the postwar years to the present.

The essays in this trans-disciplinary collection debate how contemporary culture engages with the legacy of the Holocaust now that, 75 years on from the end of the War, the number of actual survivors is dwindling.

Bringing together leading scholars from across disciplines, this volume offers the first set of focused and critical commentaries on Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust, evaluating its ongoing contribution to scholarship in the social sciences and humanities.

In the last years, the discussion around what is fascism, if this concept can be applied to present forms of politics and if its seeds are still present today, became central in the political debate. This discussion led to a vast reconsideration of the meaning and the experience of fascism in Europe and is changing the ways in which scholars of different generations look at this political ideology and come back to it and it is also changing the ways in which we consider the experience of Italian fascism in the European and global context. The aim of the book is building a general history of Fascism and its historiography through the analysis of 13 different fundamental aspects, which were at the core of Fascist project or of Fascist practices during the regime. Each essay considers a specific and meaningful aspect of the history of Italian fascism, reflecting on it from the vantage point of a case study. The essays thus reinterrogates the history of Fascism to understand in which way Fascism was able to mould the historical context in which it was born, how and if it transformed political, cultural, social elements that were already present in Italy. The themes considered are violence, empire, war, politics, economy, religion, culture, but also antifascism and the impact of Fascism abroad, especially in the Twenties and at the beginnings of the Thirties.The book could be both used for a general public interested in the history of Europe in the interwar period and for an academic and scholarly public, since the essays aim to develop a provocative reflection on their own area of research.