Download or read book A World Without Jews written by Alon Confino and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking reexamination of the Holocaust and how Germans understood their genocidal project: “Insightful [and] chilling.” —Kirkus Reviews Why exactly did the Nazis burn the Hebrew Bible everywhere in Germany on November 9, 1938? The perplexing event has not been adequately accounted for by historians in their large-scale assessments of how and why the Holocaust occurred. In this gripping new analysis, Alon Confino draws on an array of archives across three continents to propose a penetrating new assessment of one of the central moral problems of the twentieth century. To a surprising extent, Confino demonstrates, the mass murder of Jews during the war years was powerfully anticipated in the culture of the prewar years. The author shifts his focus away from the debates over what the Germans did or did not know about the Holocaust and explores instead how Germans came to conceive of the idea of a Germany without Jews. He traces the stories the Nazis told themselves—where they came from and where they were heading—and how those stories led to the conclusion that Jews must be eradicated in order for the new Nazi civilization to arise. The creation of this new empire required that Jews and Judaism be erased from Christian history, and this was the inspiration—and justification—for Kristallnacht. As Germans entertained the idea of a future world without Jews, the unimaginable became imaginable, and the unthinkable became real. “At once so disturbing and so hypnotic to read . . . Deserves the widest possible audience.” —Open Letters Monthly

Download or read book Genius Anxiety written by Norman Lebrecht and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lively chronicle of the years 1847­–1947—the century when the Jewish people changed how we see the world—is “[a] thrilling and tragic history…especially good on the ironies and chain-reaction intimacies that make a people and a past” (The Wall Street Journal). In a hundred-year period, a handful of men and women changed the world. Many of them are well known—Marx, Freud, Proust, Einstein, Kafka. Others have vanished from collective memory despite their enduring importance in our daily lives. Without Karl Landsteiner, for instance, there would be no blood transfusions or major surgery. Without Paul Ehrlich, no chemotherapy. Without Siegfried Marcus, no motor car. Without Rosalind Franklin, genetic science would look very different. Without Fritz Haber, there would not be enough food to sustain life on earth. What do these visionaries have in common? They all had Jewish origins. They all had a gift for thinking in wholly original, even earth-shattering ways. In 1847, the Jewish people made up less than 0.25% of the world’s population, and yet they saw what others could not. How? Why? Norman Lebrecht has devoted half of his life to pondering and researching the mindset of the Jewish intellectuals, writers, scientists, and thinkers who turned the tides of history and shaped the world today as we know it. In Genius & Anxiety, Lebrecht begins with the Communist Manifesto in 1847 and ends in 1947, when Israel was founded. This robust, magnificent, beautifully designed volume is “an urgent and moving history” (The Spectator, UK) and a celebration of Jewish genius and contribution.

Download or read book Life is Beautiful But Not for Jews written by Kobi Niv and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2003-09-29 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roberto Benigni's romantic comedy Life is Beautiful enjoyed tremendous success everywhere it was shown. In addition to winning almost every possible film award, including three Oscars, lavish praise and film reviews, it grossed over a quarter of a billion dollars—the most profitable Italian movie ever. Very few have questioned the movie—until now. With sharp, uncompromising logic and eye-opening insight, Niv analyzes the film and its script scene-by-scene to show why Life is Beautiful is very far from being the innocent, charming, and heartwarming film it appears to be. The author argues that the film not only lends support to the central arguments of Holocaust deniers, but is actually a quasi-theological, Christian parable which seeks to justify the extermination of Jews in the 20th century as divine punishment for the sin of the crucifixion of Jesus two thousand years ago. Life is Beautiful, But Not for Jews is a riveting book that simply and concisely raises some important and complex ideas about film and psychology in post-Holocaust civilization. It also serves as an elementary course in the appreciation of films and artistic texts in general and in deciphering their deeper meanings, teaching the reader to more clearly grasp the hidden significance of cultural processes. This is the first English translation of the Hebrew text.

Download or read book How the Jews Defeated Hitler written by Benjamin Ginsberg and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most common assumptions about World War II is that the Jews did not actively or effectively resist their own extermination at the hands of the Nazis. In this powerful book, Benjamin Ginsberg convincingly argues that the Jews not only resisted the Germans but actually played a major role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. The question, he contends, is not whether the Jews fought but where and by what means. True, many Jews were poorly armed, outnumbered, and without resources, but Ginsberg shows persuasively that this myth of passivity is solely that--a myth. Instead, the Jews resisted strongly in four key ways: through their leadership role in organizing the defense of the Soviet Union, their influence and scientific research in the United States, their contribution to allied espionage and cryptanalysis, and their importance in European resistance movements. In this compelling, cogent history, we discover that Jews contributed powerfully to Hitler's defeat.

Download or read book Why the Germans Why the Jews written by Götz Aly and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative and insightful analysis that sheds new light on one of the most puzzling and historically unsettling conundrums Why the Germans? Why the Jews? Countless historians have grappled with these questions, but few have come up with answers as original and insightful as those of maverick German historian Götz Aly. Tracing the prehistory of the Holocaust from the 1800s to the Nazis' assumption of power in 1933, Aly shows that German anti-Semitism was—to a previously overlooked extent—driven in large part by material concerns, not racist ideology or religious animosity. As Germany made its way through the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution, the difficulties of the lethargic, economically backward German majority stood in marked contrast to the social and economic success of the agile Jewish minority. This success aroused envy and fear among the Gentile population, creating fertile ground for murderous Nazi politics. Surprisingly, and controversially, Aly shows that the roots of the Holocaust are deeply intertwined with German efforts to create greater social equality. Redistributing wealth from the well-off to the less fortunate was in many respects a laudable goal, particularly at a time when many lived in poverty. But as the notion of material equality took over the public imagination, the skilled, well-educated Jewish population came to be seen as having more than its fair share. Aly's account of this fatal social dynamic opens up a new vantage point on the greatest crime in history and is sure to prompt heated debate for years to come.

Download or read book Jews Without Judaism written by Daniel Friedman and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It may fairly be said that religion plays virtually no part in the lives of most American Jews. So begins Daniel Friedman's provocative discussion of American Judaism. Friedman, a rabbi for almost forty years, has counseled thousands of Jews on the meaning of being Jewish. From this wealth of experience he has created this fascinating series of fictional conversations, each of them a distillation of many actual conversations. Should Jews marry outside the faith, and if so, what are the likely consequences? How should Jews cope with anti-Semitism, or evaluate their tense historical relationship with Christianity? Can one be Jewish without being religious; without belief in God; indeed, without Judaism? Are all values relative if one does not believe in God? In contemporary society these timely questions are of great importance to both practicing and nonpracticing Jews. Each of the fictional conversations thoroughly explores these issues with sensitivity and offers much valuable advice culled from Rabbi Friedman's many years of thinking about what it means to be Jewish in a secular age.

Download or read book Antisemitism in the North written by Jonathan Adams and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-12-02 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is research on antisemitism even necessary in countries with a relatively small Jewish population? Absolutely, as this volume shows. Compared to other countries, research on antisemitism in the Nordic countries (Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) is marginalized at an institutional and staffing level, especially as far as antisemitism beyond German fascism, the Second World War, and the Holocaust is concerned. Furthermore, compared to scholarship on other prejudices and minority groups, issues concerning Jews and anti-Jewish stereotypes remain relatively underresearched in Scandinavia – even though antisemitic stereotypes have been present and flourishing in the North ever since the arrival of Christianity, and long before the arrival of the first Jewish communities. This volume aims to help bring the study of antisemitism to the fore, from the medieval period to the present day. Contributors from all the Nordic countries describe the status of as well as the challenges and desiderata for the study of antisemitism in their respective countries.

Download or read book Black Earth written by Timothy Snyder and published by Tim Duggan Books. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant, haunting, and profoundly original portrait of the defining tragedy of our time. In this epic history of extermination and survival, Timothy Snyder presents a new explanation of the great atrocity of the twentieth century, and reveals the risks that we face in the twenty-first. Based on new sources from eastern Europe and forgotten testimonies from Jewish survivors, Black Earth recounts the mass murder of the Jews as an event that is still close to us, more comprehensible than we would like to think, and thus all the more terrifying. The Holocaust began in a dark but accessible place, in Hitler's mind, with the thought that the elimination of Jews would restore balance to the planet and allow Germans to win the resources they desperately needed. Such a worldview could be realized only if Germany destroyed other states, so Hitler's aim was a colonial war in Europe itself. In the zones of statelessness, almost all Jews died. A few people, the righteous few, aided them, without support from institutions. Much of the new research in this book is devoted to understanding these extraordinary individuals. The almost insurmountable difficulties they faced only confirm the dangers of state destruction and ecological panic. These men and women should be emulated, but in similar circumstances few of us would do so. By overlooking the lessons of the Holocaust, Snyder concludes, we have misunderstood modernity and endangered the future. The early twenty-first century is coming to resemble the early twentieth, as growing preoccupations with food and water accompany ideological challenges to global order. Our world is closer to Hitler's than we like to admit, and saving it requires us to see the Holocaust as it was --and ourselves as we are. Groundbreaking, authoritative, and utterly absorbing, Black Earth reveals a Holocaust that is not only history but warning.

Download or read book World of Our Fathers written by Irving Howe and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 714 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new 30th Anniversary paperback edition of an award-winning classic. Winner of the National Book Award, 1976 World of Our Fathers traces the story of Eastern Europe's Jews to America over four decades. Beginning in the 1880s, it offers a rich portrayal of the East European Jewish experience in New York, and shows how the immigrant generation tried to maintain their Yiddish culture while becoming American. It is essential reading for those interested in understanding why these forebears to many of today's American Jews made the decision to leave their homelands, the challenges these new Jewish Americans faced, and how they experienced every aspect of immigrant life in the early part of the twentieth century. This invaluable contribution to Jewish literature and culture is now back in print in a new paperback edition, which includes a new foreword by noted author and literary critic Morris Dickstein.

Download or read book How to Fight Anti Semitism written by Bari Weiss and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD • The prescient founder of The Free Press delivers an urgent wake-up call to all Americans exposing the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in this country—and explains what we can do to defeat it. “A praiseworthy and concise brief against modern-day anti-Semitism.”—The New York Times On October 27, 2018, eleven Jews were gunned down as they prayed at their synagogue in Pittsburgh. It was the deadliest attack on Jews in American history. For most Americans, the massacre at Tree of Life, the synagogue where Bari Weiss became a bat mitzvah, came as a shock. But anti-Semitism is the oldest hatred, commonplace across the Middle East and on the rise for years in Europe. So that terrible morning in Pittsburgh, as well as the continued surge of hate crimes against Jews in cities and towns across the country, raise a question Americans cannot avoid: Could it happen here? This book is Weiss’s answer. Like many, Weiss long believed this country could escape the rising tide of anti-Semitism. With its promise of free speech and religion, its insistence that all people are created equal, its tolerance for difference, and its emphasis on shared ideals rather than bloodlines, America has been, even with all its flaws, a new Jerusalem for the Jewish people. But now the luckiest Jews in history are beginning to face a three-headed dragon known all too well to Jews of other times and places: the physical fear of violent assault, the moral fear of ideological vilification, and the political fear of resurgent fascism and populism. No longer the exclusive province of the far right, the far left, and assorted religious bigots, anti-Semitism now finds a home in identity politics as well as the reaction against identity politics, in the renewal of America First isolationism and the rise of one-world socialism, and in the spread of Islamist ideas into unlikely places. A hatred that was, until recently, reliably taboo is migrating toward the mainstream, amplified by social media and a culture of conspiracy that threatens us all. Weiss is one of our most provocative writers, and her cri de coeur makes a powerful case for renewing Jewish and American values in this uncertain moment. Not just for the sake of America’s Jews, but for the sake of America.

Download or read book Everyday Jews written by Yehoshue Perle and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2007-11-14 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Everyday Jews was first published in Poland in 1935, the Jewish Left was scandalized by the sex scenes, and I. B. Singer complained that the novel was too bleak to be psychologically credible. Yet within two years Perle’s novel was heralded as a modern Yiddish masterpiece. Offering a unique blend of raw sexuality and romantic love, thwarted desire and spiritual longing, Everyday Jews is now considered Perle’s consummate achievement. The voice of Mendl, the novel's 12-year-old narrator, is precisely captured by this artfully simple translation. Mendl's impoverished and dysfunctional family struggles to survive in a nameless Polish provincial town. In his unsettled world, most ordinary people yearn to be somewhere else—or someone else. As Mendl journeys to adulthood, Perle captures the complex interplay of Christians and Jews, weekdays and Sabbaths, town and country, dream and reality, against a relentless and never-ending battle of the sexes.

Download or read book The City Without Jews written by Hugo Bettauer and published by . This book was released on 2018-02-03 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Content In the aftermath of World War One, Austria faces a severe economic crisis. Unemployment. Fear of decline. However, some people argue that the problem sits deeper. For them, the country's soul is at stake. Finally, people are fed up and demand a solution. And they get what they want. They get their hero. His name is Chancellor Dr. Schwertfeger. The Aryan messiah elected by the masses offers a simple but radical solution: "Out with the Jews!" A word and a blow and soon the whole country celebrates the day the last Jew left Austria. The whole country? No, not everybody is happy. Lives are shattered. Friends, families, and lovers torn apart. And to make matters worse, the economy is not picking up. The gap left by the Jewish exodus is greater than expected. In this time of turmoil, one man is prepared to make a stand. Leo is one of the exiled and had to leave his loved one behind. Now, he is ready to fight for the love of his life and to die for his home country! Will the lovers be reunited? And what will become of Austria? About the Author and the Book With this satirical book, Hugo Bettauer was fighting the violent Anti-Semite movements of the 1920s. But little did he know! He was right and wrong at the same time. He was right, the Anti-Semites were aiming at a final solution to the so called Jewish question. Yet, we all know the course of history - exiling the Jews was not enough for the NAZIs. The converted Christian Hugo Bettauer did not live to witness this human tragedy. After a failed attempt at moving to the US, the Austrian stayed in his home country where he worked as an author and as a correspondent for American newspapers. He wrote one of the first stories about a serial killer, wrote movie scripts, and published a magazine campaigning for progressive ideas such as impunity for homosexuals and women's rights. His articles caused so much sensation that he was taken to court, his magazine was seized and Mr. Bettauer received death threats. On 20th March 1925, Hugo Bettauer was shot and killed by a member of the NAZI party. The killer was released from a psychiatric clinic only 18 months after committing the crime. What is there to learn from this story? It is more than just a piece of history. It was prophetic at the time of its release and its prophetic voice is still valid. As it seems, the demagogues, the dictators, the racists, the fascists, the haters of human rights, the terrorists and Anti-Semites are present here and now, the world over.

Download or read book The International Jew written by Henry Ford and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Ordinary Jews written by Evgeny Finkel and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-21 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Jewish responses during the Holocaust shed new light on the dynamics of genocide and political violence Focusing on the choices and actions of Jews during the Holocaust, Ordinary Jews examines the different patterns of behavior of civilians targeted by mass violence. Relying on rich archival material and hundreds of survivors' testimonies, Evgeny Finkel presents a new framework for understanding the survival strategies in which Jews engaged: cooperation and collaboration, coping and compliance, evasion, and resistance. Finkel compares Jews' behavior in three Jewish ghettos—Minsk, Kraków, and Białystok—and shows that Jews' responses to Nazi genocide varied based on their experiences with prewar policies that either promoted or discouraged their integration into non-Jewish society. Finkel demonstrates that while possible survival strategies were the same for everyone, individuals' choices varied across and within communities. In more cohesive and robust Jewish communities, coping—confronting the danger and trying to survive without leaving—was more organized and successful, while collaboration with the Nazis and attempts to escape the ghetto were minimal. In more heterogeneous Jewish communities, collaboration with the Nazis was more pervasive, while coping was disorganized. In localities with a history of peaceful interethnic relations, evasion was more widespread than in places where interethnic relations were hostile. State repression before WWII, to which local communities were subject, determined the viability of anti-Nazi Jewish resistance. Exploring the critical influences shaping the decisions made by Jews in Nazi-occupied eastern Europe, Ordinary Jews sheds new light on the dynamics of collective violence and genocide.

Download or read book A World Without Jews written by Alon Confino and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This penetrating new assessment of the burning of the Hebrew Bible by the Nazis on November 9, 1938 explores how the Germans came to conceive of the idea of Germany without the Jews, which required that both Jews and Judaism be erased from Christian history.

Download or read book On The Jewish Question written by Karl Marx and published by No Pledge Publishing. This book was released on with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “On The Jewish Question” (OTJQ) was written by Karl Marx and exposes his anti-Semitism. The complete work is here in its entirety for your analysis. It was an inspiration to Adolf Hitler. OTJQ and other work (e.g. the term “Aryan” used by Marx repeatedly in his “Ethnological Notebooks”) were the same ideas that motivated Hitler to gain power in Germany. Top mind-blowing discoveries of the 21st Century were revealed by Marx and his OTJQ (thanks to the academic critique of Professor Rex Curry). Many revelations came to light years after Marx’s death. Some are enumerated in the following paragraphs. For example, the following facts (with credit to Dr. Curry) will be news to most readers: 1. Marx’s anti-Semitism (and his Christian background) inspired Hitler’s anti-Semitism and Hitler’s use of Christian cross symbolism including the SWASTIKA (the Hakenkreuz or “hooked cross”); Iron Cross; Balkenkreuz; Krückenkreuz; and the common Christian cross. The symbols signified commonality with Marx’s opposition to Judaism, and they promoted Christianity as the “alternative” thereto. The Swastika was also used to represent “S” letter shapes for “SOCIALISM” (Marx’s underlying dogma). 2. NEW SWASTIKA DISCOVERY: Hitler’s symbol is the reason why Hitler renamed his political party from DAP to NSDAP - "National Socialist German Workers Party" - because he needed the word "Socialist" in his party's name so that Hitler could use swastikas as "S"-letter shaped logos for "SOCIALIST" as the party's emblem. The party's name had to fit in Hitler's socialist branding campaign that used the swastika and many other similar alphabetical symbols, including the “NSV" and "SA” and “SS” and “VW” etc. 3. NEW LENIN’S SWASTIKA REVELATION: Vladimir Lenin’s swastika is exposed herein. The impact of Lenin’s swastikas was reinforced at that time with additional swastikas on ruble money (paper currency) under Soviet socialism. The swastika became a symbol of socialism under Lenin. It’s influence upon Adolf Hitler is explained in this book. Lenin’s Christian background was similar to Marx’s. Marx’s anti-Semitism (and his religious upbringing) inspired Lenin’s anti-Semitism and the use of the SWASTIKA as Christian cross symbolism after 1917. The swastika symbol signified commonality with Marx’s opposition to Judaism. Judaism was banned by Soviet socialists. Under Lenin, the Russian Orthodox Church remained powerful (then Stalin became tyrant in 1922). The Swastika was also used to represent “S” letter shapes for “SOCIALISM” (Marx’s underlying dogma). 4. Marx, Hitler and their supporters self-identified as “socialists” by the very word in voluminous speeches and writings. The term "Socialist" appears throughout Mein Kampf as a self-description by Hitler. (Marx also used the term “Communist”). 5. Hitler was heavily influenced by Marx. Many socialists in the USA were also shaped by Marx. Two famous American socialists (the cousins Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy) were heavily influenced by Marx. The American socialists returned the favor: Francis Bellamy created the “Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag” that produced Nazi salutes and Nazi behavior. The Bellamy cousins were American national socialists. 6. Hitler never called himself a "Nazi." There was no “Nazi Germany.” There was no “Nazi Party.” 7. Hitler never called himself a “Fascist.” Modern socialists use “Nazi” and “Fascist” to hide how Hitler and his comrades self-identified: SOCIALIST. 9. The term “Nazi” isn’t in "Mein Kampf" nor in "Triumph of the Will." 10. The term “Fascist” never appears in Mein Kampf as a self-description by Hitler. 11. The term “swastika” never appears in the original Mein Kampf. 12. There is no evidence that Hitler ever used the word “swastika.” 13. The symbol that Hitler did use was intended to represent “S”-letter shapes for “socialist.” 14. Hitler altered his own signature to show his “S-shapes for socialism” logo branding.

Download or read book Synagogues Without Jews written by Rivka Dorfman and published by Jewish Publication Society of America. This book was released on 2000 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through words and more than 300 exquisite photographs, Synagogues Without Jews tells the engaging histories of over thirty Jewish communities across Europe that thrived before WWII. Beautiful full colour photographs and architectural drawings bring back the past splendor of these synagogues and once again we can see why they were the pride and joy of their congregations.