Abstract

German Jews faced harsh dilemmas in their responses to Nazi persecution, partly a result of Nazi cruelty and brutality but also a result of an understanding of their history and rightful place in Germany. This volume addresses the impact of the anti-Jewish policies of Hitler’s regime on Jewish family life, Jewish women, and the existence of Jewish organizations and institutions and considers some of the Jewish responses to Nazi anti-Semitism and persecution. This volume offers scholars, students, and interested readers a highly accessible but focused introduction to Jewish life under National Socialism, the often painful dilemmas that it produced, and the varied Jewish responses to those dilemmas.

David Scrase is Emeritus Professor of German and the founding director of the Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont (1993–2006). He is the author of Wilhelm Lehmann. Eine Biographie (2011) and Understanding Johannes Bobrowski (1995). He has edited and contributed to several books on the Holocaust and on German literature, and has translated widely from German.

“The book serves as an excellent introduction into the special issues that Jews were facing in Germany in an increasingly hostile environment without having a textbook character. This collection brings together the work of excellent scholars and can be used in the classroom to teach not only the interesting content but also its fine historiography. I highly recommend it to all interested readers, students, teachers, and scholars of Holocaust history.” · H-Net Review

“This is undoubtedly an excellent volume, which will appeal to a wide variety of readers. It goes into areas that do not always receive the attention they deserve, bringing yet more insights into an era that will continue to cast its evil shadow.” · Journal of Contemporary European Studies

“The volume provides an excellent overview of some recent approaches and research themes. Together with the appendix of documents, it makes for a good choice for use in the classroom.” · German Studies Review

“…this volume provides an invaluable service in illuminating…the many intermediary [positions] characterizing Jewish responses to Nazi persecution, even before the war.” · Holocaust and Genocide Studies

“By adding a selection of primary sources, including lesser-known materials such as an illuminating 1937 survey of German Jewry by the American Jewish Committee, the editors have further increased the book's usefulness. In the end, the volume provides fascinating accounts of Jewish life under Nazism that demonstrate the need for complex analysis and that there are still questions to be answered.” · Central European History

“The volume’s chapters are all sharply focused and well researched, but one would expect as much from this cast of seasoned authors.” · Journal of Jewish Identities

“This collection is useful to specialists, who may be familiar with some of the arguments synthesized here by top scholars. It is even more invaluable as a basis of knowledge for students as they explore this key aspect of the history of the Holocaust. As an accessible, cohesive anthology that develops its arguments clearly over the course of these essays, it should prove essential reading in courses on the history of Jewish life and the Shoah.” · European History Quarterly

“This fine collection of essays by leading scholars covers a broad scope of German-Jewish responses to Nazi policies ranging from self-help and everyday endurance to the Zionist alternative and racial recategorization to avoid deportation. The accessible style and continuity make this volume suitable for undergraduate or advanced classes on German or Jewish history or on the Holocaust itself. The excellent documentary annex makes the book especially helpful.” · Norman JW Goda, Norman and Irma Braman Professor of Holocaust Studies, University of Florida

“…a well written volume… Each essay furnishes very useful, unique information about everyday Jewish life in Nazi Germany and the way in which such activities changed as conditions worsened. This approach is not often found in Holocaust scholarship…There is also a very useful appendix of primary source documents. This book is highly recommended for Holocaust collections.” · Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter

Francis R. Nicosia is the Raul Hilberg Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont. He is the author of Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany (2008), and The Third Reich and the Palestine Question (1985, 2000), and co-author with Donald Niewyk of the Columbia Guide to the Holocaust (2001).