In this riveting account, historian Stephen Ambrose continues where he left off in his #1 bestseller D-Day. Ambrose again follows the individual characters of this noble, brutal, and tragic war, from the high command down to the ordinary soldier, drawing on hundreds of interviews to re-create the war experience with startling clarity and immediacy. From the hedgerows of Normandy to the overrunning of Germany, Ambrose tells the real story of World War II from the perspective of the men and women who fought it.

Originally published in Germany in 1997, Lotte Strauss's Over the Green Hill: A Personal Memoir, Germany 1913-43 was begun in 1975 as a letter to her daughter. It took twenty years to write the complete story, and by then it was no longer a letter, but a book.

Lotte Schloss (her maiden name) was born one year before the outbreak of World War I. She spent her formative years in a postwar Germany that grew more and more openly antisemitic.

The Gestapo came for Lotte Schloss in October 1942 in Berlin; she was to join her parents in a "resettlement" to the "East". Realizing that to comply would likely prove fatal, she escaped with the help of her future husband, Herbert Strauss. After months in hiding, she reached Switzerland in May of 1943 and was reunited with Herbert.

The title, Over the Green Hill, is explained by the author in her opening chapter: "Often I see a picture in my mind of hundreds of people marching up a green hill; they come in groups, singly or in pairs, talking to each other, holding each other's hands. After they reach the top of the hill, they walk right down the other side without turning their heads: first their bodies disappear, then their heads. They are gone! I know that I will never see them again".

The impact of technology-enhanced mass death in the twentieth century, argues Zachary Braiterman, has profoundly affected the future shape of religious thought. In his provocative book, the author shows how key Jewish theologians faced the memory of Auschwitz by rejecting traditional theodicy, abandoning any attempt to justify and vindicate the relationship between God and catastrophic suffering. The author terms this rejection "Antitheodicy," the refusal to accept that relationship. It finds voice in the writings of three particular theologians: Richard Rubenstein, Eliezer Berkovits, and Emil Fackenheim.

This book is the first to bring postmodern philosophical and literary approaches into conversation with post-Holocaust Jewish thought. Drawing on the work of Mieke Bal, Harold Bloom, Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco, Michel Foucault, and others, Braiterman assesses how Jewish intellectuals reinterpret Bible and Midrash to re-create religious thought for the age after Auschwitz.

In this process, he provides a model for reconstructing Jewish life and philosophy in the wake of the Holocaust. His work contributes to the postmodern turn in contemporary Jewish studies and today's creative theology.

In the early months of 1994, it became clear that the government of Rwanda had not acted in good faith in signing peace accords with its adversary, the Rwandan Patriotic Front. Acts of government-sponsored violence grew more frequent. The author of this book, who at that point was conducting fieldwork in Rwanda, on several occasions found either himself or the Rwandans accompanying him threatened with, or sustaining, bodily harm. Finally, active hostilities between the antagonists escalated on April 7, 1994, just hours after the Rwandan President's plane was shot down. During the author's evacuation from Rwanda in the months following, he interviewed many survivors.
This book, the outcome of the author's experiences during the conflict, is an attempt to understand the atrocities committed during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which nearly one million people, mostly of Tutsi ethnicity, were slaughtered in less than four months. Beyond this, the author shows that political and historical analyses, while necessary in understanding the violence, fail to explain the forms that the violence took and the degree of passion that motivated it. Instead, Rwandan ritual and practices related to the body are revelatory in this regard, as the body is the ultimate tablet upon which the dictates of the nation-state are inscribed. One rather bizarre example of this is that Hutu extremists often married or had sexual relations with Tutsi women who, according to the Hamitic hypothesis, were said to be sexually alluring. Their mixed-race offspring were not exempt from the genocide. Finally, and perhaps most importantly in light of the recent resurgence of violence, the author advances hypotheses about how the violence in Rwanda and Burundi might be transcended.

"Excellent and absorbing.... Indispensable to any attempt to understand the Khmer Rouge." -William Shawcross New York Review of Books "A dramatic account of Pol Pot's rise to power in 1975 and his direction of Cambodia's autogenocide.... David Chandler has given us an absorbing and authoritative portrait of Brother Number One and a fascinating insight into Cambodia's cruel history." -Frederick Z. Brown New York Times Book Review "This first biography of Pol Pot is valuable not just for what it tells us about Cambodia's past, but for helping us understand the present and perhaps predict the future.... Superbly written, pioneering work. Chandler makes up for the paucity of details about Pol Pot's life by painting a rich tableau of his times and setting out the historical context of his policies.... The only plausible portrait of the man whose gentle persona and brutal actions remain an enduring paradox." -Nayan Chanda Far Eastern Economic Review "This book is particularly welcome. Although a work of scholarship, [it] has the fast pace of a thriller.... [Chandler's] analysis rings true, and he has no ideological axe to grind; he is willing to go where the evidence takes him." -Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly "Chandler's gracefully written biography of the enigmatic revolutionary of this century, Saloth Sar (alias Pol Pot), deserves wide readership.... Chandler successfully walks a fine line, condemning Pol Pot and all his works, but trying to understand what motivates him.... Recommended without reservation." -Choice "No biographer could hope for a more elusive or enigmatic subject than Pol Pot. From interviews and extensive research, Chandler pieces together a riveting account of the life of this inaccessible man who was alternately mild mannered, cultivated, and genocidal.... Highly recommended." -Library Journal In Cambodia's recent, tragic past, no figure looms larger or more ominously than that of Pol Pot. In this revised edition of the first book-length study of the man, the historian David P. Chandler throws light on the shadowy figure of Pol Pot, illuminating the ideas and behavior of this enigmatic man and his entourage against the background of post-World War II events, providing a key to understanding this horrific, pivotal period of Cambodian history.

The Jewish experience of expulsion from a familiar cultural, linguistic, and social milieu during the period of the Third Reich and Jewish attempts to deal with the circumstances of exile can be regarded as paradigmatic in many ways for the experiences of refugees and migrants during our times. This volume is based on a conference presented by the German Department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in April 2011.

For the Jewish world and the Yishuv in particular, the 1930s was a time of escalating crises?the rise of the Nazis and their antisemitic policies, the declining fortunes of Eastern European Jewry, increasing Arab enmity, and the hardening of British Mandatory policies in Palestine. Reexamining some of the most controversial episodes in modern Jewish history, this invaluable study offers the first systematic institutional analysis of the Yishuv's responses to the imperative of saving German and European Jewry from the growing Nazi threat between 1933 and 1939. Drawing on a wealth of archival research and a thorough knowledge of the secondary literature, this informative, important book will be essential reading for all those interested in the history of the Holocaust.

The diary as Anne Frank wrote it. At last, in a  new translation, this definitive edition contains  entries about Anne's burgeoning sexuality and  confrontations with her mother that were cut from  previous editions. Anne Frank's The Diary of a  Young Girl is among the most enduring  documents of the twentieth century. Since its  publication in 1947, it has been a beloved and deeply  admired monument to the indestructible nature of the  human spirit, read by millions of people and  translated into more than fifty-five languages.  Doubleday, which published the first English translation  of the diary in 1952, now offers a new translation  that captures Anne's youthful spirit and restores  the original material omitted by Anne's father,  Otto -- approximately thirty percent of the diary.  The elder Frank excised details about Anne's  emerging sexuality, and about the often-stormy relations  between Anne and her mother. Anne Frank and her  family, fleeing the horrors of Nazi occupation  forces, hid in the back of an Amsterdam office building  for two years. This is Anne's record of that time.  She was thirteen when the family went into the  "Secret Annex," and in these pages, she grows  to be a young woman and proves to be an insightful  observer of human nature as well. A timeless story  discovered by each new generation, The  Diary of a Young Girl stands without peer.  For young readers and adults, it continues to  bring to life this young woman, who for a time  survived the worst horrors the modern world had seen -- and  who remained triumphantly and heartbreakingly  human throughout her ordeal.

A crafted collection detailing western responses to the Balkan War We didn't know. For half a century, Western politicians and intellectuals have so explained away their inaction in the face of genocide in World War II. In stark contrast, Western observers today face a daily barrage of information and images, from CNN, the Internet, and newspapers about the parties and individuals responsible for the current Balkan War and crimes against humanity. The stories, often accompanied by video or pictures of rape, torture, mass graves, and ethnic cleansing, available almost instantaneously, do not allow even the most uninterested viewer to ignore the grim reality of genocide. And yet, while information abounds, so do rationalizations for non-intervention in Balkan affairs-the threshold of real genocide has yet to be reached in Bosnia; all sides are equally guilty; Islamic fundamentalism in Bosnia is a threat to the West; it will only end when they all tire of killing each other-to name but a few. In This Time We Knew, Thomas Cushman and Stjepan G. Mestrovic have put together a collection of critical, reflective, essays that offer detailed sociological, political, and historical analyses of western responses to the war. This volume punctures once and for all common excuses for Western inaction. This Time We Knew further reveals the reasons why these rationalizations have persisted and led to the West's failure to intercede, in the face of incontrovertible evidence, in the most egregious crimes against humanity to occur in Europe since World War II. Contributors to the volume include Kai Erickson, Jean Baudrillard, Mark Almond, David Riesman, Daniel Kofman, Brendan Simms, Daniele Conversi, Brad Kagan Blitz, James J. Sadkovich, and Sheri Fink.

Modernity has provided more than enough reason to give up believing in holiness, still we have learned that to give up the struggle to achieve it means that we become less human. As we leave the twentieth century, we discover new reasons to return to old faith. We rediscover an urgent need to defend the sacred, even as our understanding differs from our ancestors. We choose not to retreat from the world, but to struggle within it, to stain ourselves with sin even as we seek to establish the good. from Chapter 13, Humanity

The cataclysm of the Holocaust seems to forbid speech. Yet even in the heart of that darkness, sparks of sacredness were kept alive. From these sparks, Rabbi Edward Feld suggests, Jews and others can renew a faith and find a language that recovers the holy even after experiencing the reign of a Kingdom of Night unimaginable to previous generations.

In a voice that is engaging, often poetic, Rabbi Edward Feld helps the modern reader understand events that span almost 4,000 years of the history of Judaism and the Jewish people. With rare clarity, insight, and gentleness, he offers a thought-provoking yet accessible study of the way tragedy has shaped Jewish history and the self-understanding of Jews.

"The Spirit of Renewal" explores four key events that reshaped religious expression, two ancient and two modern: the Babylonian exile; the Bar Kochba revolution; the Holocaust; and the establishment of the State of Israel.

"The Spirit of Renewal" shows how, even under the most traumatic of circumstances, Judaism survives, renewing itself and flourishing again. This profound and wise meditation opens the way to a powerful new understanding of the nature of God and the spiritual life.

Split into three volumes, The Cambridge World History of Genocide offers an analytical survey of genocide across six continents from prehistory to the twenty-first century. Combined, they compare and contrast cases in multiple different cultures and contexts, demonstrating common themes and sharp variations that have developed over time. By examining the long-term and immediate causes of genocide, these essays emphasize that genocidal intent has historically been shaped by structural factors and human decision-making. Featuring over 80 essays from experts across the field, together they cover ancient Carthage, the Holocaust, medieval Crusader massacres, Mongol conquests, the extermination of Indigenous peoples in European settler colonies in the Americas, Africa, and Australia, as well as prehistoric mass graves from the Alps to the Andes, and the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar. A much-needed addition to genocide studies, these volumes reveal how genocide is a world historical phenomenon that has operated under different names and capacities, but possesses similar key characteristics.

A short and thoroughly accurate history of the Auschwitz concentration camp, this compelling book is authoritative in its factual details, devastating in its emotional impact.

The Stunning and Emotional Autobiography of an Auschwitz Survivor April 7, 1944-This date marks the successful escape of two Slovak prisoners from one of the most heavily-guarded and notorious concentration camps of Nazi Germany. The escapees, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, fled over one hundred miles to be the first to give the graphic and detailed descriptions of the atrocities of Auschwitz. Originally published in the early 1960s, I Escaped from Auschwitz is the striking autobiography of none other than Rudolf Vrba himself. Vrba details his life leading up to, during, and after his escape from his 21-month internment in Auschwitz. Vrba and Wetzler manage to evade Nazi authorities looking for them and make contact with the Jewish council in Zilina, Slovakia, informing them about the truth of the "unknown destination" of Jewish deportees all across Europe. This first-hand report alerted Western authorities, such as Pope Pius XII, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, to the reality of Nazi annihilation camps-information that until then had only been recognized as nasty rumors. I Escaped from Auschwitz is a close-up look at the horror faced by the Jewish people in Auschwitz and across Europe during World War II. This newly edited translation of Vrba's memoir will leave readers reeling at the terrors faced by those during the Holocaust. Despite the profound emotions brought about by this narrative, readers will also find an astounding story of heroism and courage in the face of seemingly hopeless circumstances.

The Holocaust has been the focus of countless films in the United States, Great Britain, and Europe, and its treatment over the years has been the subject of considerable controversy. When finally permitted to portray the atrocities, filmmakers struggled with issues of fidelity to historical fact, depictions of graphic violence, and how to approach the complexities of the human condition on all sides of this horrific event. In Hollywood and the Holocaust, Henry Gonshak explores portrayals of the Holocaust from the World War II era to the present. In chapters devoted to films ranging from The Great Dictator to Inglourious Basterds, this volume looks at how these films have shaped perceptions of the Shoah. The author also questions if Hollywood, given its commercialism, is capable of conveying the Holocaust in ways that do justice to its historical trauma. Through a careful consideration of over twenty-five films across genres-including Life Is Beautiful, Cabaret, The Reader, The Boys from Brazil, and Schindler's List-this book provides an important look at the social, political, and cultural contexts in which these movies were produced. By also engaging with the critical responses to these films and their role in the public's ongoing fascination with the Holocaust, this book suggests that viewers take a closer look at how such films depict this dark period in world history. Hollywood and the Holocaust will be of interest to cultural critics, historians, and anyone interested in the cinema's ability to render these tragic events on screen.

Edith Hahn was a young law student in Vienna when Hitler absorbed Austria in 1938. Madly in love with a young man called Pepi who was half-Jewish, she was separated from him and sent to a forced labour camp. So began the extraordinary chain of events that led to her return to Vienna, her life as a 'hidden' Jew with an identity given to her by a German girlfriend, her marriage to a Nazi who knew she was Jewish and protected her, her intervention through her husband on behalf of Pepi, and her life at the end of the war in Eastern Germany where she was appointed a judge over the persecutors of her people. She fled the Communist regime there because of the conflicting emotions she felt for these who had NOT informed on her. She settled and married in London, and now lives in Israel, aged 84.
 

Assassins of Memory is a passionate and painstaking look at one of the more curious realities of recent French cultural life: the prominence accorded to the phenomenon of revisionism. An attempt on the part of a tiny group of fanatics, often masquerading as scholars and researchers, to deny the existence of the gas chambers and horrors of Hitler's genocidal policies, revisionism is quietly gaining adherents.

A deeply reflective work, written by a number of eminent scholars both Jewish and Christian who represent a variety of disciplines and perspectives, this book explores basic issues in Wiesel's work -the nature of God, madness, silence, horror, and hope. With essays by such authorities among others, as Robert McAfee Brown, Eugene J. Fisher, Hary James Cargas, Eva Fleuschner, and Irving Abrahamson, the bool reflects the inspitation of Wiesel's reconstructed belief in God, humanity, and the future. These eminent theologians, literary scholars, and philosophers show how Wiesel's thinking has changed over the past thirty years, and how it has remained the same.

Six million-- a number impossible to visualize. Six million Jews were killed in Europe between the years 1933 and 1945. What can that number mean to us today? We can that number mean to us today? We are told never to forget the Holocaust, but how can we remember something so incomprehensible?

We can think, not of the numbers, the statistics, but of the people. For the families torn apart, watching mothers, fathers, children disappear or be slaughtered, the numbers were agonizingly comprehensible. One. Two. Three. Often more. Here are the stories of thode people, recorded in letters and diaries, and in the memories of those who survived. Seen through their eyes, the horror becomes real. We cannot deny it--and we can never forget.

‘Based on diaries, letters, songs, and history books, a moving account of Jewish suffering in Nazi Germany before and during World War II.’ —Best Books for Young Adults Committee (ALA). ‘A noted historian writes on a subject ignored or glossed over in most texts. . . . Now that youngsters are acquainted with the horrors of slavery, they are more prepared to consider the questions the Holocaust raises for us today.’ —Language Arts. ‘[An] extraordinarily fine and moving book.’ —NYT.

Notable Children's Books of 1976 (ALA)
Best of the Best Books (YA) 1970–1983 (ALA)
1976 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Nonfiction
Best Books of 1976 (SLJ)
Outstanding Children's Books of 1976 (NYT)
Notable 1976 Children's Trade Books in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC)
1977 Jane Addams Award
Nominee, 1977 National Book Award for Children's Literature
IBBY International Year of the Child Special Hans Christian Andersen Honors List
Children's Books of 1976 (Library of Congress)
1976 Sidney Taylor Book Award (Association of Jewish Libraries)

A magisterial, dramatic account that reshapes the way we think and talk about the greatest crime in history.

Unrivaled in reach and scope, Holocaust illuminates the long march of events, from the Middle Ages to the modern era, which led to this great atrocity. It is a story of all Europe, of Nazis and their allies, the experience of wartime occupation, the suffering and strategies of marked victims, the failure of international rescue, and the success of individual rescuers. It alone in Holocaust literature negotiates the chasm between the two histories, that of the perpetrators and of the victims and their families, shining new light on German actions and Jewish reactions.

No other book in any language has so embraced this multifaceted story. Holocaust uniquely makes use of oral histories recorded by the authors over fifteen years across Europe and the United States, as well as never-before-analyzed archival documents, letters, and diaries; it contains in addition seventy-five illustrations and sixteen original maps, each accompanied by an extended caption. This book is an original analysis of a defining event. 14 maps, 75 illustrations . A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2002.

"[A] scholarly miracle....a sophisticated and gripping contribution to Holocaust education."—Rabbi Irving Greenburg, President, Jewish Life Network; Chairman, United States Holocaust Memorial Council 2000-2002

"[A]n elegantly written, thoroughly researched and compelling narrative...certain to be a standard work in the field of Holocaust studies."—Dr. William L. Shulman, President, Association of Holocaust Organizations

"[T]he focus is on the fate of named individuals on almost every page. That creates the unusual passion and strength of this remarkable book."—Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman

"A rare achievement that will take its place among the best histories of the destruction of European Jews."—Michael R. Marrus, Professor of Holocaust Studies and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto

"An elegantly written, thoroughly researched, and compelling narrative that is certain to be a standard work in the field of Holocaust studies."—Dr. William L. Shulman, president, Association of Holocaust Organizations

"A signal contribution to the vast literature on the history of the Holocaust.... a volume from which general readers and scholars can both benefit."—Douglas Greenberg, President and Chief Executive Officer, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation

"[A] 'must read' for anyone interested in understanding the true history of this extremely tragic time."—Roman Kent, Chairman, American Gathering/Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors

"The reader looking for a clear and readable account of how Hitler and the Nazis came to conceive and carry out their diabolical project need look no further than this book."—Boston Globe

"Holocaust is a superb work."—The Forward

"A monumental, sobering attempt to make sense of collective insanity."—Kirkus Reviews starred review

"Through it all, the faces of the victims, and their persecutors, are clearly visible, making the reader aware of the human dimension of the Shoah and providing what Holocaust studies desperately needs: a single volume suitable for a wide audience."—Library Journal starred review

"A distinctive blend of moral intensity, attention to detail and multifaceted breadth."—Los Angeles Times

The Holocaust Short Story is the only book devoted entirely to representations of the Holocaust in the short story genre. The book highlights how the explosiveness of the moment captured in each short story is more immediate and more intense, and therefore recreates horrifying emotional reactions for the reader. The main themes confronted in the book deal with the collapse of human relationships, the collapse of the home, and the dying of time in the monotony and angst of surrounding death chambers. The book thoroughly introduces the genres of both the short story and Holocaust writing, explaining the key features and theories in the area. Each chapter then looks at the stories in detail, including work by Ida Fink, Tadeusz Borowski, Rokhl Korn, Frume Halpern, and Cynthia Ozick. This book is essential reading for anyone working on Holocaust literature, trauma studies, Jewish studies, Jewish literature, and the short story genre.

This book of thirteen conversations introduces us to the life of an exceptional person--theatre critic, Germanist, and long-time chair of the Open Lithuania Fund board Irena Veisaite. The dialogue between Lithuanian historian Aurimas Svedas and a woman who reflects deeply on her experiences reveals both one individual's historically dramatic life and the fate of Europe and Lithuania in the twentieth century. Through the complementary lenses of history and memory we confront, with Veisaite, the horrific events of the Holocaust, which brought about the end of the world of Lithuania's Jews. We also meet an array of world-class cultural figures; see fragments of legendary theatre performances; and hear meaningful words that were spoken or heard decades ago. This book's interlocutors do not so much seek to answer the question "What was it like?" but instead repeatedly ask each other: "What, how, and why do we remember? What is the meaning of our experiences? How can history help us to live in the present and create the future? How do we learn to understand and forgive?" A series of Veisaite's texts, statements, and letters, presented at the end of the book suggest further ways of answering these questions.

Features a new section on the institutional settings of German Jewish Studies, a Film Forum on Shahar Rozen's 1998 documentary Liebe Perla, and interviews with Paul Mendes-Flohr and Barbara Honigmann, among other contributions. Nexus is the official publication of the biennial German Jewish Studies Workshop at the University of Notre Dame. Together, Nexus and the Workshop constitute the first ongoing German Jewish Studies forum in North America. Because the locus of scholarship is never incidental, Nexus 6 introduces a new section, "Contexts," to examine, in this case, what it means to pursue German Jewish Studies at a Catholic university, Notre Dame. And because research is never static, it inaugurates a series in which scholars revisit their own prior scholarly publications. Robert Smith launches this initiative by revising his view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a source for post-Holocaust Christian-Jewish dialogue. The volume also offers conversations with the legendary Paul Mendes-Flohr on his understanding of the German Jewish "legacy" and with Barbara Honigmann on her distinctive prose style and what it means to her to practice Judaism. The popular Film Forum section returns, this time focusing on Shahar Rozen's 1998 documentary Liebe Perla. Nexus 6 also presents new scholarship on Babi Yar Holocaust memorials, Freud's famous Moses essay, Primo Levi's translation of Kafka, and an introduction to and first English translation of the 18th-century philosopher Salomon Maimon's understudied essay History of His Philosophical Authorship in Dialogues.