If you had a chance to speak to the Pope, what would you say? This is the question that 13 noted Holocaust scholars--Christians of various denominations and Jews (including some Holocaust survivors)--address in this volume. The Holocaust was a Christian as well as a Jewish tragedy; nonetheless, the Roman Catholic hierarchy has offered very little official discourse on the Church's role in it. These essays provide solid constructive criticism and make a major contribution to both Holocaust and Christian studies.

Witnessing the Holocaust presents the autobiographical writings, including diaries and autobiographical fiction, of six Holocaust survivors who lived through and chronicled the Nazi genocide. Drawing extensively on the works of Victor Klemperer, Ruth Kluger, Michal Glowinski, Primo Levi, Imre Kertesz and Bela Zsolt, this books conveys, with vivid detail, the persecution of the Jews from the beginning of the Third Reich until its very end. It gives us a sense both of what the Holocaust meant to the wider community swept up in the horrors and what it was like for the individual to weather one of the most shocking events in history. Survivors and witnesses disappear, and history, not memory, becomes the instrument for recalling the past. Judith M. Hughes secures a place for narratives by those who experienced the Holocaust in person. This compelling text is a vital read for all students of the Holocaust and Holocaust memory.

Andri Sibomana was a remarkable man. A Rwandan Catholic priest, journalist and leading human rights activist, he was one of the very few independent voices to speak out against the abuses perpetrated by past and present governments in Rwanda.Hope for Rwanda is his personal testimony and the first major account by a Rwandan available in English of the events surrounding the 1994 genocide. Sibomana offers a personal reflection on the issues surrounding the genocide, as well as confronting many of the preconceptions and stereotypes that are evident in the West's portrayal of the genocide. In an acclaimed testimony, Sibomana addresses controversial topics such as the role of the church in the genocide, the failure of the international community to prevent massacres and the human rights record of the new Rwandan government. Despite the inhumanity of the massacres and the endless suffering of the Rwandan people, Sibomana offers a strong vision of hope for the future of his country and for the future of humanity.Hope for Rwanda was published to great acclaim in France. This English edition includes a new postscript that describes the circumstances of Sibomana's death and an updated chronology and additional chapter by the translator that summarizes some of the more recent developments in Rwanda. This book is compiled from extensive interviews conducted by two French journalists, Laurie Guibertand and Herve Deguine.

Can studying an artist's migration enable the reconfiguration of art history in a new and "global" mode? Michail Grobman's odyssey in search of a contemporary idiom of Jewish art led him to cross the borders of political blocs and to observe, absorb, and confront different patterns of modernism in his work. His provocative art, his rich archives and collections, his essays and personal diaries all reveal this complexity and open up a new perspective on post-World War II twentieth-century modernism - and on the interconnected functioning of its local models.

What were the consequences of the German occupation for the economy of occupied Europe? After Germany conquered major parts of the European continent, it was faced with a choice between plundering the suppressed countries and using their economies to produce what it needed. The decision made not only differed from country to country but also changed over the course of the war. Individual leaders; the economic needs of the Reich; the military situation; struggles between governors of occupied countries and Berlin officials, and finally racism all had an impact on the outcome. In the end, in Western Europe and the Czech Protectorate, emphasis was placed on production for German warfare, which kept these economies functioning. New research, presented for the first time in this book, shows that as a consequence the economic setback in these areas was limited, and therefore post-war recovery was relatively easy. However, plundering was characteristic in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, resulting in partisan activity, a collapse of normal society and a dramatic destruction not only of the economy but in some countries of a substantial proportion of the labour force. In these countries, post-war recovery was almost impossible.

The untold story of the massacre named "Razzia" (Raid) which took place in January 1942, committed by the Hungarian Nazi forces in an occupied part of northern Serbia - Backa. This book unveils the most important details of the massacre, implicating the Hungarian regent (governor) Miklos Horthy. Besides murdering Serbs, Jews and Roma, Horthy had also committed numerous crimes over Ukrainians, Romanians, Ruthenians, Slovaks, Russians and Hungarian antifascists. The book primarily deals with the genocide committed in January 1942, where at least 12,763 civillians had been tossed into icy rivers Tisa and Danube. One of the main perpetrators, Sandor Kepiro, was released in Budapest court on July 18, 2011. He died in Budapest in September 3 of the same year.

"By Pure Luck" tells the remarkable story of how Fela Igielnik survived life in the Warsaw ghetto and the brutality of World War II. But more than that, it reveals the possibility of transforming even the darkest of experiences - starvation, forced labor and marches, institutionalized hatred - into opportunities for furthering education and understanding. Alternating between harrowing narrative and essayistic interpretation; written in a style that is at once childlike in perspective and scathingly mature in its interrogation of the absurdities of war and the consequences of intolerance and bigotry, "By Pure Luck" represents the culminating story of a young woman who managed to survive, even at times flourish, under six years of Nazi brutality as well as many years of uncertainty and unanswered questions. Retaining her humanity, through her efforts at recording the events of the Holocaust and tackling subjects such as post-War politics and the role of education in preventing further genocides, Fela Igielnik has left behind a remarkable document that teaches us that to remember is to educate.

Belzec was the prototype death camp and precursor of the killing centers of Sobibor and Treblinka. Secretly commissioned by the highest authority of the Nazi State, it acted outside the law of both civil and military conventions of the time. Under the code "Aktion Reinhardt," the death camp was organized, staffed and administered by a leadership of middle-ranking police officers and a specially selected civilian cadre who, in the first instance, had been initiated into group murder within the euthanasia program. Their expertise, under bogus SS insignia, was then transferred to the operational duties to the human factory abattoir of Belzec, where, on a conveyor belt system, thousands of Jews, from daily transports, entered the camp and after just two hours, they lay dead in the Belzec pits, their property sorted and the killing grounds tidied to await the next arrival. Over a period of just nine months, when Belzec was operational Galician Jewry was totally decimated: 500,000 lay buried in the 33 mass graves. The author takes the reader step by step into the background of the "Final Solution" and gives eyewitness testimony, as the mass graves were located and recorded. This is a publication of the "Yizkor Books in Print Project" of JewishGen, Inc 376 pages with Illustrations. Hard Cover

Jews began settling in RokiSkis in the late 17th Century. During the 19th Century, the town's importance as a regional commercial center increased with the completion of a railway line that connected it to the Baltic ports of Riga and Libau / Liepaja and to the interior of the Russian Empire. By 1897, the Jewish population had grown to 2,067, 75% of the town's population. There was a strong Chasidic presence in the RokiSkis area, which was unique to Lithuania. Prior to the Holocaust, about 3,500 Jews lived in RokiSkis. By the end of August 1941 nearly all were murdered.

In 1952, Jews from the area who had emigrated to South Africa before the war published a collection of Yiddish-language articles and related images under the title Yisker-bukh fun Rakishok un umgegnt (Memorial Book for Rokiskis and Environs). Countless hours of volunteer effort have been devoted to translating that work into English and recently to gathering additional materials that were not available when the original book was published.

Together, these translations, images, and new material provide English-speaking readers a composite picture of the history, culture, institutions, and daily lives of the Jews of the RokiSkis area and will be a lasting memorial to them.

This is the story of Chęciny, my hometown in southern Poland, and of the people who lived there between the two world wars of the 20th Century.

The Nazi invasion of Poland in October 1939 started World War II. Millions of Polish Jews died in the ensuing Holocaust, including 4,000 citizens of Chęciny, and 50 members of my family. I was lucky: my mother, brother, three sisters and I had joined my father in America in 1930. I finished high school in Chicago, went to college and graduated from the University of Illinois Medical School. I became a doctor and a psychiatrist, setting up a long and rewarding private practice in Los Angeles that spanned more than 50 years.

Like the wall paintings in Pompeii, which offer a glimpse into the daily life of that city before the volcano, I hope that these stories offer a glimpse into the daily life of my hometown before the Holocaust.

But most of all, this is the story of my family, and a tribute to my beloved Aunt Chana and her daughter, my cousin Rachel, whose courage and self-sacrifice saved Miriam - Chęciny's youngest survivor of the Holocaust - from the Nazi murderers.

"My Education Continues" tells the remarkable story of how Fela Igielnik survived life in the Warsaw ghetto and the brutality of World War II. But more than that, it reveals the possibility of transforming even the darkest of experiences - starvation, forced labor and marches, institutionalized hatred - into opportunities for furthering education and understanding. Alternating between harrowing narrative and essayistic interpretation; written in a style that is at once childlike in perspective and scathingly mature in its interrogation of the absurdities of war and the consequences of intolerance and bigotry, "My Education Continues" represents the culminating story of a young woman who managed to survive, even at times flourish, under six years of Nazi brutality as well as many years of uncertainty and unanswered questions. Retaining her humanity, through her efforts at recording the events of the Holocaust and tackling subjects such as post-War politics and the role of education in preventing further genocides, Fela Igielnik has left behind a remarkable document that teaches us that to remember is to educate.