From a former member of the French Resistance, a scholarly
treatment of the life-and-death scenarios facing Parisian Jews
dining WW II. Adler seeks to resolve complex questions concerning
the reactions of a community faced with a state mandate of
annihilation - the Jewish people of Paris during 1940-44. The
diverse Jewish elements - French Jews (falsely secure in their
status as French citizens), immigrant Jews (most vulnerable to Nazi
destruction), and Communists (reacting as soldiers, not volunteers)
- all tried to deal with the German threat in their own manner. The
French Jews sought protection as French citizens. Taking initial
reassurances from the Vichy government, they remained blind to
their danger until it was almost too late. More attuned to the
warning signals, the immigrants immediately banded together to seek
community survival through relief services for the orphaned and
dispossessed. In contrast, the Jewish Communists' primary agenda
involved armed resistance to destroy and harass the enemy. With
three such divergent views, the Jewish population of Paris faced
severe difficulties in forming a united front to withstand the Nazi
death machine. Drawing on publications, archival sources, as well
as interviews with survivors and activists, Adler treats these
conflicts in a fair, nonaccusatory manner. A thoughtful, thorough
exploration, and of particular interest in light of the Klaus
Barbie trial. (Kirkus Reviews)
In this work Jacques Adler, a former member of the French
resistance, asks: "Are people powerless when confronted with a
State determined to destroy them? Why didn't more Jews survive the
Holocaust? How did we survive? Did we, the survivors, do all that
we could, at the time, to help more people survive?" In answering
these questions, Adler examines the diverse Jewish organizations
that existed in Paris during the German occupation from 1940 to
1944. The first part of the book analyzes the national composition
of the Jewish population, its expropriation and daily life. The
remaining chapters discuss the roles, activities, and policies of
various Jewish organizations as they supported Jews in their search
for survival, alerted the non-Jewish population to the terrible
threat faced by every Jewish family, and acted as representatives
of the Jewish people--a role that led to inevitable administrative
cooperation with the Nazis and Vichy.
Combining careful scholarship with a survivor's zeal to set the
record straight, Adler gives an insider's account of resistance
members, whose determination was born of the pain and anger that
came from the loss of loved ones, whose political ideology
sustained them even when they faced the threat of starvation and
the loneliness of clandestine existence, and whose anguish was all
the more intense because they belonged to that community in Paris
that was selected as fodder for the "Final Solution." Thoroughly
researched and drawing upon previously unavailable materials, Adler
presents an important portrait of communal solidarity and communal
conflict, of heroes and those whose courage failed.
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