Gertrude Schneider, a noted Holocaust scholar and survivor, tells the story of German Jews sent east for extermination in 1941-1943, who were instead given a reprieve in order to fill essential jobs in Riga--the capital of Latvia. Amid constant waves of arrivals and killings, these Jews transformed their part of the Riga Ghetto into a structured community. This is the story of the creation and ultimate destruction of that Ghetto community based on extensive research, personal recollections, interviews, and documents from Russian, German, Israeli, and American archives.

The strange paradox of normal behavior within abnormal context is exemplified by such events as concerts and mass burials, sports and tortures, as well as friendships and love affairs between SS officers and Jews. In addition to this charged surrealistic atmosphere, a unique feature of Professor Schneider's book is her examination of the psychology of the prisoners, including a belief of the Latvian Jews that their people had been killed to make room for German Jews, and a conviction of the German Jews that they were privileged and, therefore, exempt from extermination. This book is a must read for scholars, students, and the general public interested in the Holocaust and World War II in Eastern Europe.

Mordechai Gebirtig was one of the most influential and popular writers of Yiddish songs and poems. Born in 1877, he became a prolific poet and song writer, using everything he saw, heard and knew about people. His legacy, therefore, is not only one of melodies and lyrics, but also a treatise on Jewish life in Poland under the benign neglect of the Austrians, the ever growing hostility of the Poles, and finally, the terror of the Germans, who destroyed the people, their culture, and, to a great measure, their memory. Schneider's book for the first time brings his work to an English-speaking audience, offering a collection of all of his major works, complete with the scores, transliterated Yiddish text, and English translation. Her book offers a rare insight into the world of Eastern European Jews, their culture, and their music.

Gebirtig's most famous song Es Brent--It's Burning--was written in response to a 1936 pogrom. It became a stirring hymn for the survivors of the Holocaust, who felt that the words suited their own situation very well. Gebirtig himself was shot in the Cracow Ghetto in June 1942. Neither he nor any of his close family survived the war. However, as this volume shows, his songs and poems remain an enduring voice for a Jewish community nearly lost to the Nazis. They constitute a precious legacy for anyone interested in the world of Eastern Europe Jews, their culture, and their music.

During the Holocaust, thousands of Jews from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and later Hungary were transported to Latvia, where they were concentrated in the Riga Ghetto and in extermination camps--joining the thousands of Latvian Jews who were already interned there. Only a few hundred survived. Gertrude Schneider, herself a survivor of the death camps, traveled Eastern Europe, Israel, and the United States to collect statements of other survivors as well as documentary evidence on the lives of the inmates, guards, and others who witnessed the Latvian Holocaust. Collected in The Unfinished Road are the remembrances of survivors. Each personal account is combined with a note on the individual's subsequent life. The volume concludes with a general bibliography and index.

To begin to understand the Holocaust, one must somehow personalize the numbing statistics of the millions who were transported, concentrated, and killed. This volume moves in that direction by providing the reader with the unique human responses of those who actually witnessed the atrocities, from the Jewish SS guard in the camps to the Latvian-Swedish businessman-humanitarian, himself a Jew, who negotiated with Himmler to save concentration camp inmates; from those whose fate and cunning enabled them to survive to and later lead fulfilling lives; and to those broken by the experience. Above all, it combines a portrait of unbelievable courage and endurance with one of unspeakable brutality. Scholars and general readers alike will find Schneider's collection a valuable reminder.

When Hitler marched into Austria in March 1938, the country's Jewish population numbered nearly 200,000. Those Jews who were able to find refuge in neutral countries were safe; those who fled to countries subsequently overrun by the Nazis were eventually hunted down. Between 1938 and 1945, more than 50,000 Austrian Jews were deported; no more than 2,000 returned. The estimate of Austrian Jews caught by the Nazis in neighboring countries is 17,000. Therefore, more than one-third of Austria's Jewish population were killed during this period. After extensive research of the records at the various documentation centers and using primary as well as secondary sources, Schneider relates how Jews lived in Austria until either flight or deportation; she follows the transports to their destination and, using the fate of family and friends as examples, describes the experiences in the camps, as well as the homecoming of the survivors. In the process, Schneider provides the most detailed account available on the fate of exiles and victims from Austria. She concludes with a complete list of all camp survivors. A gripping historical record for all students of the Holocaust and modern European history.

Seventy years and at least three generations have passed since the abomination of the Holocaust was inflicted by the Nazis on the Jewish population of eastern Europe. And yet the singular horror and monstrosity of those events does not fade with time, and nor should it ever. As this book goes to press, the headlines of the New York Times announces yet one more of the perpetrators brought to justice (Demjanjuk Convicted for Role in Nazi Death Camp; May 12th, 2011). Behind the Barbed Wire vividly and eloquently records the memories of one who lived through, and miraculously survived, the Nazi atrocities inflicted on Latvian Jews during WWII. This graphic, at times harrowing and always mesmerizing true account should be required reading for all who hold hope that mankind will never again witness such depravity.