Judenrat; The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation

New York: Stein and Day, 1977. 1st Scarborough Books Edition. Trade paperback. xxxv, [1], 664, [2] pages. Wraps. Abbreviations. Illustrations. Maps. Tables. Notes. Indexes. Some wear and soiling to covers. Pencil erasure on front endpaper. Introduction by Jacob Robinson. Isaiah Trunk (1905–1981) was a chief archivist of the Yiddish Scientific Institute YIVO in New York from Warsaw, and the leading historian on the Holocaust. Trunk was an expert on Jewish history during the Nazi occupation of Poland. A scholar and author originally from Poland, he was the winner of a National Book Award in history for his monograph titled Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation published in New York by Macmillan in 1972. During World War II, more than five million Jews lived under Nazi rule in Eastern Europe. In occupied Poland, the Baltic countries, Byelorussia, and Ukraine, they were stripped of property and "resettled" in ghettos. The German authorities established in each ghetto a Jewish Council, or Judenrat, to maintain minimal living standards. The Judenrat was required to carry out Nazi directives against other Jews, to supply forced labor, and eventually to cooperate in the Final Solution. Did the Jewish leaders of the ghettos, who were also victims, assist their murderers? Trunk analyzes situations where the Councils and ghetto police were forced to send their own communities to death. In assessing guilt and innocence, Trunk never allows the reader to forget that the impossible choices facing the Jewish leaders were created by the Nazis. Sets out why and how the councils worked and whether Jewish/Nazi co-operation was important in the destruction of European Jewry. From a Kirkus Review: Trunk documents the favoritism and corruption of many Council members and shows how Council taxes fell most heavily on the poorest ghetto inhabitants. Along with the well-known brutality of ghetto police, the horrifying caricature of a competitive society within the whole ghetto is described. Condition: good.

Keywords: Rumkowski, Judenrat, Nazi, Anti-Semitism, Genocide, Warsaw Ghetto, Lodz, Hans Biebow, Holocaust, Bialystok, Lublin, Lwow, Vilna, Jewish Councils, Ghetto Police, Resistance, Kaylis

ISBN: 081282170X

[Book #42833]

Price: $37.50

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