Rescue as Resistance; How Jewish Organizations Fought the Holocaust in France
New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xii, [2], 400, [2] pages. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Publisher's ephemera laid in. Foreword by Saul Friedlander. A survivor of the Holocaust and a distinguished scholar of Jewish history, Lucien Lazare presents a compelling defense of the Jewish resistance movement in France during World War II, arguing that rescue was a genuine and significant way of fighting back. Lucien Lazare, born November 24, 1924 in Strasbourg, is a French teacher, member of the Jewish Resistance in France, having published numerous works on this theme and on the Righteous among the Nations. Lucien Lazare is scientific editor at the International Center for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. An active participant in Jewish resistance groups in France during World War II, he is a member of the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous among the Nations. He is, with Simone Veil, at the origin of the project to bring the Righteous into the Pantheon. A member of the Israelite Scouts of France, he joined their resistance network “La Sixième” from 1942 to 1944, before becoming a fighter in the Compagnie Marc Haguenau of the Maquis de Vabre, participating in the rescue of Jewish children. He studied at the Yeshiva of Aix-les-Bains in 1948, where he befriended Henri Ackermann. He was the first editor of Hamoré, the Quarterly Review of Jewish Teachers, in 1957. Lucien Lazare is secretary of the Jewish Community of Strasbourg (CIS). He completed his doctorate in history from the University of Strasbourg in 1967. In 1968, Lucien Lazare and his family settled in Israel. Derived from a Kirkus review: A challenge to traditional views of Jewish passivity in the face of the Holocaust. One of the most contentious aspects of that tragedy concerns the disputed role of the Jews themselves during WW II. Introduced into the postwar debate about the Holocaust with Hannah Arendt's accusations against Jewish leaders in her landmark work Eichmann in Jerusalem, the Jews have since been accused of accepting extermination with resignation and docility. That scenario is effectively contested by Lazare, a Holocaust survivor himself, a member of the French Jewish underground during WW II. He presents overwhelming evidence that French Jews were active in the Resistance. And he demonstrates in compelling detail how Jewish resistance took many more forms than just armed insurgency. He traces how the myriad array of small actions undertaken by French Jews—from the establishment of underground networks to the smuggling of children across borders- -eventually coalesced into a concerted and collective effort to survive the Nazi program of extermination. Besides the study's value in gathering this material, Lazare offers an important theoretical reconsideration. French Jews were acutely conscious of an inevitable fact: French gentiles could obey the laws of Vichy and occupied France and survive. Jews had no such option. Therefore, the Jewish Resistance in France, according to Lazare, was qualitatively different from the French Resistance. Christian French were fighting for their country's independence, while Jews were fighting for the survival of their people. This distinction generated much controversy when the book was published in France. The Resistance also saw itself as fighting for survival, both its own and that of civilization itself. The controversy, however, does nothing to diminish Lazare's accomplishment in bringing to light an important episode in the history of the 20th century. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Jews, French Resistance, Genocide, Anti-Semitism, Holocaust, Maquis, Clandestine Operations, Underground Movement, Partisan, Rescue, Armed Struggle, Joint Distribution Committee, Children's Rescue Network, Drancy Camp, Eclaireurs israelites, Gurs Cam
ISBN: 0231101244
[Book #85031]
Price: $75.00