Confronting The Holocaust

In this memoir, Walter Ziffer, a Holocaust survivor born in Czechoslovakia in 1927, recounts his boyhood experiences, the Polish and later German invasions of his hometown, the destruction of his synagogue, his Jewish community’s forced move into a ghetto, and his 1942 deportation and ensuing experiences in eight Nazi concentration and slave labor camps. In 1945, Ziffer returned to his hometown, trained as a mechanic and later emigrated to the US where he converted to Christianity, married, graduated from Vanderbilt University with an engineering degree, worked for General Motors before becoming a Christian minister. He taught and preached in Ohio, France, Washington DC and Belgium. He later returned to Judaism and considers himself a Jewish secular humanist. “The compelling story of an unfolding life carried by an insatiable search for meaning.” — Mahan Siler, retired Baptist minister “In Walter Ziffer’s beautifully written new book, you will learn of Walter’s complex life journey, and you may experience, thanks to his skillfully told story and clearly articulated questions and insights, a sense of his presence, the presence of a great man who finds in his own story lessons important for the rest of us, especially now.” —Richard Chess, Director, The Center for Jewish Studies at UNC Asheville “A powerful and unique addition to the literature of the Holocaust. Walter Ziffer’s memoir not only recounts his own personal resilience and survival of the camps, but also his own unusual spiritual journey in which he both becomes a Christian minister while retaining his quintessential Jewish identity. This is a learned, well-crafted, and fascinating new dimension to this literature.” — Michael Sartisky, President Emeritus, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities “The Holocaust portion [of this memoir]... is as true and chilling as a parent’s last words. His tale-telling prowess makes as strong a mental impression as it makes a factual one.” — Rob Neufeld, Asheville Citizen-Times

During the Second World War American soldiers participated in the discovery and liberation of many Nazi concentration camps. This monograph deals with their experience in the concentration camps, what they saw and what they did, and the long-term affects of their experience. The author has drawn heavily on the oral histories and personal papers of approximately 500 World War II veterans, and on military documents from the National Archives in Washington DC and the United States Army Military History Institute in Harrisburg, PA. Though substantial information was available at high levels in the American government, and to a lesser extent in the national newspapers, little was done to inform the GIs about the existence or purpose of the concentration camps. American soldiers were not prepared emotionally or psychologically for the enormous human suffering and degradation they witnessed. Viewing the camp atrocities and being exposed to the full extent of Nazi barbarism was a watershed experience for many American soldiers. Many developed an all-consuming hatred for Germans, particularly the SS, which occasionally culminated in a "take no more prisoners" approach to warfare. Conversely, American GIs responded to the malnourished and filthy survivors with great compassion. They were horrified by the condition of the survivors, but, with few exceptions, did not ignore or reject them. They assisted the survivors in every way possible, often grief-stricken that they could not do more. Liberators faced homecoming difficulties and adjustments common to veterans. However, they were often isolated and marginalized by civilians who refused to acknowledge the camps. Some veterans suffered for years with severe trauma symptoms (similar to PTSD criteria) related to the atrocities witnessed in the camps. Many veterans acknowledge that camp liberation had a long-term impact upon their life. Many attribute their involvement in politics, charitable organizations, and community affairs to lessons learned in the camps, lessons about justice, equality, and generosity. Further, almost all liberators support public Holocaust education and many participate themselves by giving witness testimony to school classes, and community and religious organizations. Jewish American liberators' experience was different; after seeing the camps, many developed a heightened sense of their Jewish identify and a deeper commitment to Israel. The eyewitness testimony of the liberators confirms that already provided by survivors and contributes an additional perspective on the Nazi concentration camp system.

Holocaust and Human Behavior uses readings, primary source material, and short documentary films to examine the challenging history of the Holocaust and prompt reflection on our world today

As an increasingly polarized America fights over the legacy of racism, Susan Neiman, author of the contemporary philosophical classic Evil in Modern Thought, asks what we can learn from the Germans about confronting the evils of the past In the wake of white nationalist attacks, the ongoing debate over reparations, and the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments and the contested memories they evoke, Susan Neiman’s Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings. Neiman is a white woman who came of age in the civil rights–era South and a Jewish woman who has spent much of her adult life in Berlin. Working from this unique perspective, she combines philosophical reflection, personal stories, and interviews with both Americans and Germans who are grappling with the evils of their own national histories. Through discussions with Germans, including Jan Philipp Reemtsma, who created the breakthrough Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhibit, and Friedrich Schorlemmer, the East German dissident preacher, Neiman tells the story of the long and difficult path Germans faced in their effort to atone for the crimes of the Holocaust. In the United States, she interviews James Meredith about his battle for equality in Mississippi and Bryan Stevenson about his monument to the victims of lynching, as well as lesser-known social justice activists in the South, to provide a compelling picture of the work contemporary Americans are doing to confront our violent history. In clear and gripping prose, Neiman urges us to consider the nuanced forms that evil can assume, so that we can recognize and avoid them in the future.

In Music in the Holocaust Shirli Gilbert provides the first large-scale, critical account of the role of music amongst communities imprisoned under Nazism. She documents a wide scope of musical activities, ranging from orchestras and chamber groups to choirs, theatres, communal sing-songs, and cabarets, in some of the most important internment centres in Nazi-occupied Europe, including Auschwitz and the Warsaw and Vilna ghettos. Gilbert is also concerned with exploring theways in which music - particularly the many songs that were preserved - contribute to our broader understanding of the Holocaust and the experiences of its victims. Music in the Holocaust is, at its core, a social history, taking as its focus the lives of individuals and communities imprisoned under Nazism.Music opens a unique window on to the internal world of those communities, offering insight into how they understood, interpreted, and responded to their experiences at the time.

Examines how over a million Jewish civilians were murdered by the Nazis and their local collaborators in the Soviet Union. Topics include Soviet Jewry before the Holocaust; the Holocaust of Ukrainian Jews; Jewish refuges from Poland in the USSR, 1939-1946; Jewish warfare and the participation of Jews in combat in the Soviet Union; Jewish-Lithuanian relations during World War II. Among the documents included are Nazi directives, Nazi actions, eyewitness accounts, and accounts of collaboration and resistance, and rescue. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

An anthology of excerpts from twenty memoirs who survived the Holocaust in Hungary.