Hitler's Ghettos Voices from a Beleaguered Society 1939-1944

by Corni, Gustavo

• ISBN13: 9780340762462
• ISBN10: 0340762462
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-30
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Hundreds of ghettos were created throughout eastern Europe by the Germans and their allies during the Second World War. There have been some studies of the largest ghettos - Warsaw and Lodz - and a few accounts of some of the smaller ones; but very little examination of the ghettos as a whole. This pioneering new history draws heavily on the testimonies of those who suffered in them, making use of a wide range of diaries and memoirs (and exploring the problems inherent in such sources). Other documentary sources - particularly German - are also used, but the intention is to look at the ghettos "from below," focusing on behavior, values, and suffering, as well as on the heroism and the passiveness of the Jewish communities. Never before has personal testimony been so extensively used and systematically evaluated to write a history of the East European ghettos. Gustavo Corni is at University of Trento. Hundreds of ghettos were created throughout eastern Europe by the Germans and their allies during the Second World War. There have been some studies of the largest ghettos - Warsaw and Lodz - and a few accounts of some of the smaller ones; but very little examination of the ghettos as a whole. This pioneering new history draws heavily on the testimonies of those who suffered in them, making use of a wide range of diaries and memoirs (and exploring the problems inherent in such sources). Other documentary sources - particularly German - are also used, but the intention is to look at the ghettos "from below," focusing on behavior, values, and suffering, as well as on the heroism and the passiveness of the Jewish communities. Never before has personal testimony been so extensively used and systematically evaluated to write a history of the East European ghettos. This pioneering new history draws heavily on the testimonies of those who suffered in Hitler's ghettos, making use of a wide range of diaries and memoirs (and exploring the problems inherent in such sources). Other documentary sources - particularly German - are also used, but the intention is to look at the ghettos "from below," focusing on behavior, values, and suffering, as well as on the heroism and the passiveness of the Jewish communities. Never before has personal testimony been so extensively used and systematically evaluated to write a history of the East European ghettos.

Author Biography

Gustavo Corni is at University of Trento.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
1 Witnesses from the ghettos: an analysis of the sources	1	(21)
2 The construction of the ghettos	22	(26)
3 The reaction of the Jews to ghettoization	48	(13)
4 The Judenräte	61	(45)
5 The Jewish police	106	(13)
6 Life in the ghettos	119	(49)
7 Ghetto society: all equal?	168	(27)
8 Life and death	195	(32)
9 Work as salvation	227	(35)
10 Round-ups, deportations and the elimination of the ghettos	262	(31)
11 Resistance in the ghettos	293	(37)
Conclusion: morality besieged	330	(5)
Bibliography	335	(16)
Index	351