Surviving the Camps

by Bartrop, Paul R.

• ISBN13: 9780761816300
• ISBN10: 0761816305
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Amer

Summary

Surviving the Camps is an intriguing study of life in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Paul R. Bartrop responds to earlier scholarly evaluations with the theory that the formation of a prisoner social system based on cooperation and mutual aid served as a positive force that, to a substantial degree, countered the structure imposed on the prisoners by the Nazis. Bartrop concludes that only group solidarity could alleviate the problems of living in a social environment as extreme as the concentration camp. Analyzing the testimonial accounts of many concentration camp survivors, Surviving the Camps will be an excellent source for academic historians, psychologists, and professors of Jewish and Holocaust studies.

Author Biography

Paul R. Bartrop teaches Jewish history, genocide studies, and Jewish religion as a member of the Jewish Studies Department at Bialik College, Melbourne, Australia.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	ix
A World Apart: A Short History of the Concentration Camps	1	(22)
The Structure of Terror: Concentration Camp Administration	23	(12)
Personal Testimony: Reading Survivor Accounts as History	35	(14)
The Bettelheim Thesis: Assessing Prisoner Behavior in the Camps	49	(14)
The Critical Response: Bruno Bettelheim under Siege	63	(18)
Rituals of Degradation: The Nazi Onslaught against Humanity	81	(20)
Standing Together: Prisoner Solidarity as a Survival Strategy	101	(16)
Fighting Back: The Question of Resistance	117	(18)
Reflections: Survival and the End of the War	135	(24)
Conclusion: Unity in Adversity	159	(4)
Notes	163	(26)
Bibliography	189	(16)
Index	205