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The Long Half Lives Of Love And Trauma


The Long Half Lives Of Love And Trauma
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The Long Half Lives Of Love And Trauma


The Long Half Lives Of Love And Trauma
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Author : Helen Epstein
language : en
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press
Release Date : 2019-07-31

The Long Half Lives Of Love And Trauma written by Helen Epstein and has been published by Plunkett Lake Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-07-31 with Biography & Autobiography categories.


This intrepid memoir tracks sexual harassment and sexual abuse in the life of a veteran American journalist. It also describes the long and ultimately successful psychotherapy the author undertook to heal. The Long Half-Lives of Love and Trauma“invents its own genre,” wrote Sherry Turkle. “The author suspects sexual abuse in her childhood and investigates with the toolkits of an historian and ethnographer.” The result is a memoir that is what Eva Hoffman calls, “a true labor of memory, in which the story of the body is inseparable from the narrative of the self.” This memoir is the third of a non-fiction trilogy, following Helen Epstein’s Children of the Holocaust: Conversations with Sons and Daughters of Survivors (Putnam, 1979) and Where She Came From: A Daughter’s Search for Her Mother’s History (Little, Brown, 1997), both widely translated. As Gloria Steinem wrote, “In Epstein’s hands, truth becomes not only stranger than fiction but more magnetic.” “Clear-eyed, fearless, taboo-breaking... This trilogy is unusual not only because nearly 40 years separate the first and last volumes — with the second positioned midway at the 20-year mark — but also because the works differ so greatly in style, structure, and content... The Long Half-Lives of Love and Trauma’s major contribution is its willingness to talk openly and place forefront a personal trauma of sexual abuse in its post-Holocaust context... Helen Epstein has consistently rejected sanitizing Jewish history — including women’s history... She has refused to keep secrets that she knew needed to be told and she has avoided idealization, nostalgia, and hagiography.” — Irena Klepfisz, Tablet Magazine “Epstein takes the reader through her decades-long process of self-discovery, understanding and healing accomplished through a strong bond of friendship, a solid and supportive family, and the powerfully restorative effects of psychoanalysis... written with page-turning clarity, openness and complete honesty... This is a ground-breaking memoir in style and in its contribution to the issues of sexual abuse.” —Berkshire Eagle “This book invents its own genre. Eminent journalist Helen Epstein suspects sexual abuse in her childhood and investigates with the full arsenal of what is available to her as an adult: the literature on trauma and false memory; the tools of psychoanalysis as well as a sophisticated understanding of its limitations; the toolkits of an historian and ethnographer. And access to a key witness... That rare story in which everyone becomes more human and multi-dimensional as it unfolds.” — Sherry Turkle, author of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age “In this poignant, vividly written and fearlessly frank memoir, Helen Epstein probes, with sensitivity and insight, the multi-layered ambiguities of love, intimate relationships, and post-Holocaust American lives. More than a chronicle of events, this is a true labor of memory, in which the story of the body is inseparable from the narrative of the self.” — Eva Hoffman, author of Lost in Translation “In midlife, well settled in marriage and motherhood, Epstein is impelled to revisit the legacy of her childhood. As she risks both her own sanity and the relationships she holds most dear, Epstein illustrates the complex moral and psychological effects of trauma, and the gritty process of recovery.” — Judith Herman, M.D., author ofTrauma and Recovery “Helen Epstein’s career has been devoted to tracking how political and cultural history penetrates family life over generations. Her books have been models of investigation. This new memoir plants an even deeper stake into the search through personal trauma... This is heroic writing, and belongs in the canon of accounts of mothers and daughters, of wounds lost in the depth of childhood, and the valiant determination of a woman to live in uncertainty with grace.” — Patricia Hampl, author of I Could Tell You Stories “In this riveting book, Helen Epstein probes the dark corners of her childhood with sensitivity and remarkable candor. This memoir reads like a detective story and asks questions that affect us all: how does our sexual nature get formed or deformed, and how can it change? Unflinching writing.” — Anne Karpf, author of The War After: Living with the Holocaust “Courageously peeling back layers of her own psyche, Helen Epstein describes how one is able to withstand and survive trauma, and perhaps even more difficult to heal from it. While tracing her own trajectory, Epstein offers a riveting cultural history of America in the late twentieth century.” — Helen Fremont, author of After Long Silence “Helen Epstein has crafted an unclassifiable masterwork of nonfiction from the materials of personal memory, family history, romance, and trauma. Never in her distinguished career has Epstein written more openly or more beautifully.” — David Hajdu, author of Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña “Candid and penetrating... Epstein meticulously unravels the fabric of her past... A relentlessly probing memoir of a search for self-knowledge.” — Kirkus



The Handbook Of Psychoanalytic Holocaust Studies


The Handbook Of Psychoanalytic Holocaust Studies
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Author : Ira Brenner
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2019-08-28

The Handbook Of Psychoanalytic Holocaust Studies written by Ira Brenner and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-08-28 with Psychology categories.


This book is a unique compilation of essays about the genocidal persecution fuelling the Nazi regime in World War II. Written by world-renowned experts in the field, it confronts a vitally important and exceedingly difficult topic with sensitivity, courage, and wisdom, furthering our understanding of the Holocaust/Shoah psychoanalytically, historically, and through the arts. Authors from four continents offer their perspectives, clinical experiences, findings, and personal narratives on such subjects as resilience, remembrance, giving testimony, aging, and mourning. There is an emphasis on the intergenerational transmission of trauma of both the victims and the perpetrators, with chapters looking at the question of "evil", comparative studies, prevention, and the misuse of the Holocaust. Those chapters relating to therapy address the specific issues of the survivors, including the second and third generation, through psychoanalysis as well as other modalities, whilst the section on creativity and the arts looks at film, theater, poetry, opera, and writing. The aftermath of the Holocaust demanded that psychoanalysis re-examine the importance of psychic trauma; those who first studied this darkest chapter in human history successfully challenged the long-held assumption that psychical reality was essentially the only reality to be considered. As a result, contemporary thought about trauma, dissociation, self psychology, and relational psychology were greatly influenced by these pioneers, whose ideas have evolved since then. This long-awaited text is the definitive update and elaboration of their original contributions.



Children Of The Holocaust


Children Of The Holocaust
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Author : Helen Epstein
language : en
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date : 1988-10-01

Children Of The Holocaust written by Helen Epstein and has been published by Penguin this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1988-10-01 with History categories.


"I set out to find a group of people who, like me, were possessed by a history they had never lived." The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Helen Epstein traveled from America to Europe to Israel, searching for one vital thin in common: their parent's persecution by the Nazis. She found: • Gabriela Korda, who was raised by her parents as a German Protestant in South America; • Albert Singerman, who fought in the jungles of Vietnam to prove that he, too, could survive a grueling ordeal; • Deborah Schwartz, a Southern beauty queen who—at the Miss America pageant, played the same Chopin piece that was played over Polish radio during Hitler's invasion. Epstein interviewed hundreds of men and women coping with an extraordinary legacy. In each, she found shades of herself.



The Escape Artist


The Escape Artist
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Author : Helen Fremont
language : en
Publisher: Gallery Books
Release Date : 2020-11-03

The Escape Artist written by Helen Fremont and has been published by Gallery Books this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2020-11-03 with Biography & Autobiography categories.


A luminous new memoir from the author of the critically acclaimed national bestseller After Long Silence, The Escape Artist has been lauded by New York Times bestselling author Mary Karr as “beautifully written, honest, and psychologically astute. A must-read.” In the tradition of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and George Hodgman’s Bettyville, Fremont writes with wit and candor about growing up in a household held together by a powerful glue: secrets. Her parents, profoundly affected by their memories of the Holocaust, pass on to both Helen and her older sister a zealous determination to protect themselves from what they see as danger from the outside world. Fremont delves deeply into the family dynamic that produced such a startling devotion to secret keeping, beginning with the painful and unexpected discovery that she has been disinherited in her father’s will. In scenes that are frank, moving, and often surprisingly funny, She writes about growing up in such an intemperate household, with parents who pretended to be Catholics but were really Jews—and survivors of Nazi-occupied Poland. She shares tales of family therapy sessions, disordered eating, her sister’s frequently unhinged meltdowns, and her own romantic misadventures as she tries to sort out her sexual identity. Searching, poignant, and ultimately redemptive, The Escape Artist is a powerful contribution to the memoir shelf.



Survivors


Survivors
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Author : Rebecca Clifford
language : en
Publisher: Yale University Press
Release Date : 2020-08-04

Survivors written by Rebecca Clifford and has been published by Yale University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2020-08-04 with History categories.


Told for the first time from their perspective, the story of children who survived the chaos and trauma of the Holocaust How can we make sense of our lives when we do not know where we come from? This was a pressing question for the youngest survivors of the Holocaust, whose prewar memories were vague or nonexistent. In this beautifully written account, Rebecca Clifford follows the lives of one hundred Jewish children out of the ruins of conflict through their adulthood and into old age. Drawing on archives and interviews, Clifford charts the experiences of these child survivors and those who cared for them—as well as those who studied them, such as Anna Freud. Survivors explores the aftermath of the Holocaust in the long term, and reveals how these children—often branded “the lucky ones”—had to struggle to be able to call themselves “survivors” at all. Challenging our assumptions about trauma, Clifford’s powerful and surprising narrative helps us understand what it was like living after, and living with, childhoods marked by rupture and loss.



A Jewish Athlete Swimming Against Stereotype In 20th Century Europe


A Jewish Athlete Swimming Against Stereotype In 20th Century Europe
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Author : Helen Epstein
language : en
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press
Release Date : 2019-08-18

A Jewish Athlete Swimming Against Stereotype In 20th Century Europe written by Helen Epstein and has been published by Plunkett Lake Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-08-18 with Biography & Autobiography categories.


This daughter's profile of Czechoslovak swimmer and water polo player Kurt Epstein (1904-1975) traces the history of Jewish athletes in Central Europe and provides a case study of one such life-long athlete. Epstein grew up a stone's throw from the Elbe River and began swimming before the First World War, when his town of Roudnice nad Labem was still part of Austria-Hungary. In high school, he became a competitive rower and swimmer, challenging prevailing stereotypes about Jews and becoming a leading Czechoslovak water polo player and swimming coach, representing his country at two Olympic Games, in 1928 and 1936. In addition to describing the cultural background of the Epstein family in the Bohemian countryside, the book examines Kurt Epstein's decision to participate in the 1936 Berlin "Nazi" Olympics, and follows him through a series of Nazi concentration camps back to Prague, where he was elected member of the Czechoslovak National Olympic Committee. After the Communist putsch of 1948, Epstein vowed to flee "in a swimsuit if necessary" and, at 44, emigrated to New York City where he became a cutter in the garment district, swam weekly at the St. George pool in Brooklyn, and served as Treasurer of The Association of Czechoslovak Sportsmen in Exile in the Western World.



Rosa Bonheur The Artist S Auto Biography


Rosa Bonheur The Artist S Auto Biography
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Author : Anna Klumpke
language : en
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press
Release Date : 2019-08-15

Rosa Bonheur The Artist S Auto Biography written by Anna Klumpke and has been published by Plunkett Lake Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-08-15 with Biography & Autobiography categories.


Hailed as one of the foremost painters of the nineteenth century, Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) lived to see her name become a household word. In a century that did its best to keep women “in their place,” she earned her own money, managed her own property, wore trousers, hunted, smoked, and lived in retreat with women companions in a château near Fontainebleau. Rosa Bonheur: The Artist’s (Auto)biography brings this extraordinary woman to life, blending Bonheur’s first-person account with the memoirs of Anna Klumpke, a young American artist who was Bonheur’s last companion and chosen portraitist. Klumpke recounts their first meeting, her growing affection for the much older Bonheur, and her decision to live with the artist. Bonheur’s account of her own life story, set within Klumpke’s narrative, sheds light on such currently compelling subjects as gender formation, governmental intervention in the arts, the social and legal regulation of dress codes, and the transgressive nature of same-sex relationships in a repressive society. “What a pleasure to have this essential document of art history available in an up-to-date translation. Anna Klumpke’s biography of Rosa Bonheur is, of course, not only an important art-historical document, but a major contribution to the social history of nineteenth-century France and a moving testimony to human attachment as well.” —Linda Nochlin “The remarkable life of Rosa Bonheur, one of the most highly decorated artists and certainly the best known female artist of her time in nineteenth-century France, is long overdue for further scrutiny.” — Therese Dolan, Temple University “... tells the fascinating, unconventional story of the famous 19th-century French artist. Written by Bonheur’s lover, American artist Anna Klumpke, with input from Bonheur herself, the biography effectively shows Bonheur’s devotion to the great loves of her life: her mother, her art, and her female companions.” — Washington Blade “A cigar-smoking, cross-dressing eccentric à la George Sand, Rosa Bonheur was one of the 19th century’s most popular artists... Drawing on her own meticulous journal entries as well as Bonheur’s letters, sketches, and diaries, Klumpke traces Bonheur’s trailblazing life and recounts how she met Bonheur, fell in love and became her official portraitist, companion and sole heir.” — Publishers Weekly “It is a treat to have Rosa Bonheur: The Artist’s (Auto)biography... available in English. Bonheur (1822-1899), a lesbian born in France, channeled her formidable talent into painting animals, lived a highly unconventional life, and received special permission to wear pants in public... This combination autobiography and biography, originally published in 1908, includes a vibrant introduction by the translator.” —Feminist Bookstore News “Each part of the story — translator’s, Klumpke’s, and Bonheur’s — is so engagingly written that reading it is like an adventure with an emphasis on the development and support of female creativity... Anna Klumpke poured her love into magnificent portraits of Bonheur and later into writing and managing Bonheur’s estate. Translator Gretchen van Slyke has rendered the original French into graceful, compelling prose. After finishing this book, my strongest emotion was gratitude for having been allowed to see so intimately into the lives of these productive, caring women.” — Lambda Book Report



The Abandonment Of The Jews America And The Holocaust 1941 1945


The Abandonment Of The Jews America And The Holocaust 1941 1945
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Author : David S. Wyman
language : en
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press
Release Date : 2019-07-31

The Abandonment Of The Jews America And The Holocaust 1941 1945 written by David S. Wyman and has been published by Plunkett Lake Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-07-31 with Political Science categories.


In this landmark study, a sequel to Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1939-1941, his study of America’s restrictive pre-World War II immigration policies, David S. Wyman documents how FDR’s administration, especially the State Department, refused to undertake serious efforts to rescue European Jews from the Holocaust, and argues that a commitment to rescue by the United States could have saved several hundred thousand victims from the Nazis. The definitive work on its subject, this book won the National Jewish Book Award, theAnisfield-Wolf Award, the Present Tense Literary Award, the Stuart Bernath Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the Theodore Saloutos Award of the Immigration History Society, and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. “[Wyman’s] earlier work on prewar American attitudes to refugees from Hitler’s expanding Reich, Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1938-1941, has admirably equipped him to pursue the shameful story into the war years, when the incredulity of those in a position to know, the deliberate obstructionism of xenophobic and anti-Semitic officials and extravagant bureaucratic infighting within the Jewish community no less than in Government meant not merely agonizing delay but death for thousands who could have been rescued. His research in widely scattered sources meticulously reconstructs a complex story from which very few individuals emerge with credit, and some, notably President Franklin D. Roosevelt, stand clearly indicted for a cold indifference in practice utterly at variance with lofty humanitarian sentiments publicly proclaimed for political advantage... Mr. Wyman’s analysis, exemplary in its clarity and thoroughness... [adopts a] judicious tone and preference for marshaling evidence rather than apportioning blame. That evidence is... cumulatively devastating, implicating both passive bystanders and perpetrators in the vast crime that Mr. Wyman, himself a non-Jew, reminds us was a tragedy not only for the Jewish people but for all human beings.” — A. J. Sherman, The New York Times “[Wyman] subjects the American record during the Holocaust to the closest scrutiny it has yet received... It is the meticulously documented detail that makes the impact of his book shocking, disturbing and unforgettable... The documents that Mr. Wyman quotes in grim abundance — cold-blooded private memoranda, pettifogging evasions, flagrant lies — establish beyond any possible doubt that neither the relevant State Department officers nor their opposite numbers in the British Foreign Office had the slightest intention of allowing more than a token handful of Jews to be rescued.” — John Gross, The New York Times “A monumental volume: sweeping in its scope, stunning in its insight, and enduring in its importance... A damning indictment.” — Wall Street Journal “One of the most powerful books I have ever read.” — Senator Paul Simon “Impressively researched, balanced in its judgments, devastating in its discussion of untaken opportunities, and informed by an essentially moral purpose, The Abandonment of the Jews makes a clear, largely persuasive argument.” — Richard S. Levy, Commentary Magazine “Never before has the evidence been marshaled so painstakingly, with such meticulous scholarship and to such effect.” — Washington Post Book World “A telling account of one of the sorriest episodes in world history... we will not see a better book on this subject in our lifetime.” — Leonard Dinnerstein, The Journal of American History “[A] landmark study... Objective and dispassionate, the book is a model of historical writing.” — Irving Abella, The American Historical Review “Authoritative, scholarly, and fascinating.” — Yehuda Bauer



Paper Walls America And The Refugee Crisis 1938 1941


Paper Walls America And The Refugee Crisis 1938 1941
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Author : David S. Wyman
language : en
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press
Release Date : 2019-07-31

Paper Walls America And The Refugee Crisis 1938 1941 written by David S. Wyman and has been published by Plunkett Lake Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-07-31 with Political Science categories.


“Paper Walls was the first scholarly book to deal with the question of America’s response to the Nazi assault on the European Jews. A revised version of my Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard University, it was originally published in 1968... Those times were very different from these. There was little public receptivity to Holocaust studies then, and only limited academic interest... The scholarly reviews, of which there were several, were favorable. But the general press paid little attention to the book... A pioneer in its field, Paper Walls first established the thesis that three features of American society in the 1930’s and 1940’s were key to understanding the nation’s inadequate response to the refugee crisis. They were anti-Semitism, nativistic nationalism, and the unemployment problem of the Great Depression. This basic concept has been followed in all the succeeding scholarly literature on the topic. This concept is also the main legacy from Paper Walls to my more recent book, The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945 (1984). AlthoughAbandonment stands as a complete study in its own right, it is in fact the sequel toPaper Walls. It is a continuation of the history of America’s reaction to the plight of the European Jews in the Nazi era.” — David S. Wyman, Preface to the 1985 paperback edition of Paper Walls “[A] thorough study of American refugee policy from 1938 to 1941... On the basis of Wyman’s book, the United States stands indicted for a tragic failure to live up to its nineteenth-century ideal of asylum... Though Wyman makes no effort to disguise his strong sympathy for the refugees, his book... gives a careful and well-documented history of American refugee policy... The state department — above all Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long — emerges from his pages as the primary culprit... The attitude displayed by... the foreign service... led to the creation of the paper walls that Wyman so honestly and tragically describes in this important book.” — Robert A. Divine, Journal of American History “The first scholarly examination of American refugee policy between 1938 and 1941... What Wyman sets out to do he does extremely well. Paper Walls is a worthwhile addition to our growing knowledge of the policy of those who bore witness to the Holocaust.” — Henry L. Feingold, American Jewish Historical Quarterly “No one who reads this book will be able to ignore the fact that blatant antisemitism in the United States — from the public, from Congress, and from within the State Department — prevented our government from giving more than minimal assistance to the Jewish refugees... Professor Wyman has done an immense amount of research in primary and secondary sources and Paper Walls is extraordinarily sound and superbly documented. It is tightly written, well-organized, and logically presented.” — Leonard Dinnerstein, Jewish Social Studies “The conclusions of the book are stark and simple: ‘The half-filled quotas of mid-1940 to mid-1941, when refugee rescue remained entirely feasible, symbolize 20,000 to 25,000 lives lost...’ In the eight years from 1933 to 1941, about 250,000 refugees found safety here. The total is not small, but neither is the country which received them.” — Raul Hilberg, Political Science Quarterly “Generally [President Roosevelt] left refugee policy to the disposition of a hostile Congress and the State Department. Yet, as the author points out, neither Roosevelt, the State Department, nor Congress can be blamed entirely for what happened. ‘Viewed within the context of its times, United States refugee policy from 1938 to the end of 1941 was essentially what the American people wanted.’ In December 1938 only 8.7 per cent of the respondents to a Roper poll favored entry of a larger number of European refugees than the quota law allowed; fully 83 per cent were flatly opposed. This book tells a dismal story. While it is dear where the author’s sympathies lie, he tells the story with restraint; if anything, his approach and writing style underplay the pathos involved... Wyman has given us a scholarly description and analysis of the first act of the tragedy, which he promises to carry on through the war and postwar years.” — J. Joseph Huthmacher, The American Historical Review “This thoroughly documented study of the United States policies in regard to the refugee crisis of 1938-1941 is the best available source in this field and on that period. Drawing on material from some well known as well as several previously untapped sources, Wyman discusses both the ambiguous role of particular figures and organizations and the underlying forces at work in American society which influenced governmental policy and practices; anti-semitism, nativism, fear of unemployment and of Nazi subversives are shown as the major pressure to which America’s people and leaders succumbed.” — Joseph S. Roucek, The International Migration Review “This is a depressing topic impressively researched. Professor Wyman has investigated almost all the relevant primary and secondary materials in order to recount the tragic story of America’s indifference to the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Hitler’s Europe... Over two-thirds of Americans desired to keep the Jewish refugees out of the United Stales. Wyman argues that this sentiment was due to three sources: ‘nativism, anti-Semitism, and economic insecurity’... There is enough evidence in Wyman’s book to cause the Statue of Liberty to collapse for lack of moral foundation.” — John P. Diggins, The Historian “Professor Wyman skillfully investigates and thoughtfully analyzes the complexities of the crisis and the reasons why more was not done to aid the refugees in the crucial period between 1938 and 1941... The author examines the problem thoroughly from a number of standpoints... The State Department, the Congress, and the President really were reflecting the attitudes of the American people, who, Wyman asserts, were indifferent and even antagonistic to the refugees [because of] the economic insecurity engendered by the depression, nativistic nationalism, and anti-Semitism. A well-researched and lucidly, if not dispassionately, written book, Paper Walls is a sound, workmanlike study of a significant episode in our nation’s recent past.” — E. Berkeley Tompkins, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science



Days Of Sorrow And Pain Leo Baeck And The Berlin Jews


Days Of Sorrow And Pain Leo Baeck And The Berlin Jews
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Author : Leonard Baker
language : en
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press
Release Date : 2020-07-13

Days Of Sorrow And Pain Leo Baeck And The Berlin Jews written by Leonard Baker and has been published by Plunkett Lake Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2020-07-13 with Biography & Autobiography categories.


Days of Sorrow and Pain, winner of the 1979 Pulitzer Prize in Biography, tells the story of Germany’s Jews under the Nazis and of one man’s valiant efforts to help them meet the horrors of the Hitler regime. Leonard Baker explores the disintegration of German society, the plight of German Jews and the philosophy of Leo Baeck which enabled him to guide his people in their struggle for survival. After Hitler came to power, German Jews formed the Reichsvertretung with Leo Baeck at its head. As Berlin’s leading Rabbi and one of the foremost Jewish theologians in the world, Baeck was the rallying point for all Jewish factions. He dealt secretly with emissaries from abroad to arrange for Jews to emigrate and saw to it that Jewish children received a religious education. Young men were trained for the rabbinate in Berlin as late as 1942. Leo Baeck chose to remain in Germany as long as there were still Jews there. He was arrested five times, once after writing a prayer to be read in all German synagogues reminding Jews that even “in this day of sorrow and pain,” they bowed only before God and never before man. After his last arrest in 1943 at the age of 69, Rabbi Baeck was sent to Theresienstadt where he hauled trash carts by day, and organized educational programs for his fellow inmates at night, consoling them, becoming one of their strengths. After the war, having survived the Holocaust, Baeck never sought revenge, but worked for reconciliation between Germans and Jews. He became a world leader of liberal Judaism and never doubted the ultimate triumph of good over evil nor underestimated the responsibility of the individual to bring about that triumph. “Only now, more than twenty years after Baeck’s death, has Leonard Baker, a writer on American political history, given us a full life story. Drawing on nearly a hundred interviews with persons who knew Baeck and supplementing these with a rich variety of printed and archival sources, he has succeeded in fashioning an intriguing portrait of the rabbi-scholar called upon to assume leadership in a time of crisis. The inherent drama of the subject together with Baker’s practiced writing skill has made for a book of broad popular interest. It has even been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography.” — Michael A. Meyer, American Jewish History “There are several outstanding reasons why this book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in biography. The evidence of extensive research and scholarship exists in one of the most complete oral and written bibliographies that is presently available on contemporary German Jewry. Baker’s writing style, journalistic at times, is free from conventional pedantry, but is satisfying enough for even the most stodgy academe. Furthermore, the historical flow of the text leaves little doubt that this is one serious author... Rabbi Baeck is shown as both the German as a Jew and the Jew as a German. Writing with an obvious appreciation for the role of the Jews in modern German history, Baker explains Baeck in the context of Reform Judaism...” — Michael W. Rubinoff, German Studies Review “Baker has written a marvelous account of Baeck’s long and remarkable life.” — Lew’s Author Blog “Baker tells Baeck’s story in relation to the history of the German Jews down to his death as an expatriate in England in the 1950s... Baker’s narrative is scholarly and simple in tone, as it should be; and although chiefly a study in Jewish history, it is also a study in historical tragedy and moral will...” — Kirkus Reviews