Yad Vashem Studies, Vol. 52-2 (2024)

Abstract

During World War II, Turkey was a neutral country and a bridge between Europe and Palestine, making it a strategic destination for Jewish refugees attempting to escape the Holocaust. The refugees had two options to reach their destination: the sea route or the overland route. The sea route required sailing through the Turkish Straits, which were open to international navigation according to the Montreux Agreement. This route was closed off after the Struma tragedy in 1941, when this ship, with 769 Jews on board, sank in the Black Sea. The overland route required entering Turkey and crossing Anatolia. However this route depended on Turkish transit visas, which were often refused or delayed by the Turkish authorities. As a result many refugees were trapped in the Balkan countries, unable to reach Palestine or other safe havens.

Turkey’s policies and attitude toward Jewish immigration were vital for the fate of many Jewish refugees during the war. A close documentary analysis of these policies reveals that Turkey’s approach was not particularly favorable, contrary to the narratives that appeared after the 1990s.

Abstract

One of the prime targets of Nazi policies was to “clean” housing from all non-German owners and eventually from all Jewish tenants. By analyzing all the transactions of an independent German mortgage bank, the authors show how this bank was willing to lend money to Jews in order to buy or build houses in order to keep its share in a shrinking market. In fact Jews were the bank’s best customers in the mid-1930s, until they were forced out of the market. However, an in-depth analysis of the cases also shows that the Jews made a strong claim that they regarded Germany as their home, and eventually used the customary and legal protection that the land registers and housing enjoyed in a bid to outplay the Nazi assault on their property.

Abstract

The activities of the Jewish resistance movement of Zionist leftist organizations in Polish territories occupied by the Third Reich are still an unknown page in the history of the occupation. In fact, between 1940 and 1942, Dror activists established more than a dozen agricultural training centers. Thanks to scraps of meager sources, we learn about one of them that was located in the Catholic village of Ceranów, 15 kilometers in a straight line from the village of Treblinka.

Abstract

A few weeks before the retreat of the German forces from Greece, the Nazis concluded the second phase of the destruction of Greece’s Jews with the deportation of the communities that were previously under Italian occupation. Among the Jewish communities that suffered almost complete destruction was the one on the island of Corfu.

The successful implementation of the “Final Solution” in Corfu reflects the pivotal role of Eichmann’s office in the alignment of all German agencies—Nazi, as well as political and military—in the annihilation of the Jewish population. Although there were serious and justified objections by the Wehrmacht’s local commander before the implementation of the operation, it is revealed that he complied with and facilitated the action. Furthermore, it is evident that the stance of the local Greek authorities abetted the Nazi plan, notwithstanding that this involved condemning Greek citizens to expulsion, with unknown consequences.

Abstract

Common knowledge has it that the composition of the passengers on the Kasztner train had an intentional anti-religious bias. However, a mapping of the formulation of the passengers’ list on the train proves otherwise.

According to the author’s findings, the Kasztner train included nearly forty rabbis whose diversity reflects, more than anything else, the ideological order of priorities of the communities from which they came. Most of the rabbis on the train were Orthodox; nearly all of them were elderly and prominent figures within Hungarian Jewry. However, the non-Orthodox rabbis were much younger, mainly active Zionists, who could not be considered as representatives of the elite of Neolog Jewry in Hungary.

These facts aid us in deciphering the differing strategies of the list-compilers for reconstituting the Jewish world after the war. While the Neologs, to attain this goal, preferred to save intellectuals, industrialists, professionals, and those engaged in public activity, the Orthodox leadership viewed their senior and experienced spiritual leaders, the distinguished Torah scholars, as the nucleus for the future.

Review of Katarzyna Person and Johannes-Dieter Steinert, Przemyslowa Concentration Camp: The Camp, the Children, the Trials.

Abstract

Katarzyna Person and Johannes-Dieter Steinert describe the considerations that motivated the Germans to establish the concentration camp for Polish children in Łódź.  Their book is based on the assumption that the violence used against the children was part of the wider treatment of Poles under Nazi occupation.  The book includes a description of the camp, the process of its planning and establishment, and the life of the child prisoners, while also according a central place to the children's experiences and memories by means of testimonies given throughout many periods of time.  In this way the reader understands the routine in the camp and how similar it was to that experienced by prisoners in other concentration camps.

A large part of the book is also devoted to the trials of the camp staff after the war, which was part of the complex but partial attempt to seek justice and the important debate surrounding the collective memory and commemoration of the camp, which began at the end of the war and continues until today.  The book is written in a thorough manner and proves that the camp is an important element in the discussion of the ideology of the German occupation in Poland and its influence on the treatment of Poles, both adults and children alike.  The unusual camp testifies to the ways in which key principles of Nazi ideology shaped the phenomenon of German camps during World War II. 

Review of Matthias Küntzel, Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East: The 1948 Arab War against Israel and the Aftershocks of World War II

Abstract

Mathias Küntzel’s Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East, which is a translation of a volume originally published in German in 2019, investigates the genealogy of Arab antisemitism and its contribution to animosity to the founding of the Jewish state. Küntzel distinguishes between traditional Islamic anti-Judaism and a new, aggressive antisemitism, which he demonstrates was introduced into the Middle East via Nazi propaganda, starting in 1937, and continuing during World War II. He therefore argues that the Arab attacks on Israel in 1948, should be viewed as an aftershock of the Nazi exterminationist agenda in Europe.

Review of Yochai Ataria, HaMapa VeHaTerritoria: Ben Ketiva LeMavet etsel Primo Levi VaKa-Tsetnik

Abstract

Yochai Ataria's book, HaMapa VeHaTerritoria: Ben Ketiva LeMavet etsel Primo Levi VaKa-Tsetnik (“Map and Territory: Between Writing and Death in Primo Levi and Ka-Tsetnik”) brings forth the testimony of these two great writers of the Holocaust while comparing art, life, and death.  The book is a psychological-literary-historical journey between an author and his work against the backdrop of the Holocaust's trauma.

The review focuses on the connection that is revealed, in all its complexity, between Primo Levi and Franz Kafka, whose great work, The Trial, Primo Levi translated into Italian.  Many commentators attribute Levi's fall, which amounted to his suicide, to the existential despair that accompanied him for almost his entire life.  Yochai Ataria believes that Primo Levi's death was determined by and became inevitable as a result of the task of translating Kafka's work, which foreshadows the arbitrariness, cruelty, and futility of the law and humanity as a whole. The trial of Joseph K. turns into the trial of Primo Levi; however, unlike Joseph K., who was wretchedly murdered, Primo Levy elects to redeem himself from disgrace by choosing to take his own life, with his own hands.

Yochai Ataria adds an original layer to the mystery of Primo Levi's death.  Aside from this interpretation, it is also possible to believe that the negative reception of the act of translating Kafka's work among Italian critics, who accused Levi of forcing himself on Kafka, only contributed to Levi's worsening depression and thus his decision to end his life a few years after the translation was published.

Review of Stephen D. Smith, The Trajectory of Holocaust Memory: The Crisis of Testimony in Theory and Practice

Abstract

The Trajectory of Holocaust Memory makes a powerful case for a particularistic approach to Holocaust and atrocity testimony. Even if the book is problematic in some places, at least for historians, it represents a crucial milestone on our collective journey to understanding personal testimony as an encounter and dialogue rooted in a specific cultural context and personal circumstances. As a timely reminder of the power of testimony, the book allows us to reflect on its potential for our field.

Review of Katrin Antweiler, Memorializing the Holocaust in Human Rights Museums

Abstract

Karin Antweiler’s Memorializing the Holocaust in Human Rights Museums provides important insights into the interconnected development of Holocaust Memory and Human Rights and their impact on museum practices. Using three case studies (from Germany, South Africa, and Canada), Antweiler examines how museum narratives shape and are shaped by historical perceptions. Her study underscores the evolving significance of Holocaust memory within these contexts. Each case presents a narrative influenced by universalist ideals. Antweiler adeptly addresses the paradox wherein the “lessons of the Holocaust” and the aspirational goals of universal human-rights education often mask specific agendas.