The World Reacts to the Holocaust

Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. First edition. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/very good. xxiii, 981 p. Index. From Wikipedia: "David S. Wyman (born 1929, Weymouth, Massachusetts) is the author of several books on the responses of the United States to Nazi Germany's persecution of and programs to exterminate Jews. Wyman earned an A.B. in history from Boston University and a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. From 1966 until his retirement in 1991, Wyman taught in the History Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he also chaired the Judaic studies program. Wyman holds honorary doctoral degrees from Hebrew Union College and Yeshiva University, both in New York City. He is currently chairman of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in Washington, D.C. Deborah Lipstadt characterizes Wyman's book, Paper Walls; America and the Refugee Crisis, as having stood for many years as "one of the most important books, " on American immigration policy in the Nazi years. In Paper Walls Wyman discusses the combination of antisemitism, nativistic nationalism, economic crisis and isolationism that made rescue inconceivable." In his later work Wyman's position shifted, he came to believe that the attitude of American Jews during the Nazi era was to be faulted, and that the approach of the Bergson Group was the correct one. If American Jews had taken a more forceful approach, government policy could have been changed." The vast body of knowledge assembled about the Holocaust has reconstructed nearly every aspect of that tragedy. Monographs, document collections, memoirs, oral histories, novels, and films have all contributed to an understanding of the events that shocked the world into stunned silence in 1945. But what happened in the aftermath-as stunned silence gave way to a full realization of the horror-has not been as thoroughly studied. Indeed, there exists no systematic examination of how countries around the world have responded to the Holocaust after 1945. Sponsored by the Holocaust Memorial Center and under the editorship of David S. Wyman, The World Reacts to the Holocaust is a major new reference work that chronicles, country-by-country, the impact of the Holocaust on world history. Covering twenty-two countries and the United Nations, the volume carefully traces the contentions and controversies involved in the efforts to come to terms with the Holocaust, from the attitudes and perceptions of 1945 to the political, economic, and cultural legacies of the 1990s. Following a standard format, the essays, all written by prominent scholars, begin with a brief history of the Jews in each country prior to the Holocaust. They next address the characteristics of the Jewish settlements, the presence of anti-Semitism and any related violence, the role of Jews in the society, and the nature of the relationship between Jews and non-Jews. A brief narrative of the Holocaust in each country follows. Among the issues examined are the extent of the human destruction, the degree of collaboration, Jewish reactions, and efforts to save the Jews. The essays then proceed to the post-World War II era and recount the treatment of Holocaust survivors upon their return; the postwar trials of war criminals; the changes in the culture and economy of the postwar Jewish community and its position in the society; the political, literary, and historical responses to the Holocaust; and the evolving attitudes toward Jews and Jewish culture. Contributors: Irving Abella * Franklin Bialystok * Randolph L. Braham * David Cesarani * Frederick B. Chary * Deborah Dwork * Andrew Ezergailis * Seymour Maxwell Finger * Zvi Gitelman * Radu Ioanid * Dermot Keogh * Tetsu Kohno * David Kranzler * Dov Levin * Robert M. Levine * Andrei S. Markovits * Meir Michaelis * Beth Simone Noveck * Dalia Ofer * Bruce F. Pauley * Jeffrey M. Peck * Charles H. Rosenzveig * Livia Rothkirchen * Milton Shain * Michael C. Steinlauf * Robert-Jan van Pelt * David Weinberg *.