A highly original and compelling account of individual Jews who resisted Nazi persecution, challenging the traditional portrayal of Jewish passivity during the Holocaust &nbsp; Drawing on twelve years of research in dozens of archives in Austria, Germany, Israel, and the United States, this book tells the story of five Jewish people--a merchant, a homemaker, a real estate broker, and two teenagers--who bravely resisted persecution and defended themselves in Nazi Germany. These stories have not been told until now, and each case is one of many, as Gruner shows by resurfacing similar accounts of Jewish refusal to accept persecution and violence in Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1943, upending the notion of passive Jews and expanding the concept of resistance. &nbsp; Each individual described here represents a category of resistance: written opposition, oral protest, contesting Nazi propaganda, defiance of anti-Jewish laws and measures, and self-defense against physical attacks. Many of these courageous acts resulted in the resisters being prosecuted and put on trial, and often receiving harsh punishments, while some led to acquittal by courts and others to changes in Nazi policies. Taken together, these accounts reframe our understanding of German Jewish attitudes during the Holocaust, while also providing an astonishing examination of the complex Nazi reactions to the many individual acts of Jewish resistance.

Resisters: How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler's Germany

Biographies & Memoirs

Gruner, Wolf

Arts & Literature

Yale University Press

Forced labor was a key feature of Nazi anti-Jewish policy and shaped the daily life of almost every Jewish family in occupied Europe. For the first time, this book systematically describes the implementation of forced labor for Jews in Germany, Austria, the Protectorate, and the various occupied Polish territories. As early as the end of 1938, compulsory labor for Jews had been introduced in Germany and annexed Austria by the labor administration. Similar programs subsequently were established by civil administrations in the German-occupied Czech and Polish territories. At its maximum extent, more than one million Jewish men and women toiled for private companies and public builders, many of them in hundreds of now often-forgotten special labor camps. This study refutes the widespread thesis that compulsory work was organized only by the SS, and that exploitation was only an intermediate tactic on the way to mass murder or, rather, that it was only a facet in the destruction of the Jews.

Jewish Forced Labor under the Nazis: Economic Needs and Racial Aims, 1938–1944

History

Europe

Cambridge University Press

Forced labor was a key feature of Nazi anti-Jewish policy and shaped the daily life of almost every Jewish family in occupied Europe. For the first time, this book systematically describes the implementation of forced labor for Jews in Germany, Austria, the Protectorate, and the various occupied Polish territories. As early as the end of 1938, compulsory labor for Jews had been introduced in Germany and annexed Austria by the labor administration. Similar programs subsequently were established by civil administrations in the German-occupied Czech and Polish territories. At its maximum extent, more than one million Jewish men and women toiled for private companies and public builders, many of them in hundreds of now often-forgotten special labor camps. This study refutes the widespread thesis that compulsory work was organized only by the SS, and that exploitation was only an intermediate tactic on the way to mass murder or, rather, that it was only a facet in the destruction of the Jews.

Jewish Forced Labor under the Nazis: Economic Needs and Racial Aims, 1938-1944

The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia: Czech Initiatives, German Policies, Jewish Responses (War and Genocide, 28)

Prior to Hitler’s occupation, nearly 120,000 Jews inhabited the areas that would become the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; by 1945, all but a handful had either escaped or been deported and murdered by the Nazis. This pioneering study gives a definitive account of the Holocaust as it was carried out in the region, detailing the German and Czech policies, including previously overlooked measures such as small-town ghettoization and forced labor, that shaped Jewish life. Drawing on extensive new evidence, Wolf Gruner demonstrates how the persecution of the Jews as well as their reactions and resistance efforts were the result of complex actions by German authorities in Prague and Berlin as well as the Czech government and local authorities.

Military

Berghahn Books

Prior to Hitler's occupation, nearly 120,000 Jews inhabited the areas that would become the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; by 1945, all but a handful had either escaped or been deported and murdered by the Nazis. This pioneering study gives a definitive account of the Holocaust as it was carried out in the region, detailing the German and Czech policies, including previously overlooked measures such as small-town ghettoization and forced labor, that shaped Jewish life. Drawing on extensive new evidence, Wolf Gruner demonstrates how the persecution of the Jews as well as their reactions and resistance efforts were the result of complex actions by German authorities in Prague and Berlin as well as the Czech government and local authorities.

Innerhalb der Öffentlichen Wohlfahrtspflege führten sozialrassistische Konzepte, antisemitische Ambitionen und finanzielle Interessen seit 1933 zu einer Ausgrenzung jüdischer Deutscher, ohne dass hierzu Gesetze vorlagen. In vielen Städten wurden zunächst jüdische Beamte und Angestellte entlassen, dann jüdische Wohlfahrtsempfänger durch Leistungskürzungen, Arbeitszwang und Isolierung diskriminiert. Diese Praxis der Wohlfahrtsämter mündete schließlich in die zentrale Verordnung vom November 1938, die den Ausschluss der jüdischen Armen aus dem staatlichen Fürsorgesystem dekretierte. Wolf Gruner dokumentiert auf einer umfangreichen Quellenbasis erstmals die Impulsfunktion kommunaler Initiativen für den Verlauf der NS-Judenverfolgung. Die vergleichende Darstellung der Politik deutscher Großstädte und Wiens birgt überraschende Ergebnisse zum Verhältnis von lokaler Verwaltung und Gestapo. Die Studie zeigt: Die "soziale" Enteignung jüdischer Staatsbürger durch Beamte und Angestellte der staatlichen Fürsorge ist ein wichtiges, bisher zu wenig beachtetes Element der Vorgeschichte des Holocaust.

Öffentliche Wohlfahrt und Judenverfolgung: Wechselwirkungen lokaler und zentraler Politik im NS-Staat (1933–1942) (Studien zur Zeitgeschichte, 62) (German Edition)

Walter de Gruyter

Judenverfolgung in Berlin 1933-1945: Eine Chronologie der Behördenmassnahmen in der Reichshauptstadt (German Edition)

Reference

Language Study & Reference

Hentrich

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Books by Gruner, Wolf

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gruner, Wolf. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Resisters: How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler's Germany

Jewish Forced Labor under the Nazis: Economic Needs and Racial Aims, 1938–1944

Jewish Forced Labor under the Nazis: Economic Needs and Racial Aims, 1938-1944

The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia: Czech Initiatives, German Policies, Jewish Responses (War and Genocide, 28)

The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia: Czech Initiatives, German Policies, Jewish Responses (War and Genocide, 28)

Öffentliche Wohlfahrt und Judenverfolgung: Wechselwirkungen lokaler und zentraler Politik im NS-Staat (1933–1942) (Studien zur Zeitgeschichte, 62) (German Edition)

Judenverfolgung in Berlin 1933-1945: Eine Chronologie der Behördenmassnahmen in der Reichshauptstadt (German Edition)