A social history of Jewish women in Imperial Germany, this study synthesizes German, women's, and Jewish history. The book explores the private--familial and religious--lives of the German-Jewish bourgeoisie and the public roles of Jewish women in the university, paid employment and social service. It analyzes the changing roles of Jewish women as members of an economically mobile, but socially spurned minority. The author emphasizes the crucial role women played in creating the Jewish middle class, as well as their dual role within the Jewish family and community as powerful agents of class formation and acculturation and determined upholders of tradition.

The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Family, and Identity in Imperial Germany (Studies in Jewish History)

Kaplan, Marion A.

Religion & Spirituality

Oxford University Press

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Between Dignity and Despair draws on the extraordinary memoirs, diaries, interviews, and letters of Jewish women and men to give us the first intimate portrait of Jewish life in Nazi Germany. Kaplan tells the story of Jews in Germany not from the hindsight of the Holocaust, nor by focusing on the persecutors, but from the bewildered and ambiguous perspective of Jews trying to navigate their daily lives in a world that was becoming more and more insane. Answering the charge that Jews should have left earlier, Kaplan shows that far from seeming inevitable, the Holocaust was impossible to foresee precisely because Nazi repression occurred in irregular and unpredictable steps until the massive violence of Novemer 1938. Then the flow of emigration turned into a torrent, only to be stopped by the war. By that time Jews had been evicted from their homes, robbed of their possessions and their livelihoods, shunned by their former friends, persecuted by their neighbors, and driven into forced labor. For those trapped in Germany, mere survival became a nightmare of increasingly desperate options. Many took their own lives to retain at least some dignity in death; others went underground and endured the fears of nightly bombings and the even greater terror of being discovered by the Nazis. Most were murdered. All were pressed to the limit of human endurance and human loneliness. Focusing on the fate of families and particularly women's experience, Between Dignity and Despair takes us into the neighborhoods, into the kitchens, shops, and schools, to give us the shape and texture, the very feel of what it was like to be a Jew in Nazi Germany.

Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany (Studies in Jewish History)

History

Europe

Between Dignity and Despair draws on the extraordinary memoirs, diaries, interviews, and letters of Jewish women and men to give us the first intimate portrait of Jewish life in Nazi Germany. Kaplan tells the story of Jews in Germany not from the hindsight of the Holocaust, nor by focusing on the persecutors, but from the bewildered and ambiguous perspective of Jews trying to navigate their daily lives in a world that was becoming more and more insane. Answering the charge that Jews should have left earlier, Kaplan shows that far from seeming inevitable, the Holocaust was impossible to foresee precisely because Nazi repression occurred in irregular and unpredictable steps until the massive violence of Novemer 1938. Then the flow of emigration turned into a torrent, only to be stopped by the war. By that time Jews had been evicted from their homes, robbed of their possessions and their livelihoods, shunned by their former friends, persecuted by their neighbors, and driven into forced labor. For those trapped in Germany, mere survival became a nightmare of increasingly desperate options. Many took their own lives to retain at least some dignity in death; others went underground and endured the fears of nightly bombings and the even greater terror of being discovered by the Nazis. Most were murdered. All were pressed to the limit of human endurance and human loneliness. Focusing on the fate of families and particularly women's experience, Between Dignity and Despair takes us into the neighborhoods, into the kitchens, shops, and schools, to give us the shape and texture, the very feel of what it was like to be a Jew in Nazi Germany.

World

This is the story of a small group of Jews, who, fleeing for their lives from Nazi persecution, found a welcoming haven in the Dominican Republic. The settlers arrived amid lush, tropical vegetation and could only describe this refuge as paradise. But they faced daunting problems. Middle-class, urban Europeans, they needed to learn a new language and acquire new skills while adjusting to a new climate and worrying about loved ones left behind in Europe. They created a Jewish community with a synagogue, built a school, and a thriving dairy industry, working side by side with Dominicans in an atmosphere that was distinguished by its lack of Anti-Semitism.

Dominican Haven: The Jewish Refugee Settlement in Sosua, 1940-1945

Americas

Museum of Jewish Heritage

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

Books by Kaplan, Marion A.

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

The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Family, and Identity in Imperial Germany (Studies in Jewish History)

The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Family, and Identity in Imperial Germany (Studies in Jewish History)

Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany (Studies in Jewish History)

Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany (Studies in Jewish History)

Dominican Haven: The Jewish Refugee Settlement in Sosua, 1940-1945