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Provides the definitive account of Vichy's own antisemitic policies and practices. It is a major contribution to the history of the Jewish tragedy in wartime Europe answering the haunting question, "What part did Vichy France really play in the Nazi effort to murder Jews living in France?"
First Published in 1998. Weisberg provides a comprehensive account of the French legal system's complicity with its German occupiers during the dark period known as 'Vichy'. Drawing on archival sources, personal interviews, and historical research, this book reveals how legalized persecution operated on a practical level, often exceeding German expectations. All while comparing the Vichy experience to American legal precedents and practices, opening the possibility that postmodern modes of thinking ironically adopt the complexity of Vichy reasoning to a host of reading and thinking strategies.
Between the French defeat in 1940 and liberation in 1944, the Nazis killed almost 80,000 of France's Jews, both French and foreign. Since that time, this tragedy has been well-documented. But there are other stories hidden within it-ones neglected by historians. In fact, 75% of France's Jews escaped the extermination, while 45% of the Jews of Belgium perished, and in the Netherlands only 20% survived. The Nazis were determined to destroy the Jews across Europe, and the Vichy regime collaborated in their deportation from France. So what is the meaning of this French exception? Jacques Semelin sheds light on this 'French enigma', painting a radically unfamiliar view of occupied France. His is a rich, even-handed portrait of a complex and changing society, one where helping and informing on one's neighbours went hand in hand; and where small gestures of solidarity sat comfortably with anti-Semitism. Without shying away from the horror of the Holocaust's crimes, this seminal work adds a fresh perspective to our history of the Second World War.
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year A CounterPunch Best Book of the Year A Lone Star Policy Institute Recommended Book “A critically important exploration of the political dynamics that have made us one of the most punitive societies in human history. A must-read by one of our most thoughtful scholars of crime and punishment.” —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy “A cogent and provocative argument about how to achieve true institutional reform and fix our broken system.” —Emily Bazelon, author of Charged “If you care, as I do, about disrupting the perverse politics of criminal justice, there is no better place to start than Prisoners of Politics.” —James Forman, Jr., Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Locking Up Our Own The United States has the world’s highest rate of incarceration in the world. As awful as that truth is, its social consequences—recycling offenders through an overwhelmed criminal justice system, ever-mounting costs, and a growing class of permanently criminalized citizens—are even more devastating. With the authority of a prominent legal scholar and the practical insights gained through her work on criminal justice reform, Rachel Barkow reveals how dangerous it is to base criminal justice policy on the whims of the electorate and argues for a transformative shift toward data and expertise.
Incorporating published and archival material, this volume fills an important gap in the history of the Jewish experience during World War II, describing how the war affected Jews living along the southern rim of the Mediterranean and the Levant, from Morocco to Iran. Surviving the Nazi slaughter did not mean that Jews living in the Middle East and North Africa were unaffected by the war: there was constant anti-Semitic propaganda and general economic deprivation; communities were bombed; and Jews suffered because of the anti-Semitic Vichy regulations that left them unemployed, homeless, and subject to forced labor and deportation to labor camps. Nevertheless, they fought for the Allies and assisted the Americans and the British in the invasion of North Africa. These men and women were community leaders and average people who, despite their dire economic circumstances, worked with the refugees attempting to escape the Nazis via North Africa, Turkey, or Iran and connected with international aid agencies during and after the war. By 1945, no Jewish community had been left untouched, and many were financially decimated, a situation that would have serious repercussions on the future of Jews in the region. Covering the entire Middle East and North Africa region, this book on World War II is a key resource for students, scholars, and general readers interested in Jewish history, World War II, and Middle East history.
Drawing on the extensive memoir literature of Jews who survived the Nazi period in France, Zuccotti paints a collective portrait of the victims, of those who tried to help them, of those who persecuted them and of the vast majority of French people who looked the other way. Zuccotti concludes that “benign neglect, vague goodwill, and, occasionally, active support” helped three-quarters of French Jews survive, while almost half of foreign-born Jews living under Nazi occupation or in the Vichy government “free” zone were sent to extermination camps with the active help of the French authorities. “Valuable and lucid. [...] Susan Zucccotti's book is admirable in many important ways.” — Patrice Higonnet, New York Times Book Review “Ms. Zuccotti combines vivid narrative with the most scrupulous historical accuracy. It is good to be able to enter the helpful gestures of many French individuals into the scales against the unspeakable actions of many Vichy officials and zealots.” — Robert O. Paxton, Mellon Professor of the Social Sciences, Columbia University, author ofVichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 “Dr. Zuccotti’s book, admirably balanced and free of bias, is a rich and compassionate study of the plight of Jews in France during World War II.” — Léon Poliakov, Honorary Director of Research, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) “In a vividly narrated reexamination of the historical record, Zuccotti tells the horrifying story of the fate of French Jews at the hands of the Nazis and their Vichy collaborators. [...] A balanced yet heartrending contribution to Holocaust literature.” —Kirkus Review “Zuccotti forces us to rethink the French response to the Holocaust in this challenging book” — Publishers Weekly “By use of precise examples, Zuccotti is able to illustrate the human side and contribute to a new understanding of [the fate of France’s Jewish population during World War II]” — American Historical Review “Ms. Zuccotti finds France to be a nation which, in time of crisis, showed itself to be made up of a handful of villains, a few magnificent heroes and a vast assortment of the cowardly, the apathetic and the self-serving.” — Forward “Zuccotti presents the most comprehensive account of the Holocaust in France available to the English reader.” — Paula Hyman, Yale University, Journal of Interdisciplinary History “An excellent narrative.” — Choice, American Library Association “Zuccotti has made a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust in France. Above all, she has illuminated in fascinating detail the extraordinary range of organizational and individual responses.” — Journal of Modern History “Zuccotti’s account investigates the popular responses of the French to the measures offered and implemented by [Vichy] officials... an essential tool for gaining a more complete understanding of Vichy France and the Holocaust” — Anne Higgins,University of Vermont History Review “This is an important work of 20th-century history. It is admirably researched, but remains lucid. It is, of necessity, sometimes harrowing, but illuminates moments of selfless heroism. Above all, it details a period of French history which has for too long been known to foreigners in only the broadest outlines... This is a valuable book deserving a wide readership.” — Morning Star “[Zuccotti’s] book is replete with personal histories and memories, culled from a very wide reading in the growing library of autobiographies, memoirs, and monographs dealing with this period.” — Tony Judt, New York Review of Books
Gilbert Michlin's sober text thoroughly documents the story of a Jewish immigrant family in France during the war years. Michlin's memoir evokes the golden years of his family's life in prewar Paris, where he was born, but also reflects on the difficulties of being Jewish in France.
