Daily Life During the Holocaust

Eve Nussbaum Soumerai, Carol D. Schulz

• Publisher: Greenwood
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780313353093
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Geschichte des Holocaust

The Holocaust—one of the most horrific examples of man's inhumanity to man in recorded history—resulted in the genocide of millions of people, most of them Jews. This volume explores the daily lives of the Holocaust victims and their heroic efforts to maintain a normal existence under inhumane conditions. Readers will learn about the effects of pogroms, Jewish ghettoes, Nazi rule, and deportation on everyday tasks like going to school, practicing religion, or eating dinner. Chapters on life in the concentration camps describe the incomprehensible conditions that plagued the inmates and the ways in which they managed to survive. Soumerai, a survivor herself, offers a unique perspective on the events. Coverage also includes accounts of resistance and the role of rescuers. Four new chapters explore current human rights abuses, including Holocaust denials, modern genocide, and human trafficking, enabling readers to contrast present and past events. In addition to a timeline, a glossary, and engaging illustrations, the second edition also features an extensive bibliography and resource center that guides student researchers toward web sites, organizations, films, and books on the Holocaust and other human rights abuses. Primary source testimonies from survivors provide powerful insight into the devastating effects of Nazi rule on people's lives. Soumerai, a survivor herself, offers a unique perspective on the events and insight into the persecution of non-Jews: Gypsies, gays, clergy who protested or protected victims, Communists, Jehovah's Witnesses, the mentally ill and handicapped. Readers will explore the effects of pogroms, Jewish ghettoes, Nazi rule, and deportation on everyday tasks like going to school, practicing religion, or eating dinner. Chapters on life in the concentration camps describe the incomprehensible conditions within the camps, including the ways in which inmates managed to survive: avoiding the infirmary, rationing food, utilizing the market system to trade for goods and clothing. Four new chapters shed a modern light on the events of the Holocaust, exploring human rights abuses that continue even today, including Holocaust Denials; genocide in Cambodia, Rwanda, and Sudan; and child slavery and human trafficking. The new material allows readers to compare and contrast present and past human rights abuses, exploring what lessons we have learned, if any, from the Holocaust. An expanded bibliography and resource center guides readers toward related web sites, organizations, films and books related to the Holocaust, modern-day slavery and genocide, child soldiers, and related human rights topics. Illustrations, a timeline of events and a glossary of terms are also included, making this a comprehensive resource for student researchers.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Coauthor’s Note
• Prologue
• Timeline
• 1. Man’s Inhumanity to Man: A Short Historical Background
• 2. Setting the National Socialist (Nazi) Stage
• 3. The Total Nazification of Germany
• 4. The Changing Lives of Jews
• 5. Prologue to World War II
• 6. World War II Begins
• 7. Moving into the Ghettos
• 8. Life in the Ghettos of Poland
• 9. Coping with Life in a “Concentration” World
• 10. Einsatzgruppen in the East
• 11. The Wannsee Conference: Planning the “Final Solution”
• 12. The “Final Solution”: The Plan
• 13. Deportation and the Behavior of Jewish Leadership
• 14. The Roundups
• 15. Deportations: Country by Country
• 16. The Terrifying Journey to the East
• 17. Auschwitz
• 18. Life in the Lunatic World of the Concentration Camps
• 19. The Cover-up
• 20. The Death Marches
• 21. Resistance
• 22. The Lives of the Rescuers and the Rescued
• 23. Liberation
• 24. The Nuremberg Trials
• 25. Aftermath
• 26. Denying History
• 27. Genocide Continues: Cambodia, Rwanda, Sudan
• 28. The Twenty-first Century: Modern Slavery in a Global Economy
• 29. Child Soldiers in the Modern Army
• Epilogue
• Appendix: Searching for Answers through Tribute Celebrations
• Glossary
• Selected Bibliography and Resource Center
• Index