History Commons^™

Dogma: How A Convenient Narrative Led To The Holocaust, Morgan R. Schroeder

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

No abstract provided.

Sonic Salvation: A Neuroscientific Exploration Of Music's Role In Cultural Preservation In The Wake Of The Holocaust, Regan K. Recklaus

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

As easy as it would be to begin this essay with a succinct “music is” statement (e.g. “music is life” or “music is power”), it would be akin to encapsulating the boundless expanse of the cosmos in a single photograph. It would fail to honor the immeasurable richness and complexity of the force which has transformed humanity from a group of disparate apes into a symphony of interconnected souls. For all of history, music has served as a means for humans to tap into and express the very things that make them human—their emotions, culture, and individual identities. Its profound …

Jews And Urban Life, Leonard J. Greenspoon

Studies in Jewish Civilization

Jews and Urban Life recognizes that throughout their long history, Jews have often inhabited cities. The reality of this urban experience ranged from ghetto restrictions to robust participation in a range of civic and social activities. Essays in this collection present relevant examples from within the Jewish community itself, moving historically from the biblical period to the modern-day State of Israel. Taking a comparative approach while recognizing the particulars of individual instances, authors examine these phenomena from a wide variety of approaches, genres, and media. Interdisciplinary and accessibly written, the articles display a multitude of instances throughout history showing the …

Between Faith And Nation: The Complexities Of Jewish Identity In Interwar Austria, Sarah E. Townsend

Honors College Theses

During the period between the First and Second World Wars, the people of the newly established Austrian Republic faced many changes: the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Habsburg Monarchy, economic hardships during and following the First World War, and the question of German ethnic nationalism and unification with Germany. The question of national identity was relevant to the entire Austrian population and Austrians had to make an important decision about their nationality: Austrian or German? For Austrian Jews, the dilemma was more complicated. Zionism promoted the idea of Jewish statehood and a solely Jewish identity. This thesis explores the …

The Nazis, The Vatican, And The Jews Of Rome, Patrick J. Gallo

Purdue University Press Books

On October 16, 1943, the Jews of Rome were targeted for arrest and deportation. The Nazis, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome examines why—and more importantly how—it could have been avoided, featuring new evidence and insight into the Vatican’s involvement. At the time, Rome was within reach of the Allies, but the overwhelming force of the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, and SS in Rome precluded direct confrontation. Moral condemnations would not have worked, nor would direct confrontation by the Italians, Jewish leadership, or even the Vatican.

Gallo underscores the necessity of determining what courses of actions most likely would have spared …

Life Is Beautiful, Or Not: The Myth Of The Good Italian, Shira Klein

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"Life is Beautiful illustrates a popular misconception about Italy's role in the Holocaust. The film features the good Italian and the warped view that Italy treated Jews kindly in the late 1930s and during World War II. Historians have proven this claim to be grossly exaggerated, arguing that Italians persecuted Jews vigorously. Yet popular representations of the past-films, novels, museum exhibits, and websites-continue to give credence to the notion that Italians were overwhelmingly good to Jews. Although France and Germany cultivated similar self-acquitting myths in the decades immediately after the war, they eventually moved on to accept the more …

Germans-Jewish Culture And Modern Multiculturalism In Germany (Intersession 2021), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

"This class studies the expression of cultural identity in central European literature. How many people come to think of themselves or others as "Germans", "Jews", "Turks", "Foreigners", "Immigrants"? While the Holocaust is obviously central to the German-Jewish relationship, it is not the only focus of this course -- we will read literary reflections of the emancipation of the Jews, of German-Jewish assimilation and symbiosis, of the rise of anti-Semitism and Zionism, as well as attempts to remember the past. And while the long history of the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in Germany will be a major component of our …

Italian Jews: A Surprising And Understudied Influence In The Enlightenment, Lura Martinez

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

The experience of Italian Jews during the Enlightenment is deserving of much more attention. Not only did Italian Jews such as Moshe Ḥayyim Luzzatto, a man born in a ghetto, later embrace a form of secularism, but his works and others written by his peers made an impact on the Italian Enlightenment and seemingly contributed to the practice of toleration that appeared in sporadic installments throughout Europe. While the Jewish experience in Europe hails from a long tradition of persecution, with sporadic and incomplete periods of toleration at various points in its history, it is clear that through a promotion …

Film Review: The Impure: An Abolitionist Documentary Film Of The 19th Century Traffic In Jewish Women, Caroline Norma

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Jews: The Makers Of Early Modern Berlin, Conlan Vance

2018 Symposium

This paper will discuss how Jews fit into the economic policies of Brandenburg-Prussia in the later 16^th century. From Frederick William’s decree in 1671 to allow fifty Jewish families to settle in Brandenburg-Prussia to these families and their descendants becoming immersed in the economy of Berlin through their use in courts but more so through their trading, specifically, the ways in which they traded and how they used these to free themselves from some of the constraints of German Christian society. Thusly, this will be shown by looking at Jews in Brandenburg-Prussia in the later 17th century, Jews in …

The Republican Race : Identity, Persecution, And Resistance In Jewish Correspondence From The Concentration Camps Of Occupied France, 1933-1945, Stacy Renee Veeder

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT

A Boy In Hiding: Surviving The Nazis, Amsterdam 1940-1945, Stan Rubens

Zea E-Books Collection

A Boy in Hiding: Surviving the Nazis is a poignant, true-survival story of a young boy who hid for four years underground in Holland during World War II. A Boy in Hiding sheds a light on the difficult road that lay ahead for Anne Frank—had she survived. This book is written from the point of view of an eight-year-old boy growing up too fast during the five years of the war. Now, sixty years later, Rubens gives a voice to the young boy, who—despite the hard times and difficulties he encountered, never lost his positive view on life.

Sobrevivimos … Al Fin Hablo, Leon Malmed

Zea E-Books Collection

Esta es la historia real de Leon Malmed quien, junto a su hermana Rachel, escapó de Francia durante la época del Holocausto gracias a sus valientes y heroicos vecinos quienes, después de haber presenciado el arresto de los padres de nuestro protagonista en 1942, se ofrecieron a cuidarlo a él y a su hermana hasta que regresaran. Primero, los padres de Leon fueron llevados a Drancy, después a Auschwitz-Birkenau, y nunca volvieron. Mientras tanto sus vecinos, que vivían en el piso de abajo, Henri y Suzanne Ribouleau, los acogieron dándoles un hogar y una familia; protegiéndolos mientras la ocupación los …

“Kabbalistic Pharmacopeia: Wellbeing In The Atlantic Jewish World”, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

This article describes and analyzes a rare manuscript bearing the lead title Ta‘alumot Hokhmah and purchased at auction in 2013. The document was composed by many hands and in many lands, largely in Portuguese and Dutch, with significant portions in French and Italian, and a smattering of Spanish, English, German, and Yiddish. Most manifestly, it is a receipt book, a compendium of medical, culinary, and housekeeping recipes, sometimes mingled with kabbalistic directives; it also incorporates memoirs and biographical annotations. The multiple layers of text collectively represent the transmission of knowledge within a single family and mark the major transitions that …

Jewish Women In The Ghettos, Concentration Camps, And Partisans During The Holocaust, Sara Vicks

Honors Theses

Men like, Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl, and Elie Wiesel, have provided us with valuable insight on the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Only until recently, was there a disproportion of female memoirs of the Holocaust beyond the story Anne Frank. The purpose of this study was to research the Jewish women’s experience in the ghettos, the concentration camps, and the partisans to add to a broader understanding of the Holocaust and its female victims. The hostile environment for Jewish males after Hitler’s rise to power led to a complete role reversal for Jewish men and women. Jewish …

Nous Avons Survécu. Enfin Je Parle, Leon Malmed

Zea E-Books Collection

"Nous avons survécu. Enfin je parle" est l'histoire vraie, rédigée en français, de deux jeunes enfants, Rachel et Léon, dont le sort était scellé par le destin et la folie des hommes. Rachel et Léon étaient juifs, à une époque où cette simple appartenance était synonyme d'oppression, d'arrestation, de déportation et de mort. Dimanche 19 Juillet 1942, à cinq heures, on frappe à la porte, les policiers français viennent arrêter leurs parents, Srul et Chana Malmed. Rachel et Léon ont respectivement 9 et 4 ans. Chana et Srul Malmed se lamentent: Que va-t'on faire de nos enfants? Henri et Suzanne …

[Review Of] James S. Amelang. Parallel Histories: Muslims And Jews In Inquisitorial Spain. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2013. Xi + 208 Pp. $25.95. Isbn: 978-0-8071-5410-6., Gretchen Starr-Lebeau

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

We Survived … At Last I Speak, Leon Malmed

Zea E-Books Collection

This is Leon Malmed’s true story of his and his sister Rachel’s escape from the Holocaust in Occupied France. When their father and mother were arrested in 1942, their courageous and heroic French neighbors volunteered to watch their children until they returned. Leon’s parents were taken first to Drancy, then to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and they never returned. Meanwhile their downstairs neighbors, Henri and Suzanne Ribouleau, gave the children a home and family and sheltered them through subsequent roundups, threats, air raids, and the war’s privations. The courage, sympathy, and dedication of the Ribouleaus and others stand in strong contrast to the …

Mapping Jews: Cartography And Topography In Rome's Ghetto, Samuel D. Gruber Dr.

Samuel D. Gruber Dr.

This paper examines how the Ghetto of Rome was represented in the many view-plans and maps of Rome from the 16th through 18th centuries, and how this mapping both tells us much about the physical appearance of the Ghetto and also how it was perceived by others in particular and presented to others more generally.

Stosunki Chrześcijańsko-Żydowskie W History, Pamięci I Sztuce: Europejski Kontekst Dzieł W Katedrze Sandomierskiej [Jewish-Christian Relations In History, Memory, And Art: European Context For The Paintings In The Sandomierz Cathedral], Magda Teter, Urszula Stępień

Magda Teter

[Polish] Obraz Infanticidium wiszący na zachodniej ścianie katedry sandomierskiej i ukazujący sceny rzekomego morderstwa dzieci chrześcijańskich przez Żydów był często przedstawiany w izolacji jako przykład antysemityzmu polskiego oraz stosunków pomiędzy Żydami a Kościołem katolickim. Stał się więc ten obraz swego rodzaju „miejscem pamięci” (lieu de mémoire), w którym „skrystalizowana” została także pamięć stosunków chrześcijańsko-żydowskich w Polsce, oraz tym samy źródłem napięć i protestów. Bogato ilustrowana książka pod redakcją Magdy Teter i Urszuli Stępień ma na celu przedstawienie wstępnego zarysu, ułatwiającego zrozumienie sandomierskich obrazów w ich szerszym kontekście artystycznym, historycznym, i historiograficznym, na tle wydarzeń zarówno europejskich, jak i lokalnych.

[English] …

Lobos Y Perros Rabiosos: The Legacy Of The Inquisition In The Colonization Of New Spain And New Mexico, C. Michael Torres

Student Papers (History)

No abstract provided.

A Knight At The Opera: Heine, Wagner, Herzl, Peretz, And The Legacy Of Der Tannhäuser, Leah Garrett

Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies

A Knight at the Opera examines the remarkable and unknown role that the medieval legend (and Wagner opera) Tannhäuser played in Jewish cultural life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book analyzes how three of the greatest Jewish thinkers of that era, Heinrich Heine, Theodor Herzl, and I. L. Peretz, used this central myth of Germany to strengthen Jewish culture and to attack anti-Semitism. In the original medieval myth, a Christian knight lives in sin with the seductive pagan goddess Venus in the Venusberg. He escapes her clutches and makes his way to Rome to seek absolution from …

Sinners On Trial: Jews And Sacrilege After The Reformation, Magda Teter

Magda Teter

My book, Sinners on Trial: Jews and Sacrilege after the Reformation tells a story of the process of affirmation of Catholic dogmas after the Reformation, not necessarily though religious education and propaganda but through the application of criminal law, and the courts' treatment of "the sacred" and, thus, also of the "sacrilege."

"Sinners on Trial" combines political, legal, and cultural historical approaches. In Poland, the contest over the sacredness of the Eucharist, a major Catholic dogma challenged by the Reformation, became manifest in lay courts' adjudication of crimes against property and religious symbols, especially those linked to the Eucharistic rituals. …

Putting "Blood Libel" In Historical Context, Magda Teter

Magda Teter

When Sarah Palin used the term “blood libel” in response to the shooting in Arizona that left six people dead and severely injured others, including Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords, she stirred a controversy. To defend herself in the midst of the controversy, Palin defined the term “blood libel” very broadly as “being falsely accused of having blood on your hands.” Despite her broad definition, blood libel is a term that refers very specifically to the historical accusation that Jews killed Christian children to obtain their blood. A false accusation, to be sure, but one with a long and painful history, …

Shattered Communities: Soldiers, Rabbis, And The Ostjuden Under German Occupation: 1915-1918, Tracey Hayes Norrell

Doctoral Dissertations

“Shattered Communities: Soldiers, Rabbis, and the Ostjuden during Occupation: 1915-1918" addresses the interethnic experience in Poland during the German occupation of 1915-1918. This dissertation demonstrates that the German design for 'modernization' of the East began with the First World War, which envisioned the Jews as a critically vital component, rather than an obstacle to their success. The German military made its connection to the peoples in the East via its own army rabbis and Jewish administrators. This work examines the role of the German Army rabbis, in 1915, in establishing a Jewish press and Jewish schools, along with Jewish relief …

Out Of The (Historiographic) Ghetto: Jews And The Reformation, Magda Teter, Debra Kaplan

Magda Teter

Existing historiography has created a historiographic ghetto, seldom considering Jewish sources and Jews as relevant to the larger narrative of European history. This has created two parallel, often disconnected areas of study, “European history” and “Jewish history.” Archival materials from across Europe strongly show that Jews and Christians resided side by side and interacted on a daily basis in early modern Europe. Reformation Strasbourg and post-Reformation Poland, two geographically and demographically diverse cases offer new insights about the past by including sources about Jews. In Reformation Strasbourg, cross-confessional collaboration was more frequent than previously imagined, as leaders of different Christian …

Review Of The Butcher's Tale: Murder And Anti-Semitism In A German Town, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Trends. Correct Political Incorrectness: Can Germans Be Right About Jews?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl's analogy, which compared boycotts of his fundraising campaign to pay for fines incurred on his political party because of his illegal and illicit fund-raising initiatives to Nazi-era boycotts of Jewish shops.

Ministers Of Compassion During The Nazi Period: Gertrud Luckner And Raoul Wallenberg, The Institute Of Judaeo-Christian Studies

Teshuvah Institute Papers

The Shoah or Holocaust, defined as the vicious, prolonged and deadly attack on the Jewish people and their way of life in Nazi-dominated Europe, has cast a long and dismal shadow over the latter two-thirds on this century. As we grapple with the inadequacies of so many people in virtually every walk of life and every religious or secular community to stand up to the Nazi threat, we are grateful for heroic examples of those who did act with courage and resolution. They remind us of the moral and spiritual challenge to follow one's conscience when it is not only …