BOOK REVIEWS AND

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Book Reviews

Sobre nazis y nazismo en la cultura argentina (On Nazis and Nazism in Argentinean Culture). Edited by Ignacio Klich. University of Maryland, College Park: Hispamerica, 2002, 251 pp.

On Nazis and Nazism comprises eight, mostly historical, articles by leading researchers, compiled by Ignacio Klich, who was academic coordinator of the Commission of Enquiry into the Activities of Nazism in Argentina (CEANA; set up in 1997). It is part of a wider study carried out by CEANA, whose objectives were: a) to determine whether Argentina received goods looted from the victims of Nazism and Nazi collaboration; b) to identify war criminals who arrived in Argentina during the Peronist period and the political environment that supported them; and c) to evaluate the impact of Nazi ideology as well as of Nazis and Nazi collaborators on Argentinean culture, society and government. The research for the articles was based on sources in Argentinean archives and those of other countries. The book is dedicated to the late Guido Di Tella, a former Argentinean foreign minister and Oxford University don.

The first article, by Saul Sosnowski, focuses on “Literature and Images of the War.” Sosnowski provides an original touch by analyzing the works of various Argentinean writers, such as Jorge Luis Borges, Griselda Gambaro, Manuel Puig y Esteban Buch, who authored works about Nazism, World War II and the military dictatorships of the 1960s to 1980s. These authors did not accept the military governments’ silencing of the opposition, and continued to speak out although they risked persecution or even losing their lives.

Fernando Degiovani’s article, “We and Sur [a liberal journal ‑ GB]: The Enemy and the War,” analyzes how the consolidation of totalitarian European regimes during the 1930s and World War II affected Argentinean culture in general and those who saw a potential threat in the institution of fascist regimes in South America, in particular. Argentinean intellectuals wrestled with issues such as the possibility that the South American countries would be divided between the Nazi and Allied spheres of influence and whether Argentina was prepared to confront this challenge.

       In his contribution, Leonardo Senkman portrays “The Fictional Representation of Catholic Fascism in Manuel Galvez,” a nationalistic right-wing writer. According to Senkman, Galvez created a synthesis between traditional Hispanic Catholicism and ideas of modernization taken from European fascism, that is, an authoritarian nationalism. Referring to the Francoist Spanish regime as a source of inspiration for Galvez and other Argentinean right-wing nationalist writers, several historians point out that the influence of Spanish authoritarian ideology on Argentinean fascists was much more marked than German Nazism.

According to Senkman, Galvez was seeking a type of fascism that might be adapted to the new Argentina, in which Catholicism would be an integral part of its culture and morality. Senkman claims that Galvez had an innovative way of thinking compared to that of most Argentinean Catholic intellectuals who wanted the Church to remain the leading institution in society. It must be stressed, however, that Galvez’s ideology was neither the creed of the fascist Falange Española nor that of the official Catholic Church in Spain, but rather a mixture of both tailored to the Argentinean context.

Galvez was one of the few who condemned antisemitism in Argentina, where it was part of the broad spectrum of right-wing culture, and mocked the assumption of antisemitic intellectuals concerning the power held by Jews. According to Galvez “the real fascist cannot be an antisemite,” a theme he stressed in articles he wrote for the Catholic journal Criterio in the early 1930s. In this sense Galvez looked to the example of Italian fascism before the implementation of the Racial Laws and not the Spanish variety of fascism, which was tainted by antisemitism. His blend of fascism and Catholicism also contained features of social justice taken from the social encyclicals of Popes Leo XIII (1891) and Pius XI (1931), known also as “The Social Doctrine of the Church.”

“Los nostálgicos of the New Order and Their Links to Argentinean Political Culture” is a novel theme introduced by the Argentinean historian Christian Buchrucker. He analyzes not only the influence of German Nazi immigrants in Argentina but also that of foreigners from other European countries who were active in the dissemination of the ideology of the ‘new European authoritarian order’.

Under ‘the new order’, right-wing nationalists sought to spread a world concept that included the ideals of Nazi Germany, as well as those of fascist Italy, the Spanish Franco regime, the Rexist Belgian movement and the French collaborationist Vichy regime. Buchrucker’s article focuses on the degree to which these immigrants influenced Argentinean political culture, particularly social scientists who entered the country after 1945. Although generally conservative and pro-Nazi, their message was incorporated by sympathetic local intellectuals.

Buchrucker examines the leading figures among them; their academic work; the communication channels they established with Argentinean society; international connections that influenced their activities; and the organizations that were receptive to their message.

The author emphasizes two groups: German-speaking peoples, together with their institutions and press, and local fascist organizations and their publications. He also studies the influence of central European racism at Argentinean universities, through members of the academic staff and their local and international networks. Among his conclusions:

a) The long-term strategy was the creation of an ultra-right group of worldwide relevance. According to him, German residents of Argentina had created one of these international networks, but they were not the main fascist leaders after the war.

b) A shorter-term strategy was to seek links with the local authorities and to get involved in projects (such as weapons programs) that came to fruition in the 1960s and 1970s.

c) The minimalist strategy was to conserve a place in the anti-modern culture of Argentina, which predominated during the military regimes of 1966−70 and 1976‑83.

According to Buchrucker, the link between fascists coming from immigrant fascists and the political culture in Argentina was a phenomenon of middling importance ‑ it was not insignificant but was not always present. Their influence was limited to the local right-wing culture that developed in Argentina.

Concerning the question of National Socialism and its impact after 1945, the author believes that it would be misleading to ascribe any real importance to that ideology in the evolution of a fascist and right-wing culture in Argentina due to the pre-existence of antisemitism in Argentina. The Eichmann affair in the 1960s, followed by the activism of the violent philo-Nazi Tacuara group of local radical Catholics, were also primary factors influencing Argentinean culture and society. Also significant were bibliographies of fascist writers and intellectuals, university teachings, and journalistic writings of local nationalist pro-Nazi groups.

Daniel Sabsay and Andrea Pochak analyzed the possible influence of Nazi thought on federal tribunals in Argentina between 1933 and 1955. They compiled a lengthy list of penal justice decisions for their research and examined the values and ideological criteria that had been taken into account in reaching them. They concluded that although several judges were tainted by the authoritarian way of thinking of those days, it could not be inferred that the judicial bureaucracy was imbued with an authoritarian ideology and that most of the verdicts stemmed from such ideas. They considered that the persecution of Jews was not generalized, that any judicial verdict that appeared to be influenced by Nazi ideology was not especially directed against Jews and that this kind of authoritarian tendency was by no means characteristic of the time. Although during the 1930s and 1940s Nazi ideas were fashionable, they faded after the war. It would seem more correct to ask, therefore, whether authoritarian ideas in Argentina were influenced more by Spanish and Italian fascism than by German Nazism.

The article “Argentinean Historiography concerning Argentina’s International Relations in the Period 1930‑1955: Topics, Problems and Recent Approaches” by Maria Ines Barbero and Marcelo Rougier, provides a systematic historiographic and chronological analysis of several books written until now on that topic; as such it makes an important contribution to Argentinean and international historiography.

Another article, by Maria Ines Tato and Luis Alberto Romero, deals with “The Press and the Nazi Regime” from 1933 until 1945. The authors refer to daily press reportage and perceptions of Nazism in Argentina. There was indeed a great difference between conservative and liberal mainstream newspapers, and smaller circulation papers financed by the German embassy, which issued Nazi propaganda daily.

However, with the exception of the liberal newspaper Crítica, the position of the Argentinean media vis-à-vis Nazism was not well defined until 1939. Even after the United States entered the war in December 1941, the concepts of fascism and Nazism were used unchangeably, and when liberals spoke of ‘totalitarism’, they were referring to communism, fascism and Nazism. This changed only after the attack on the Soviet Union and its entry into the war side by side with the Allies. It should be added that the Catholic Church, like Criterio and El Pueblo, took a stand on behalf of right-wing neutralism in the war, until January 1944, when, like the government, they altered their position and severed relations with Germany.

The last, very detailed article, by Ignacio Klich, analyzes the Eichmann case in “Four Decades to the Capture of the Austrian from Linz in Argentina: Reflections of the Eichmann Case in Memoirs, Testimonies and the Argentinean and Other Press.” The author examines the reasons for the absence of collective memory in the Eichmann case, about which few Argentinean historians have written. Klich’s objectives were: a) to revive some of this bibliography, differentiating between what has been substantiated and what has not; b) to analyze Argentinean and other reactions to Eichmann’s kidnapping, including the deterioration in Argentinean-Israeli relations; and c) to explain the difficulty in studying Argentinean actions. Based mainly on press articles, memoirs of the kidnappers and others close to the case, such as the testimonies of Argentinean public figures, Klich, step-by-step, confirms or invalidates sources, some of which do not match the facts or are tendentious. In cases of sources that cannot be verified, the author tried to complete them with oral history accounts and press reports. Much space is devoted to the Israeli government’s violation of Argentinean sovereignty. According to Klich, the last word will be said only after Argentinean and other archives are opened to researchers in 2010.

This case had unexpected national and international repercussions. Argentina, according to Klich, seems to have acted impulsively after the kidnapping. Although he understood that he could not ask for Eichmann’s return in the face of hostile international public opinion, President Arturo Frondizi tried to defend Argentina’s national interests by seeking a dignified solution, but denied the presence of other Nazis in Argentina.

The book constitutes a significant contribution to the study of Nazis and Nazi collaborators, who entered Argentina after World War II, as well as of Nazi propaganda, since it evaluates the degree of their incorporation into the political culture and their influence on Argentinean society and culture. Nevertheless, until more documentation becomes accessible, many questions will remain unanswered.

Graciela Ben-Dror

Stephen Roth Institute, and

Dept. of Jewish History,

Haifa University

Europe’s Crumbling Myths: The Post-Holocaust Origins of Today’s Anti-Semitism. By Manfred Gerstenfeld. Foreword by Emil L. Fackenheim. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Yad Vashem, World Jewish Congress, 2003, 238pp.

Manfred Gerstenfeld is both an activist and a scholar in the field of antisemitism. He is an international business and environmental consultant who has published a many books and articles related to the history of the Jewish people and to antisemitism. He has also organized various conferences at the Jerusalem Center for Jewish Affairs (JCPA). His book, Europe’s Crumbling Myths, bears the mark of this genuine duality of public activity and scientific research.

One-third of the book is devoted to Gerstenfeld’s own analysis of the ‘new antisemitism’, which he explains as “more a continuation and a development than a departure,” from the antisemitism of the past, and especially of World War II. Listing some of the main features of the current crisis, he mentions, inter alia: the alliance of the extreme right and Arab antisemites, the links between the extreme left and Palestinians, and the portrayal of Israel and its leaders in Nazi terms. He describes the attitude of European governments and the European media which often deliberately conceal or minimize the extent of antisemitism. He also notes the reluctance of broad sectors of the public to censure manifestations of anti-Jewish hatred, even those that are blatantly brutal and malevolent.

Gerstenfeld considers that the renewed antisemitism cannot be dissociated from the fact that Europe has failed to assimilate, in depth, some of the most significant and central meanings of the Shoah. In his own analysis, he tries to determine, country by country, Europe’s moral attitude toward the Jews in the postwar period, including the social postwar re-integration of Jews; trials of war criminals; restitution procedures; World War II historiography in each country; the extent of Holocaust education and commemoration; the treatment of rescuers of Jews by their neighbors, and other related issues. He concludes that there is a growing interest in the Holocaust, but there is also a tendency to utilize its remembrance, lessons and implications as a political and cultural weapon against the Jews.

Two-thirds of the book consists of contributions by fifteen leading scholars and public figures: David Bankier, Ephraim Zuroff, Yehuda Bauer, Deborah Lipstadt, Nathan Durst, Aharon Lopez, Michael Melchior, Yair Sheleg, Avi Beker, Ronald Zweig, Isaac Lipschits, Naphtali Lavie, Laurence Weinbaum, Shmuel Trigano and Irwin Cotler. They deal with antisemitism and the Shoah, covering a broad range of countries and representing a wide spectrum of ideas and beliefs. The papers are well-written and interesting, although some of them go beyond the boundaries of the issue Gerstenfeld sought to discuss. Fortunately, this propensity imperils neither the internal coherence of the book nor its intellectual value, which is indisputable. Erwin Cotler, for instance, writes about Israel and the cause of human rights in the United Nations, and Sheleg and Melchior also deal with Israeli issues. The majority, however, adhere to relevant topics, such as war criminals, restitution, Holocaust denial, Pope Pius XII and European guilt feelings. It should, of course, be taken into consideration that the thesis presented in the book does not, and cannot, exclude other factors that brought about the recent increase of antisemitism, such as Europe’s current problems vis-à-vis mass immigration and international economic and political developments.

Simcha Epstein

Vidal Sassoon International

Center for the Study of Antisemitism

Hebrew University

Antisemitism – A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution. Edited by Richard S. Levy. Vol. One, A-K; Vol. Two, L−Z. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC Clio, 2005, 828 pp.

Richard S. Levy and his editorial team deserve congratulations for carrying out a significant, comprehensive project, whose lack was sorely felt. With the recent escalation in antisemitic expressions in some regions of the world, and the changes in characteristics that led to the coining of the term, the ‘new antisemitism’, the need for such an enterprise increased. As far as we know, the idea for an encyclopedia of antisemitism has been proposed before, but has never been materialized. Now, these two fine, well-written volumes, which can serve not only scholars but also anyone looking for reliable material on the subject, fill the gap.

The task was not an easy one: antisemitism and Judaism have each been defined in a variety of ways, depending on the changing needs of societies and historical circumstances. Antisemitism is not only the most protracted hostility in the history of civilization – it is expressed in so many countries and so many languages that its analysis calls for polymath researchers; moreover, it is emotionally charged and popular emotions have always been exploited by politicians, leaders and pressure groups.

The editor-in-chief and his team tried to overcome these and other difficulties by expanding the scope of the encyclopedia and incorporating into each of the 612 entries as many countries, periods, individuals and written works as possible. While the solution of inclusion rather than exclusion saved the need to find a definition which might be used as a yardstick, it nevertheless created other problems. First there was the question of entries relating to antiquity. In his introduction Levy acknowledges that many think it is anachronistic to apply a 19th century term, antisemitism, to ancient times” (and indeed it is), and that “only… outside ancient Israel did anti-Jewish hostility take on distinctive features.” Therefore, the editors resolved to deal only with the status of Jews in the Roman Empire. While this is a good decision, entries such as the Arch of Titus, or the Bar Kochba revolt, exemplify the problematics of inclusion – indeed, they scarcely refer to antisemitism or more precisely to anti-Judaism, and very little is said about the status of the Jews. It is difficult to understand why they, in fact, appear.

Second, and more serious, is the question of including the Holocaust. The editors’ decision, as stated in the introduction, was to limit the entry “to the relationship between antisemitic ideology and the genocide of the Jews.” Again, the choice was a sound and logical one, but very hard to implement. For example: On page 126 a photo shows Catholics pledging allegiance to the Church, and on page 166, Hitler and Göring examining an exhibition of ‘degenerate art’. These pictures, and the entries they supposedly illustrate, do not say much about the attitude to the Jews. Another example is Hitler’s Table Talk entry, which while conveying Hitler’s ideas on the Jews, is mostly devoted to the nature of the Table Talks, in which he expressed his opinion on a wide range of issues. There are other examples, for once the decision is all-inclusive the lines tend to blur, and almost any issue could be connected to antisemitism. On the other hand, as research has shown, the Holocaust was the product of a number of factors of which antisemitism was but one. Although it was undoubtedly a crucial factor, concentrating on antisemitism alone leads to the mistaken conclusion that it was the only reason. The problem is hard to solve: perhaps there should have been a smaller number of entries on the Third Reich, and greater focus on antisemitic propaganda and ideology proper.

These problems do not overshadow the fact that this was a courageous undertaking Their decision not to include Jewish reactions seems to be a correct one – it is an encyclopedia on antisemitism not on the Jewish people, whose responses throughout the generations deserve a separate, lengthy analysis. A host of contributors presented the fruits of their efforts, each in his field of expertise, among them a notable number of non-Jews, adding to the comprehensiveness of the enterprise. All in all, the encyclopedia is bound to be an asset in every library.

Dina Porat

Stephen Roth Institute

Hate Crimes against London's Jews. By P. Ignaski, Vicky Kielinger and Susan Paterson. London: Institute for Jewish Policy Research, 2005, 130 pp.

This study is the outcome of a joint endeavor of a London-based research institute, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), and the Metropolitan Police Service. The researchers are trained criminologists, one from the University of Essex and the JPR, and two from the Metropolitan Police Service (the ‘Diversity Directorate’). This unique cooperation has yielded a comprehensive analysis of hate crimes perpetrated against Jews in London over four calendar years, 2001−2004.

In the introduction, the researchers state that their aim was “to understand better the nature and the social context of the incidents in terms of characteristics and the possible motivations of offenders, the circumstances in which the incidents occur, the events that precipitate incidents and the consequences and the management of incidents by victims, offenders and the police.”

The team, which used both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, based its study on police records, namely, the victim’s complaint, the officer's notes, and reports of the investigation. Indeed, the use of a fixed set of questions for each incident enabled a thorough analysis and produced some enlightening answers about the trends and patterns of hate crimes against London’s Jews. Moreover, the records contain information which aided the researchers in sketching a profile of the potential Jewish victim as well as in providing important insights and clues about the perpetrators, such as ethnic appearance, gender and age.

Indeed, the most important contribution of this research to the study of current antisemitism is its findings about the perpetrators. The police records reveal that the majority of the suspects (56.9 percent) were ‘white European’. This is an important conclusion, proving that despite the growing animosity of extreme Muslims in Europe toward Jews, it was still white Britons who were responsible for the majority of antisemitic incidents.

Despite the importance of this finding, three points should be taken into consideration:

·         In over one-third of the incidents no suspect was recorded in the crime report. This relatively high proportion of unknown perpetrators might put in question the ratio between the role of ‘white Europeans’ and others.

·         The study refrained from making a linkage between ethnic appearance of the suspect and type of incident recorded. For example, while most of the suspects of antisemitic incidents might indeed have been ‘white European’, the role of young Muslims (Asian and African Caribbean) in committing physical assaults might have been higher.

·         No comparisons are made with previous years. A comparison with the end of 1990s, for instance, might show a considerable increase in the role of those described as ‘Asians’ or ‘African Caribbean’.

The second finding in regard to perpetrators is probably the most significant one. The police records clearly reveal that most of the suspects involved in antisemitic incidents were not associated with organized or extremist groups. Moreover, while the perpetrators directed their criminal activity against Jews, most of the incidents were opportunistic in nature − that is, carried out spontaneously, and mainly by males in the age range 16−20. In most cases, the offenders took immediate advantage of an opportunity that presented itself to vent their antisemitism rather than carried out a premeditated plan. The authors also emphasize that during periods of heightened media reporting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, when an increase in antisemitic incidents was recorded, the nature of the incidents and the profile of the perpetrators did not change perceptibly. These findings correlate with a comprehensive study conducted by Jean-Christophe Rufin, appointed by the French government in July 2004 to draw up a set of measures aimed at fighting racism and antisemitism in that country. He also found that the majority of perpetrators were not members of extremist groups but mainly disaffected young people.

The findings of the French and British studies, which correlate with those of the Stephen Roth Institute (see 2004 General Analysis: http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw2004/general-analysis.htm), contradict the assumption made in the 1990s, and particularly since the outbreak of the second intifada toward the end of 2000, that tensions between Israelis and Palestinians were the main cause of antisemitic violence in Europe. In other words, antisemitism in Europe is not imported from the Middle East. It also invalidated the thesis that linked perpetrators to extremist political groups.

The authors of Hate Crimes against London's Jews, conclude that “it is not ‘organized extremists’, of whatever political shade [that] are responsible for the significant number of antisemitic incidents in London.” Rather, the incidents reflect a “cultural context in which bigotry, and in some instances the use of violence as a social resource, are the norm.”

What exactly, then, is the “cultural context” in which racist violence is the norm? Why is the bigotry directed particularly against Jews? Do the same perpetrators commit crimes against non-Jews? It would be important to know if the perpetrators were exposed to massive antisemitic propaganda and if so, of what kind, and what were the Jewish stereotypes they absorbed. The study does not relate to these basic questions and it might be worthwhile pursuing them in further research.

When dealing with hate crimes, especially when they occur with such frequency, it is not enough to determine merely whether they were carried out by organized groups or by individuals, and whether intentionally or spontaneously. In addition, it is vital to examine the motive, or possibly, motives, for the crime – whether ideological, sociological or psychological. The information recorded by the police was probably not enough to provide a thorough understanding of the social and psychological background of the perpetrators as well as the cultural environment. Interviews by the researchers with the suspects would seem to be an essential tool in this regard.

Despite the limits of police records, Hate Crimes against London's Jews is undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive analyses of antisemitic incidents performed in recent years. Its conclusions, that antisemitic incidents are part of a cultural environment, that most incidents are opportunistic, and that Jews are attacked merely because they ‘look Jewish’, are troubling for British society in general and for Jews in the UK in particular.

Roni Stauber

Stephen Roth Institute

Hungary at War: Civilians and Soldiers in World War II. By Cecil D. Eby. PA: Pennsylvania University, 1998, 314 pp.

Eby is professor emeritus of linguistics, who has also published studies of US history and the Spanish Civil War. In Hungary at War he has ventured into the genre of ‘oral history’, backed by traditional, documented historical narrative in relation to Hungary – specifically, to Hungary’s inhabitants during World War II.

Eby notes in the preface that historians in the West have somewhat overlooked Hungary’s role during World War II. This is not strictly true since several historians, among them, Nandor Dreisziger, who edited the work Hungary in the Age of Total War, 1939–1948 (in Hungarian; 1998), Thosmas Sakymaster, Istvan Deak and Ivan T. Berend, as well as Gyorgy Ranki, Peter Gosztonyi and others who published studies in English, have already provided a basis for understanding Hungary’s part in the war, not to mention existing scholarship in English on the Holocaust in Hungary, led by Randolph L. Braham.

Eby’s approach differs from the socio-political or military genre. Based on some 130 interviews, most of them conducted after the downfall of the communist regime, the book provides a micro-view of individuals, their families and their fate during various stages of the war within Hungary, and in the case of soldiers and Jewish labor service men, on the Soviet front.

The rather awkward division of the book is intended to reflect the major groups and issues discussed: “Soldiers,” “Jews,” “Fliers,” “Players,” “Siege” and “Liberation,” resembling more chapter headings in an espionage thriller than in a serious study of modern history. Indeed, the author did not intend to make an archival and documentary study of Hungary in the war; rather, he presents his narrative through interviews, which, of course, are slanted by the experiences of the participants since the end of the war, current events and changed perspectives. For example: in interviews conducted after the collapse of the communist regime, looting, rape, shooting and killing by Soviet soldiers were emphasized more than in the stories told before 1989.

The interviews reflect the gap between the peaceful life of the average Hungarian citizen before the Nazi occupation and the experience of those who were recruited for the work battalions and treated cruelly by their superiors. It should be noted that many Hungarians at home were unaware of the severe defeats Hungarian troops were suffering on the Russian front. Even the collapse of the Hungarian Second Army was not known in detail due to media censorship: the Horthy regime made every effort to preserve as much normalcy as possible under wartime conditions. Moreover, Hungarian sources have only recently referred to the participation of Hungarian units in war crimes on the territory of the Soviet Union, and for the first time, evidence of the participation of Hungarian units in mass executions of Jews was published, for example, in the historical journal Rubicon (1, 2005).

The chapter on the Hungarian Jews discusses their fate in Hungary during the war, especially in the period beginning March 1944 when the Germans took more direct control. In less than two months almost half a million Jews from the provinces were deported to Auschwitz. Although the testimonies well reflect the Jewish tragedy, the author should have stressed more clearly for present and future generations that many Hungarians became collaborators of the Nazi regime and willing executions of their fellow Jewish Hungarians, who were loyal citizens of the Hungarian state. While the life of the common Hungarian was not jeopardized even under the German occupation, almost one million Jews living on Hungarian territory were targeted for the Final Solution. Moreover, even after the deportations of provincial Jews, hundreds of Jews from the capital were massacred during the Arrow Cross terror regime after 15 October 1944.

In the last two chapters, “Siege” and “Liberation,” the author provides a dramatic and convincing description of the last month of the war. The siege of Budapest has been recognized only recently by military historians as one of the greatest sieges in the war. Life for all was unpredictable since snipers were shooting soldiers and civilians alike from a distance of a couple of meters, sometimes from windows of neighboring buildings marking the unclear front lines. Today, thousands of Hungarian, Soviet and German troops are buried under the peaceful tourist lookout points, from the Budapest Castle compound to the Danube and Pest.

Eby’s book is one of the first to focus on the individual and his/her fate during World War II in Hungary. Despite the problematic methodology of using interviews, it is a welcome addition to the literature on World War II.

Raphael Vago

Dept. of General History

Tel Aviv University

In Brief

B’hazera l’getto Warsaw (Return to the Warsaw Ghetto). By Marian Appelbaum; translated from the French by Reuven Moran. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004, 304 pp.

Marian Appelbaum, a French professor of medicine, seeks to correct an historical injustice, which in his opinion was perpetrated on the ZZW (Zydowski Związek Wojskowy), the Jewish fighters' organization in the Warsaw Ghetto established by members of the Revisionist (rightist Zionist) movement and its youth movement Betar. Appelbaum describes what he believes to be the true story of ZZW resistance in the ghetto, and then explains the reasons behind the apparently intentional omission of the organization from historical accounts. Despite its problematic structure and burdensome quotes, the book throws light on the role of the ZZW, which certainly deserves a place in the literature on the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

Antisemitism in French Schools: Turmoil of a Republic. By Georges Bensoussan. Analysis of Current Trends in Antisemitism Series, No. 24, 2004. Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 46 pp.

This monograph provides a detailed, case-by-case analysis of antisemitic manifestations in primary and secondary schools in France. It explains, on the one hand, the socio-economic frustration of the population originating in the Maghreb, and on the other, the antisemitism inherent in many of its members. Immigrants from the ghetto-like suburbs of Paris, in particular, pass on to their children a rejection of authority and a sense of themselves as victims, blaming their resentment on the Jews, whom they perceive as successful and as conspiring against the world. The author ascribes the upsurge of antisemitism in France more to a general disintegration of the republic’s values than to the impact of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Non-Existent Manuscript: A Study of the Protocols of the Sages of Zion. By Cesare G. De Michelis; translated by Richard Newhouse. University of Nebraska Press for the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, 2004, 419 pp.

In the introduction to the revised, expanded English edition of the manuscript originally published as Il manoscritto inesistente: I “Protocolli dei savi di Sion”: un apocrifo del XX secolo (1998), De Michelis makes clear that his aim is not to relate the myth of the ‘Jewish plot’, or to trace the origins, history or diffusion of this forgery, but to deal with one element only, the text itself. Thus, this book is a study of the linguistic characteristics, nature of construction and modalities of tradition of the original text and subsequent editions (1903−17). To facilitate a linguistic analysis, De Michelis devotes 213 pages to a scientifically restored version of the ‘Protocols’ in Russian. The target readers are scholars who work in this field.

Publications Received

Aly, Gotz, Im Tunnel: das kurze Leben der Marion Samuel 1931-1943. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 2004.

Aronson, Shlomo, Hitler, the Allies and the Jews. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Ben-Moshe, Danny, Holocaust denial in Australia. Jerusalem: Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, 2005.

Bleier, Inge J., Inge: a girl’s journey through Nazi Europe. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2004.

Butler, Judith, Precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence. London: Verso, 2004.

Davison, Carol Margaret, Gothic Cabala: the antisemitic spectropoetics of British Gothic literature. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Dissertation Services, 2004.

Eizenstat, Stuart, Imperfect justice: Looted assets, slave labor and the unfinished business of World War II. New York: Public Affairs, 2004.

Frei, Norbert, 1945 und wir: das Dritte Reich im Bewusstsein der Deutschen, Munchen: C.H. Beck, 2005.

Geller, Jay Howard, Jews in post-Holocaust Germany. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005.

Gotz, Aly, Hitler’s Volksstaat: Raub, Rassenkrieg und Nationaler Sozialismus.  Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 2005.

Gutterman, Bella and Shalev, Avner, Editors, Holocaust remembrance at Yad Vashem, translation: IBRT. Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 2005.

Hutton, Margaret-Anne, Testimony from the Nazi camps: French women’s voices, London; New York: Routlege, 2005.

Kotek, Joel, Antisemitism in caricatures, Jerusalem: Institute of the World Jewish Congress, 2005.

Kuhlke, Olaf, German identity in the New Berlin republic: body, nation and place. Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press, 2005.

Kuntz, Dieter, Editor, Deadly medicine: creating the master race. Chapel Hill, NC: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2004.

Lang, Berel, Post-Holocaust: interpretation, misinterpretation and the claims of history. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.

Leff, Laurel, Buried the Times: the Holocaust and America’s most important newspaper. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Levenson, Alan T., Between philosemitism and antisemitism: defenses of Jews and Judaism in Germany, 1871-1932. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.

Orban, Katalin, Ethical diversions: the post-Holocaust narratives of Pynchon, Abish, DeLillo and Spiegelman. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Pelle, Janos, Sowing the seeds of hatred: anti-Jewish laws and Hungarian public opinion, 1938-1944. Boulder: East European Monographs: New York: Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2004.

Rees, Laurence, Auschwitz: a new history. New York: Public Affairs, 2005.

Rose, Jacqueline, The question of Zion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Rubin, Arnon, Against all odds: Facing Holocaust; My personal recollections. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University Press, 2005.

Shavit, Zohar, Past without shadow: constructing the past in German books for children. New York, London: Routledge, 2005.

Wistrich, Robert S., Antisemitism in Western Europe at the turn of the 21^st century. Jerusalem: Institute of the World Jewish Congress, 2005.