On the Margins Essays on the History of Jews in Estonia / Anton Weiss-Wendt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weiss-Wendt, Anton, 1973- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Estonia.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

Jews--Estonia--History.

Jews.

Estonia--Ethnic relations.

Estonia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (314 pages) : illustrations, tables

Place of Publication:

Budapest, Hungary ; New York, New York : Central European University Press, 2017.

Summary:

Estonia is perhaps the only country in Europe that lacks a comprehensive history of its Jewish minority. Spanning over 150 years of Estonian Jewish history, "On the Margins" is a truly unique book. Rebuilding a life beyond so-called Pale of Jewish Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Jewish cultural autonomy in interwar Estonia, and the trauma of Soviet occupation of 1940–41 are among the issues addressed in the book but most profoundly, the book wrestles with the subject of the Holocaust and its legacy in Estonia. Specifically, it examines the quasi-legal system of murder instituted in Nazi-occupied Estonia, confiscation of Jewish property, and Jewish forced labor camps and develops an analysis of the causes of collaboration during the Holocaust. The book also explores the dynamics of war crimes trials in the Soviet Union since the 1960s and so-called denaturalization trials in the United States in the 1980s. The haunting memory of Soviet and Nazi rule, the book concludes, prevents a larger segment of today’s Estonian population from facing up to the Holocaust and the universal message that it carries.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Preface

Studying Estonian Jewish History: A Professional and Personal Journey

CHAPTER 1 New in Town: Jews in Narva, 1874–1917

CHAPTER 2 Thanks to the Germans! Jewish Cultural Autonomy in Interwar Estonia

CHAPTER 3 The Soviet Occupation of Estonia in 1940–41 and the Jews

CHAPTER 4 Accidentally Jewish: Helmut Weiss and the (Il)logic of Political Violence in Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia

CHAPTER 5 Ordinary People Facing Holocaust: The Estonian Security Police Investigation Files, 1941–42

CHAPTER 6 The End Complete: The Destruction of Jews in Provincial Cities

CHAPTER 7 The Business of Survival: Baltic Oil Ltd. and Jewish Forced Labor Camps in Estonia

CHAPTER 8 Estonian Perpetrators of the Holocaust in the Annals of the Cold War: The Prosecution of War Criminals in the Soviet Union, 1943–1987

CHAPTER 9 Why the Holocaust Does Not Matter to Estonians

Appendix: Primary Sources on Estonian Jewish History until 1941

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-003-72112-5

963-386-166-7

9781003721123

OCLC:

986885837