Jews, Germans, and Allies : Close Encounters in Occupied Germany / Atina Grossmann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grossmann, Atina, author.

Series:

ACLS Fellows' Publications.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Germany--Politics and government--20th century.

Jews.

Holocaust survivors--Germany--History--20th century.

Holocaust survivors.

Jews--Germany--History--1945-1990.

Germany--Ethnic relations.

Germany.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (414 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Other Title:

Close encounters in occupied Germany

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2009]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, more than a quarter million Jewish survivors of the Holocaust lived among their defeated persecutors in the chaotic society of Allied-occupied Germany. Jews, Germans, and Allies draws upon the wealth of diary and memoir literature by the people who lived through postwar reconstruction to trace the conflicting ways Jews and Germans defined their own victimization and survival, comprehended the trauma of war and genocide, and struggled to rebuild their lives. In gripping and unforgettable detail, Atina Grossmann describes Berlin in the days following Germany's surrender--the mass rape of German women by the Red Army, the liberated slave laborers and homecoming soldiers, returning political exiles, Jews emerging from hiding, and ethnic German refugees fleeing the East. She chronicles the hunger, disease, and homelessness, the fraternization with Allied occupiers, and the complexities of navigating a world where the commonplace mingled with the horrific. Grossmann untangles the stories of Jewish survivors inside and outside the displaced-persons camps of the American zone as they built families and reconstructed identities while awaiting emigration to Palestine or the United States. She examines how Germans and Jews interacted and competed for Allied favor, benefits, and victim status, and how they sought to restore normality--in work, in their relationships, and in their everyday encounters. Jews, Germans, and Allies shows how Jews were integral participants in postwar Germany and bridges the divide that still exists today between German history and Jewish studies.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface: Where Is Feldafing?

Abbreviations

INTRODUCTION. Entangled Histories and Close Encounters

CHAPTER ONE. "Poor Germany": Berlin and the Occupation

CHAPTER TWO. Gendered Defeat: Rape, Motherhood, and Fraternization

CHAPTER THREE. "The survivors were few and the dead were many": Jews in Occupied Berlin

CHAPTER FOUR. The Saved and Saving Remnant: Jewish Displaced Persons in the American Zone

CHAPTER FIVE. Mir Zaynen Do: Sex, Work, and the DP Baby Boom

CHAPTER SIX. Conclusion: The "Interregnum" Ends

Abbreviations in Notes

Notes

Select Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [359]-367) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781400832743

1400832748

OCLC:

880409298