Years of glory : Nelly Benatar and the pursuit of justice in wartime North Africa / Susan Gilson Miller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miller, Susan Gilson, author.

Series:

Worlding the Middle East.

Worlding the Middle East Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cazès-Benathar, Hélène, 1898-1979.

Cazès-Benathar, Hélène.

Women lawyers--Morocco--Casablanca--Biography.

Women lawyers.

Jewish lawyers--Morocco--Casablanca--Biography.

Jewish lawyers.

Lawyers--Morocco--Casablanca--Biography.

Lawyers.

World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Morocco--Casablanca.

World War, 1939-1945.

Jewish refugees--Morocco--History--20th century.

Jewish refugees.

World War, 1939-1945--Refugees--Morocco.

Humanitarian aid workers--Africa, North--Biography.

Humanitarian aid workers.

Humanitarian assistance--Africa, North--History--20th century.

Humanitarian assistance.

Anti-Nazi movement--Africa, North.

Anti-Nazi movement.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (248 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

The compelling true story of Nelly Benatar—a hero of the anti-Fascist North African resistance and humanitarian who changed the course of history for the "last million" escaping the Second World War. When France fell to Hitler's armies in June 1940, a flood of refugees fleeing Nazi terror quickly overwhelmed Europe's borders and spilled across the Mediterranean to North Africa, touching off a humanitarian crisis of dizzying proportions. Nelly Benatar, a highly regarded Casablancan Jewish lawyer, quickly claimed a role of rescuer and almost single-handedly organized a sweeping program of wartime refugee relief. But for all her remarkable achievements, Benatar's story has never been told. With this book, Susan Gilson Miller introduces readers to a woman who fought injustice as an anti-Fascist resistant, advocate for refugee rights, liberator of Vichy-run forced labor camps, and legal counselor to hundreds of Holocaust survivors. Miller crafts a gripping biography that spins a tale like a Hollywood thriller, yet finds its truth in archives gathered across Europe, North Africa, Israel, and the United States and from Benatar's personal collection of eighteen thousand documents now housed in the US Holocaust Museum. Years of Glory offers a rich narrative and a deeper understanding of the complex currents that shaped Jewish, North African, and world history over the course of the Second World War. The traumas of genocide, the struggle for anti-colonial liberation, and the eventual Jewish exodus from Arab lands all take on new meaning when reflected through the interstices of Benatar's life. A courageous woman with a deep moral conscience and an iron will, Nelly Benatar helped to lay the groundwork for crucial postwar efforts to build a better world over Europe's ashes.

Contents:

The early years

1939: The undesirables

1940: Refugees and resistance

1941: The Casablanca connection

1942: Stateless Morocco

1943: Liberating the camps

1944: The right to have rights

1945: The shock of recognition

After the war.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 10. Jan 2022)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781503629691

1503629694

OCLC:

1268483416