Dance on the razor's edge : crime and punishment in the Nazi ghettos / Svenja Bethke ; translated by Sharon Howe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bethke, Svenja, author.

Contributor:

Howe, Sharon, translator.

Series:

German and European studies ; 39.

German and European studies ; 39

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Warsaw.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

Lithuania--Vilnius.

Poland--Łódź.

Poland--Warsaw.

Litzmannstadt-Getto (Łódź, Poland).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (304 pages).

Place of Publication:

Toronto ; Buffalo ; London : University of Toronto Press, [2021]

Summary:

The ghettos established by the Nazis in German-occupied Eastern Europe during the Second World War have mainly been seen as lawless spaces marked by brutality, tyranny, and the systematic murder of the Jewish population. Drawing on examples from the Warsaw, Lodz, and Vilna ghettos, Dance on the Razor’s Edge explores how under these circumstances highly improvised legal spheres emerged in these coerced and heterogeneous ghetto communities. Looking at sources from multiple archives and countries, this book investigates how the Jewish Councils, set up on German orders, formulated new definitions of criminal offenses and established legal institutions on their own initiative as a desperate attempt to ensure the survival of the ghetto communities. Bethke explores how people under these circumstances tried to make sense of everyday lives that had been turned upside down, taking with them pre-war notions of justice and morality, and considers the extent to which this rupture led to new judgments on human behaviour. In doing so, this book aims to understand how people attempted to use their very limited scope for action in order to survive. Set against the background of a Holocaust historiography that often still seeks for clear categories of "good" and "bad" behaviour, Dance on the Razor’s Edge calls for a new understanding of the ghettos as complex communities in an unprecedented emergency situation.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments Note on Names and Places

Note on Names and Places

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter One Nazi Jewish Policy in Eastern Europe and the Perspective of the Jewish Councils

Chapter Three The Jewish Police as an Executive Organ

Chapter Four The Ghetto Courts

Chapter Five The Ghetto Penal System

Chapter Six Ordinary Ghetto Residents and Their Relationship with Internal and External Authorities

Conclusion Criminality and Law between the Poles of External Power and Internal Autonomy

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4875-3117-6

1-4875-3116-8

OCLC:

1204664025