After Belsen : Christian Encounters with Holocaust Survivors / Robert Thompson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thompson, Robert, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp).

Judaism--Relations--Christianity.

Judaism.

Christianity and other religions--Judaism.

Christianity and other religions.

Christianity and antisemitism--Germany--History--20th century.

Christianity and antisemitism.

Church work with ex-Nazi concentration camp inmates--Germany.

Church work with ex-Nazi concentration camp inmates.

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

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 277 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Christian Encounters with Holocaust Survivors

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, New York : Cornell University Press, 2026.

Summary:

After Belsen reveals the deeply personal ways in which British and American Christians responded to and were affected by survivors of the Holocaust in the years immediately following the liberation of concentration camps. British and American Christians-men and women, army chaplains and relief workers, government officials and interfaith activists-listened to testimony, confronted postwar issues facing Jews, pioneered the fight against antisemitism, and reapproached their Christian faith as they encountered survivors. At camps like Bergen-Belsen, these encounters forced Christians to confront their long-held beliefs, their complicity, and the meaning of solidarity in the face of atrocity. Using neglected archives, private correspondence of British and American Christians, and interviews with their families, Robert Thompson pieces together stories that complicate the idea of Christian silence. He highlights the emotional and theological impact of direct witness-moments when Christian and Jewish lives intersected amid the devastation. In doing so, he also reveals the previously unheard voices of women relief workers and chaplains who offered care, challenged antisemitism, and began to reformulate their beliefs from the ground up. After Belsen is not only a moving contribution that unites Holocaust studies, religious history, and interfaith reflection but also a vital new perspective on how ordinary people responded to extraordinary horror and how their responses resonate today. Their previously untold human stories demonstrate how lived experience-not just institutional declaration-shaped postwar Christianity.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Introduction: Reapproaching Post-Holocaust Christianity

PART ONE. LIBERATION

1. "Here Was Sacred Ground": Army Chaplains at Liberated Concentration Camps

2. "Witness Me God": Chaplains' Responses to Liberation

PART TWO. RELIEF

3. "To Work with Jews, Not Only for Jews": Alison Wood and the Jewish Relief Unit

4. "A Full-Time Job as a Listener": Beth Clarkson and the Friends Relief Service

PART THREE. OCCUPATION

5. "A True Spirit of Tolerance": Interfaith Relations and Postwar Democracy

6. "The Bankruptcy of Christian Theology": Franklin Littell and the Challenge to Antisemitism

PART FOUR. EXODUS

7. "He Goes with Us": John Stanley-Grauel and the Journey of the Exodus

Conclusion: From Encounter to Witness

Acknowledgments

Archive Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Other Format:

Print version: Thompson, Robert After Belsen

ISBN:

9781501788024

9781501788017

OCLC:

1597385387