Nazism
Christopher Hitchens’s Jewish ProblemTuesday, May 28, 2013 by Benjamin Kerstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In another highlight from our archives, Benjamin Kerstein inquires into a revered writer's virulent hostility toward Judaism (December 13, 2010).
Leaving the GhettoFriday, February 8, 2013 by Jacob Katz | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
"Was there any possibility," asks Jacob Katz in this 1996 Commentary essay, "that the Jews collectively might have been accepted in Europe on their own terms—that is, as a community, with a religion opposed to Christianity?"
Not Ordinary at AllFriday, January 25, 2013 by Chaya Glasner | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Ban Ki-Moon dedicated this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day to the uncelebrated “ordinary” rescuers of Nazi victims. But Jewish rescuer and survivor Berta Rubinsztejn is anything but ordinary.
Jews and Human Rights In Europe: the Unfulfilled PromiseFriday, December 28, 2012 by Michael Pinto-Duschinsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
While many German war criminals escaped prosecution, the European Court of Human Rights may soon outlaw brit milah across Europe. [Part II of II]
The Twenty-Seventh ManWednesday, November 28, 2012 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On the night of August 12, 1952, a group of Yiddish writers was executed on Joseph Stalin’s orders for the crime of writing while Jewish. The executions were the tragic culmination of the grand romance between Jewish intellectuals and Marxism.
Art and Idolatry in AustriaTuesday, October 30, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Art transforms life through beauty but inspires a possessiveness unlike any other. Collectors tend toward obsession, which overwhelms morality; museums, like the medieval church, wash away sin with exhibitions for the public good.
Adorno, Butler, and the Death of IronyFriday, September 28, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Irony cannot exist in isolation; something is ironic only in relation to a larger pattern of events or behavior. Every three years, the city of Frankfurt awards its Adorno Prize to honor scholarly achievement in philosophy, music, film, and theater.
Lambs to the SlaughterWednesday, August 22, 2012 by Ben Cohen | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Last week, the normally cautious Jewish community of Amsterdam took the unusual step of describing a member of the Dutch parliament as a "serious danger to Jews in the Netherlands and consequently Europe as a whole."
Through Night and FogMonday, August 20, 2012 by Eitan Kensky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
My father and I visited Auschwitz for the first time this summer. It was toward the end of a long trip to Eastern Europe. We had already gone to the killing fields and forests of Lithuania, and to Warsaw, where my father broke down . . .
Holocaust Reparations: The Back StoryMonday, August 13, 2012 by Michael Pinto-Duschinsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On July 10th, dignitaries from the U.S., German, and Israeli governments attended a curious ceremony at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
Editors' Picks
"I Was a Nazi, and Here's Why" Helen Epstein, New Yorker. In 1963, Melita Maschmann published a memoir of her Nazi youth. Fifty years later, she is remembered by her best childhood friend—and first victim.
Eichmann's Jews Anton Pelinka, H-Net. A new history of the Viennese Jews forced to co-operate with Adolf Eichmann argues that Benjamin Murmelstein, long vilified as collaborator, tried to save Jewish lives wherever possible.
Underestimating the Holocaust Eric Lichtblau, New York Times. New research has revealed that the number of Nazi camps and ghettos was six times greater than previous estimates—too many to have remained invisible to the German people.
Educating Adolf Felix Bohr, Spiegel. Biographers of Hitler have long pondered what transformed him from a struggling artist into a demagogue. A new book claims that the key lies in his military service after World War I.
Hitler's Philosophers Richard J. Evans, Times Higher Education. The idea that German philosophers were to blame for the rise of Nazism has long been discredited. A new attempt to revive the theory fails to convince.
Metropolis of Death Robert Eaglestone, Times Higher Education. Historian Otto Dov Kulka has always separated his research on the Holocaust from his own experience at Auschwitz. But his latest book combines the two—to extraordinary effect.
Obedient Belgium Cnaan Lipshiz, JTA. While Madeleine Cornet, sister of collaborator Leon Degrelle, sheltered Jews, Belgian officials willingly complied with the Nazis. But it has taken 70 years for the country to admit it.
The Other Kindertransport Sarah Wildman, Forward. We know about the thousands of Jewish children sheltered in wartime Britain. For 75 years, though, no one knew about the smaller group ferried to Denmark, Sweden, and Palestine.
Holocaust Tourism Wolfgang Höbel, Spiegel. Tuvia Tenenbom’s raucous but disturbing travelogue of modern Germany, rife with accusations of anti-Semitism, shocked the country’s press last year. Now it has been translated into German.
One Family at a Time David Crossland, Spiegel. The International Tracing Service has helped Holocaust survivors find their families since 1946. But now its records are open for research on larger questions of the Holocaust.