Books & ideas

From Frenchmen to Foreigners

Clifford Rosenberg — 2018-01-11T08:00:00Z

In July 1940, the Vichy government passed a law to overturn naturalizations granted by its predecessor, the liberal Third Republic. Around 15,000 people, including many Jews, were stripped of their nationality between 1940-1944. In her path-breaking study, Claire Zalc shows how this politics of exclusion was implemented.

The Jew with the Gold Coin

Ewa Tartakowsky — 2017-04-24T07:00:00Z

In Poland, one can purchase a strange good luck charm to become rich: the picture of a Jew holding a gold coin. What is the significance of this popular re-appropriation of the figure of the Jew in the context of post-Holocaust Poland? And how conscious are anti-Semitic prejudices in this representation?

The Front National: Still Racist and Xenophobic

Nonna Mayer — 2016-12-22T08:00:00Z

Judging by the opinions of the Front National's members and supporters, no matter what its president says, the party has never stopped being racist and xenophobic. This is clearly shown by the French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights' annual survey.

Walter Benjamin, under the Sign of Saturn

Benjamin Balint — 2014-03-20T09:00:00Z

In a new biography, Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings recount the decisive moments of Walter Benjamin's life – his work on tragic drama and allegory, his friendship with Gershom Scholem and Bertolt Brecht, his flight from Germany in 1933 and subsequent years in Paris –, focusing on his fascination with the messianic meaning of the everyday.

Ghettos: Centers of Jewish Resistance?

Florence Heymann — 2013-04-25T06:44:17Z

Running through this encyclopedic undertaking to map all the Jewish ghettos of World War II are Yad Vashem's contentions that the ghettos did not constitute a prerequisite for the Final Solution and that they were centers of Jewish resistance. What is innovative about this reference work is the huge amount of hitherto little-known documentation from the ex-USSR.

Hunts for Jews and Golden Harvest

Audrey Kichelewski — 2012-03-30T09:54:56Z

Is it possible to be at the same time a victim, a perpetrator, and a bystander of the Holocaust? What were the different attitudes of the Poles toward their Jewish neighbors before, during, and after the massive deportations of 1942? Relying on new sources, three recent books by American and Polish scholars throw new light on questions that are still hotly debated today.

Hitler, the Arabs and the Jews

Nora Benkorich — 2010-10-01T12:34:31Z

While some Arabs supported the Nazi regime for a variety of reasons, others sided with the Allies and rose up against anti-Semitism. Gilbert Achcar's timely book brings new depth to a historiographic field that is still prone to caricatures.

Anti-Semitic beliefs in contemporary Poland

Jean-Yves Potel — 2010-05-13T06:20:00Z

Few academics have taken seriously the contents of the talk and tales that found popular anti-Semitism past and present in Poland. In an arresting book, anthropologist Joanna Tokarska-Bakir retraces the phenomenon back to its roots on the strength of a study of the “blood libels” revolving around Host profanations, child kidnapping and ritual murders. An exploration of the Polish catholic subconscious.

Samuel Beckett in history

Ariel Suhamy — 2008-11-13T08:11:00Z

Waiting for Godot: jewel of absurdist theatre or historical play? Valentin and Pierre Temkine topple the interpretation of this classic play by replacing it within the context of its creation. Their essay is drawing a lot of attention in Germany, despite being written in French, by Frenchmen, about a French play.