Monday, July 6, 2015

Summer Reading: Resistance of The Heart - Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany

This is not a book review - rather a quick note to any reader who might be interested -

Last week I read Resistance of The Heart - Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany by Nathan Stoltzfus.  It is not a new book (I purchased it a few years ago, but just got around to reading it now because...life) - but I highly recommend it.  Stoltzfus chronicles the actions of intermarried Aryans and Jews living in Germany during the Shoah.

This book is interesting, disturbing, and thought provoking.  It provides an excellent and well researched account of increasing discrimination against Jews living in Germany before and during the Shoah.  Stoltzfus is thorough yet concise as he examines the persecution of Jews and their Aryan spouses - his methodology is solid and it is very easy to see why this book received such wide recognition.  At the risk of repeating myself, I highly recommend it.

From the coverlet:

The Rosenstrasse Protest was the triumphant climax of ten years of resistance by intermarried couples to Nazi efforts to destroy their families. In fact, ninety-eight percent of German Jews who did not go into hiding and who survived Nazism lived in mixed marriages. Why did Hitler give in to the protesters? Using interviews with survivors and thousands of Nazi records never before examined in detail, Nathan Stoltzfus identifies the power of a special type of resistance-the determination to risk one's own life for the life of loved ones.

Next up: I am reading Aliyah by Eliette Abécassis.  (This book is not available in English).
I have to thank Laura Rosen Cohen for bringing this recently published book to my attention - it is a sort of sequel to Sépharade (un autre roman excellent si vous cherchez un roman à lire...)

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