Indiana University Press blog

Podcast: Susan Zuccotti discusses Pere Marie Benoit and Jewish Rescue

On this episode of the IU Press podcast, I speak with historian Susan Zuccotti. She is a two-time National Jewish Book Award-winner and author of four previous books on Holocaust history. In her latest book, Père Marie-Benoît and Jewish Rescue, she examines the life of a French priest who helped save many Jews during World War II. We discuss this remarkable man who became known as the “Father of the Jews” on the show.

Enter our Goodreads book giveaways!

We're currently hosting two giveaways on Goodreads! If you're a member, enter today for a chance to win advance reading copies of these books:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Pere Marie-Benoit and Jewish Rescue

by Susan Zuccotti

Giveaway ends May 22, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

  Enter to win

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The House at Ujazdowskie 16

by Karen Auerbach

Giveaway ends May 22, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

  Enter to win

Book review: The Shoah in Ukraine

"Thanks to its rich documentation and clearly written, nuanced contributions, The Shoah in Ukraine is an innovative and interdisciplinary contribution that serves as an essential step in that direction by drawing on history, memory studies, and political science." —German Studies Review

Book reviews: Demonizing the Jews

"Probst provides us with a detailed exegesis of each of his sources, which taken together thoughtfully challenge the supposed discontinuity between premodern anti-Judaism and modern antisemitism." —H-Judaic

"Christopher Probst has written an insightful analysis of the ways in which Protestant reformer Martin Luther’s anti-Jewish writings were used by German Protestants during the Third Reich." —Contemporary Church History Quarterly

Three IUP books reviewed in The Jewish Eye

The following IUP books were reviewed in The Jewish Eye:

Shatterzone of Empires

"Shatterzone of Empires is essential reading for students of European history and Imperial Studies, of Jewish and minority history, as well as those interested in war studies. Each essay is self-contained, giving you the option of reading the essays in order, or you can skip around reading any topic that strike your interest."

Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp

"Filled with relevant illustrations and detailed notes, Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp is an indispensable guide to Auschwitz and all that is has come to represent. It is an important contribution to the body of work on the Holocaust, and a copy of this book should be added to every public and private library. The text can be used as the foundation for classes on the Holocaust, or as a supplemental text in any class, high school level and beyond, dealing with World War II, genocide studies, or Jewish studies."

Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary

"New and up-to-date, the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary, edited by Solon Beinfeld and Harry Bochner, is a must-have book for both students of Yiddish and fluent Yiddish speakers and writers ... This essential reference book begins with an invaluable user's guide that not only introduces readers to the Yiddish alphabet, but also provides a detailed guide on how to use this dictionary and the information it provides within the entries."

Holocaust encyclopedias in the news during Days of Remembrance

Our Holocaust encyclopedias have received a great deal of coverage during this week's Days of Remembrance, the nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust. Encyclopedia editors Geoffrey Megargee and Martin Dean were interviewed by the following media outlets:

National Geographic

The article discusses the criteria for a site being included in the encylcopedia and why it was important to document even the smaller places. "This is giving recognition to all of the thousands of places where people suffered and died," says Martin, "that would otherwise fade from people's consciousness."

The New York Jewish Week

In this Q&A, Megargee and Dean talk about their research documenting the 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, which is a far greater number than previously thought. "There is a certain amount of pushback going on, with people saying there were not really that many camps," said Megargee.

International Business Times

The article discusses how the encyclopedias redraw the entire map of atrocities committed by the Third Reich. Dean tells the IBT, "To document this on a map and see how the Holocaust affected every single community throughout Europe makes quite clear the scope of the Nazi regime's murder campaign."

Learn more about volumes 1 and 2 of The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945 on our website. 

Reading selections for Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. To commemorate this occasion, we offer the following reading selections to further your understanding of the history of the Holocaust:

Anne Frank Unbound
Media, Imagination, Memory
Edited by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Jeffrey Shandler

"Principally the work of senior international scholars in history, literature, Hebraic and Judaic studies, and performance and film studies, and of museum curators, this volume is a major contribution to scholarship regarding Anne Frank's diary and its cultural influence. ... Highly recommended." —Choice

 Read excerpt

 IU Press podcast

Available May 2013
Elie Wiesel
Jewish, Literary, and Moral Perspectives
Edited by Steven T. Katz and Alan Rosen

"[An] illuminating collection of 24 academic essays ... [and a] valuable look back on Wiesel’s heroic authorial career." —Publishers Weekly

 Read excerpt

Available June 2013
Père Marie-Benoît and Jewish Rescue
How a French Priest Together with Jewish Friends Saved Thousands during the Holocaust
Susan Zuccotti

"Who better to rescue from obscurity an Oskar Schindler–like hero than historian Zuccotti? ... This account of the life of Capuchin priest Père Marie-Benoît and his successful efforts to save thousands of Jews offers the perfect amount of detail and context. Relying on archival sources and her own interviews with Marie-Benoît and those he helped to save, Zuccotti’s portrait of the 'Father of the Jews' is as historically important as it is entertaining." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 Read excerpt 

Available June 2013
Resurgent Antisemitism
Global Perspectives
Edited by Alvin H. Rosenfeld

Dating back millennia, antisemitism has been called "the longest hatred." By exploring the sources, goals, and consequences of today's antisemitism and its relationship to the past, this original research contributes to an understanding that could help diminish its appeal and mitigate its harmful effects.

 Read excerpt 

Available in paperback June 2013
The End of the Holocaust
Alvin H. Rosenfeld

"The End of the Holocaust is a model of critical intelligence, restrained in its judgments, never shrill or accusatory in its disagreements, always illuminating in its insights into the motives and achievements of the major Holocaust writers Rosenfeld discusses." —Forward

 Read excerpt

 IU Press podcast

Available July 2013
The House at Ujazdowskie 16
Jewish Families in Warsaw after the Holocaust
Karen Auerbach

In a turn-of-the-century, once elegant building in the center of Warsaw, ten Jewish families atypically began reconstructing their lives after the Holocaust, creating new communities as they sought to distance themselves from the memory of a painful past.

 Read excerpt

Christopher Probst to give lecture at Stonehill College

Demonizing the Jews author Christopher Probst will present Kenneally Lecture at Stonehill College in Easton, MA, Tuesday, March 19. His talk will focus on Protestantism in Nazi Germany and will take place at 7 p.m. at the Martin Institute. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Stonehill College website.

Holocaust encyclopedia editors Geoffrey Megargee and Martin Dean in the news

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum researchers Geoffrey Megargee and Martin Dean have recently been interviewed by The New York Times, The Independent, NBC Nightly News, and The Huffington Post (video below) about their work documenting Nazi camps and ghettos. The New York Times reports, "When the research began in 2000, Dr. Megargee said he expected to find perhaps 7,000 Nazi camps and ghettos, based on postwar estimates. But the numbers kept climbing — first to 11,500, then 20,000, then 30,000, and now 42,500."

The results of this Holocaust research are presented in two of seven planned volumes of The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945. The result of years of work by the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, these encyclopedias describe the universe of camps and ghettos that the Nazis and their allies operated, from Norway to North Africa and from France to Russia. For more information about the encyclopedias, visit our website.

Publishers Weekly reviews 'Père Marie-Benoît and Jewish Rescue' and interviews author

Susan Zuccotti's upcoming biography of French priest Père Marie-Benoît received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. The magazine praised Zuccotti for her work on Père Marie-Benoît and Jewish Rescue and asked, "Who better to rescue from obscurity an Oskar Schindler–like hero than historian Zuccotti?" The review goes on to say that the book is "an intellectual page-turner" written with "the perfect amount of detail and context."

Recently, Publishers Weekly interviewed Zuccotti about her book. She discussed how she discovered Père Marie-Benoît and some surprises she discovered during her research. Read the full interview here.

Père Marie-Benoît and Jewish Rescue will be available this June from IU Press. For more information or to pre-order a copy of the book, visit our website.