Indiana University Press blog

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:

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 - Volume II
Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe
Geoffrey P. Megargee, General Editor
Martin Dean, Volume Editor
Introduction by Christopher R. Browning
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Volume II offers a comprehensive account of how the Nazis conducted the Holocaust throughout the scattered towns and villages of Poland and the Soviet Union. It covers more than 1,150 sites, including both open and closed ghettos. This an indispensable reference work on the destroyed Jewish communities of Eastern Europe.

Also available: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 - Volume I
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The End of the Holocaust
Alvin H. Rosenfeld
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"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

Last Folio

Textures of Jewish Life in Slovakia

Yuri Dojc and Katya Krausova

Photographs by Yuri Dojc
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"Books in these photographs . . . are possessed by spirits exorcised through Yuri Dojc's magical eye: as they disintegrate into dust, the camera illuminates how that moment of disintegration is also a moment of immense energy and movement, one last and glorious statement of defiance, resisting both death and oblivion." —Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Who Will Write Our History
Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive
Samuel D. Kassow
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"This may well be the most important book about history that anyone will ever read." —The New Republic

Who Will Write Our History tells the gripping story of Emanuel Ringelblum and his determination to use historical scholarship and the collection of documents to resist Nazi oppression.

The Unknown Black Book
The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories
Edited by Joshua Rubenstein and Ilya Altman
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The Unknown Black Book provides a revelatory compilation of testimonies from Jews who survived open-air massacres and other atrocities carried out by the Germans and their allies in the occupied Soviet territories during World War II.

Author event: Alvin Rosenfeld to speak at the University of Minnesota

The End of the Holocaust author Alvin H. Rosenfeld will speak at the University of Minnesota on Sunday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m. as part of a symposium that will explore the mutation of academic ideals under National Socialism.

This event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required.

For more information, please visit the "Betrayal of the Humanities" homepage.

Book review: The End of the Holocaust

"Although Holocaust denial threatens to undermine the record of Nazi Germany's criminal legacy, Rosenfeld persuasively argues that other forces are inadvertently as dangerous." —Hadassah Magazine

Author event: James E. Young to speak at Syracuse University

Syracuse University will host James E. Young as part of the lecture series "Memory and Commemoration, as Fact or Fiction" Feb. 9 at 6:00 p.m. in the Watson Theater. Artist Shimon Attie will host this event which will focus on themes of art and public commemoration. Young will discuss his own personal experiences with public commemoration and his time as juror for the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit Syracuse's website.

Young is a distinguished university professor of English and Judaic Studies and director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies at UMass Amherst. He is author of Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust.

Reading selections for International Holocaust Remembrance Day

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

The End of the Holocaust
Alvin H. Rosenfeld
Read excerpt

"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

Last Folio

Textures of Jewish Life in Slovakia

Yuri Dojc and Katya Krausova

Photographs by Yuri Dojc
Read excerpt

"Books in these photographs . . . are possessed by spirits exorcised through Yuri Dojc's magical eye: as they disintegrate into dust, the camera illuminates how that moment of disintegration is also a moment of immense energy and movement, one last and glorious statement of defiance, resisting both death and oblivion." —Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Who Will Write Our History
Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive
Samuel D. Kassow
Read excerpt

"This may well be the most important book about history that anyone will ever read." —The New Republic

Who Will Write Our History tells the gripping story of Emanuel Ringelblum and his determination to use historical scholarship and the collection of documents to resist Nazi oppression.

Volume II coming in April 2012
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 - Volume I
Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)
Geoffrey P. Megargee, Editor
Read excerpt

". . . a readable encyclopedia with very up-to-date bibliographical sources. This important reference work belongs on every library bookshelf. . . . Essential." —Choice

This first volume covers three groups of camps: the early camps that the Nazis established in the first year of Hitler's rule, the major SS concentration camps with their constellations of subcamps, and the special camps for Polish and German children and adolescents.

The Unknown Black Book
The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories
Edited by Joshua Rubenstein and Ilya Altman
Read excerpt

The Unknown Black Book provides a revelatory compilation of testimonies from Jews who survived open-air massacres and other atrocities carried out by the Germans and their allies in the occupied Soviet territories during World War II.

Book review: The End of the Holocaust

"[A] stunning reconstruction of the way in which the Holocaust has lost much of its élan vital since 1945 because of diverse pressures which have been brought to bear upon its vulnerable shoulders." —Jewish Post & Opinion

Book review: The End of Holocaust

"The End of the Holocaust is a stunning reconstruction of the way in which that event has lost much of its élan vital since 1945 because of diverse pressures." —Jewish Tribune 

Two IU Press authors receive honorable mentions for ASEEES book prizes

We are pleased to announce that two IU Press authors will receive honorable mention book prizes from the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)! ASEEES will give Sarah Phillips's book Disability and Mobile Citizenship in Postsocialist Ukraine an honorable mention for the Davis Center Book Prize in Political and Social Studies. This prize focuses on outstanding work about Russia, Eurasia, or Eastern Europe with a focus in anthropology, political science, sociology, or geography. 

Bozena Shallcross's book The Holocaust Object in Polish and Polish-Jewish Culture will be presented with an honorable mention for the Kulczycki Book Prize in Polish Studies. This prize celebrates the best book that focuses on on Polish affairs. 

ASEEES will honor the prize winners November 19 during its annual convention in Washington, DC. To learn more about the awards and previous winners, visit the ASEEES website.

Reading selections for Jewish Book Month

In honor of Jewish Book Month, we offer the following reading selections:

A Prophetic Peace
Judaism, Religion, and Politics
Alick Isaacs
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"A timely, highly original, and important work. . . . What renders this book quite unique is its powerful and truly engaging autobiographical setting that lends Isaacs's argument a compelling first person urgency." —Menachem Fisch, author of Rational Rabbis: Science and Talmudic Culture

Today I Am a Woman
Stories of Bat Mitzvah around the World
Edited by Barbara Vinick and Shulamit Reinharz
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"Americans undoubtedly think they know what a bat mitzvah is. Today I Am a Woman will surprise them with its fascinating array of compelling accounts of what it meant for Jewish girls to come of age. The editors scoured the globe to find powerful, varied, and moving depictions of bat mitzvah in the contemporary Jewish world. This is a rich resource for anyone interested in understanding religious diversity, folk practices, and cultural creativity through the lens of gender." —Deborah Dash Moore, co-editor of Women and Gender in Jewish History

The End of the Holocaust
Alvin H. Rosenfeld
Read excerpt

"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

Last Folio

Textures of Jewish Life in Slovakia

Yuri Dojc and Katya Krausova

Photographs by Yuri Dojc
Read excerpt

"Books in these photographs . . . are possessed by spirits exorcised through Yuri Dojc's magical eye: as they disintegrate into dust, the camera illuminates how that moment of disintegration is also a moment of immense energy and movement, one last and glorious statement of defiance, resisting both death and oblivion." —Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Author event: Alvin Rosenfeld to speak about New-Antisemitism at Yale

Alvin Rosenfeld, author of The End of the Holocaust, will speak at Yale University's Whitney Humanities Center Oct. 17 at 4 p.m. The topic of his talk will be “Holocaust Denial and Holocaust Approval: Two Sources of the New Anti-Semitism.” The lecture is co-sponsored by the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism and the Whitney Humanities Center. For more information, visit the center's website.