In this provocative work, Alvin H. Rosenfeld contends that the proliferation of books, films, television programs, museums, and public commemorations related to the Holocaust has, perversely, brought about a diminution of its meaning and a denigration of its memory. Investigating a wide range of events and cultural phenomena, such as Ronald Reagan's 1985 visit to the German cemetery at Bitburg, the distortions of Anne Frank's story, and the ways in which the Holocaust has been depicted by such artists and filmmakers as Judy Chicago and Steven Spielberg, Rosenfeld charts the cultural forces that have minimized the Holocaust in popular perceptions. He contrasts these with sobering representations by Holocaust witnesses such as Jean Améry, Primo Levi, Elie Wiesel, and Imre Kertész. The book concludes with a powerful warning about the possible consequences of "the end of the Holocaust" in public consciousness.

The present volume is being published on the sixty-ninth anniversary of the Farhūd, the pogrom committed by religious and nationalist Arabs against the Jews of Iraq on the Jewish holiday of Pentecost (Shavu‘ot), 1–2 June 1941. The Hebrew edition of this book was published in 1992 by the Research Institute of Babylonian Jewry in Or Yehuda, Israel . This volume is a revised version of the Hebrew edition. The title consists of papers on the pogrom and on the events leading up to it which were originally published in English, others which were written in Hebrew and now appear in English for the first time, and documents which have not been previously published, including an updated list of the names of victims of the Farhūd and a map indicating the places in Baghdad where rioters attacked Jews. This book thus provides the English reader with comprehensive and updated information on the Farhūd and constitutes a memorial to the innocent victims killed during these pogroms and whose only crime was that they were Jews.

« Le Retour de la question juive ? » D’entrée de jeu, un problème. S’agit-il de la « question » juive ou du « fait » juif ? Au fil des textes qui compoent ce volume de Perspectives, la réflexion oscille entre ces options et relance l’interrogation. Mais pour ce qui est du « retour », autre élément de notre titre, aucun doute, le sujet revient, redevient d’actualité. Mais sous quelles formes ? Des penseurs venus des horizons intellectuels les plus divers (philosophes, historiens, politologues ou psychanalystes) se sont penchés sur ce retour de la question juive. Question “éternelle”, comme le dit la carte postale qui orne la couverture de ce nouveau numéro de Perspectives, mais aussi, hélas, contemporaine.

This unique volume, which is sure to engage the attention of both scholars and the general public, is an unparalleled cross-generational and international dialogue among eminent historians about three central aspects of the unfathomable enigma of the Holocaust. In the first section, beyond a seminal overview of sixty years of research, the writers reflect on historiography and historical thought ranging from contemporaries of the Third Reich to the ongoing discussion about the controversial role post-war West German historians played in Holocaust research. This is followed by a section focusing on social antisemitism until the 1950s and the German public’s awareness of the Holocaust, including the posture of the German Resistance Movement. The third major theme is the Jewish society, from its initial attempts to develop new forms of societal life under the Nazi regime until the brink of annihilation during the mass deportation from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka. The concluding chapter sheds light on the unresolved tension between reflective personal memory and impersonal historical research of this dark period in human history.

The twenty-one studies on the Jews of Old Poland here collected explore many hitherto uncharted aspects of Jewish life and experience in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Crucial questions such as relations between the Catholic Church and the Jews, Jewish politics, antisemitism and Jewish settlement are examined using the integrative and comparative approaches championed by Jacob Goldberg, to whom the volume is dedicated.

There were Jews in Spain for almost a thousand and five hundred years. The book depicts the last chapter of Jewish life in Spain, which ended with their expulsion at the end of the 15th century. The book begins with analyzing the expulsion order, and continues with what happened to their belongings, how were the belongings taken away, cancellation of the Jewish-Christian credit, the exit from Spain, smuggling belongings out of Spain. It ends with returning to the original cities. Beinart adds information about Senior and Abarbanel houses, their description shows the abuse the expelled Jews suffered.

Malcolm Hay, a Scottish Catholic, witnessed the hatred against the Jews and decided to look for the root of anti-semitism within Christianity. The Catholic author chronicles the appalling and brutal experiences of Jews through the centuries at the hand of professing Christians. Then in a startling and shocking manner directly compares them to their experiences at the hand of the Nazis, and then the Germans, the French and the British in the 20th century. He of course does not equate the first party with the last three, but he spares none from sifting criticism.