Posts com a Tag ‘TOTTEN Samuel (Res)’
The Black Book of Bosnia: The Consequences of Appeasement – MOUSAVIZADEH (CSS)
MOUSAVIZADEH, Nader. The Black Book of Bosnia: The Consequences of Appeasement. New York: Basic Books, 1996. 219p. Resenha de: TOTTEN, Samuel. Canadian Social Studies, v.35, n.2, 2001.
The Black Book of Bosnia is comprised of four parts: The Legacy of the Balkans which explores the history of ethnic strife and ethnic sanity in the Balkans, exposing the myth of eternal conflict and explaining the origins of this particular conflict (xii); A People Destroyed which highlights the accounts of hatred, sorrow, and the despair of the ordinary men and women engulfed in the war (xiii); Indecision and Impotence which analyzes the conflict in strategic and political terms ( xiii); and, The Abdication of the West which is comprised of a series of editorials and basically constitutes a call for action and a chronology of outrage (xiii). Each of these book reviews and articles appeared in The New Republic magazine between October 1991 and October 1995.
While the essays and book reviews in Part I are relatively long (between eight and a half to seventeen pages) and detailed, the articles in the rest of the volume are shorter in length (an average of about 3 pages). The former are ideal for homework assignments, while the latter could be read and discussed during a single class period.
The book is packed with revelatory information. In addition to the history of the Balkans, the many topics addressed include the formation and dissolution of Yugoslavia; the background, beliefs and relationships of the major players (Serbs, Muslims, and Croats) in the area; the multifaceted nature of the current strife; the various ethnic cleansings and genocidal actions and who committed them; and the inaction of and appeasement by the Western powers. A host of personal stories also provide powerful insights into various aspects of the conflict. For example, when a Muslim man, whose girlfriend is a Croat, was informed by an American reporter that it was dubious as to whether the U.S. would come to Bosnia’s rescue, the young man said, Maybe we should discover oil (73). Speaking about the fact that the West allowed tens of thousands of Muslims to be killed by the Serbs, a former prisoner of the Serbs said, If 100, 000 animals of some special breed were being slaughtered like this, there would have been more of a reaction (85). Such insights should resonate with most students.
The major drawback of the volume is the limited attention given to the various and horrendous human rights violations committed by the Muslims and Croats. The main focus, by far, is on the intentions and actions of the Serbs. However, as scholar Steven L. Burg (1997) notes: Croat forces carried out expulsions, internment, killing and atrocities against Muslim civilians who were victimized because they were Muslims (430) and, Muslim forces committed violations similar to those of the Croats during the period of the Croat-Muslim war of 1993. There is also evidence of persistent abuses of Serb civilians (430). Thus, teachers using this volume will need to seek out newspaper articles, essays, and first-person accounts that do not flinch from the fact that the Croats and Muslims were not altogether guiltless vis–vis such concerns. Teachers will also need to obtain information about the on-going folly of bringing the perpetrators of genocide to justice.
Notes
Steven L. Burg. 1997. Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina? in Samuel Totten, William S. Parsons, and Israel W. Charney (eds). Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Views. New York: Garland Publishers, P 424-433.
Samuel Totten – University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
[IF]The Holocaust: A German Historian Examines the Genocide – BENZ (CSS)
BENZ, Wolfgang. The Holocaust: A German Historian Examines the Genocide. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 186.p. Translator Jane Sydenham-Kwiet. Resenha de: TOTTEN, Samuel. Canadian Social Studies, v.35, n.3, 2001.
In his foreword, Arthur Hertzberg asserts that Benz’s book is the first written by a German scholar of the younger generation to this story with exactness and absolute candor (p. ix). I cannot attest to the accuracy of that statement, but I do agree that the book pulls no punches, is well written, and is thorough in its presentation.
The book is comprised of twelve relatively short chapters that address a host of critical issues including: The Wannsee Conference; Jewish Emigration, 1933-1941; Massacre in the East (Einsatzgruppen and Other Killing Units in the Occupied Territories, 1941-1942; and, The Other Genocide (The Persecution of the Sinti and Roma).
Throughout the volume Benz drives home a number of points that both curriculum developers and teachers need to understand and convey to students, if the latter are to gain a clear and accurate understanding of the Holocaust. For example, speaking of the Wannsee Conference, Benz correctly states that The total annihilation of the Jews throughout Europe, then, was pronounced as a matter that had long been decided upon, and at least half of those taking part in the discussion had a very clear idea of how the mass murders were being carried out or how they were yet to be executed (pp. 6-7). Far too many curricula used at the secondary level either imply or overtly state that the purpose of the Wannsee Conference was to decide the fate of the Jews; rather, it was used to announce what had already been decided.
As for Kristallnacht, which some secondary school curricula describe as a spontaneous outburst against the Jews in November 1938, Benz correctly reports that
The November pogrom of 1938 was far from a spontaneous outburst: itwas staged by state bodies at the highest level. Via regional (Gau) propaganda offices and from them to the district and local party headquarters or the SA staff throughout the Reich, [action] was called for by telephone, which was in the form of an order. A short time later the first synagogues were burning; everywhere Jewish people were being humiliated, derided, mistreated, plundered (pp. 29-31).
Students frequently ask why the Jews simply did not leave Nazi Germany and the other areas controlled by the Reich when they had a chance, but, as Benz notes, it was not as simple as that:
The Nazi state both pushed for and restricted the emigration of the German Jews at the same time. On the one hand, exclusion from economic life gave impulse to the will to emigrate, on the other hand, the confiscation of assets and the crippling fees limited the possibilities for emigration. No country accepting immigrants is interested in impoverished newcomers (p. 34). [Furthermore,] what awaited the Jews who had fled Germany was an arduous daily existence beset with considerable problems of adjustment, communication barriers, professional decline, financial distress, and feeling of having been uprooted (p. 38).
On a different note, Benz also does a good job of delineating the evolution of the killing process – from the gassing of the mentally and physically handicapped in the late 1930’s, to the actions of the Einsatzgruppen in Poland and the Soviet Union, to the experimentation with the operation of the gas vans beginning in late 1941, and, ultimately, to the gas chambers in the death camps in the 1940’s.
As interesting as the book is, there are numerous places where Benz makes a point but neglects to provide adequate explanatory information. For example, Benz states that In autumn 1943 there were once again, as in the time of the Einsatzgruppen, massacres in which the victims were murdered in shooting operations (p. 140). By that time, of course, the Nazis were killing millions of people in the gas chambers of the death camps, thus the reader naturally wishes to know why the Nazis reverted, at least in certain cases, to shooting operations, again.
Another major drawback of this book is that it does not include footnotes, thus one is not sure where Benz has obtained certain of his facts or whether his assertions are corroborated by the latest research. This is not a little disconcerting for one who wishes to be absolutely certain that a particular point is totally accurate. For example, speaking of Kristallnacht, Benz asserts that more recent research reveals that far more the 1000 synagogues and houses of worship fell victim to the pogrom (p. ?) but he never states who conducted the research, where it was published or when.
It is not a little disconcerting that a book published by Columbia University Press includes so many typographical and spelling errors, including: the use of loose for lose (p. 55); oversees for overseas (p. 71); propoganda for propaganda (p. 72); pires for pyres (p. 99); and tatoo for tattoo (p. 148). Finally, this reviewer came across the following major error: the killing of the disabled had been halted in 1941 (p. 143). In fact, while the Nazis publicly stated that the murder of the disabled was halted, the killing of such individuals continued in secret. As Berenbaum (1993) notes: On August 24, 1941, almost two years after the euthanasia program was initiated, it appeared to cease. In fact, it had gone underground (p. 65). And, as is stated in the United States Holocaust Museum’s (n.d.) pamphlet entitled Handicapped, the ‘euthanasia’ killings continued under a different, decentralized form . In all, between 200,000 and 250,000 mentally and physically handicapped persons were murdered from 1939 to 1945 under the T-4 and other ‘euthanasia’ programs (n.p.).
While I recommend this book to educators (particularly at the secondary and university levels), for it is informative and raises a number of critical issues worthy of serious consideration, I do not recommend it for use with secondary level students. A much more appropriate and useful book for use with secondary students is Michael Berenbaum’s The World Must Know. Not only does the latter provide a much more thorough telling of the Holocaust story, it is even more highly readable than Benz’ book. Additionally, Berenbaum includes a host of photographs, documents, and first-person accounts that contribute to making it an extremely engaging work for young students.
References
Berenbaum, Michael. (1993). The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.) Handicapped. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Samuel Totten – University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
[IF]Uncertain Refuge: Italy and the Jews During the Holocaust – CARACCIOLO (CSS)
CARACCIOLO, Nicola. Uncertain Refuge: Italy and the Jews During the Holocaust. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995. 176p. Resenha de: TOTTEN, Samuel. Canadian Social Studies, v.35, n.1, 2000.
Uncertain Refuge is a fascinating book. Comprised of a series of interviews conducted by Italian journalist Nicola Caracciolo of more than sixty Italian Jewish survivors and some of their rescuers, this book explores the complex and unique way the state of Italy and the Italian people reacted to Nazi pressure to ostracize, isolate, and expel Jews to Nazi-dominated territories. The interviewees talk about how Jews were harassed, denounced, terrorized and, in some cases, saved. The cumulative effect of the interviews provide a telling picture as to why and how in Italy, an ally of Germany, 42,000 of the 50,000 Jews survived the Nazis’ efforts to murder them.
The annotation of the interviews constitutes a particular strength. Such annotations are helpful in assisting readers to gain a clearer and more in-depth understanding of certain personages, events, situations, and organizations. While the book also includes an appendix, “Historical Personnel, Organizations, and Places”, in which the annotations are located, an introduction to each interview establishing the historical context vis-à-vis the information contained therein would have been helpful.
In places Caracciolo has the unfortunate habit of interrupting the interviewees in mid-sentence. Over and above that, he often neglects to bring the interviewee back to the point of interruption, thus losing key information. At times, he also tends to ask two questions at once, and then neglects to answer both. In some instances, he also neglects to ask follow-up questions, thus leaving the reader wondering about certain issues.
All-in-all, though, this is an informative and interesting book on a significant topic. For those teachers who are intent on ‘complicating’ the study of history for their students, this book is a must. It will avail students of the important point that not all countries or people reacted in the same way to the Holocaust; and that, in fact, various circumstances, perspectives and belief systems dictated how governments and individuals acted under varying conditions.
Samuel Totten – University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
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