Bitter Reckoning: Israel Tries Holocaust Survivors as Nazi Collaborators by Dan

Description: Bitter Reckoning by Dan Porat Digging into newly declassified archives, Dan Porat unearths the story of Jews prosecuted by the State of Israel for Nazi collaboration. Over time courts and the public came to see Jewish ghetto administrators or kapos as tragic figures. Rigorous yet humane, Porat invites us to rethink ideas about victimhood, justice, and collective memory. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Beginning in 1950, the state of Israel prosecuted and jailed dozens of Holocaust survivors who had served as camp kapos or ghetto police under the Nazis. At last comes the first full account of the kapo trials, based on records newly declassified after forty years.In December 1945, a Polish-born commuter on a Tel Aviv bus recognized a fellow rider as the former head of a town council the Nazis had established to manage the Jews. When he denounced the man as a collaborator, the rider leapt off the bus, pursued by passengers intent on beating him to death. Five years later, to address ongoing tensions within Holocaust survivor communities, the State of Israel instituted the criminal prosecution of Jews who had served as ghetto administrators or kapos in concentration camps.Dan Porat brings to light more than three dozen little-known trials, held over the following two decades, of survivors charged with Nazi collaboration. Scouring police investigation files and trial records, he found accounts of Jewish policemen and camp functionaries who harassed, beat, robbed, and even murdered their brethren. But as the trials exposed the tragic experiences of the kapos, over time the courts and the public shifted from seeing them as evil collaborators to victims themselves, and the fervor to prosecute them abated.Porat shows how these trials changed Israels understanding of the Holocaust and explores how the suppression of the trial records-long classified by the state-affected history and memory. Sensitive to the devastating options confronting those who chose to collaborate, yet rigorous in its analysis, Bitter Reckoning invites us to rethink our ideas of complicity and justice and to consider what it means to be a victim in extraordinary circumstances. Author Biography Dan Porat is the author of The Boy: A Holocaust Story, which the New York Times called "a gripping, harrowing Holocaust story" and Elie Wiesel praised as "a poignant and riveting investigation." Porat is a teacher and researcher at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Review The largely forgotten history of these trials has pivotal importance for our changing sense of what it meant to be a Jew during the Holocaust, as Dan Porat makes clear in his insightful, eloquently written new book. -- David Mikics * Tablet *In this revelatory and at times astonishing book, the historian Dan Porat analyses the hitherto inaccessible transcripts of 40 kapo trials that were held in Israel over the course of two decades…And yet, 40 years later, only the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, chief Nazi architect of the Final Solution, is ever discussed. Bitter Reckoning interrogates this cultural amnesia and asks why it is that Israel no longer calls to account the actions of Jewish functionaries within the camps. -- Giulia Miller * Times Higher Education *Porat raises profound moral questions about complicity, justice and victimhood. Bitter Reckoning makes an important, and perhaps pivotal, contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust. Porat documents the changing views of Israelis about alleged collaborators. -- Glenn C. Altschuler * Jerusalem Post *Masterful…The real beauty of this book is how Israeli society gradually came to different conclusions as to the guilt or complicity of those standing trial, choosing, ultimately, not to stand-in judgment over men and women in impossible situations…An essential guide to understanding the torments of the young state of Israel and, in the process, adds to our sum of knowledge about the Holocaust. -- Jenni Frazer * Jewish Chronicle *Porats writing is smooth and deliberate, delivered with integrity. His analysis of prosecutor and judicial motivations, especially within the trial records kept by judges and justices, is masterful…The extensive research by Porat lends considerable weight to why the Israeli criminal justice system was a poor choice as a vehicle of justice in this circumstance. -- Charles S. Weinblatt * New York Journal of Books *Gripping…Porat puts these trials into a broader framework, analyzing the changes in Israeli attitudes to Shoah survivors over the years. -- Martin Lockshin * Canadian Jewish News *A superb, meticulously researched work of historical empathy. The fullest, most intelligent exploration Ive read of what Primo Levi termed the gray zone, and the improbability of moral, let alone legal, clarity for those found to have been inside of it. -- Steven J. Zipperstein, author of PogromIn this riveting book Dan Porat offers a new and stunning perspective on Israels tormented encounter with the legacy of the Holocaust and some of its survivors. It is not necessary to share Porats opinions in order to respect his intellectual integrity, compassion, and masterly writing. -- Tom Segev, author of A State at Any CostPorats account of Israels kapo trials offers the first general history of these largely forgotten proceedings. He offers a persuasive, well-researched, and cogent history of the trials, situated in the context of postwar Jewish and Israeli life. -- Devin Pendas, author of The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963–1965Skillfully weaving together courtroom drama with the politics, press, and public opinion of the time, Porat takes us to the gray area between perpetrator and victim and leaves us with a wealth of knowledge, important insights, and much to think about. -- Joshua Schoffman, former Deputy Attorney General, Israeli Ministry of JusticeA fascinating account of an important episode in Israeli history and post-Holocaust justice. Porat provides a lucid and well-documented reconstruction and analysis of the political arguments and evolution of judicial practice over three decades. -- Omer Bartov, author of Anatomy of a GenocideAn exploration of Holocaust survivors who collaborated with the Nazis…Fills in some gaps in the Holocaust literature. * Kirkus Reviews *Porats analysis of the Kapo trials in Israel between 1950 and 1972 is critical for scholars interested in Holocaust justice, Jewish Holocaust testimony, and myths of postwar silence concerning the Holocaust. -- Norman J. W. Goda * Holocaust and Genocide Studies * Review Quote The largely forgotten history of these trials has pivotal importance for our changing sense of what it meant to be a Jew during the Holocaust, as Dan Porat makes clear in his insightful, eloquently written new book. Details ISBN0674988140 Author Dan Porat Year 2019 ISBN-10 0674988140 ISBN-13 9780674988149 Format Hardcover Subtitle Israel Tries Holocaust Survivors as Nazi Collaborators Country of Publication United States Illustrations 14 photos Publisher Harvard University Press DEWEY 940.5318 Short Title Bitter Reckoning Language English UK Release Date 2019-10-15 AU Release Date 2019-10-15 NZ Release Date 2019-10-15 Pages 288 Imprint Harvard University Press Place of Publication Cambridge, Mass Audience Professional & Vocational Publication Date 2019-10-15 US Release Date 2019-10-15 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:161736378;

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