A history of Jews in Germany since 1945 : politics, culture, and society /

Before WW II, more than 500,000 Jews lived in Germany; by 1945, the number was closer to 20,000. Most Jews who fled Germany after 1933 could not imagine returning, but many of the over 200,000 displaced persons of Jewish descent living in Germany immediately following the war viewed their living situation as temporary. By 1948, the World Jewish Congress asserted "the determination of the Jewish people never again to settle on the bloodstained soil of Germany." It is therefore no easy feat to explain how and why Germany is once again home to one of the largest Jewish populations in the world. Brenner (Univ. of Munich, Germany; American Univ.) and other renowned scholars created a comprehensive, meticulously researched, and beautifully translated history that does just that. Four chronological sections survey the social, cultural, and political history of Jews in an occupied, divided, and finally unified Germany. The honest, objective narrative addresses the challenges, discord, protests, and scandals that transpired during those periods. Drawbacks to the text include its scant attention to women and a certain degree of repetition across chapters, resulting from this being an edited volume. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers. --John T. Rasel, Cuyahoga Community College