Review by Choice Review
Prior to WW II, different political and cultural pressures imposed on young Jews in eastern Poland and the western Soviet Union affected how they lived their Jewishness. In Vitebsk, Belarus, for instance, Soviet policies encouraged social advancement, but at the cost of marginalizing one's Jewish identity. In Polish Grodno, politics of exclusion and anti-Semitism pushed young Jews to reassert their identity in groups that provided family-like ties. These different systems impacted youths' reactions to the intensifying policies of mass murder, their social and ideological leanings, and, after Germany's 1941 attack on the Soviet Union, their coping strategies as they adjusted to harsh living conditions. Koerber (Chapman Univ.) provides a fascinating comparison of a generation of young Jews living under two different political systems, crushed by the Nazi exterminatory machine. Drawing on a broad set of sources across six languages, he depicts how Jewish survival strategies, even in geographic proximity, differed drastically depending on cultural and political prewar contexts. Impeccably researched and based on engaging personal accounts, the study contributes to a transnational understanding of Jewish responses to persecutions, delivering invaluable insights into an underresearched geographic region in Holocaust scholarship. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. --Monika Rice, Gratz College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
