Ambiguous relations : the American Jewish community and Germany since 1945 /

Shafir edits the Israeli journal Gesher. In this book, he explores the delicate balance maintained by American Jewish leaders regarding America's relationship with Germany since the end of WW II. As Jews, they remained skeptical and vigilant toward West Germany and later, the reunified German state. As patriotic Americans, however, these same Jewish leaders needed to account for US interests during the Cold War. Shafir charts the course of this relationship from early postwar issues (such as the fate of Holocaust survivors and the payment of war reparations) to more recent events such as President Ronald Reagan's controversial visit to the Bitburg Cemetery in 1985. Graduate students and scholars in the field will find this study valuable, both for Shafir's exhaustive archival research and for his examination of a subject hitherto absent from the Jewish and American history of the Cold War years. It will also prove useful to undergraduates studying the aftermath of the Holocaust and its impact on American Jewish communal politics. Strongly recommended for academic and general libraries. J. Haus; Tulane University

Shafir points out in his preface that 50 years after the end of World War II and the destruction of six million European Jews in the Holocaust, many American Jews still distinguish themselves from other Americans in their ambiguous and largely negative attitude toward Germany and its people. The subjects that Shafir discusses are arranged in chronological order and include early postwar concerns, such as safeguarding the survivors and refugees, denazification and the Nuremberg war crimes trials, and the demands by American Jewish organizations seeking to punish Nazi criminals and officials. He also examines such topics as anti-German protests in the U.S., reactions to a reparations treaty, and no lessening of anti-Semitism in Germany after the war. This meticulously researched book (with 108 pages of notes and bibliography) is a valuable addition to the literature defining postwar relations between American Jews and Germany. --George Cohen