Synopses & Reviews
It is an all too common belief that Jews did nothing to resist their own fate in the Holocaust. However, the parallel realities of disintegrating physical and psychological conditions in the ghetto, and the efforts of ghetto undergrounds to counter both collaborationist judenrat policies and the despair of a beaten down population, could not but lead to a breakdown in spiritual life. James M. Glass examines spiritual resistance to the Holocaust and the place of this within political and violent resistance. He explores Jewish reactions to the murderous campaign against them and their creation of new spiritual and moral rules to live by. He argues that the Orthodox Jewish response to annihilation, often seen as unduly passive, was predicated in the insanity of the times and can be seen as spiritually noble.
Synopsis
James M. Glass explores the spiritual resistance to the Holocaust amongst the Jews. Attempting to explain why the Jews appeared to do little to resist the extermination programme he argues that their passivity was predicated in the insanity of the time
About the Author
James M. Glass is Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. He was named University Distinguished Scholar Teacher, 2002-2003.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Memory, Resistance and Reclaiming Self * The Moral Justification of Killing * Collective Trauma: The Disintegration of Ethics * The Moral Position of Violence: Bielski Survivors * The Moral Goodness of Violence: Necessity in the Forests * Spiritual Resistance: Understanding its Meaning * Condemned Spirit and the Moral Arguments of Faith * The Silence of Faith * Facing the Emptied-out Self * Law and Spirit in Terrible Times * Index * Bibliography