Synopses & Reviews
Learn more about Serge Klarsfeld at
klarsfeld.org.
During World War II, 11,000 Jewish children were deported from France to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps in convoys that continued rolling until August 18, 1944--the very day of the Paris uprising that ended with the city's liberation. The children were among more than 75,000 French Jews deported to the camps under the Nazi plan for the final solution of the Jewish question. Nearly all of the young victims--some less than two years old--were arrested by the French police on orders of the Vichy government and turned over to the Germans for deportation. Only a handful of the children survived.
In French Children of the Holocaust, Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld--the man who brought Klaus Barbie to justice in 1983--has created a volume of stunning documentary importance. Drawing together archival evidence pried with difficulty from the French government, family testimony and photographs solicited by advertisements in Jewish publications in Europe, Israel, and the United States, and the Nazi's own lists of deportees--which were discovered, fading and crumbling, by Klarsfeld in a French Jewish archive--this book represents the culmination of many volunteers' painstaking efforts to give testimony to the short lives of these Jewish children.
Photographs of over 1,500 of the children, gathered from their surviving relatives and family friends all over the world, bring life to their brief biographies. Included with each photograph is the name, age, place and date of birth, home address, and the date and brief history of the deportation convoys that transported them to the death camps.
This book is an invaluable reference for scholars of the Holocaust, signifying the last attempt to rescue these young victims of the Nazis from oblivion and to help them leave a permanent mark on history as individuals and as a group.
Table of Contents:
Foreword
Author's Preface
Editors' Notes
Acknowledgments
Content and Style Guide
Jewish Children and the Holocaust in France
History and Chronology
Maps
The Rescue of Children by OSE
Deportation Convoys
Research and Documentation: Reconstructing the convoy lists
Names and Addresses of the 11,000 Children Deported, by Convoy
Convoy Histories
The Photographs of Jewish Children
Officials responsible for anti-Jewish actions in France
Terms and abbreviations
Index of all children
Index of children in photographs
Review
“Thoughtful, provocative . . . a first-rate study.”
“Not the least of this book's many virtues is the way in which . . . it bridges the gap between the concern's of Du Bois's day and those of the civil rights era.”
“A rich and moving account of the complex life of one of the most influential black figures in twentieth-century America.”
“We need this book to remind us of the competent leadership that we enjoyed in the past.”
“This work is a welcome addition to African American studies as well as to social and cultural history . . .”
Review
"This haunting book is hard to pick up, harder to put down, and still harder to forget."-Choice,May 1997
Review
“Not the least of this book's many virtues is the way in which . . . it bridges the gap between the concern's of Du Bois's day and those of the civil rights era.”-Times Literary Supplement,
Review
“A rich and moving account of the complex life of one of the most influential black figures in twentieth-century America.”
-Herbert Hill,Evjue-Bascom Professor of African-American Studies, University of Wisconsin
Review
“We need this book to remind us of the competent leadership that we enjoyed in the past.”
-Black Issues Book Review,
Review
“This work is a welcome addition to African American studies as well as to social and cultural history . . .”
-Choice,
Synopsis
Activist, international statesman, reluctant black leader, scholar, icon, father and husband, Ralph Bunche is one of the most complicated and fascinating figures in the history of twentieth- century America. Bunche played a central role in shaping international relations from the 1940s through the 1960s, first as chief of the Africa section of the Office of Strategic Services and then as part of the State Department group working to establish the United Nations. After moving to the U.N. as Director of Trusteeship, he became the first black Nobel Laureate in 1950 and was subsequently named Undersecretary of the U.N.
For nearly a decade, he was the most celebrated contemporary African American both domestically and abroad. Today he is virtually forgotten.
Charles Henry's penetrating biography counters this historical tragedy, recapturing the essence of Bunches service to America and the world. Moreover, Henry ably demonstrates how Bunche's rise and fall as a public symbol tells us as much about America as it does about Bunche. His iconic status, like that of other prominent, mainstream black figures like Colin Powell, required a constant struggle over the relative importance of his racial identity and his national identity. Henry's biography shines as both the recovered story of a classic American, and as a case study in the racial politics of public service.
Synopsis
Activist, international statesman, reluctant black leader, scholar, icon, father and husband, Ralph Bunche is one of the most complicated and fascinating figures in the history of twentieth- century America. Bunche played a central role in shaping international relations from the 1940s through the 1960s, first as chief of the Africa section of the Office of Strategic Services and then as part of the State Department group working to establish the United Nations. After moving to the U.N. as Director of Trusteeship, he became the first black Nobel Laureate in 1950 and was subsequently named Undersecretary of the U.N.
For nearly a decade, he was the most celebrated contemporary African American both domestically and abroad. Today he is virtually forgotten.
Charles Henry's penetrating biography counters this historical tragedy, recapturing the essence of Bunche's service to America and the world. Moreover, Henry ably demonstrates how Bunche's rise and fall as a public symbol tells us as much about America as it does about Bunche. His iconic status, like that of other prominent, mainstream black figures like Colin Powell, required a constant struggle over the relative importance of his racial identity and his national identity. Henry's biography shines as both the recovered story of a classic American, and as a case study in the racial politics of public service.
About the Author
Charles Henry is Professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author/editor of five books and numerous articles. He is also a former Chair of Amnesty International USA and has worked in the U.S. State Department.
Table of Contents
1903 -- Reverse migration -- The New Deal's "BlackYard" -- The Black intellectual -- The new Africa -- An African American dilemma -- From the outside-in -- Pioneer peacekeeper -- The model Negro -- Loyalities : family, profession, race, and nation -- The Cold War and the Congo -- The cultural politics of civil rights -- Black power and "Blackism".