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The Unknown Black Book The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories
Edited by Joshua Rubenstein and Ilya Altman
Introductions by Joshua Rubenstein, Ilya Altman, and Yitzhak Arad Translated by Christopher Morris and Joshua Rubenstein
"These accounts from those who saw what happened convey what we cannot learn from official documents about the nature of this vast criminal enterprise, in which hundreds of thousands were transformed into monsters . . . and millions of others became helpless, dehumanized, mutilated, and finally forgotten victims." —Wall Street Journal
The Unknown Black Book provides a revelatory compilation of testimonies from Jews who survived open-air massacres and other atrocities carried out by the Germans and their allies in the occupied Soviet territories during World War II—Ukraine, Belorussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Crimea. These documents are first-hand accounts by survivors of work camps, ghettos, forced marches, beatings, starvation, and disease. Collected under the direction of two renowned Soviet Jewish journalists, Ilya Ehrenburg and Vasily Grossman, they tell of Jews who lived in pits, walled-off corners of apartments, attics, and basement dugouts, unable to emerge due to fear that their neighbors would betray them, as often happened.
Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 496 pp., 20 b&w illus., 2 maps paper 978-0-253-22267-1 $24.95 For more information, visit:
July 14, 2009. Dr. Kiril Feferman's fascinating book analyzes the Soviet Union's treatment of the Holocaust from 1941-1964 through the litmus text of the Babi Yar massacre of 1941. "In the West, while we are familiar with the concept of Holocaust denial, the Soviet concept of Holocaust suppression is quite foreign to us," explains Feferman, Yad Vashem lecturer, researcher, and overall expert on the Former Soviet Union, the Holocaust, and the Second World war. Feferman attempts to answer such questions as: Why and how did the Soviet views towards the extermination of Jews aim at avoiding Nazi accusations that that the Soviets were fighting a Jewish war ? Why the Holocaust did not fit in the simplistic, black-and-white Soviet mindset of "he who is not with us, is against us ? Finally, Why the Bolsheviks, who never had any scruples about the many millions of Soviet civilians they themselves killed, were forced to accept over time that the Holocaust had to be treated differently than other, related topics? Feferman does a masterful job of answering these questions and many more in this carefully researched, fascinating work.
The book is now published in Russian- language. It was edited and co-edited by Shimon Samuels, Mark Weitzman and Ilya Altman and the tributes for this version are from: -President Dimitri Medvedev -Prime Minister Vladimir Putin -The late Patriarch Alexei II-Foreign Minister and Chair of Russian National Commission of UNESCO, Sergei Lavrov
-St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvieienko
-Former President Mikhail Gorbachov -Former Minister of Minorities Valeri Tishkov -Father Vyacheslav Chaplin, Spokesman of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church
The book was launched under the co-auspices of the Russian Holocaust Centre, Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Verbe et Lumiere-Vigilance and the UNESCO. It was presented at various locations:
--The Central Synagogue of Moscow chaired by Jewish Community
Chairman, Leopold Kaiymovskiy
--The RIA- Novosti Press agency
-The official Moscow Holocaust Commemoration ceremony at the Central House of Literature in Moscow
- The Herzen Pedagogical University of St. Petersburg at a seminar on
the Holocaust (UNESCO Chair in Education in the Multicultural Society also attended). The session was chaired by Vice-Rector Sergei Shilov.
-The Interfax Press agency of St. Petersburg
-In a meeting with St Petersburg's Governor, Valentina Matveienko, at the Smolny Palace. The Governer announced to the press, who were present at the meeting, the purchase of 700 copies of the book for high schools in St. Petersburg.
The library
of the Russian Research and Educational
Center is regularly enriched with new
international books, dealing with the theme of the holocaust on the occupied
territories of the USSR.
Due to the
German book “Holocaust in Litauen” (Böhlau Verlag,
2008), the book “The Shoah in Ukraine”,
edited by Ray Brandon and Wendy Lower (published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum) can be found in
our library now.
For the Ukraine was home to the largest
population of Jews in the Russian Empire, it was one of the most important
centers of Jewish life and culture, destroyed by the holocaust. Until yet, less
is known about this part of the holocaust history and the book tells us more
about lives and deaths of not only Jews, but Poles, Russians, Romanians and
many more in this part of Europe
"The Unknown Black Book" provides, for the first time in English, a revelatory compilation of testimonies from Jews who survived open-air massacres and other atrocities carried out by the Germans and their allies in the occupied Soviet territories during World War II. These documents, from residents of cities, small towns, and rural areas, are first-hand accounts by survivors of work camps, ghettos, forced marches, beatings, starvation, and disease. Collected under the direction of two renowned Soviet Jewish journalists, Vasily Grossman and Ilya Ehrenburg, they tell of Jews who lived in pits, walled-off corners of apartments, attics, and basement dugouts, unable to emerge due to fear that their neighbours would betray them, which often occurred.
"Save My Letters… " - a collection of letters and diaries of Jews written during World War Two /Compiled by I.A.Altman and L.A.Terushkin. - M.: Holocaust Center and Foundation, MIK Publishers, 2007. - 320 p. The collection includes over 250 letters, diaries and photographs related to the Holocaust, Jewish Resistance, the participation of Jews in the war, their every-day lives in evacuation, as well as in Moscow and in Leningrad during the siege of the city - from the Holocaust Center Archive.
Deutsch
Русский
July 14, 2009. Dr. Kiril Feferman's fascinating book analyzes the Soviet Union's treatment of the Holocaust from 1941-1964 through the litmus text of the Babi Yar massacre of 1941. "In the West, while we are familiar with the concept of Holocaust denial, the Soviet concept of Holocaust suppression is quite foreign to us," explains Feferman, Yad Vashem lecturer, researcher, and overall expert on the Former Soviet Union, the Holocaust, and the Second World war. Feferman attempts to answer such questions as: Why and how did the Soviet views towards the extermination of Jews aim at avoiding Nazi accusations that that the Soviets were fighting a Jewish war ? Why the Holocaust did not fit in the simplistic, black-and-white Soviet mindset of "he who is not with us, is against us ? Finally, Why the Bolsheviks, who never had any scruples about the many millions of Soviet civilians they themselves killed, were forced to accept over time that the Holocaust had to be treated differently than other, related topics? Feferman does a masterful job of answering these questions and many more in this carefully
The book was launched under the co-auspices of the Russian Holocaust Centre, Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Verbe et Lumiere-Vigilance and the UNESCO.
The library
of the Russian Research and Educational
Center is regularly enriched with new
international books, dealing with the theme of the holocaust on the occupied
territories of the USSR.
"Save My Letters… " - a collection of letters and diaries of Jews written during World War Two /Compiled by I.A.Altman and L.A.Terushkin. - M.: Holocaust Center and Foundation, MIK Publishers, 2007. - 320 p. The collection includes over 250 letters, diaries and photographs related to the Holocaust, Jewish Resistance, the participation of Jews in the war, their every-day lives in evacuation, as well as in Moscow and in Leningrad during the siege of the city - from the Holocaust Center Archive.
