Based on published primary and secondary materials and oral interviews with some eighty communal and organizational leaders, experts and scholars, this book provides a comparative account of the reconstruction of Jewish communal life in both Germany and in Austria (where 98% live in the capital, Vienna) after 1945. The author explains the process of reconstruction over the next six decades, and its results in each country. The monograph focuses on the variety of prevailing perceptions about topics such as: the state of Israel, one?s relationship to the country of residence, the Jewish religion, the aftermath of the Holocaust, and the influx of post-soviet immigrants. Cohen-Weisz examines the changes in Jewish group identity and its impact on the development of communities. The study analyzes the similarities and differences in regard to the political, social, institutional and identity developments within the two countries, and their changing attitudes and relationships with surrounding societies; it seeks to show the evolution of these two country?s Jewish communities in diverse national political circumstances and varying post-war governmental policies. ÿ

An author and subject index to selected and American Anglo-Jewish journals of general and scholarly interests.

Described as an "application of historical sociology, not a work of conventional history", the work assesses why the destruction of the Jews was not uniformly effective throughout Europe. Three factors determined Nazi success - the extent of German control, the activity of national resistance movements, and the extent of antisemitism in the prewar period. Pt. 1 (p. 3-194) discusses the will of the Germans to annihilate the Jews, and its origins; the role of the Allies, the European neutrals, and the Church in failing to prevent the Holocaust; and conditions in the occupied countries. Pt. 2 deals mainly with the responses of the Jews.

Enjoy Oliver Jeffers' intergalactic adventure tale in space! Now available in toddler-friendly board book edition. One day a boy finds an aeroplane in his cupboard. Up, up, up and away he flies, high into the sky. He whizzes past clouds and stars until suddenly, phut, phut phut, the plane runs out of petrol... Miles from earth, the boy crash lands on the moon. Just as he is beginning to get cold and lonely, a Martian appears from the darkness - could this be the start of an unlikely friendship? And will the boy ever manage to get home again?

Fearing an imminent Nazi invasion, the British government interned 28,000 men and women of enemy nationality living in Britain in the spring of 1940. Most were Jewish refugees who, having fled Nazi persecution, were appalled to find themselves imprisoned as potential Nazi spies. Using oral histories, unpublished letters and memoirs, artifacts and newspapers from the camps, and government documents, We Built Up Our Lives tells the compelling story of sixty-three of these internees. It is a seldom-told part of the history of World War II and the Holocaust and a classic tale of human courage and resilience. We Built Up Our Lives describes the survival mechanisms relied upon by the Jewish refugees. Although the internees, imprisoned in Britain, the Isle of Man, Canada, and Australia, were adequately housed and fed and rarely mistreated, they were cut off from family, friends, school, and work--everything that had given meaning to their lives. Resisting boredom, anger, and despair, the internees made the best of a bad situation by creating education, culture, and community within the camps. Before and after as well as during the internment--in Nazi Germany and in Britain--educational resources and social networks were essential to the refugees' efforts to build up their lives. Equally important were personal qualities of courage, ingenuity, assertiveness, and resilience.

Austria long claimed to be a victim of the Nazis and, hence, was not required to compensate Jews for stolen property. During the Cold War the Allies absolved Austria from reparations. In regard to restitution and reparations by Austria it has been "too little, too late". While Jewish communal property was returned, the outstanding problem is unclaimed property, now worth $720 million. In 1995 the government decided to award each survivor $7,000, but survivors are dying off. In summary, Austria has neither fully acknowledged its responsibility, nor has it provided appropriate compensation. In the Netherlands, the stealing of Jewish property took two forms: looting by neighbors (the government did not force them to return these goods after the war) and appropriation of property by the government-controlled bank. The value of heirless property still kept by the state is sizeable: only part has been transferred to the Jewish community. In 1997 a few Jews initiated legal action against the state. Their goal is basically to increase awareness of the injustice involved.