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Haskel Lookstein

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Were We Our Brothers' Keepers?: The Public Response of American Jews to the Holocaust, 1938–1944 Kindle Edition

by Haskel Lookstein (Author), Elie Wiesel (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 16 ratings

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In this major work exploring the American Jewish response to the Holocaust as it occurred, by examining contemporary Jewish press accounts of such events as Kristallnacht, the refusal to allow the refugee ship St. Louis to land in America, the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto, and the deportation of the Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz, Haskel Lookstein provides us with an important perspective on the way in which events are reported on, perceived, and interpreted in their own time.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00L5M8U3G
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (June 24, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 24, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2926 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 336 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,182,124 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,034 in Jewish Social Studies
- #1,705 in Jewish History (Kindle Store)
- #3,276 in Jewish Holocaust History

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4.4 16 ratings

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4.4 out of 5

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Kelsey shreve

in good condition

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2018

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book was as described, very good price too!

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Just ask me!

Analysis of American Jewish inaction during the Holocaust

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2019

The author reviews the reaction of Jewish organizations, as documented in the Jewish and general press, to document that there was insufficient reaction to the known deportation and extermination of European Jews. He blames the anemic response to Jews' fear of taking action in what was still a new land for many.
The reader's judgment may differ from the author's, but anyone who has wondered about the American Jewish community's knowledge of the murders will benefit from reading this book.

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Jordan Wouk

Important history about the actions taken & not taken by American Jews related to Nazi Germany

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2015

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The incidents chosen are key and the analysis is thorough. Sad stories.

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ZeevK

Excellent, but disturbing review of grossly inadequate responses to the Shoah while it was happening!

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2017

This book has received far too little attention. It is a well documented history of how the American Jewish community responded to the holocaust as it was taking place. It provides a balanced discussion of factors within the Jewish community and also in non-Jewish America which led to a wholly inadequate response to this tragedy. Although many Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish found it difficult to believe news reports about the on-going extermination, the book makes it clear that very definite information was available. The author successfully highlights various issues including the high level of antisemitism still present in significant sections of the American population as well as within parts of our State department. It also includes material about how splits within the Jewish community affected its ability to put on a united front. One apparently significant aspect of this community's failure to react forcefully, was an awareness of popular antisemitism and fear that too strong a response would only exacerbate it. For anyone having even only a casual interest in the subject matter covered in this book it is an essential work to read.

5 people found this helpful

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Geoffry White

When Good People Do Nothing

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2000

This is a courageous book. The author,a rabbi, takes a critical look at how and why American Jews remained mysteriously silent during the Holocaust. In most crimes there are three participants: the victim, the perpetrator and the bystander. American Jews were, for the mostpart, bystanders to the Nazi evil prior to and during World War II. Why? In part,there was tremendous anti-immigrant and anti-Jewish sentiment during this time. Franklin Roosevelt was seen by many as a friend and protector of American Jews. To criticize his hands-off policy regarding European Jews might be betraying Roosevelts' paternalistic protection of the vulnerable community of American Jews. But these explanations do not fully satisfy. Haskel Lookstein probes deeply and honestly into an historically avoided subject.

11 people found this helpful

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PaulaB

Brought me to tears

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2022

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My family on both sides came to the US in the 1920s, so the Holocaust didn't take the lives of any of my relatives that I know of. But growing up, my next-door neighbors were Auschwitz survivors, as were the parents of my closest friend, so the Holocaust was very real to me. Actually seeing concentration camp tattoos is nothing like seeing them in a photo or documentary. Even as a young child, I found myself face-to-face with the Shoah.

I wish I'd been old enough and wise enough to ask my grandparents what they were doing/thinking as the Nazis decimated European Jewry. All I know about is their adoration of FDR, a subject this books touches on more than once. I can't remember any of them discussing the Holocaust when I was in earshot, and after reading this book, I wish I could go back in time and talk with them about the American and Jewish American response. And their own thoughts, actions, etc., of course.

So while I'll now never learn how my own relatives dealt with what was going on in Europe with the Jewish community, this book has given me so many insights into how various Americans, Jew and non-Jew, thought and acted at that time. By limiting his research to six seminal events, the author is able to focus on the reaction to Kristallnacht, for example, providing multiple examples of how different schools of thought among the US Jewish community thought, wrote about, spoke about--or stayed silent about, etc.

As with any book regarding the Shoah, this isn't easy reading. But it should be essential reading, for Jews and non-Jews alike, especially in our own troubled times.

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Were We Our Brothers' Keepers?: The Public Response of American Jews to the Holocaust, 1938–1944 Kindle Edition

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