In Enemy Land

The Jews of Kielce and the Region, 1939-1946

Author: Sara Bender, Naftali Greenwood and Saadya Sternberg Series: Holocaust: History and Literature, Ethics and Philosophy

This book offers a study of the Jewish community in Kielce and its environs during World War II and the Holocaust:.

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Summary

This book offers a study of the Jewish community in Kielce and its environs during World War II and the Holocaust:.

Description

This book offers a study of the Jewish community in Kielce and its environs during World War II and the Holocaust. It is the first of its kind in providing a comprehensive account of Kielce's Jews and their history as victims under the German occupation. The book focuses in particular on Jewish-Polish relations in the Kielce region; the deportation of the Jews of Kielce and its surrounding areas to the Treblinka death camp; the difficulties faced by those attempting to help and save them; and daily life in the Small Ghetto from September 1942 until late May 1943.

Critic Reviews

“"Sara Bender's In Enemy Land: The Jews of Kielce and theRegion, 1939-1946 , appears at a time when Holocaust history is under newpressures. These pressures are most evident in Poland, where a nationalistgovernment has seen fit - and has largely failed - to limit certain kinds ofHolocaust-related terminology if it ascribes guilt to Poles during wartime. ... Bender'scarefully researched and tightly focused study of Kielce and its environs isnot directly engaged with these discussions until its concluding chapter. ButKielce, as is well known, was the site, in the spring of 1946, of the worstpostwar pogrom in liberated Poland. Likethe wartime events in the smaller northern town of Jedwabne, the events atKielce, in which 47 Holocaust survivors were murdered in mob violence, remain aflashpoint in any postwar account of Polish-Jewish relations." --Norman Ravvin, CanadianJewish News”

“Sara Bender’s In Enemy Land: The Jews of Kielce and theRegion, 1939-1946, appears at a time when Holocaust history is under newpressures. These pressures are most evident in Poland, where a nationalistgovernment has seen fit – and has largely failed – to limit certain kinds ofHolocaust-related terminology if it ascribes guilt to Poles during wartime. … Bender’scarefully researched and tightly focused study of Kielce and its environs isnot directly engaged with these discussions until its concluding chapter. ButKielce, as is well known, was the site, in the spring of 1946, of the worstpostwar pogrom in liberated Poland. Likethe wartime events in the smaller northern town of Jedwabne, the events atKielce, in which 47 Holocaust survivors were murdered in mob violence, remain aflashpoint in any postwar account of Polish-Jewish relations.” —Norman Ravvin, CanadianJewish News

-- Norman Ravvin Canadian Jewish News

“Most [researchers] believe it necessary to study the Holocaust in Kielce to understand Polish-Jewish relations afterward. Sara Bender, a renowned Holocaust scholar and long-time professor of Jewish history at the University of Haifa, shares this conviction and devotes her book primarily to the Holocaust in the region. Her description of the murder of the Jews of Kielce by the Germans and their local helpers is so terrifying that writing a review of her text almost feels wrong. There is no doubt: thousands had been murdered in Kielce or sent from there to be murdered, and the details Bender provides highlight the magnitude of the crime.”

—Piotr J. Wróbel, University of Toronto, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

About the Author

Sara Bender is Professor at the Department of Jewish History of the University of Haifa. Her studies compare the histories of the Jewish communities in Poland and Eastern Europe during World War II and the Holocaust, focusing on Poland and subjects such as Jewish resistance, relations with Poles in towns and villages, forced labor camps in the Radom district, and Jewish life among partisan units in Lithuania and west Belorussia. Her book The Jews in Bialystok during World War II and the Holocaust was published by Brandeis University Press in 2008.