Lives Reclaimed

Starred review from July 1, 2019

Roseman (Distinguished Professor, Pat M Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies, Indiana Univ.; A Past in Hiding) relates here the stories of individuals who organized themselves into a Bund, a commune focusing on self-improvement, in Weimar Germany. Their intent was to help create a German society based on socialism. With the Nazi takeover of Germany, the Bund found itself on the other side of the divide, and as the situation became more precarious each day their goals changed. Kristallnacht members began to organize efforts to help their Jewish and non-Jewish neighbors, providing safe houses, securing false documents, sending parcels to prisoners in the concentration camp Theresienstadt, and mailing letters to people outside of Germany. This history also touches on the motives of rescuers and the postwar lives of Bund members. VERDICT Through extensive use of primary source material, including some in private collections, and interviews with members of the Bund, Roseman writes a gripping narrative documenting the lives of the people who helped others and those who benefited from their actions. Highly recommended.--Jacqueline Parascandola, Univ. of Pennsylvania

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2019
A new history of the Bund, an "idealistic group of Germans who, in a small way, did something remarkable." After the fall of the Third Reich, many Germans zealously asserted that they had never sympathized with the fascist regime; indeed, there were those few who truly resisted the scourge and even tried to rescue its victims. This history chronicles the significant contributions of one group, the Bund. Roseman (Director, Jewish Studies/Indiana Univ., The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution, 2002, etc.), an award-winning historian of Nazi Germany, tells of a small group of leftist idealists that was established in the days of the Weimar Republic to improve humanity with lectures, exercise, pamphlets, and dance performances. Called simply the Bund, its "inspirational leader" was Artur Jacobs, who possessed "boundless optimism and self-confidence." He was not Jewish, but his wife was. After the mob outrages against German Jews on Kristallnacht, members of the Bund, even under the watchful eyes of the brown-shirted offenders, offered succor and sympathy, fruit and flowers to those eventually headed to the concentration camps. They also supplied lifesaving Bund houses for some Jews. Providing help was exceedingly difficult. Relatives of some of the group's adherents were in the Wehrmacht, there were constant and devastating air raids in the Ruhr homeland of the Bund, and rations were scarce. Not surprisingly, after the Allied victory in Europe, when reparations became available to proven victims of the Third Reich, Bundists, including Jacobs, lined up. Recounting their considerable trials, many, including Jacobs, exaggerated their wartime exploits and their suffering. With meticulous research into personal papers and other primary material, Roseman provides a singular footnote to the story of life in Hitler's Germany. Reflecting on the story of the Bund, readers may ask again: "What would I have done?" A welcome addition to the literature of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany.

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Starred review from June 1, 2019
As the number of Holocaust survivors continues to dwindle, capturing the stories of those who remain among us has become even more urgent. In the Ruhr Valley following the collapse of the Weimar Republic, a group of several hundred socialists gathered together in a Bund to promote discreet but steadfast resistance to the nascent Nazi menace. They focused on members' physical culture and were almost cult-like in their attitudes toward colleagues' marriages and their advocacy of a very disciplined life. Nevertheless, they did respect individual thought and effort. Following the terrible events of Kristallnacht, the Bund offered quiet support and aid to Jews who were beginning to be deported from Germany. From simple gestures such as bringing Jewish families flowers to riskily providing false identity documents, they managed to shelter a number of their Jewish neighbors. As prize-winning historian Roseman (The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution, 2002) notes, Bund members could aid only a few imperiled Jews, and the compromises they were forced to make raise compelling moral issues not easily resolved. A bibliography documents not only printed works, but also personal conversations and radio interviews.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)