Sussen Is Now Free Of Jews World War Ii The Holocaust And Rural Judaism

Two Jewish families, the Langs and the Ottenheimers, settled in the two separate parts of Suessen, District Goeppingen, in 1902. The Langs established a cattle business in Gross-Suessen, the Ottenheimers established a branch of their weaving business, headquartered in Goeppingen, in Klein-Suessen. Based primarily on archival sources, the study gives an insight into everyday rural Jewish life, persecution and deportation during the Holocaust, an American soldier's World War II experience, experiences of liberation from concentration camps, the reparations process and life after 1945.

Süssen Is Now Free of Jews offers a close look at the legacy of a few Jewish families from Süssen--a village in the District of Göppingen, which is located in the state of Baden Württemberg in southern Germany. The author, Gilya Gerda Schmidt, looks at this rural region through the lens of two Jewish families--the Langs and the Ottenheimers--who settled there in the early twentieth century. As a child, she shared with the Langs the same living space for just a few months. She remembers her mother's telling her of the Jews who lived in Süssen until the Holocaust. More than thirty years later, in a used bookstore in Knoxville, Tennessee, the author accidentally found documentation verifying the Jewish presence in a book about the surviving Jews of Württemberg. In it, she found confirmation that there had been Jews living in Süssen until the Holocaust. For the first time, she had the proof she needed to look into the reality behind this lingering mystery. Here began her detective-like journey to find out what happened to the Jews of Süssen. A decade of research into local and regional archives ensued, and this very penetrating study is the result. In it, the author attempts to shed light on not just the original question of what happened to the two families during the Holocaust but also on a host of other questions: What was it like to be Jewish in rural southern Germany a century ago? What were the Jewish traditions of this region? What were the relations between Jews and Christians before the Holocaust? And where did those family members who were able to escape or who survived the concentration camps go when they left Süssen or Göppingen? Few witnesses came forward, yet the documents in the archives spoke volumes. This micro-history records the not-so-romantic journey of two Jewish families who lived in the Fils Valley. The study also addresses issues of being an American prisoner of war; of resuming life after the Holocaust; of the bureaucratic nightmare of requisitions, restitution, and reparations; and of life in America. This unique book will be of interest to a general readership and is an important book for scholars in German and Holocaust studies.

This study examines the legacy of two Jewish families in a Southern German village from 1902 to 1941. Coincidentally, two very different Jewish men established themselves in the village of Süssen in 1902. Hugo Lang describes their family's daily routine, changes under the Nazis including forced labour in Eislingen, and his life in the US. Shortly after Hugo's departure for the U.S., his close relatives were deported to Riga, where all but three perished. Ruth's search for and discovery of family after her liberation tells a very moving tale. Conceived as a social and cultural history of two Jewish families up to the Holocaust, this study turned into far more than a micro-history of Jewish life in southern Germany.

New York Times Bestseller: The true story of twelve Jews who went underground in Nazi Berlin—and survived: “Consummately suspenseful” (Los Angeles Times). When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, approximately one hundred sixty thousand Jews called Berlin home. By 1943 less than five thousand remained in the nation’s capital, the epicenter of Nazism, and by the end of the war, that number had dwindled to one thousand. All the others had died in air raids, starved to death, committed suicide, or been shipped off to the death camps. In this captivating and harrowing book, Leonard Gross details the real-life stories of a dozen Jewish men and women who spent the final twenty-seven months of World War II underground, hiding in plain sight, defying both the Gestapo and, even worse, Jewish “catchers” ready to report them to the Nazis in order to avoid the gas chambers themselves. A teenage orphan, a black-market jewel trader, a stylish young designer, and a progressive intellectual were among the few who managed to survive. Through their own resourcefulness, bravery, and at times, sheer luck, these Jews managed to evade the tragic fates of so many others. Gross has woven these true stories of perseverance into a heartbreaking, suspenseful, and moving account with the narrative force of a thriller. Compiled from extensive interviews, The Last Jews in Berlin reveals these individuals’ astounding determination, against all odds, to live each day knowing it could be their last.

Provides a brief history of Albania and calls attention to Albania's role in assisting Jews from persecution during World War II.

#1 "New York Times" bestselling author John C. Maxwell believes that any setback, whether professional or personal, can be turned into a step forward when you possess the right tools to turn a loss into a gain. Drawing on nearly fifty years of leadership experience, Dr. Maxwell provides a roadmap for winning by examining the eleven elements that constitute the DNA of learners who succeed in the face of problems, failure, and losses. 1. Humility - The Spirit of Learning 2. Reality - The Foundation of Learning 3. Responsibility - The First Step of Learning 4. Improvement - The Focus of Learning 5. Hope - The Motivation of Learning 6. Teachability - The Pathway of Learning 7. Adversity - The Catalyst of Learning 8. Problems - The Opportunities of Learning9. Bad Experiences - The Perspective for Learning10. Change - The Price of Learning 11. Maturity - The Value of Learning Learning is not easy during down times, it takes discipline to do the right thing when something goes wrong. As John Maxwell often points out--experience isn't the best teacher; evaluated experience is.

This groundbreaking work is the most detailed, carefully researched, and comprehensive analysis of the evolution of Nazi policy from the persecution and "ethnic cleansing" of Jews in 1939 to the Final Solution of the Holocaust in 1942.

In the entire ghastly history of the Holocaust, only two "good" stories stand out, and this is one of them. Denmark, under German Occupation, but with its King and government intact, did something no other country in Western Europe even tried to do. Knowing that German command was coming in 1943 to round up their Jews (there were 7,000 of them) for deportation to the camps, they said no. The King, his ministers, and parliament were all in agreement--those 7,000 people were theirs, they were Danes who happened to be Jewish, and nobody was going to assist in their round-up and certain death. While the government used its limited but formidable powers to manoeuver and to impede matters in Berlin, the warning went out to the Jewish community that crisis was at hand. Over the next 14 days, assisted, helped, hidden, and protected by ordinary people who came together spontaneously to the aid of their countrymen who were suddenly refugees, an incredible 6,500 out of the 7,000 total escaped -- smuggled on big boats, little boats, fishing boats, anything that floated -- to Sweden. The bare facts of this exodus have been known for decades but, astonishingly, no full history of it has ever been researched or written. The refugees kept diaries, letters, family accounts which have now been brought together and form the basis of this riveting account. After a powerful historical introduction, the book follows the story on a day-by-day basis. We watch and share the heartstopping experiences of real people during those fateful two weeks from September 26 to October 9, 1943. This is a story of ordinary glory, of simple courage and moral fortitude that shines out in the terrible history of the 20th century.