Jews in France During World War II (Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry)

Renee Poznanski presents an extraordinary panorama of Jewish daily life in all of France during World War II. The Jews in France during World War II provides a detailed and nuanced account of Jews in both occupied and Vichy France as well as of Jewish life in French camps. In addition to standard French and German documentation, Poznanski relies on non-published sources (diaries, reports by various organizations, personal corresponence) to build riveting collective portraits of Jewish suffering and survival. Even more than this, she uses these sources to illuminate "the rhythm of French and German persecution, the reactions of Jewish and non-Jewish opinion, and the various strategies of the Jewish victims." A crucial contribution to French Jewish and Holocaust historiography, and an important corrective to much of the literature that treats Jews as victims rather than as subjects able to make (some) choices, The Jews in France during World War II is certain to become the most authoritative work in the field.