Dance on the Razor's Edge

Crime and Punishment in the Nazi Ghettos

Svenja Bethke, Sharon Howe, Hamburger Edition HIS Verlagsges

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English

University of Toronto Press
02 February 2021

20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; The Holocaust; Second World War

Series: German and European Studies

Historians have mainly seen the ghettos established by the Nazis in German-occupied Eastern Europe as spaces marked by brutality, tyranny, and the systematic murder of the Jewish population. Drawing on examples from the Warsaw, Lodz, and Vilna ghettos, Dance on the Razor's Edge explores how, in fact, highly improvised legal spheres emerged in these coerced and heterogeneous ghetto communities.

Looking at sources from multiple archives and countries, Svenja Bethke investigates how the Jewish Councils, set up on German orders and composed of ghetto inhabitants, formulated new definitions of criminal offenses and established legal institutions on their own initiative, as a desperate attempt to ensure the survival of the ghetto communities. Bethke explores how people under these circumstances tried to make sense of everyday lives that had been turned upside down, bringing with them pre-war notions of justice and morality, and she considers the extent to which this rupture led to new judgments on human behaviour. In doing so, Bethke aims to understand how people attempted to use their very limited scope for action in order to survive. Set against the background of a Holocaust historiography that often still seeks for clear categories of ""good"" and ""bad"" behaviours, Dance on the Razor's Edge calls for a new understanding of the ghettos as complex communities in an unprecedented emergency situation.

By: Svenja Bethke, Hamburger Edition HIS Verlagsges
Translated by: Sharon Howe
Imprint: University of Toronto Press
Country of Publication: Canada
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 159mm, Spine: 24mm
Weight: 560g
ISBN: 9781487504922
ISBN 10: 1487504926
Series: German and European Studies
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 02 February 2021
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgments Note on Names and Places Abbreviations Introduction 1. Nazi Jewish Policy in Eastern Europe and the Perspective of the Jewish Councils 2. Jewish Council Proclamations: Definitions of Criminal Activity 3. The Jewish Police as an Executive Organ 4. The Ghetto Courts 5. The Ghetto Penal System 6. Ordinary Ghetto Residents and Their Relationship with Internal and External Authorities Conclusion: Criminality and Law between the Poles of External Power and Internal Autonomy Notes Bibliography Index

Svenja Bethke is a lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Leicester. Sharon Howe is a freelance literary translator working from German. She is based in the UK.

Reviews for Dance on the Razor's Edge: Crime and Punishment in the Nazi Ghettos

Dance on the Razor's Edge is an important addition to the literature on Holocaust-era ghettos given the originality of both its focus on law and order and its novel source base. Through comparative analysis of three ghettos - in three different geopolitical contexts - the book highlights overlapping experiences as well as key differences in Jewish experiences. - Tim Cole, Professor of Social History and Director of the Brigstow Institute, Bristol University of Bristol Well organized and well written, Dance on the Razor's Edge represents the best quality of scholarship. Based on impressive research in several archives in Poland, Israel, and the United States, it offers a strong argument clearly presented and explained. The text, devoted to a problematic, emotionally loaded, and contested subject, is written in an objective, tactful, and calm - but at the same time, clear and convincing - tone. This book will be fascinating to a general audience and even more attractive to students and professors of Holocaust studies and the Second World War. - Piotr Wrobel, Professor and Konstanty Reynert Chair of Polish History, University of Toronto