The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust
The Seventh Million is the first book to show the decisive impact of the Holocaust on the identity, ideology, and politics of Israel. Drawing on diaries, interviews, and thousands of declassified documents, Segev reconsiders the major struggles and personalities of Israel's past, including Ben-Gurion, Begin, and Nahum Goldmann, and argues that the nation's legacy has, at critical moments--the Exodus affair, the Eichmann trial, the case of John Demjanjuk--have been molded and manipulated in...
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The Seventh Million is the first book to show the decisive impact of the Holocaust on the identity, ideology, and politics of Israel. Drawing on diaries, interviews, and thousands of declassified documents, Segev reconsiders the major struggles and personalities of Israel's past, including Ben-Gurion, Begin, and Nahum Goldmann, and argues that the nation's legacy has, at critical moments—the Exodus affair, the Eichmann trial, the case of John Demjanjuk—have been molded and manipulated in accordance with the ideological requirements of the state. The Seventh Million uncovers a vast and complex story and reveals how the bitter events of decades past continue to shape the experiences not just of individuals but of a nation. Translated by Haim Watzman. Publishers Weekly The Jewish community of pre-Israel Palestine had a ``less than compassionate response'' to the destruction of European Jewry, charges Segev, an Israeli journalist, in this blockbuster. Palestine's Zionist establishment stereotyped German Jewish immigrants fleeing Nazism as yekkes --cold, blockheaded and alienated from Judaism. The Zionist community's first pained, uncomprehending encounter with the Holocaust survivors, according to Segev, gave rise to the silence that surrounded the Holocaust through the 1950s. Drawing on a trove of newly declassified Israeli documents, Segev ( 1949: The First Israelis ) illuminates secret 1951 German-Israeli negotiations over reparation payments, the ``vengeance operations'' of militant Holocaust survivors against Germany, and controversy over Israel's nuclear weapons program. With great sensitivity, he explores how the collective memory of the Holocaust has shaped Israel's response to a host of issues, from the Adolf Eichmann trial to the Persian Gulf war. (Apr.)
AcknowledgmentsPrologue: Ka-Tzetnik's Trip3Pt. IHitler: The Yekkes Are Coming1"The Streets Are Paved with Money"152"A Son of Europe"35Pt. IIHolocaust: It Was in the Papers3"Rommel, Rommel, How Are You?"674"Happy Is the Match"825"A Warm Jewish Heart"97Pt. IIIIsrael: The Last Jews6"At First I Thought They Were Animals"1137"A Certain Distance"1238"Six Million Germans"1409"A Barrier of Blood and Silence"153Pt. IVRestitution: How Much Will We Get for Grandma and Grandpa?10"Add a Few Moral Arguments"18911"Gas against Jews"21112"The Baby Went for Free"227Pt. VPolitics: The Kastner Affair13"It Is Hard for Us, the Judges of Israel"25514"His Soul to the Devil"27615"The Walls Are Beginning to Crack"28516"Jeremiah the Prophet, for Example"29617"There Is No Certainty That Our Children Will Remain Alive"311Pt. VITrial: Eichmann in Jerusalem18"Let Them Hate, and Let Them Go to Hell"32319"Six Million Times No!"34520"Gloom Shall Not Prevail"367Pt. VIIGrowing Up: From War to War21"Everyone Thought about It"38722"Hitler Is Already Dead, Mr. Prime Ministers"39623"Deep in Our Souls"405Pt. VIIIMemory: The Struggle to Shape the Past24"Holocaust and Heroism"42125"The Rest of Your Life with Monik and Frieda"44626"What Is There to Understand? They Died and That's It"45827"When You See a Graveyard"47728"What Does it Do to Me?"487Epilogue509Notes519Index581
\ From the Publisher\ "Superb . . . Throws new light on the central trauma of Israeli society, and the uses and abuses of this trauma for political manipulation. I, for one, learned from this book that, in order to survive, societies must learn not only to remember but also to forget."--Amos Elon, author of Founders and Sons\ "This book is indispensable reading for anyone interested in Israel's self-image and identity . . . Any further discussion of the Holocaust must confront Tom Segev's work."--George L. Mosse, author of Nazi Culture\ "Frank and eye-opening . . . A valuable addition."--Lawrence L. Langer, The New York Times Book Review\ "Richly documented and written with great passion."--Elie Wiesel, Los Angeles Times Book Review\ \ \ \ \ \ \ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ The Jewish community of pre-Israel Palestine had a ``less than compassionate response'' to the destruction of European Jewry, charges Segev, an Israeli journalist, in this blockbuster. Palestine's Zionist establishment stereotyped German Jewish immigrants fleeing Nazism as yekkes --cold, blockheaded and alienated from Judaism. The Zionist community's first pained, uncomprehending encounter with the Holocaust survivors, according to Segev, gave rise to the silence that surrounded the Holocaust through the 1950s. Drawing on a trove of newly declassified Israeli documents, Segev ( 1949: The First Israelis ) illuminates secret 1951 German-Israeli negotiations over reparation payments, the ``vengeance operations'' of militant Holocaust survivors against Germany, and controversy over Israel's nuclear weapons program. With great sensitivity, he explores how the collective memory of the Holocaust has shaped Israel's response to a host of issues, from the Adolf Eichmann trial to the Persian Gulf war. (Apr.)\ \ \ Library JournalSegev ( 1949: The First Israelis , LJ 2/1/86), a highly respected Israeli journalist-historian, presents a compelling work of scholarship. This tour de force draws on previously untapped archival sources, including thousands of unpublished and recently declassified documents and scores of personal interviews. Segev belongs to the generation of Israelis about which, in part, he writes. He portrays dramatically how the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine prior to 1948) faced the challenges of Nazi Germany and wartime Zionist politics as well as the subsequent impact of the Holocaust on Israeli society. Segev unearths and probes a range of disturbing and delicate historical issues, raising important questions about the use and misuse of Holocaust instruction to today's Israeli youth--a generation born after the Yom Kippur War of 1973. This path-breaking volume will enrich any public or academic collection on Israel, Zionism, or the Holocaust.-- Mark A. Raider, Brandeis Univ., Waltham, Mass.\ \
