The book assembles case studies on the human dimension of the Holocaust as illuminated in the academic work of preeminent Holocaust scholar Deborah Dwork, the founding director of the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, home of the first doctoral program focusing solely on the Holocaust and other genocides. Written by fourteen of her former doctoral students, its chapters explore how agency, a key category in recent Holocaust studies and the work of Dwork, works in a variety of different ‘small’ settings – such as a specific locale or region, an organization, or a group of individuals.
How Jewish responses during the Holocaust shed new light on the dynamics of genocide and political violence Focusing on the choices and actions of Jews during the Holocaust, Ordinary Jews examines the different patterns of behavior of civilians targeted by mass violence. Relying on rich archival material and hundreds of survivors' testimonies, Evgeny Finkel presents a new framework for understanding the survival strategies in which Jews engaged: cooperation and collaboration, coping and compliance, evasion, and resistance. Finkel compares Jews' behavior in three Jewish ghettos—Minsk, Kraków, and Białystok—and shows that Jews' responses to Nazi genocide varied based on their experiences with prewar policies that either promoted or discouraged their integration into non-Jewish society. Finkel demonstrates that while possible survival strategies were the same for everyone, individuals' choices varied across and within communities. In more cohesive and robust Jewish communities, coping—confronting the danger and trying to survive without leaving—was more organized and successful, while collaboration with the Nazis and attempts to escape the ghetto were minimal. In more heterogeneous Jewish communities, collaboration with the Nazis was more pervasive, while coping was disorganized. In localities with a history of peaceful interethnic relations, evasion was more widespread than in places where interethnic relations were hostile. State repression before WWII, to which local communities were subject, determined the viability of anti-Nazi Jewish resistance. Exploring the critical influences shaping the decisions made by Jews in Nazi-occupied eastern Europe, Ordinary Jews sheds new light on the dynamics of collective violence and genocide.
Medical Geology is a rapidly growing field concerned with the relationship between natural geological factors and human and animal health, as well as with improving our understanding of the influence of environmental factors on the geographical distribution of health problems. This book brings together the work of geoscientists and medical/public health researchers, which addresses health problems caused, or exacerbated by geological materials (rocks, minerals, atmospheric dust and water) and processes (including volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Among the environmental health problems discussed in this book are: exposure to toxic levels of trace essential and non-essential elements such as arsenic and mercury; trace element deficiencies; exposure to natural dusts and to radioactivity; naturally occurring organic compounds in drinking water; volcanic emissions, etc. The text also deals with the many health benefits of geologic materials and processes. This wide-ranging volume covers issues in medical geology all over the world with each author covering their respective region. It provides examples from different continents as well as a state-of-the-art review of the latest developments in the discipline. The authors are all recognized geoscientific and medical experts working in the field. The book is written for a wide variety of specialists from geologists, geochemists, pathologists and medical doctors to veterinarians and biologists.
Unrivaled in scope, "Holocaust" is a story of all Europe, of the vast sweep of events in which this great atrocity was rooted, from the Middle Ages to the modern era.
Written by a Czech Jewish boy, A Boy in Terezín covers a year of Pavel Weiner's life in the Theresienstadt transit camp in the Czech town of Terezín from April 1944 until liberation in April 1945. The Germans claimed that Theresienstadt was "the town the Führer gave the Jews," and they temporarily transformed it into a Potemkin village for an International Red Cross visit in June 1944, the only Nazi camp opened to outsiders. But the Germans lied. Theresienstadt was a holding pen for Jews to be shipped east to annihilation camps. While famous and infamous figures and historical events flit across the pages, they form the background for Pavel's life. Assigned to the now-famous Czech boys' home, L417, Pavel served as editor of the magazine Ne?ar. Relationships, sports, the quest for food, and a determination to continue their education dominate the boys' lives. Pavel's father and brother were deported in September 1944; he turned thirteen (the age for his bar mitzvah) in November of that year, and he grew in his ability to express his observations and reflect on them. A Boy in Terezín registers the young boy's insights, hopes, and fears and recounts a passage into maturity during the most horrifying of times.
This book tells thirty stories of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky—from early European exploration to the end of the Civil War. Readers will be introduced to well-known characters, little-known heroes, and events that changed history—from “How ‘Old Glory’ Got Its Name” in Tennessee and “The Court-Martial of Daniel Boone” in Kentucky to “The Invention of the Cotton Gin” in Georgia and “The Capture of Aaron Burr” in Mississippi.
This book collects the publications of the special Topic Scientific advances in STEM: from Professor to students. The aim is to contribute to the advancement of the Science and Engineering fields and their impact on the industrial sector, which requires a multidisciplinary approach. University generates and transmits knowledge to serve society. Social demands continuously evolve, mainly because of cultural, scientific, and technological development. Researchers must contextualize the subjects they investigate to their application to the local industry and community organizations, frequently using a multidisciplinary point of view, to enhance the progress in a wide variety of fields (aeronautics, automotive, biomedical, electrical and renewable energy, communications, environmental, electronic components, etc.). Most investigations in the fields of science and engineering require the work of multidisciplinary teams, representing a stockpile of research projects in different stages (final year projects, master's or doctoral studies). In this context, this Topic offers a framework for integrating interdisciplinary research, drawing together experimental and theoretical contributions in a wide variety of fields.
