Conscience and Courage
Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
In this brilliantly researched and insightful book, psychologist Eva Fogelman presents compelling stories of rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust--and offers a revealing analysis of their motivations. Based on her extensive experience as a therapist treating Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and those who helped them, Fogelman delves into the psychology of altruism, illuminating why these rescuers chose to act while others simply stood by. While analyzing motivations, Conscience And Courage tells the stories of such little-known individuals as Stefnaia Podgorska Burzminska, a Polish teenager who hid thirteen Jews in her home; Alexander Roslan, a dealer in the black market who kept uprooting his family to shelter three Jewish children in his care, as well as more heralded individuals such as Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg, and Miep Gies. Speaking to the same audience that flocked to Steven Spielberg's Academy Award-winning movie, Schindler's List, Conscience And Courage is the first book to go beyond the stories to answer the question: Why did they help?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Some sheltered one Jew for a night; others hid several Jews for years. Some performed a single spontaneous act of heroism, like the baker who saved the author's father in Poland in 1942; others were part of an anonymous network. These brave people, along with the well-known rescuers Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg, had this in common: they were gentiles who risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazi regime. In her deeply affecting book, Fogelman recounts the stories of these Europeans --housewives, businessmen, telephone operators, farmers, diplomats, nurses--and tells how the state of Israel has honored them with the title ``Righteous Among the Nations.'' The author, a New York City social psychologist who directs the Jewish Foundation for Christian Rescuers, ponders deep questions: Why did these particular individuals become rescuers? Can moral integrity be taught and then applied? Is there such a thing as altruism? She explains that one of her reasons for writing the book was ``to give altruism back its good name.'' Her study of extraordinary instances of moral courage will appeal to a broad audience. Fogelman wrote and co-produced the PBS series Breaking the Silence: The Generations After the Holocaust.
