Lives Reclaimed: A Story of Rescue and Resistance in Nazi Germany

Lives Reclaimed tells an extraordinary story of resistance against the Nazi regime and help for Jews in the Third Reich. Still largely unknown today, 'The Bund' were a small left-wing group based in Germany's industrial heartland. Initially preoccupied with surviving the Nazi onslaught and adapting to clandestine life under a dictatorship, in 1938 the men and women of the Bund were shocked by the anti-Jewish violence of Kristallnacht into reaching out to their Jewish neighbours. Using an unparalleled trove of previously undiscovered private papers, Mark Roseman places support for Jews under the shadow of Nazism in a completely new light, exploring the striking palette of gestures and actions that proved possible even in Nazi Germany - from simple symbolic acts of solidarity, through sending parcels to the Polish ghettos and Theresienstadt, to providing false identities and hiding people on the run. In doing so, he uncovers the challenges of living and acting under a dictatorship when neighbours and acquaintances might be as great a threat as the Gestapo, and examines the experiences of those assisted by the group, as they hid in plain sight, moving from address to address. Throughout, we are prompted to ask what drove and equipped the Bund to step into the broken glass of Kristallnacht, to visit Jewish organizations and Jewish barracks to ascertain local needs, to line up in the post-office with packages for Theresienstadt, or to brave a visit to the cells in a local police station with a message for imprisoned Jews? Although not the first book to tell the story of Jews saved from Nazi persecution, the story of the Bund is unique in the way it is able to pursue the choices, dilemmas, fears, and hopes of the helpers themselves, observing them through the changing conditions of both war and Holocaust. Cover A Story of Rescue and Resistance in Nazi Germany: Liver Reclaimed Copyright Dedication Epigraph Contents LIVES RECLAIMED Map Introduction: Flowers for the Heinemanns 1. Years of Innocence Origins of the Bund Politics of the Personal The Bund and Its Members Seeing the Dangers? 2. The Assault Grudges and Politics A Chill Wind in the Schoolyard Denunciations and the Diffusion of Terror An Existential Crisis 3. From Vanguard to Refuge Burning Issues Seventeen Points Hidden Choices The Bund as Refuge The Solace of Nature Anti-NaziMovement 4. Calls to Arms Standing By Overcoming Their Reserve Motives and Barriers to Action The Outbreak of War The Bund and Its Children Rock Bottom 5. Lifelines Gifts of the Spirit Deportation and Dissemination The Bund and the Onset of Mass Deportations The Parcel Service Forced Labor You Must Hear It from Me Again and Again 6. In Plain Sight From Offering Aid to Providing Refuge The Bund Intervenes Lisa on the Run The Gift of Community Another Past in Hiding On the Run Between Spiritual Refuge and Emotional Turmoil 7. The Test of Total War The Battle of the Ruhr Victims of Nazism, Victims of War The Life Raft Fellow Victims The War and the Lessons of History The Bund in the Battlefield Two Letters 8. The Endgame Calculated Risks: The Jacobses in a Time of Danger Lives in the Balance The Front Moves Closer Besieged Utopia on Two Wood Burners At Risk till the BitterEnd 9. Our Flock Has Grown Lonely Liberation Ready for the Future Freedom’s Frustrations The Chance of Renewal Creating a Public Recordof Resistanceand Rescue Grappling with Change Where Are the Young Peoplein the Bund? 10. Beyond Recognition Bund Members, Official Assistance, and Compensation Inscribed on the Body Taking Liberties A Footnote in History Who Werethe Righteous? Changed Beyond Recognition? A Spiritual Journey Unrecognizable Pasts Conclusion: The Rescue of History The Bund’s Achievement Motives and Means Resistanceand Resilience Rescue, Help, and Self-Help Rescue, Experience, and Memory Lives Reclaimed SOURCES: Primary Sources Public Archives Private Collections Printed Primary Sources Interviews Group Conversations Radio Broadcasts and Online Interviews Secondary Literature ABBREVIATIONS NOTES Introduction 1. Years of Innocence 2. The Assault 3. From Vanguard to Refuge 4. Calls to Arms 5. Lifelines 6. In Plain Sight 7. The Test of Total War 8. The Endgame 9. Our Flock Has Grown Lonely 10. Beyond Recognition Conclusion: The Rescue of History ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INDEX ABOUT THE AUTHOR