Best jewish biographies according to redditors

We found 114 Reddit comments discussing the best jewish biographies. We ranked the 31 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top Reddit comments about Jewish Biographies:

u/ThurgoodLeroyJenkins · 104 pointsr/explainlikeimfive

I'm in no way an expert but the book Jews God & History did a good job of explaining it. According to the book the Jews have always put a strong emphasis on knowledge and learning. They were able to acquire knowledge from their conquerors and outlast their oppressors. When a new conqueror came along they helped to facilitate the change of leadership and taught the new conquerors the ways of the subjugated people. This led to them gaining an usual amount of power in many cultures. I highly recommend reading the book. Jews are a small group but make up a huge number of nobel prizes in science and mathematics.


Update: In case you want to read it It's simply written and very interesting. It even goes over how Christianity began. I've read many books but this is by far one of my favorites. I also recommend "Unholy Alliance" By: Peter Levanda. It explains how the Nazis came to believe what they did and the Occult/Secret Societies influence on Hitler.

u/phrostyphace · 90 pointsr/worldnews

its amazingly true, far past the point of mere "coincidence".

good read: http://smile.amazon.com/History-Jews-Paul-Johnson/dp/0060915331/
(www.rodriguezuribe.co/histories/A%20History%20of%20the%20Jews.pdf)

many the decline of an empire, curiously, occurs in a series of random disconnected events which all seem to coincide beautifully with a climactic emptying of jews.

odd, to be sure.

u/SuperMarioKartWinner · 60 pointsr/Conservative
u/hopefuly · 48 pointsr/blogsnark

You can read it via waybackmachine here, yIKES

​

"I’ve applied every ounce of the researching laser beam that Cambridge gives you as a result of 3 years to try and find an example of a girl who is 23 years old or younger when they publish their first memoir. And I couldn’t find a single example of one that had a positive life. Famous examples are Malala and The Diary of Anne Frank. They literally had to survive the Holocaust and be shot and left for dead on a bus. That’s what it takes to get a young girl a memoir."

u/erondites · 41 pointsr/DepthHub

If anyone is interested in more on this subject, I highly recommend Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt. Framed as an account of Adolph Eichmann's 1961 trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Jerusalem, the book really digs into how great evil is often brought about by banal motives like careerism and stupidity.

u/sektabox · 19 pointsr/europe
u/_Dimension · 11 pointsr/TopMindsOfReddit

I just read this book a few weeks ago.

https://www.amazon.com/Auschwitz-Doctors-Eyewitness-Miklos-Nyiszli/dp/161145011X

About a doctor in Auschwitz who did autopsies.

u/actuallymyaccount · 10 pointsr/worldnews

The biggest reason for anti-semitism, is and has been perceived usury and association with lending in general.

No one likes having debt, Jews have historically occupied the position of lenders in Europe, and as a result occupied a uniquely hated position in society. Humanity's natural xenophobic tendencies combined with this reenforcement, has been a much larger contributor than people believing that Jews were coming to eat their babies. You're switching the cause and the symptoms.

And bigotry and hatred are hardly unique to the Jewish people, and to say that one can't understand it though analogy is just silly.

edit: for you downvoters in particular, check out A History of the Jews, by Paul Johnson,, especially passages on usury on page 174. Well researched and well respected book on the subject.

u/Naptownfellow · 10 pointsr/Libertarian

read this book

https://www.amazon.com/Auschwitz-Doctors-Eyewitness-Miklos-Nyiszli/dp/161145011X

About a doctor in Auschwitz who did autopsies.

u/ddesjard · 10 pointsr/HistoryPorn

OP, I think you mean Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143039881/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_bGJGAbJ6XYEXC

u/BullDolphin · 10 pointsr/history

this is a very comprehensive look inside the internal structure and day-to-day life within Buchenwald, written by a guy who was there for six years as a prisoner. He gives some fascinating accounts of the ways in which the prisoners were able, despite all odds, to subvert the prison camp regime and assert a degree of autonomy - it had to do with the size of the camp, the sheer volume of prisoners and the kapo system. it's a very fascinating book.

u/papivebipi · 8 pointsr/worldnews

Lolek Skosowski, a Jew, a Gestapo agent, who in 1943 gave the Germans death to over 2,000 survivors so far during the so-called Polish Hotel scandal


there were also other Jewish voluntary organisations that were willing participants of Holocaust like the most famous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBagiew which was operating by infiltrating Jewish and Polish resistance movements, giving away the Polish groups hiding the Jews etc - making it significantly harder to operate since they never could be sure if the next Jewish person to hide is not the one that will give all the others away, etc.



and other like:

u/MrsSmartyPants · 8 pointsr/90DayFiance

I’m fascinated by the Jewish orthodox tradition of women covering their hair with wigs. That’s not the fascinating part, 😉. What I find fascinating is that “cheap” wigs are preferred because they’re more obvious. Essentially, the wearer wants people to know she’s wearing a wig.

I first learned about it in a memoir by Debra Feldman called Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005GG0M60/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_bpmvDb4W31Y4M) and am wondering if you had any resources/suggestions where I could find out more.

u/Ezterhazy · 8 pointsr/AskHistorians

The capture of Adolf Eichmann is a covert operation that I find interesting and Hannah Arendt's book Eichmann In Jerusalem about his trial in Israel is fascinating from both a historical and philosophical perspective.

u/[deleted] · 7 pointsr/AskHistorians

Sure, here you go. http://www.amazon.com/Destruction-European-Student-Volume-Edition/dp/0841909105/

Come back when you've read that and want to know more!

u/420InTheCity · 7 pointsr/exjew

I think a popular one is All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen. Was a really good memoir. Other than that I liked A Seat At the Table, which I liked a lot when I was in high school, 7 or 8 years ago, and I dunno what it'd be like now.

u/ineedatoothbrush · 7 pointsr/creepy

Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account https://www.amazon.com/dp/161145011X/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_fLYxxb9YMJCRX
The best and worst book I have ever read. It will answer all of your questions. This guy was Dr. Mengeles right hand man. Though he only did it to survive.

u/genuineindividual · 6 pointsr/Judaism

In my opinion, Paul Johnson's "A History of the Jews" is the best book for this: http://www.amazon.com/A-History-Jews-Paul-Johnson/dp/0060915331.

Simon Schama's five-part documentary, "The Story of the Jews," is also excellent: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/story-jews/

u/blankt · 6 pointsr/europe

I read "The Jewish War" by Josephus and it was very interesting how the radicalization and terrorist acts of his day mirrors that of today. It was particularly interesting to see how fundamentalist jews brought upon themselves the destruction of their capital but also their countryside (lots of people died of course) by continually aggravating the moderate and quite accommodating Romans whom they had absolutely zero chance of winning against. For years the Romans endured various attacks but made no retribution against the Jews as a whole, favoring peaceful co-existence and making allowance for their religion until it came to the point that the Romans just had enough. Despite some voices among the jews saying that they must make peace, simply because they couldn't possibly win against the Romans, the rebellion proceeded. In their hubris the Jews celebrated victory and even as the Romans were winning against them they continued to believe that they had a chance to win until it became painfully evident to them that they were facing crushing defeat. The terrorists died horribly, along with civilians of all ages.

What I took away from it was that the main complaint that the radicals had was that the Romans dictated how their country was run, which they did to a large extent although the Jews had some freedom of decisions. This didn't mean the Jews were made to live bad lives in oppression, simply that they weren't their own masters, and apparently this was enough to really enrage some people. Also the Romans made use of their resources. But all in all, people lived and did business like people normally do and nothing was terrible, daily life was trotting along as it customarily does.

With that in mind, I don't think you can appease the muslim radicalists in any way, because they're enraged simply because the west has the upper hand. Ok fine, maybe the west shouldn't impose on their oil/resources, but in the end of the day the west isn't making their people starve, they seem to be good at arranging that for themselves. They have this belief that with the west gone they will be better off, but in reality they won't, because they will still have problems. I really don't think you can reason with them. They have an idealistic view of how great it would be if the west weren't there but it's not like their own governments are all rainbows and unicorns.

Or what do you think?

u/bayesianqueer · 6 pointsr/medicine

I'm not shocked. Some people relish hurting others, but a much larger number will go along when there is immense social pressure and a cognitive dissonance defense that they can use to internally justify their actions. The military and the CIA engineer that social pressure and provide those defenses so that people who would never think they would even be capable of committing atrocities actually do. It's what Hannah Arendt referred to as the banality of evil. One of the points Arendt makes in Eichmann in Jerusalem is that he did not see himself as "just following orders" but that he was doing his duty as well as obeying the law. He did not see himself as abdicating his role as an active and even moral agent, but that he was carrying out the edicts of Hitler (and thus society) under a seriously fucked up interpretation of Kant's Categorical Imperative.

The health care providers who do this believe they are serving a higher purpose. They are actively helped to create justifications by the people who need their skills to commit torture. Think about it this way: Say I convinced you that if you tortured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the architect of 9/11) you could get him to give a grain of information that would prevent the deaths of 1 million people in whatever country you live in. Just imagine that you really believed this. Would you do it? Would you feel justified in doing so?

That is the reason that health care providers participated in torture.

Now we know that torture doesn't work and hasn't prevented much if any deaths, so we find it easy to condemn these people. (And I agree they should be condemned). However it's like the joke where the man asks a woman if she would have sex with him for $10 million. She says yes, then he asks if she would do it for $10. She replies with "No! What do you think I am?" The man replies, "well, we've established what you are, now we're just haggling over price."

edit: wurds

u/OracularLettuce · 5 pointsr/politics

Or Border Control is full of incompetents as a result of new and previous hiring pushes.

Earlier this year a story broke that one of the child detention centers was employing someone who had previously been arrested for child porn. It was widely pointed out at the time that this is what you get when you expand an organisation like this without a real barrier to entry, and do so quickly.

The reason is simple. Most people don't want to put "ran a child concentration camp" on their résumé. The people you attract are, frankly, not their best. You end up hiring people who are okay with the scandals, and that means people who are more malicious and less interested in providing a valuable public service.

The more scandals the agency is embroiled in, the fewer non-shitty applicants you'll see. Who wants to work for an organisation which is famous for losing track of children by the thousand, with the widely reported fear that the children were later picked up by sex traffickers? Who wants to work for an organisation which actively attempts to prevent journalists from reporting on the conditions in the concentration camps? Who wants to work for an organisation which cages children and employs pedophiles to do it? Who wants to work for an organisation which lost a thousand children again?

As the PR situation worsens, the applicant pool worsens too. As the percentage of employees who are terrible increases, the quality of service declines. Declining service begets scandals and bad PR, and the cycle repeats.

You end up building an environment which encourages, at best, laziness. At worst it creates a self sustaining misery generator where the goal is to inflict pain.

u/drak0bsidian · 4 pointsr/AdviceAnimals
  • Jews, God, and History would actually be a good pairing for your book now - while Johnson is more Zionist and philosemitic, Dimont takes a stance similar to Spinoza, which - while still of course being 'pro-Jew,' is more cultural in the context of the world than religious as the 'Chosen People.'
  • Jewish Literacy is what you are guaranteed to find on every single rabbi's shelf on Earth. Telushkin is an excellent writer, and is concise in his explanations of why we are the way we are and why we do what we do. It's less about a strict history than explaining all those things, but it's still valuable if you want to really get to your roots.
  • History of the Jewish People - I read this in college. More of a text for students, but valuable all the same.
  • Josephus is a historical text by one of the greatest historians from the turn of the first millennium. If you choose to get this, I highly recommend having Wikipedia open as you read it.
u/Tokenwhitemale · 4 pointsr/pics

http://www.lucifereffect.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Eichmann-Jerusalem-Banality-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143039881/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310132848&sr=8-1

Actually, we do comprehend evil of this sort very well. It's alot easier to describe the Nazi's and their atrocities as an incomprehensible evil than for us to recognize that it's something that even the best of us are capable of given the right environment.

u/longlivetheking100 · 4 pointsr/nyc

The short answer is no - I recommend reading All Who Go Do Not Return if you really want an in-depth look into what divorce means in this community when one parent wants to take a more secular path.

Divorce means losing your children, your entire social support system, and your family. It means being catapulted into a world you do not understand and do not fit into. In short, you start from zero.

u/Inglourious_Ryan · 4 pointsr/HistoryPorn

Check out this book by Miklos Nyiszli. He was a Hungarian Jew taken to Auschwitz and made to work for Joseph Mengele. His work was a major source in my undergrad capstone research and details many duties of the Sonderkommando. It's an excellent read!
www.amazon.com/Auschwitz-A-Doctors-Eyewitness-Account/dp/161145011X/ref=la_B001K8O94Y_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342001947&sr=1-1

u/thackworth · 4 pointsr/HistoryPorn

Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account has been one of my favorite memoirs about Auschwitz. The doctor is spared in order to help Mengele.

u/TheElderGodsSmile · 4 pointsr/europe

Mate, you need to buy and read Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt and learn about the concept of the banality of evil.

Perfectly normal and sane human beings are quite capable of doing truly horrific things. In fact that makes them far more dangerous than lunatics because the truly insane by definition lack the power to be truly destructive.

u/rnev64 · 3 pointsr/suggestmeabook

The Kindly Ones by Jontahan Little.

A masterpiece - I've read it several years ago and some parts of it still haunt me. A truly dark and powerful book - don't think I've read anything else quite like it.

Also Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith.

I guess it's not surprising books taking place during ww2 and in Soviet Russia fit the bill of making the outside world look like a Utopia - other of this genre will probably make good candidates - Anne Frank's diary
and the Island on the Bird Street would also crush any heart as would many others dealing with the darkest time in human history (quite an achievement - humanity has had a lot of dark periods).

u/ziggyTsarBust · 3 pointsr/politics

Read Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.

Standard conservative nationalism and xenophobia can easily transform into violent extremism.

u/sassy_lion · 3 pointsr/history

I think part of it is that is a copy (that seems to be one) printed by Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. I'd think that if you're going to the Auschwitz Memorial/Museum and picking up a copy, not a lot of people are going to sell them?

This translation is easier to get a hold of.

u/kerelberel · 3 pointsr/bih

Trenutno citam:

u/Rumelylady · 2 pointsr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

This a great contest! Sadly I can't enter as I have for books. I hope the person that wins receives a totally rad book! Heart everyone

Edit: Because I've told... I don't know how I've never managed to read The Diary of Anne Frank, but I really want to. <3

u/smokesteam · 2 pointsr/Judaism

I understand some of your situation pretty well. I came from a background of no religion at all and a negative feeling of what I thought organized religion was about before becoming a Jew. Also my wife came from a very traditional Buddhist background before becoming a Jew and she also shared concerns about this "getting in the way of a normal life".

The rabbi we first met with insisted that if I was interested in the conversion process that even before starting I had to bring her to meet with him because so much of being a Jew is family oriented so if I wanted to do this, his condition was that we both had to learn. He happens to be Conservative but of the old school variety, closer to what we would now call Modern Orthodox. The thing was that I was very fortunate that my wife was at least willing to learn with me for the sake of learning what this thing I was interested in was about. Even more fortunately she came to her own conclusion that this was for her as well. I cant say if this will be the same for you and your partner or not, but if you two communicate well then perhaps they may be willing as my wife was to see what is what just because it is important to you. As it turns out we ended up affiliating with the local Orthodox community as time went on but thats another story.

The books LazarA mentioned are all great. All I might add would be:

  • God, Jews & History by Max Dimont. This is not a religious text per se but gives a decent overview of our history as a people in context of where we have been. Being a Jew isnt just about religious practice, its about being part of a people with a complex history and that history has very much shaped our practice.

  • To Be a Jew by Hayim H. Donin was a decent overview as I recall. It covered about the events of the Jewish calendar and lifecycle among other topics.

    If you live in an area with several types of Jewish communities, I'd say meet with several rabbis if possible. Even you think now that you might look at Conservative Judaism, there's a range within that as well as within Orthodoxy and I assume but dont know for myself about the other flavors as well.

    Feel free to ask us here any and I do mean any questions you may have as well. I'm also available to answer questions by PM as I'm sure are several other of the regulars here in case you feel you dont want to ask in public. You may get conflicting answers but that is perfectly normal. We have a saying to the effect of if you ask two Jews you will get three opinions.
u/SF2K01 · 2 pointsr/Judaism

I've discussed Azlan's work many times. He is not an especially capable academic. Regarding Zealot, this is a quote from one of my colleagues that offers a succinct summary of what is wrong with the book from a Jewish/Religious studies perspective:

>...the book is basically an undergraduate paper. If I taught a BA seminar on Second Temple Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (or something along those lines) and got chapters from this book as term paper submissions, I'd be pleased with the effort, and somewhat disappointed with the content. There is real (sometimes quite basic) failure to analyze critically primary and secondary texts (for example, his research on the ca. 70 CE state of the Galilee is sorely lacking)....

Here is also an intelligent review from Prof. Allan Nadler who highlights similar issues at length.

As far as books on Judaism go, there are several options that grant a survey of Jewish history and Judaism. Max Diamont's Jews, God and History and Paul Johnson's A History of the Jews are very readable books, but neither are historians, with the latter being somewhat better than the former as he is not quite so clouded by his own associations.

The essential text that is worth looking at is H.H. Ben Sasson's A History of the Jewish People which covers the entire history of the Jews from a number of well known academics.

As for your other comments regarding wanting to know why Jews believe what they do, I second the recommendation of This is My God by Herman Wouk as he gives across the cultural sense of Judaism better than many (he is a writer, not a historian and his book has some mistakes, but they are minor and don't overshadow the message).

u/cgalv · 2 pointsr/worldnews

If you have not read it, may I recommend Eichmann in Jerusalem, by Hannah Arendt. On the one hand, it's an interesting story of the last major trial resulting from Nazi atrocities. Additionally, it's a thought-provoking treatise on the ubiquity of evil.

u/TheGhostOfTzvika · 2 pointsr/books

This is a real good book too:

A History of the Jews, by Paul Johnson

u/bridgemender · 2 pointsr/books

Night by Elie Wiesel covers all of those themes.

The idea that horrors happen to other people, not to us. That people will allow terrible things to happen, one small step at a time, without fighting back, in the hope that the wolf will go to someone else's door.

u/Blainesapain · 2 pointsr/books

You may be interested in Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the banality of evil by Hannah Arendt. Arendt uses Eichmann (considered by some to be one of the cruelest men in the Third Reich) to show the Holocaust was brought on by complacency more than evil intent.
http://www.amazon.com/Eichmann-Jerusalem-Banality-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143039881

You may also like The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. I haven't read this one, but it seems pretty cool.

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Nazi-Psychiatrist-Hermann-Douglas/dp/161039156X

u/DarthCorleone · 2 pointsr/BeAmazed

Again, to anyone reading this questioning whether they should continue their education - I point you to these comments.

These are the thoughts of someone who is intellectually bankrupt. I can't imagine the anguish and utter hell you must live in, to be either fully incapable or fully uninterested in learning a bare bones outline of the history of the last century. But then again, they say ignorance is bliss.

Wikipedia is a multilingual online encyclopedia with exclusively free content and no ads. It is the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Walters

Further reading:

https://www.amazon.com/Anne-Frank-Diary-Young-Girl/dp/0553296981/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BGTU1OTLE40S&keywords=anne+frank+diary+of+a+young+girl&qid=1556809315&s=gateway&sprefix=anne+frank%2Caps%2C186&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Martin-Luther-King-Jr/dp/0446676500/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=martin+luther+king+jr+biography&qid=1556809342&s=gateway&sr=8-2

u/President2032 · 2 pointsr/RandomKindness

This book! http://www.amazon.com/Eichmann-Jerusalem-Banality-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143039881/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321518551&sr=8-1
I'm a freshman in college and had to use the money I had saved for a speeding ticket, so now I'm broke. :c

u/PMme_slave_leia_pics · 2 pointsr/pics

Would you like to read something that shows what happens when countries are governed by fascist despots, liars and thieves? Like now in America?

try this

u/FponkDamn · 2 pointsr/Libertarian
u/WishIWereHere · 1 pointr/SubredditDrama

There actually were a few. Not huge numbers, but the book Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account was written by a guy who did autopsies for Mengele.

Obviously your overall point is indeed correct, in that of course the state doesn't give a shit about the cause of death in people deliberately killed by the state, but some records do exist. Naturally, they've been faked by the reptilian Jewish overlords.

u/ozzalot · 1 pointr/suggestmeabook

https://www.amazon.com/Auschwitz-Doctors-Eyewitness-Miklos-Nyiszli/dp/161145011X


An account of a jew who was spared of extermination because he performed surgeries on other jews caught in the Nazi's human experiments

u/NotSuzyHomemaker · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

page-turner!

My favorites:

u/BMFunkster · 1 pointr/MorbidReality

I suggest reading Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account. It is a very chilling account of a Jewish pathologist working for the SS in the camps. I recently finished it before seeing these pictures, and they hit a nerve.

At one point he describes boiling the flesh off some corpses to obtain skeletons for research, and some prisoners actually started to eat some of the meat because they were so hungry. Sad stuff.

u/Mephisterson · 1 pointr/history

A good book to read on the subject of Auschwitz is,
http://www.amazon.com/Auschwitz-A-Doctors-Eyewitness-Account/dp/161145011X

Be prepared to cry a lot. It's awful and hard to read about it. Also, they did kill a lot of people on arrival.

u/zambixi · 1 pointr/secretsanta

Hm....well the books I suggested before are certainly within the 21-year mark...I grew up with some of them and I'm only 23. For really recent ones, I know of:

u/fschmidt · 1 pointr/Bible

What is WC?

I watched some of the 9/11 video. Self-sacrifice is associated with goodness, but then the Islamic terrorists also practiced self-sacrifice, so self-sacrifice by itself isn't enough. Good judgement is also needed. Also, 2000 was still better than now. There probably were some good people at that time, it is only in the last few years that I have seen all traces of goodness disappear.

Romans 12:2 is something I quote to Christians all the time (at least I did when I dealt with them). Of course I wish Christians would follow this, but only traditional Anabaptists seem to. Mainstream Christianity is completely conformed to this age.

I haven't read "Night" by Elie Wiesel. I know enough about this topic since most of family died in the Holocaust and my father escaped from a Nazi work camp and then fought, blowing up German trains. Individuals can make the most difference when there is open war between good and evil, by siding with good. But when one is surrounded by ubiquitous evil, as in modern culture, it is much harder to make a difference.

Ancient Israel was a case of constant conflict between good and evil with good generally being the minority. Still, at least there always seemed to be at least one prophet of good, which is better than today.

Most of what Jesus says is consistent with the Old Testament, and his opinion of Solomon is no exception. Solomon clearly violated Deuteronomy 17:14-20.

I didn't write much about the New Testament because modern Christianity doesn't work. But here is one thing I wrote:

http://www.mikraite.org/Who-is-my-neighbor-tp481.html

About history, please don't waste your time on YouTube and on history books. Only original sources have value. Here are some books that you may find interesting:

https://www.amazon.com/Reformation-Reader-Primary-Texts-Introductions/dp/0800663101/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002GJGIDQ/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1607961806/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140444203/

https://www.amazon.com/002-American-History-Revolution-1765-1865/dp/0394705416/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394708423/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140455280/

To understand the world wars, probably the best book to read is Mein Kampf.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LDLI0S/

Like with religion, one has to get as close to the source as possible in history to find truth.

u/ami_really · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

I gave my brother (who never EVER reads, and doesn't like "hard books") How to stop time also by Matt Haig, he read it in one sitting and then went out and got the rest of his books and read them all in a couple weeks. Christopher Moore is also great, Sacre Bleu is my favourite.

​

for non-fiction: Letter from Birmingham Jailby Martin Luther King, Jr. anything by Audre Lorde or James Baldwin and Anne Frank and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for showing him how to appreciate life.

u/CowardiceNSandwiches · 1 pointr/conspiracy

>Even orthodox historians no longer hold to the 6 million figure.

I would be very much interested to see some citation supporting this.

>Auschwitz was initially said to be 4 million, and was officially reduced to "1 - 1.5" million in 1989.

That estimate of 4,000,000 was Soviet propaganda, and only accepted by a minority of historians, even in the immediate post-war era.

>Oh wait, where did 2.9 million people go?

The 4,000,000 figure was never included in accepted estimates of overall deaths. Its refutation has been seized upon by deniers as evidence of some shady coverup, when in reality it was never part of the approximation of 6,000,000 dead. As such, there weren't "2.9 million people" to remove from the estimates.


Raul Hilberg (whom you mentioned) arrived at his number in 1961.

Another Holocaust scholar, Gerald Reitlinger published an estimate of 800,000-900,000 Jews murdered in Auschwitz in 1968.

Franciszek Piper, historian for the Auschwitz State Museum, himself in the 1980s estimated deaths at Auschwitz at just under 1,100,000. He arrived at this figure by examining records on the number of Jews deported to the camp, then subtracting out those who were transferred elsewhere, released, liberated, etc.

To be clear, Auschwitz was only the worst of the death camps, but hardly the only place (or method) where Jews and other hated ethnic groups were murdered en masse.

Some of the larger actual death camps were:

  • Majdanek (78,000 of whom 61,000 were Jews);
  • Chelmno (320,000);
  • Treblinka (762,000);
  • Sobibor (167,000), and
  • Belzec (434,000-500,000)

    That's between 2,761,000 and 3,327,000 in just those camps alone plus Auschwitz. Those figures don't count all the many thousands of smaller camps (not death camps per se, but many Jews were murdered through abuse, overwork and starvation nonetheless), actions by Einsatzgruppen (estimated at 1.5M), etc.
u/SoftandChewy · 1 pointr/history

How could no one have mentioned "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl"?!

u/Cellophane_Girl · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust.. This book would be amazing. I'm sure it will make me feel all the feels It's under $5 new, but I'm totally cool with used if it saves you any money. Used book have character. :)



Thank you for the contest! <3

u/somethingorthe · 1 pointr/books
u/bencvm · 1 pointr/Judaism

It really depends on what portion of history you're interested in.
American Judaism

The Jew in the Medieval World

Biblical Archaeology a Very Short Introduction

u/stitch-e · 1 pointr/suggestmeabook

I really liked Man's Search for Meaning. I found it directly after reading Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jeruselem. You might try it out. They're not the same exactly, but I found Arendt's writing style similar to Frankl's. It was direct, immediately accessible, and philosophic.

u/Nokmim1948 · 0 pointsr/Israel

Can't appreciate modern Israel without also learning about ancient Israel and Jewish history. I would recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Jews-God-History-50th-Anniversary/dp/0451529405/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1468822616&sr=8-5&keywords=jewish+history

u/salubrium · 0 pointsr/reddit.com

An 'interesting' perspective, though I think Max Dimont in Jews, God and History gives a much better and more balanced perspective not just on anti-semitism but also a rather good overview of history of the Jewish people. I read it to try and understand the nature of anti-semitism as one of my close friends is Jewish, which are reasonably uncommon in Australia (outside Bondi)

u/peisistratid · 0 pointsr/conspiracy

I don't know - I imagine the reasons are numerous and complex. In fact, this is something I would like to understand better, and I plan to pick up a history book on it at some point. If you also want to learn the actual reasons, I would suggest something like this book, it's probably what I'll read when I get around to it.

u/159734682 · 0 pointsr/conspiracy

PART TWO OF TWO

(HOW DID MERMELSTEIN'S FATHER DIE? COUNT THREE WAYS)

  • 1969 German Consulate, Los Angeles: during evacuation marches to Blechhammer from other camps
  • 1979 "By Bread Alone": died in bed after working himself to death, trading food for cigarettes
  • 1981 deposition: died of overwork and exhaustion
  • 1985 deposition: exhaustion, cruelty, starvation and beatings
  • other accounts: gassed at Auschwitz

    (MERMELSTEIN CARRIED BODIES FROM THE GAS CHAMBER TO THE CREMATORIA?)

    During Mermelstein's time in Auschwitz (May 21 - July 1, 1944), his account differed

  • 1969: no occupation
  • 1981: just some detail work, no physical work
  • 1987: Ed Koch (New York Mayor) said he met Mermelstein during a tour of Auschwitz and was told "I was part of the special detail which hauled the bodies from the gas chamber and took them to the crematoria."

    (MERMELSTEIN WENT SWIMMING IN BLOOD?)

  • Camp guards would kill an inmate if they didn't like the shape of your nose (suggesting his own nose was not unattractive)
  • Bread was given not for nourishment but to kill inmates as fast as they expected them to die
  • Mermelstein claimed to have gone swimming in blood despite claiming the tranportation to Buchenwald was "only for one purpose" (to be disposed of in the crematorium rather than "litter the beautiful towns and cities with our bodies"
  • In 1981 deposition claimed to have personally known Dr. Miklos Nyiszli (Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account) and that Nyiszli would testify on his behalf about Mengele (but... Nyiszli had already died in 1956, some 25 years ago)

    (MERMELSTEIN'S SISTERS WERE STILL ALIVE AFTER HE ALLEGED THEY WERE GASSED)

    Mermelstein alleged his sisters had died in May 1944 and personally saw them being taken to the gas chamber but IHR found a German document dated October 12, 1944, or five months after their supposed deaths, listing 500 Jewish females being transported to Altenburg. Their names were Edith Mermelstein and Magda Mermelstein, the very same names of his sisters though their date of birth was not exactly as Mermelstein gave in his book.

    (GASSINGS WERE A NEW STORY)

    IHR proprosed that Mermelstein created the story about the gassing of his mother and sisters only after learning of IHR's reward since there was no mention prior to 1980 and in fact the first ever mention was in his letters attacking IHR in the summer of 1980.

    His book in 1979, statement to Auschwitz State Museum in 1967, sworn affidavit at the German Consulate in Los Angeles in 1969... none mention anything about witnessing any gassing. Prior to 1979 all detailed press accounts about his industrious activity as a lecturer, exhibitor of artifacts and museum proprietor never mention the story of the gassing of his mother and sisters.

    (THE SECOND TRIAL)

    The trial judge was Stephen Lachs, Jewish, the first avowed gay judge in California history and a member of American Civil Liberties Union. Despite Mermelstein's attorneys trying to appeal to the judge's Jewish backgrounds, Judge Lachs was a conscientious and impartial judge.

    Von Eches caved in at the last minute fearing ruin and paid $100,000 to Mermelstein along with an apology stating that Jews had been gassed at Auschwitz and millions more had perished in Auschwitz and other camps at the hands of the Germans.

    Hulsy's 49 pre-trial motions helped withstand and counter Mermelstein's case by his three lawyers (Lawrence Heller, Peter Bersin and Jeff Mausner)

    (PUBLIC FIGURE)

    Mermelstein refused to consider himself as a public figure. Mark Lane was able to lead him into making damaging admissions one by one that he was a:

  • published author
  • founder of "Auschwitz Study Foundation" (non-profit educational organization)
  • curator of a Holocaust museum
  • willing subject of scores of newspaper and magazine stories, radio and television interviews (i.e. a media star)
  • eager accumulator of plaudits (praise) and testimonials from state and local governments, and laurels from Israel's PM Begin (political honoree)
  • lecturer who has spoken some two decades at numerous colleges, high schools, synagogues, etc across the United States

    When asked how many lectures he has given on Auschwitz before 1985, Mermelstein said as many as "the fingers on my hands". Lane shows a typed list signed by Mermelstein of over 30 lectures given in 18 months in 1981-1982. Mermelstein then tried to be crafty and say he might have lectured more than once at the same place.

    After a break for lunch, O'Keefe recalled a deposition from 1985 where Mermelstein stated he gave an average of 20 lectures a year on Auschwitz since 1967 (i.e. 20 lectures multiplied by 18 years is some 360 lectures given). When presented with this, Mermelstein blurted "I mean the fingers of my hand and feet!" Bersin conceded that Mermelstein's status was that of a public figure.

    (MERMELSTEIN'S SUIT IS DISMISSED)

    Several days later, Judge Lachs, reviewing Mermelstein's characterization of IHR's 1985 settlement (on a New York City radio broadcast) claiming that IHR had signed the 1981 judicial notice of gassing at Auschwitz, declared it could be interpreted as defamatory and that IHR had probable cause to sue Mermelstein in 1986. Judge Lachs ruled in favor of IHR and dismissed Mermelstein's malicious prosecution complaint on September 19, 1991.

    Mermelstein voluntarily dismissed his libel and conspiracy complaints soon afterwards, his appeal of the ruling was unanimously rejected by the California Court of Appeal (Nott, Gates, Fukuto) on October 28, 1992, putting an end to the 11 year legal battle.
u/dar-ell · -1 pointsr/vegan

My friend, I feel for you. Spend some time reading up on the Nuremberg trials or read The Theory and Practice of Hell to get an idea of what really happened during the Holocaust before you make comparisons. This is not a topic that should be discussed so lightly...