A Jewish Kapo in Auschwitz

History, Memory, and the Politics of Survival

Tuvia Friling

Tuvia Friling

Eliezer Gruenbaum (1908–1948) was a Polish Jew denounced for serving as a Kapo while interned at Auschwitz. He was the communist son of Itzhak Gruenbaum, the most prominent secular leader of interwar Polish Jewry who later became the chairman of the Jewish Agency’s Rescue Committee during the Holocaust and Israel’s first minister of the interior. In light of the father’s high placement in both Polish and Israeli politics, the denunciation of the younger Gruenbaum and his suspicious death during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war add intrigue to a controversy that really centers on the question of what constitutes—and how do we evaluate—moral behavior in Auschwitz. Gruenbaum—a Jewish Kapo, a communist, an anti-Zionist, a secularist, and the son of a polarizing Zionist leader—became a symbol exploited by opponents of the movements to which he was linked. Sorting through this Rashomon-like story within the cultural and political contexts in which Gruenbaum operated, Friling illuminates key debates that rent the Jewish community in Europe and Israel from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Series:

The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies

Paper: $40 | Cloth: $85 | E-book: $39.99

ISBN-13: 9781611685879

Pages: 344 | Size: 6.25 in. x 9.25 in.

Date Published: July 1, 2014

Imprint:

Brandeis University Press

History |
Jewish Studies

About the Author

Tuvia Friling

Dr. Tuvia Friling earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Jewish history from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his B.A. in general and Jewish history from Ben Gurion University of the Negev. During his fellowship at the Museum, he was a Senior Research Fellow at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. For his David and Fela Shapell Family Foundation Fellowship, Dr. Friling researched his project, “A Kaleidoscopic Study of Illegal Immigration Operations, Aid, Rescue, and Intelligence Activity …

Founded in 1971, Brandeis University Press is a nonprofit publisher dedicated to publishing innovative, high-quality books for a general audience, as well as scholarship that advances knowledge and promotes dialogue in the humanities, arts, and social sciences around the world.

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A Jewish Kapo in Auschwitz

History, Memory, and the Politics of Survival

Tuvia Friling

About the Author

Tuvia Friling

Table Of Contents

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