It seems at first commonplace: a group photograph of peasants at harvest time, after hard work well done, resting contentedly with their tools behind the fruits of their labor. But when one finally notices the "crops" scattered in front of the group, what seemed innocent on first view become horrific skulls and bones. Where are we? Who are the people in the photograph, and what are they doing?
The starting point of Jan Tomasz and Irena Grudzinska Gross's Golden Harvest, this haunting photograph in fact depicts a group of peasants - "diggers" - atop a mountain of ashes at Treblinka, where some 800,000 Jews were gassed and cremated. The diggers are searching for gold and precious stones that Nazi executioners may have overlooked. The story captured in this grainy black-and-white photograph symbolizes the vast, continent-wide plunder of Jewish wealth that went hand-in-hand with the Holocaust.
The seizure of Jewish assets during World War II occasionally generates widespread attention when Swiss banks are challenged to produce lists of dormant accounts, or national museums are forced to return stolen paintings. But the theft of Europe's Jewish population was not limited to conquering armies, leading banks, or museums. It was perpetrated also by local people, such as those pictured in the photograph. Lyrical and often heartbreaking, A Golden Harvest takes readers across Europe as it exposes the economic ravaging of an entire society. Beginning with a simple group shot, the authors have written a moving book that evokes the depth and range, as well as the intimacy, of the Final Solution.
By:
Jan Tomasz Gross,
Irena Grudzinska Gross
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 137mm,
Width: 206mm,
Spine: 13mm
Weight: 180g
ISBN: 9780190614539
ISBN 10: 0190614536
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 15 November 2016
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction The Photograph The need to name Taking over Jewish property Photographs and documentation of the Shoah The grounds of extermination camps immediately after the war The Bones The death camps and the local population Tending one's garden Takeover of Jewish property by ordinary people About the killing of Jews The Kielce region Thick description Close-up of a murder scene Human agency The peripheries of the Holocaust Back to photography Conversations about Jewish property A certain kind of patriotism Hunting for Jews Jews and objects Schmaltzowanye Sheltering Jews for payment An exceptional case New rules and experts' opinions Where was the Catholic Church? Hypocrite lecteur, mon semblable, mon frere Afterword
Jan Tomasz Gross is Norman B. Tomlinson Professor of War and Society and Professor of History at Princeton University. He is the author of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Irena Grudzinska Gross is Research Scholar and Lecturer in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Princeton University.
Reviews for Golden Harvest: Events at the Periphery of the Holocaust
lucid and chilling book The New Yorker extraordinarily powerful account Neal Gendler, The American Jewish World [Golden Harvest] is a remarkable, stunning work. Gila Wertheimer, Chicago Jewish Star Golden Harvest is a harrowing and shocking book, all the more so because it is written in measured tones, drawing cautious conclusions, and is meticulously referenced. This book deserves to be read widely. Francesca Trowse, Military History Starting from a disturbed posed photograph of paesant gleaners in search of post-Jewish gold in the soil of Treblinka death camp, Jan Tomasz Gross and Irena Grudzinska Gross have created in this profoundly moving volume a chilling, sometimes shocking, passionate, and yet always balanced examination of the extent to which plunder of Jewish possesion was often a communal enterprise in wartime and post-war Poland. Madeline G. Levine, Kenan Professor of Slavic Literatures Emerita, University of North Carolina Jan and Irena Gross guide us expertly through the Heart of Darkness that was wartime Poland. Using a single, deeply disturbing photograph, this book captures brilliantly the whole terrifying rapaciousness of Polish and European
