Book presentation: “Choices under duress of the Holocaust. Benjamin Murmelstein and the Fate of Viennese Jewry”
The book examines the decision-making process of the Jewish community leadership during the Nazi period from a historical and philosophical perspective. The action of the controversial rabbi Dr. Benjamin Murmelstein and his colleagues in the leadership of the Jewish Community of Vienna serves as a precedent. In this first of two volumes, his work and that of his colleagues in the years 1938–1942 are thoroughly examined and placed in a broader historical context. Thus, this book also serves as a comprehensive history of the Viennese Jews under the pressure of National Socialist dominion. Due to be published in two years, the second volume will cover the history of the Viennese Jews in the years 1942–1945, both in Vienna and in the ghetto Theresienstadt, where Murmelstein was eventually appointed Jewish elder.
The manuscript of “Choices under Duress of the Holocaust” was completed shortly before the death of the authors who had fled Vienna, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Leonard H. Ehrlich (University of Massachusetts at Amherst) and Dr. Edith Ehrlich (who met each other in the Vienna Chajes High School). It was prepared and edited for publication by their son, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Carl S. Ehrlich (York University, Toronto).
Although the book was written in English, the book presentation at the Jewish Museum Vienna will be held in German.
Advance booking requested: Tel.: +43 1 535 04 31-1510 or e-mail: events@jmw.at.
Free admission as of 6:15 p.m.
Photo (c) Privatbesitz
