Circles of Resistance: Jewish, Leftist, and Youth Dissidence in Nazi Germany (Studies in Modern European History)

John M. Cox has successfully undertaken a very ambitious project. In his excellent book, 'Circles of Resistance: Jewish, Leftist, and Youth Dissidence in Nazi Germany,' Cox tells the story of primarily, but not solely, Jewish participants in the German anti-fascist resistance. This is not a book about "Jewish" resistance; the German Jews who populate the pages of Cox's book considered themselves to be German anti-fascists of Jewish heritage or origin.A complex subject about which to research and write, German resistance cells were heterogeneous groupings and therefore defy easy categorization. Cox tells us that in the Herbert Baum groups, which are a major focus of his book, one found Communists, Socialists, Zionists, anarchists, and other stripes of Jewish, as well as non-Jewish anti-fascists. What fused these groups together, however, was their burning hatred of German fascism, their idealistic youthfulness, and, for the most part, their shared communal experiences in the various German-Jewish youth movements.Cox gives readers a synopsis of German-Jewish life up to the 1920s, as well as the development of various Jewish youth movements from 1900 to 1933. The state of these German-Jewish youth movements during the Third Reich up until their dissolution in 1937 to 1939 is also discussed by the author. The larger anti-fascist resistance organizations that Cox writes about in 'Circles of Resistance' have their roots in German-Jewish youth movements. This common cultural background made it difficult for many, but not all, German Jews to be strict adherents of the doctrinaire KPD (Communist Party of Germany) or the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany). Thus developed the "Org" (Neu Beginnen) and the Left Opposition (LO), among other dissident Communist and left-wing Socialist anti-fascist resistance organizations. An interesting trend throughout the book is that Communist-led resistance groups allowed great diversity among their ranks, including Socialists, Zionists, non-affiliated leftists, and at times even those who were leery of the policies and tactics of the KPD. This was due to the utter destruction of the KPD in 1933 and its inability to reformulate itself within Nazi Germany. In essence the resistance flourished because of the fragmentation of the KPD.The resistance in Germany was very different from that in Nazi-occupied Poland. In Poland, Jewish and Polish partisan units performed daring acts of sabotage, revenge, and rescue. At times these partisans engaged militarily with German forces. Such heroics in Nazi Germany would have been suicidal at best. Clandestine meetings and outings, study groups, and creating, producing, and distributing anti-fascist flyers were the bulk of the work of German resistance cells, whether they were Jewish, non-Jewish, or mixed. Freedom of thought and action became dangerous and illegal during Hitler's regime. Gestapo brutality, prison terms, and "protective custody" (concentration camp internment) were risked daily by the Baum groups and all other German anti-fascists.Perhaps that is why Cox opens 'Circles of Resistance' with the Baum groups' arson attack on the anti-Soviet and anti-Semitic "Soviet Paradise" exhibition in Berlin on May 18, 1942. Such an attack in Nazi Berlin was completely unexpected by the Nazi hierarchy, who scrambled to cover up any news of it. All damage to the exhibition was repaired that night so it could open without any delay the following day. An act of bravery, desperation, and misplaced optimism, the "Soviet Paradise" action was simultaneously the Baum groups' finest moment and greatest failure. Within a relatively short period, most of the members of the Baum groups were arrested and interrogated in the process leading to their trials and subsequent executions. Berlin Jewry also suffered greatly as a consequence of the arson attack at "Soviet Paradise."Cox's chapter, "The `Soviet Paradise' and the Demise of the Baum Groups," covers the events leading up to the attack, including the sabotage of "Soviet Paradise" and its bloody aftermath. The actual attack, as described by Cox, took perhaps fifteen minutes, but its consequences were far reaching and tragic. The author recreates the events surrounding the "Soviet Paradise" action and the other resistance groups in his book through the use of oral testimonies, interviews with two of the surviving members of the Baum groups, Gestapo interrogation reports, Nazi trial documents, and published scholarship on the subject in both German and English. The majority of published material on the left-wing resistance is in German, but there is a growing literature available in English.The author discusses problems with the KPD and its attempts to create a resistance movement. The German Communists, the largest and best-organized working class movement outside of the Soviet Union, withered away and were caught unawares during the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. It was the Nazis who were the dynamic, revolutionary party compared to the neutralized Stalinist KPD. Cox does an excellent job of presenting the absurd and mind-boggling Communist party line changes emanating from Moscow that crippled the KPD before, during, and after the Nazi takeover. His writing is succinct, compelling, and informative. Readers not familiar with the numerous hurdles placed in the way of German Communists by the Soviets will learn much from 'Circles of Resistance.'The Communists never understood that the anti-Semitism of the Nazis was a deadly strain of Jew hatred, and not merely an old weapon in the arsenal of exploitative societies needing a scapegoat or other such Marxist interpretations. The KPD even relied upon its own brand of cultural anti-Semitism at times, primarily during the "National Bolshelvik" period. However the KPD rose in response to the Reich Kristallnacht. In shortwave radio broadcasts, Germans heard a stirring, emotional response to the persecution. The message said, in part, that the "struggle against the Jewish pogrom is an inseparable part of the German struggle for freedom and peace against the National Socialist dictatorship."The last two chapters of Cox's book discuss the Cold War battleground for memory and remembrance vis-à-vis the resistance in East and West Germany. Each Germany held up its own brand of resistance as a beacon--or more like a blinding spotlight--to burn out its rival's vision of `Resistance against Nazism.' Both Germanys employed the resistance to help create enduring myths in order to help define and defend their national existence. In West Germany it was the "July 20, 1944 myth"; these were the men who planned the failed assassination attempt of Hitler, who were then to take power away from the National Socialists. These "July 20, 1944" people were perceived as the standard-bearers of the `true' liberal and democratic (West) Germany.Until its final days, the "anti-fascist myth" was a driving historical and cultural force in East Germany, with the Baum group among others being promoted as homogeneous Communist groups. The author also tells the stories of survivors of the Baum groups who returned to East Berlin, which became the capital of the GDR (East Germany). They returned to the GDR to live as anti-fascists, but were confronted with a society and nation that morphed from a "living anti-fascism" to a fossilized, sanitized version that fit the needs of the ruling SED (Socialist Unity Party, commonly called the Communist Party). At times, ironically, they also had to deal with anti-Semitism in East Germany. In a nation that slavishly followed the Soviet Union, an authentic anti-fascism that honored its Jewish participants was simply an impossible dream.'Circles of Resistance' is an important work on a generally neglected topic: German anti-fascist resistance. It should be considered an extension of Holocaust studies because anti-fascism was an activist response to Nazi persecution of Jews, as well as Communists and Socialists, who were inextricably connected with Judaism in Nazi mythology. But Cox has just scratched the surface. There is more work to be done on the history of German anti-fascism. How widespread was the resistance in Berlin and throughout Germany? How were these groups connected to one another? Were there contacts between German anti-fascists and those from other lands in German-occupied Europe and North Africa? How did the Gestapo monitor these groups and infiltrate them? What was the role of ordinary German citizens in reporting on anti-fascist activities and breaking up resistance groups? The author has a responsibility to continue on the path that he began with Circles of Resistance to flesh out the stories and lives of those Germans--Jews and non-Jews--who risked everything in a valiant struggle to erase Nazism from the face of the earth.

This is the first book I ever bought that has no cover. It feels like a book that was written in a library with the help of encyclopedias and sources searched in an effort to create a book. It cost a lot of money ($56.00) and was not worth the paper on which it was written. I suspect it was written with sources at hand that were used one after the other without thought of the book as a whole.