The Crime of My Very Existence investigates a rarely considered yet critical dimension of anti-Semitism that was instrumental in the conception and perpetration of the Holocaust: the association of Jews with criminality. Drawing from a rich body of documentary evidence, including memoirs and little-studied photographs, Michael Berkowitz traces the myths and realities pertinent to the discourse on "Jewish criminality" from the eighteenth century through the Weimar Republic, into the complex Nazi assault on the Jews, and extending into postwar Europe.
The Crime of My Very Existence Nazism and the Myth of Jewish Criminality
About the Book
Reviews
“Making excellent use of rich archival resources, Berkowitz has constructed a tightly argued study. . . . A worthwhile, suggestive investigation that belongs in every library.”—Choice
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Above Suspicion? Facts, Myths, and Lies about Jews and Crime
2. The Construction of “Jewish Criminality” in Nazi Germany
3. The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of the Ghettos
4. Inverting the Innocent and the Criminal in Concentration Camps
5. Re-presenting Zionism as the Apex of Global Conspiracy
6. Lingering Stereotypes and Jewish Displaced Persons
7. Jewish DPs Confronting the Law: Prescriptions, Self-Perceptions, and Pride of Self-Control
Epilogue: The Estonia Enigma
Notes
Index