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. Book jacket. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Making excellent use of rich archival resources, Berkowitz (Univ. College London) has constructed a tightly argued study of one aspect of the Nazi genocide. Before and during the Third Reich, the Nazis made systematic and extensive use of the historical trope of the Jews' alleged congenital criminality. Although it was not the only or even the key factor in justifying the Final Solution, Berkowitz shows convincingly that "Jewish criminality" was a much more important constituent element than historians have thus far recognized. Arcane theories of race were meant for the cognoscenti rather than "ordinary" Germans or the native populations of the countries whose Jews were marked for extermination. Visual and verbal evidence, much of it fabricated or otherwise radically distorted, was meant to expose the dangerous illegal activities of Jews, and was probably far more effective than "race science" in playing on the public's fears and inherited prejudices. It is reasonable to suggest that such relentless propaganda may well have resulted in greater willingness to have Jews segregated and even deported to places where they could not engage in crime. A worthwhile, suggestive investigation that belongs in every library. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. General Readers; Lower-division Undergraduates; Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty; Two-year Technical Program Students; Professionals/Practitioners. Reviewed by R. S. Levy. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Michael Berkowitz is Professor of Modern Jewish History in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

List of Illustrations	xi
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xxiii
1 Above Suspicion? Facts, Myths, and Lies about Jews and Crime	1
2 The Construction of "Jewish Criminality" in Nazi Germany	24
3 The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of the Ghettos	46
4 Inverting the Innocent and the Criminal in Concentration Camps	74
5 Re-presenting Zionism as the Apex of Global Conspiracy	112
6 Lingering Stereotypes and Jewish Displaced Persons	145
7 Jewish DPs Confronting the Law: Prescriptions, Self-Perceptions, and Pride of Self-Control	197
Epilogue: The Estonia Enigma	220
Notes	229
Index	301

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.