Who Betrayed the Jews?
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Who Betrayed the Jews? is a groundbreaking study that examines the various ways Jews were betrayed by their fellow countrymen during the Holocaust. In many cases they regarded themselves as a person of their nation first and a Jew second, so persecution came as a terrible shock to them. Many had fought for their country in the First World War, but this offered very little protection – not even for those awarded Germany's Iron Cross. They were forced out of their professions and universities. Their neighbours and school friends betrayed them to the authorities. The authorities ‘legally’ withdrew their rights and stripped them of their businesses under Aryanization policies. Many who professed to be Christian were affected by the Nazis’ racial laws and found themselves and their children categorised as ‘halfbreeds’. Bodies such as the police and railway companies co-operated with the Nazis in transporting Jews to their deaths or to be subjected to unspeakable medical experiments. The betrayal did not end in 1945 as there is evidence of Holocaust survivors being attacked as and when they returned home.
Agnes Grunwald-Spier MBE reveals, among other accounts, the story of the slave labourers who toiled for German firms and international companies like Ford; the fate of Jewish Olympians who were murdered; and the impact of Nazi policies on figures such as Margaret Thatcher and Coco Chanel.
Agnes Grunwald-Spier was born in July 1944 and sent to the Budapest Ghetto with her mother in November 1944. She was liberated, aged 6 months, and came to England in 1947. Her father, who had been a forced labourer, committed suicide in 1955. Agnes is a Founder Trustee of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and was awarded an MBE in 2016 for her work on the Holocaust. She has an MA in Holocaust Studies at Sheffield University and was a member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews for 15 years. She received two honorary doctorates in 2018 for her work on the Holocaust.