The Pity of It All: A Portrait of German Jews 1743-1933: A Portrait of Jews in Germany 1743-1933 - Hardcover

Elon, Amos

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713993413 ISBN 13: 9780713993417

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2003

Synopsis

The implicit purpose of the book is to try to understand how Germany could attempt to exterminate its Jewish population during the Nazi period. Through individual stories, beginning with Moses Mendelsohn in the 1780s and ending with Hannah Arendt, it traces the history of assimilation and the Jewish contribution to German public and cultural life. It will be an enormously engaging, readable and important book.

About this title

Review:

"Amos Elon has not only written a great history, but an elegy for a lost civilisation." -- Telegraph, March 15, 2003 (by Daniel Johnson)

"This book is beautifully written, even-handed and enormously enlightening..." -- Good Book Guide, April 1, 2003

"This is a meticulously researched, richly detailed account of the profound connections between two (in Kafka’s word) 'pariah' nations." -- Independent Magazine, April 12, 2003 (by Michael Arditti)

"...Elon’s book is an elegantly written, continually absorbing, ultimately tragic commentary on ‘the pathos of the German Jewish condition." -- Times, March 9, 2003 (by Theo Richmond)

"...it is a terrific read, and describes the elusive German-Jewish symbiosis most memorably." -- Jewish Chronicle, March 21, 2003 (by Julia Neuberger)

Synopsis:

The purpose of this text is to try to understand how Germany could attempt to exterminate its Jewish population during the Nazi period. Through individual stories, beginning with Moses Mendelsohn in the 1780s and ending with Hannah Arendt, it traces the history of assimilation and the Jewish contribution to German public and cultural life.

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0713993413
• ISBN 13: 9780713993417
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 464