The question of the collaboration of Jews with the Nazi regimeduring the persecution and extermination of European Jewry is oneof the most difficult and sensitive issues surrounding theHolocaust. How could people be forced to cooperate in their owndestruction? Why would they help the Nazi authorities round uptheir own people for deportation, manage the 'collection points'and supervise the people being deported until the last moment?This book is a major new study of the role of the Jews, and morespecifically the 'Judenrat' or Jewish Council, in Holocaust Vienna.It was in Vienna that Eichmann developed and tested his model for aNazi Jewish policy from 1938 onwards, and the leaders of theViennese Jewish community were the prototypes for all subsequentJewish councils. By studying the situation in Vienna, it ispossible to gain a unique insight into the way that the Nazi regimeincorporated the Jewish community into its machinery ofdestruction.Drawing on recently discovered archives and extensiveinterviews, Doron Rabinovici explores in detail the actions ofindividual Jews and Jewish organizations and shows how all of theirstrategies to protect themselves and others were ultimately doomedto failure. His rich and insightful account enables us tounderstand in a new way the terrible reality of the victims'plight: faced with the stark choice of death or cooperation, manychose to cooperate with the authorities in the hope that theiractions might turn out to be the lesser evil.
