Product Description
In The End of Judaism, Auschwitz survivor Hajo G. Meyer, a Dutch national of German-Jewish origin, expresses in impassioned terms his disgust at what he sees as the moral collapse of contemporary Israeli society and the worldwide Jewish community as a whole. Meyer is a member of “A Different Jewish Voice,” a Dutch-based, secular Jewish movement that dares to openly criticize Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.
In his observations, deeply colored by his personal experiences during the Holocaust, Meyer compares Israel’s current policies with the early stages of the Nazis’ persecution of the German Jews. He clearly explains that he is in no way seeking to draw a parallel between the current policies of Israel and the Nazis’ endgame, which resulted in the mass murder of six million innocent people. What he is trying to do is simply point out the slippery slope that eventually led to this catastrophe, and the necessity of foreseeing the possible consequences of a policy that oppresses and marginalizes the Palestinians in their own homeland.
As a result of his experiences in Auschwitz, Hajo Meyer claims to have learned one fundamental lesson: that his moral duty as a human being was to never become like his oppressors. The End of Judaism is the outcry of a dissident Jew who is not afraid of standing up to entrenched ways of thinking about history, and particularly about the Palestinian conflict which is one of the most intractable social and political problems in the world today.
About the Author
Hajo G. Meyer was born in Bielefeld, Germany, in 1924. In 1939, at the age of 14, he fled alone to Holland to escape the Nazi regime. After the Germans occupied that country, he was captured by the Gestapo in 1944 and survived ten months in Auschwitz.
After the war, he studied theoretical physics and became a researcher at Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven. He received his Ph.D. in 1956, and in 1974 became managing director of the lab.
In 2002, he retired to devote himself full-time to his work as a publicist and essayist.
See all 8 formats and editions
Kindle $2.92
Print Length: 261 pages
Publication Date: November 9, 2013
Showing 1-6 of 6 reviews
D. Waterman
5.0 out of 5 stars Important, authentic, powerful and well reasoned.Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This is an important book by someone with the credentials that count. Hajo Meyer was a personal friend of my aunt, Annetje Fels Kupferschmidt, founder of the Netherlands Auschwitz Committee. Both were prisoners in Auschwitz. Those who survived the camps can be divided into roughly two classes: on the one hand the people who were so severely traumatised that they required lifelong care.
On the other hand, people like Hajo Meyer, my aunt, Viktor Frankl, who managed to find some meaning in their post-war lives. The latter may be the most important group, and when they speak, we owe it to them to pay attention.
The Zionist lobby have targetted Meyer for this book which offers a truly devastating critique of Israeli politics and particular its discriminatory measures against Palestinians. Meyer is moved by a profound sense of ethical responsibility to share his thoughts on this subject and his words ring true, his motives pure. Anyone who attacks him for venturing into this debate is, in my opinion, either uninformed or a fool.
Insofar as Israel continues to use the Holocaust as a justification for its political and military aggression, I agree with Meyer that we need to condemn those policies in no uncertain terms. Meyer continued to make his stand almost until the day he died. Soon, the voices of those who were imprisoned and tortured during the war will have died out. All we will have left is their testimony. I count this book amongst one of the most important.
8 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
augusta hermans
4.0 out of 5 stars Realaty about Israels furture.Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2014
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
very informative.An eye-opener for those who are blinded by one way reports from Israel.
4 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Roberto Rodriguez Abreu
4.0 out of 5 stars RecommendedReviewed in the United States on March 21, 2014
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
An important appeal to Jews to reject double moral standards, one for themselves and other for Arabs and non-jews in general. All the more important because the author is a Holocaust survivor
One minus point is that is repetitive (maybe due to the author's distress that lessons from Holocaust have not been interpreted well by Israel and its supporters).
8 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Inge Etzbach
4.0 out of 5 stars Very enlighteningReviewed in the United States on November 7, 2013
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
A fascinating book by a Jewish man, whose family had lived in Germany for generations and considered itself German. The father fought in the First World War. Mr. Meyer has deep historical understanding and philosophical explanations.
5 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Pauldog
5.0 out of 5 stars A most clear moral voice, representing the true Jewish spirit against a nationalist propaganda too often associated with JudaismReviewed in the United States on February 28, 2013
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
As Mr. Meyer himself writes, "If we Jews were to opt for an ethically compromised meaning to be gleaned from the Holocaust, according to which it would now be our turn to get revenge for all that was done to us—if we came to believe that now that we were in the driver’s seat we could discriminate against those who didn’t see things our way—then we would have sunk to the level of our former persecutors. We would, in effect, be proving them right. No, it would be appropriate here to practice a classical Jewish concept, the teshuva, which means the return from the wrong road."
11 people found this helpful
Helpful1 comment Report abuse
uncle tom
1.0 out of 5 stars Denial is not a river in Egypt.Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2014
Format: Paperback
He is way out of step. Israel is culturally in the same place that Germany was in in 1940. The way to save Jews then was not to reeducate the Germans it was to get the Jews out of there at any cost. That applies to the Palestinians today as well.
HelpfulComment Report abuse
----
Dec 29, 2015Andy O'Grady rated it it was amazing
I feel that this is a very important book. It is one of the clearest and most carefully researched discussions of anti-Semitism I have read. The author is a highly educated and literate man who has had the most terrible first-hand experience of racism. His learning and experience have taught him that the our first duty as human beings is to treat all other human beings with the respect and dignity that we would wish for ourselves; that the response to oppression is not to oppress others in return but to resist oppression by whoever and in whatever form. This is the only way forward. He provides a logical and ethical framework on which to understand the oppression of Jews in Nazi Germany and Palestinians in the Middle East.
Meyer specifically addresses the ethical promises of the founders of the state of Israel to respect the human rights of ALL people and the thorny issue of accusations of anti-Semitism against those who do not unquestionably support the actions of the state of Israel. He condemns and does not in any way condone terrorism whether carried out by Palestinians or Zionists. He demonstrates in a scholarly way how oppression, racist policies and individual or state terrorism will always have terrible consequences.
Meyer argues that one of the great services the Jewish people has provided for mankind is the tradition of informed and educated debate where all arguments are accepted and considered with respect for those who present them. I think that his book is an important part of that wonderful tradition. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Nov 08, 2011Beeaar rated it it was amazing
This is hands down one of the best books I've read on the subject, so I'm disappointed to see it has such a low average rating here. Doubtlessly this has to do more with the controversial subject matter than the actual book. Meyer and does a great job of connecting history. If you want a book with a lot of references, notes, and a "cold, objective" look at the conflict, check out Norman Finkelstein's books, but Meyer's book deals with the subject on a more personal level.
Hajo Meyer is a survivor of Auschwitz and he details his life growing up in Europe, his endeavors during the Nazi era, and how he [eventually] connected it back to the Palestine/Israel conflict.
I saw him give a lecture before I bought this book from him. This book really changed the way I see the conflict, as a Jewish man who grew up in Israel, as well as change the way I see a lot of Jewish history in general. It's a great read, and it isn't at all pessimistic like the title suggests. I would highly recommend this book to anybody interested in the Palestine/Israel conflict or the Holocaust, it is one of the best.
This book is also much shorter and easier to read than Finkelstein's books, but still has a good amount of factual info. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Apr 16, 2013Stefan Meyer rated it it was amazing
Auschwitz survivor Hajo G. Meyer takes you step-by-step through the rationale that led him to become a staunch opponent of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, beginning with his own personal narrative, continuing through the history of European Jewry, and then through the history of the Zionist project. He discusses the psychological effects of the Holocaust, which he sees as having had an even more devastating impact on the second and third generation of survivors. He postulates that this ...more
flagLike · comment · see review
Oct 18, 2010Pvw rated it did not like it
A pamflet that makes the comparison between the persecution by the nazi's and the contemporary treatment of the Palestines by the Jews. Although Meyer's book is well intended, it lacks structure and feels like a loose collection of different writings in which the author repeats the same ideas over and over. Thus it lacks the convincing power of a well built argumentation.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment