Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides after the Holocaust

by Robin Judd

Overview

Facing the harrowing task of rebuilding a life in the wake of the Holocaust, many Jewish survivors, community and religious leaders, and Allied soldiers viewed marriage between Jewish women and military personnel as a way to move forward after unspeakable loss. Proponents believed that these unions were more than just a ticket out of war-torn Europe: they would help the Jewish people repopulate after the attempted annihilation of European Jewry. Historian Robin Judd, whose grandmother survived the Holocaust and married an American soldier after liberation, introduces us to the Jewish women who lived through genocide and went on to wed American, Canadian, and British military personnel after the war.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469675442
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	12/05/2023
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robin Judd is professor of history at The Ohio State University, where she directs the Hoffman Leaders and Leadership in History Fellowship program..

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Terrific history. Drilling down on the unspooling lives of Jewish war brides and their servicemen fiancés/husbands, Between Two Worlds breaks entirely new ground. In clean, muscular prose, Judd addresses the messiness of liberation, grieving, and—at the same time—falling in love. ” —Debórah Dwork, director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes against Humanity at the CUNY Graduate Center

“Tells a history—and a dramatic story—never told before. The Holocaust survivor war brides and their American Jewish soldier husbands who come to life in this book reveal the intertwined histories of military red tape, immigration policy, the Nazi terror, and the opportunities of postwar America.” —Hasia R. Diner, author of We Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945–1962

“The definitive study of Jewish war brides in World War II. Written by a master historian-storyteller whose own grandmother was a war bride, the volume illuminates the extraordinary complexities confronting soldiers and Holocaust survivors who fell in love and married.” —Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University

Editorial Reviews

“A fresh perspective on the aftermath of trauma . . . . Drawing on rich archival sources, historian Judd makes her book debut with a sensitive, well-researched history of marriages between survivors of the Holocaust and American, British, and Canadian military personnel . . . . Judd’s stories of “loss, recovery, power, and unbelonging” stand as testimony to the triumph of survival.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A new piece of the Holocaust story that will be of interest to readers of Jewish studies, women’s history, and Holocaust studies.”—Library Journal

“Between Two Worlds is elegantly crafted and beautifully written, making it a pleasure to read and suggesting that its reach may well extend beyond purely academic circles. . . . [This book] makes significant contributions to modern Jewish historiography, gender and family history, and the study of migration in the post-Holocaust world. The stories it reconstructs offer rare glimpses into the lingering effects of trauma in the most intimate spheres and shed light on the hopes and dreams for new lives in new places in the years and decades after Europe’s darkest hour.”—American Historical Review

“An important book introducing a new area of investigation while reinforcing previous research that demonstrates how reconnection was a significant step on the road to emotional recovery.”—American Jewish History

“An engrossing discussion of a little-considered subject. . . . [I]t is impressive that [Judd] has written a book that so thoughtfully explains the significance of [the Jewish war brides’] story for our understanding of Holocaust survivors and their experiences after the war.”—H-Diplo

“This poignant, deeply researched text furthers readers’ understanding of the complicated meetings, courtship weddings, immigration, and acculturation of Jewish war brides following the Shoah. . . . Reclaimed postwar Jewish autonomy and the creative management of problem-solving shine through the voices of those whose stories populate this readable book. . . . Recommended.”—CHOICE

From the Publisher

2023-09-15
Finding love and rebuilding lives after the Holocaust.

Drawing on rich archival sources, historian Judd makes her book debut with a sensitive, well-researched history of marriages between survivors of the Holocaust and American, British, and Canadian military personnel. After World War II, some 200,000 women immigrated to the U.S. as soldiers’ wives, where they faced challenges of acculturation in a new country. Some marriages were reunions of foreign-born, naturalized soldiers with women they had known before the war; other couples met at Jewish venues, such as synagogues or cultural gatherings; still others met when soldiers arrived at camps for displaced persons. In reporting their unexpected meetings, Judd writes, “the couples expressed incredulity that they had crossed paths.” Some couples shared a language, but many resorted to hastily learned Yiddish, college-level German, or the help of a translator. Lacking a shared language was common among couples “in North Africa and southern Europe.” Courtship was often brief, with many couples deciding to marry quickly, sometimes because the soldier was due to be transferred or demobilized. Marrying, though, confronted them with the “arduous and legislated process” of obtaining permission from the military. The American, British, and Canadian governments forbade marriages to civilians from Germany, Austria, and other occupied countries. In addition, some Jewish and Christian chaplains refused to sanction interfaith marriages, and couples needed to take into account “disparate European marriage laws.” As far as leaving Europe, couples not yet married faced the “bewildering, slow character of immigration,” and even married couples encountered daunting paperwork. Newly arrived immigrants recalled their initial feelings of strangeness, as well as the stress of meeting their new families and living with in-laws until they found homes of their own. Overall, Judd’s stories of “loss, recovery, power, and unbelonging” stand as testimony to the triumph of survival.

A fresh perspective on the aftermath of trauma.

Kirkus Reviews