reviews - Jewish Book Council

59 TH NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS
WRITING BASED ON ARCHIVAL MATERIAL
The JDC-Herbert Katzki Award
Winner:
THE HOLOCAUST IN
THE SOVIET UNION
Yitzhak Arad; Ora Cummings, trans.
University of Nebraska Press
In this comprehensive new study, Yitzhak
Arad has managed to take advantage of a
rare window of opportunity: the opening
of various Soviet archives during the early
1900’s. Arad traveled to the Soviet Union
(or, later Russia, Ukraine and Belarus) and
explored extensive documentation never
seen before by historians. Among the numerous Soviet archives cited in
the book are the Communist Party archives, Soviet Military archives,
the Soviet Partisans’ Movement archives, and the KGB archives.
Those new documents supplemented previously-known data from
Archives of the Third Reich, the Allies, and Jewish entities, thus enabling
Dr. Arad to identify unique aspects of the Holocaust in the Soviet territories
and to complete the tragic narrative in a full manner, striving to
eliminate as many unknown “white stains” or blanks as possible.
This massive historical work is organized in a chronological as well
as geographical matrix. The book makes a significant contribution to
the continuous effort of scholars to fathom the phenomenon know as
“The Holocaust.”
20 Jewish Book World Spring 5770/2010
JEWISH BOOK
COUNCIL
CONGRATULATES
THE 2009 NJBA
WINNERS!
For information on the 2010 National Jewish Book
Awards, please contact jbc@jewishbooks.org.
To review past winners, please visit
www.jewishbookcouncil.org
www.jewishbookcouncil.org