Home After Fascism

Reviews / Votes

"Anna Koch has written a fascinating and differentiated account of the German and Italian Jews who returned to their homelands after World War Two. Closely based on memoirs and archival documentation, Home after Fascism lucidly explores how German and Italian Jews had to redefine notions of home in order to find a place in the countries which had persecuted them."-Bill Niven, Professor Emeritus of Contemporary German History, Nottingham Trent University
"At once expansive and intimate, Home After Fascism provides a meticulously researched history of the difficulties Jews faced as they tried to recreate their lives immediately after the Holocaust in the very countries that persecuted them. Grounding the study within the distinct memory cultures of Italy, East Germany, and West Germany, Anna Koch's brilliant book is a must read, interrogating how fresh memories of murder and betrayal clashed with individuals' sense of attachment to a language, a place, and a homeland."-Marion Kaplan, author Hitler's Jewish Refugees: Hope and Anxiety in Portugal
"What is the meaning of home for people whose homes have been violently destroyed? Using a wealth of primary sources including letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral testimonies, Anna Koch draws on cutting-edge research in memory studies and the history of emotions to bring to life in vivid detail how German and Italian Jews renegotiated the meaning of 'home' in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Carefully researched and brilliantly argued, Home After Fascism is an important and compelling work."-Emiliano Perra, author of Conflicts of Memory: The Reception of Holocaust Films
"It remains to be said that Koch has succeeded in an impressive way in identifying, organizing and clearly structuring the disparate material on which her monograph is based, whereby a convincing argument emerges. In addition, countless pieces of evidence and examples help her description to have a narrative style that invites you to read on."-Klaus-Peter Friedrich, REZENSIONEN
"Home after Fascism provides a comprehensive account of Jewish survivors' feelings and lived experiences upon their return to Italy and the Germanys. Her book will be appreciated by scholars of the Holocaust, as well as scholars of modern Jewish history interested in transnational and comparative takes on post- Holocaust Jewish life in Europe. Her work fits into scholarship showing the persistence of Jewish life in Europe even after the Holocaust-an important contribution."-Daniela R.P. Weiner - Stanford University, The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies