In the Lion's Den
The Life of Oswald Rufeisen
Published on 28. February 1991
Book
Hardback
298 pages
978-0-19-503905-4 (ISBN)
Description
Few lives shed more light on the complex relationship between Jews and Christians during and after the Holocaust that that of teenage Polish Jew, Oswald Rufeisen.
Fluent in German, Rufeisen became a translator for the Nazi gendamerie, using his position to pass secret information about impending `aktions'. When denounced, he was smuggled into a Carmelite convent by his sympathetic German commander, and later fought as a Soviet partisan. He converted to Catholicism and became a priest, but the now Father Daniel still insisted on the automatic Israeli citizenship granted to Jews, and fought for his right throughout the 1960s.
This stirring biography also reflects the intricate connections between good and evil, cruelty and compassion, and tolerance and prejudice in this critical era of Jewish history.
Fluent in German, Rufeisen became a translator for the Nazi gendamerie, using his position to pass secret information about impending `aktions'. When denounced, he was smuggled into a Carmelite convent by his sympathetic German commander, and later fought as a Soviet partisan. He converted to Catholicism and became a priest, but the now Father Daniel still insisted on the automatic Israeli citizenship granted to Jews, and fought for his right throughout the 1960s.
This stirring biography also reflects the intricate connections between good and evil, cruelty and compassion, and tolerance and prejudice in this critical era of Jewish history.
Reviews / Votes
'An admirable book, wrought seamlessly from solid archival research and Rufeisen's own harrowing recollections.'Observer 'We owe a profound debt of gratitude to Professor Tec for painstakingly weaving her many hours of personal interviews with a somewhat reluctant Rufeisen into a moving, passionate narrative with all the earmarks of a good novel. It provides us with a powerful glimpse into the actual conditions of life in Eastern Europe during the Nazi era. In the Lion's Den deserrves a wide audience. It reveals Nechama Tec as a thoroughly accomplished literary writer as well as a sound scholar. Most of all, it shows her a profoundly sensitive Holocaust survivor, for only such a person could have captured and integrated Brother Daniel's reflections with as much intensity and depth as this volume conveys.'
John T. Pawlikowski, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1991
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
6 pp halftones
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
608 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-503905-4 (9780195039054)
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Schweitzer Classification
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04/2010
Oxford University Press Inc
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11/2008
OUP eBook
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