HISTORY / Jewish

Comparative history at its best, Westermann’s assessment of these two national projects provides crucial insights into not only their rhetoric and pronouncements but also the application of policy and ideology “on the ground.” His sophisticated and nuanced revelations of the similarities and dissimilarities between these two cases will inform further study of genocide, as well as our understanding of the Nazi conquest of the East and the American conquest of the West.

Doña Teresa Confronts the Spanish Inquisition uncovers issues that resonate today: conflicts between religious and secular authority; the weight of evidence versus hearsay in court. Doña Teresa’s voice—set in the context of the history of the Inquisition—is a powerful addition to the memory of that time.

A Polish Doctor in the Nazi Camps chronicles Jadzia’s life from her childhood through her medical training as a pediatrician, her wartime experiences during the occupation of the Polish city of Lodz, and her struggles to survive as a political prisoner in Jewish slave labor camps  and a forty-two day death march.