Breaking the Silence: The German Who Exposed the Final Solution. / Edition 1

by Walter Laqueur, Richard Breitman

Overview

Through unparalleled historical detective work, noted scholars Walter Laqueur and Richard Breitman reveal the inspiring tale of Eduard Schulte, the Breslau business leader who risked his life to gather information about such Nazi activities as the revised date of the German attack on Poland and the Nazi plan for mass extermination of European Jews. First published in 1986, Breaking the Silence is reissued with both a new foreword and afterword by the authors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874516722
Publisher:	Brandeis University Press
Publication date:	10/23/2022
Series:	The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry , #18
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Walter Laqueur is Chairman of the Research Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. He has published numerous books on European and Jewish history, including Weimar: A Cultural History (2000) and A History of Zionism (1972). He is also editor in chief of the The Holocaust Encyclopedia.

Editorial Reviews

A biography of a hero, Eduard Schulte, whose heroism was hidden...This biography may be regarded both as an act of posthumous justice and as a realistic spy thriller.”—The New Yorker

“None of this would have come to light if it had not been for the pertinacity of Lacqueur and Breitman...Their efforts should arouse the admiration of every historical researcher.”—Alan Bullock, The New Republic

From the Publisher

Historians Laqueur (A History of Zionism, etc.) and Breitman here tell the story of the German industrialist, who, at great risk, was the first to inform the world that Hitler had begun a systematic extermination of the Jews. Eduard Schulte, a fierce but secret Nazi-hater, was a non-Jewish, middle-aged, one-legged head of a mining company, whose Polish branch bordered the death camp Auschwitz. Access to top Nazi officials led to his discovery of the ``Final Solution'' in 1942, but his warnings to the U.S. State Department and American Jewry were delayed for many months through State Department bumbling. By 1943, Schulte was forced to find asylum in Switzerland. Almost as disturbing, and equally absorbing, is the authors' revelation that Schulte was rated disloyal to the Vaterland by postwar German officials, hence his virtual anonymity. Photos. Jewish Book Club alternate; author tour. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"With exemplary scholarship," Laqueur and Breitman reveal how German industrialist Edward Schulte secretly informed the Allies of the Nazi's systematic extermination of Jews. A "rare combination of precision and passion" (LJ 6/15/86), this edition includes a new epilog by the authors.

Library Journal