The Jews in Germany from Roman times to the Weimar Republic

The Jews in Germany. The Jews in Germany from Roman times to the Weimar Republic. A beautifully published book with almost 1000 generously printed black and white illustrations and a continuous informative accompanying text on all aspects of German-Jewish life up to 1933. 'After that, Jewish life ceased and all shared a common fate.' In the fourth century, the first Jewish communities emerged along the Rhine, including Cologne. Later in the Middle Ages, despite restrictions and persecution, hundreds of small and large places where Jews lived and worked flourished. From the eighteenth century onwards, Berlin increasingly developed as a centre, with figures such as the scholar Moses Mendelssohn, the poet Heinrich Heine, and the erudite Rahel Levin-Varnhagen. Gidal presents his collected material in a varied, meticulous and committed manner, many portraits, but also impressions of Jewish life in towns and villages, ending with 'signs', the yellow star: isolation and the beginning of the deportations. A fascinating document.