Holocaust And The Book

Two unifying motifs run throughout the volume-the plight of displaced people, be they escapees, expellees, or hapless victims caught in the crossfire of other peoples' conflicts, and the role of others in attempting to mitigate their predicaments. The contributors were all faculty and fellows of a year-long colloquium "The Anatomy of Exile" at Smith College or participants in one of two conferences held in conjunction with it. They include Dierdre Bonifaz, Lale Aka Burk, Polina Dimova, Donna Robinson Divine, Saverio Giovacchini, Ruth Gruber, Gertraud E. G. Gutzmann, Charles Killinger, Karen Koehler, Orm Overland, Thalia Pandiri, Ruben D. Rumbaut and Ruben G. Rumbaut, Richard Preston Unsworth, Krishna Winston, and Peter I. Rose.

Edward Said once noted that "exile is compelling to thinkabout, but terrible to experience." "The Dispossessed," a collection of thoughtful essays and critical commentaries on the meaning of exile, reverberates with the significance of Said's terse comment.

Following a foreword by actress and activist Liv Ullmann and an introduction by Peter I. Rose, the reader is offered a series of essays examining the experiences of refugees in various parts of the world, with particular attention to the disruptions caused by World War II. Contributors explore the politics of rescue, the dependency of the dispossessed, the role of key players and concerned citizens willing to extend themselves to provide safe havens and new opportunities for those forced to flee their homelands, and examples of the contributions of refugees, particularly refugee intellectuals, to their host societies.

Throughout the volume there are two unifying motifs—the plight of displaced people, be they escapees, expellees, or hapless victims caught in the crossfire of other peoples' conflicts, and the role of others in attempting to mitigate their predicaments.

The book is divided into four sections. The first explores the meaning of "home" for those forced to leave it. The second section focuses on the experiences of a small cohort of rescuers who lived in western Massachusetts in the 1930s and 1940s or had connections to Smith College and other institutions in the area. The third section details the problems of adjustment and the cultural impact of scientists, artists, filmmakers, and writers on their host societies in the years before, during, and immediately after World War II. A brief fourth section consists of the reflections of two more recent refugees, a Cuban father and son, the elder a psychiatrist and poet, the younger a sociologist who specializes in immigration and the plight of the dispossessed.

The contributors to this volume were all faculty and fellows of a year-long colloquium on "The Anatomy of Exile" at Smith College or participants in one of two conferences held in conjunction with the colloquium. They include Dierdre Bonifaz, Lale Burk, Polina Dimova, Donna Robinson Divine, Saverio Giovacchini, Ruth Gruber, Gertraud Gutzmann, Charles Killinger, Karen Koehler, Orm Øverland, Thalia Pandiri, Rubén D. Rumbaut and Rubén G. Rumbaut, Richard Unsworth, and Krishna Winston.

"Interesting and informative. . . . The book brings together experts from a wide range of fields. The essays are written not only with a commitment to scholarship, but with sensitivity to the plight of those in exile."— Aaron Berman, Hampshire College

PETER I. ROSE is Sophia Smith Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Anthropology and senior fellow of the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute at Smith College. He is the author of many books, including "They and We" (1963, 5th ed., 1997), "The Subject is Race" (1967), "Strangers in Their Midst" (1977), "Mainstream and Margins" (1983), "Tempest-Tost" (1997), and "Guest Appearances and Other Travels in Time and Space" (2003).

A volume in the series Collaborations, published in association with the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute, Smith College.