How Jewish responses during the Holocaust shed new light on the dynamics of genocide and political violence

Focusing on the choices and actions of Jews during the Holocaust, Ordinary Jews examines the different patterns of behavior of civilians targeted by mass violence. Relying on rich archival material and hundreds of survivors' testimonies, Evgeny Finkel presents a new framework for understanding the survival strategies in which Jews engaged: cooperation and collaboration, coping and compliance, evasion, and resistance. Finkel compares Jews' behavior in three Jewish ghettos—Minsk, Kraków, and Białystok—and shows that Jews' responses to Nazi genocide varied based on their experiences with prewar policies that either promoted or discouraged their integration into non-Jewish society.

Finkel demonstrates that while possible survival strategies were the same for everyone, individuals' choices varied across and within communities. In more cohesive and robust Jewish communities, coping—confronting the danger and trying to survive without leaving—was more organized and successful, while collaboration with the Nazis and attempts to escape the ghetto were minimal. In more heterogeneous Jewish communities, collaboration with the Nazis was more pervasive, while coping was disorganized. In localities with a history of peaceful interethnic relations, evasion was more widespread than in places where interethnic relations were hostile. State repression before WWII, to which local communities were subject, determined the viability of anti-Nazi Jewish resistance.

Exploring the critical influences shaping the decisions made by Jews in Nazi-occupied eastern Europe, Ordinary Jews sheds new light on the dynamics of collective violence and genocide.

"A political scientist turns fresh eyes on the problem of how European Jews responded to the Holocaust as it was unfolding. . . . Of much interest to students of modern history but also to those engaged in humanitarian relief efforts, refugee relocation, and the like." - Kirkus

"Finkel's book on an individual’s choice and survival during the Holocaust focuses on how victims from three Jewish ghettos--Minsk, Kraków, and Bialystok--reacted in response to danger from the Nazis and their allies. . . . This study is fascinating in how Finkel weaves personal narratives from the victims with social science foundations in order to reach some macro conclusions. . . . Finkel’s book is provocative and worth reading for scholars looking to understand the victims within these wretched ghettos." - Choice

"Finkel’s ambitious study brings political science to Holocaust history, enriches our understanding of individual choices by the victims, sheds light on the conditions that influenced their decisions, and establishes patterns by comparative analysis of behavior in three ghettos." - Holocaust and Genocide Studies