Anika Walke, Pioneers and Partisans: An Oral History of Nazi Genocide in Belorussia (Oxford UP, 2015)
How did Soviet Jews respond to the Holocaust and the devastating transformations that accompanied persecution? How was the Holocaust experienced, survived, and remembered by Jewish youth living in Soviet territory? Anika Walke, Assistant Professor of History at Washington University in St. Louis, examines these important questions in Pioneers and Partisans: An Oral History of Nazi Genocide in Belorussia (Oxford University Press, 2015).\xa0Walke\u2019s research is based largely on post-war oral histories and memoirs, and her sources include a number of interviews that she conducted herself. Walke examines the experiences of Jewish youth in a variety of contexts, including prewar daily life, ghetto persecution and survival, as well as participation in Soviet partisan units. In doing so, she reveals the complex interplay of (and at times, tension between) her subjects\u2019 Jewish and Soviet identities. Walke highlights the enduring impact of 1930s Soviet policies of interethnic equality and solidarity, showing how memories of this period continue to frame survivors\u2019 recollections of persecution and its aftermath decades later. Walke\u2019s well-researched book not only deepens our understanding of genocide in Belorussia, but also speaks to the value of postwar testimony as a crucial resource for scholars of Jewish experiences before and after the violence of the Holocaust.\n\nAnika Walke is Assistant Professor of History at Washington University in St. Louis.\n\n\n\nRobin Buller is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies