In the early- to mid-1900s, how is it that so many different groups of people came to the same conclusion: that killing Jews was an acceptable response to their various problems?

At the beginning of the week during which our thoughts turn to the Holocaust and we commemorate Kristallnacht, the Amram Scholar Series brings us University of Michigan professor and award-winning author Jeffrey Veirdlinger. He will join us at Temple on Sunday, November 7 at 10:30 am to discuss his newly published book, In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918 – 1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust.

Between 1918 and 1921, more than a hundred thousand Jews were murdered in Ukraine by peasants, townsmen, and soldiers who blamed the Jews for the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. In hundreds of separate incidents, ordinary people robbed their Jewish neighbors with impunity, burned down their houses, ripped apart their Torah scrolls, sexually assaulted them, and killed them. Largely forgotten today, these pogroms—ethnic riots—dominated headlines and international affairs in their time. Aid workers warned that six million Jews were in danger of complete extermination. Twenty years later, these dire predictions would come true.

Veidlinger has drawn upon long-neglected archival materials, including thousands of newly discovered witness testimonies, trial records, and official orders, to show for the first time how this wave of genocidal violence created the conditions for the Holocaust. Through stories of survivors, perpetrators, aid workers, and governmental officials, he explains how so many different groups of people came to the same conclusion: that killing Jews was an acceptable response to their various problems. In riveting prose, In the Midst of Civilized Europe repositions the pogroms as a defining moment of the twentieth century.

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About the Author:

Jeffrey Veidlinger is a professor of history and Judaic studies at the University of Michigan. His books, which include The Moscow State Yiddish Theater and In the Shadow of the Shtetl, have won a National Jewish Book Award, the Barnard Hewitt Award for Theatre History, two Canadian Jewish Book Awards, and the J.I. Segal Award.

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Presented in partnership with the Jewish Book Council.