“Ordinary Life” in Extraordinary Times in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume XXIX

“Ordinary Life” in Extraordinary Times, Renée Poznanski, To Be a Jew in France 1939-1945 – Hebrew

Renée Poznanski’s book rests on the foundations laid by many researchers, generally accepting the framework of the period and its central problems, while placing daily life in the spotlight. This is total history from the bottom up, enabling multiple voices to be heard, especially those of the victims and their desires. The author is not only concerned with writing the history of the daily life of Jews in France during the war, but she also encourages us to reflect again and again on the very real human lives hidden behind the general term “French Jewry.” Aside from the enormous wealth of material offered in this book, which testifies to the author’s indefatigable efforts to reach many levels of the Jewish experience during the war, and alongside the author’s historical sensitivity, the book’s unique contribution lies in its sharp focus, more than in any previous study, on the Jewish fate in all its complexity.