Protectors of Pluralism
Religious Minorities and the Rescue of Jews in the Low Countries during the Holocaust

Protectors of Pluralism argues that local religious minorities are more likely to save persecuted groups from purification campaigns. Robert Braun utilizes a geo-referenced dataset of Jewish evasion in the Netherlands and Belgium during the Holocaust to assess the minority hypothesis. Spatial statistics and archival work reveal that Protestants were more likely to rescue Jews in Catholic regions of the Low Countries, while Catholics facilitated evasion in Protestant areas. Post-war testimonies and secondary literature demonstrate the importance of minority groups for rescue in other countries during the Holocaust as well as other episodes of mass violence, underlining how the local position of church communities produces networks of assistance, rather than something inherent to any religion itself. This book makes an important contribution to the literature on political violence, social movements, altruism and religion, applying a range of social science methodologies and theories that shed new light on the Holocaust.

Awards

• Winner, 2020 Charles Tilly Book Award, American Sociological Association

Reviews & endorsements

‘Braun’s book should be of considerable interest to organizational scholars, who have increasingly come to situate the selection of organizational activities within a spatial and historical context.’ Martin Ruef, Social Forces

Customer reviews

Product details

• Date Published: May 2019
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9781108456975
• length: 316 pages

• dimensions: 228 x 153 x 18 mm
• weight: 0.46kg
• contains: 40 b/w illus. 56 colour illus. 56 maps 28 tables
• availability: Available