Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust

'This excellent and very important book represents scholarship at its best. Meticulously researched, it lays to rest many a myth concerning Turkey and the Jews during the Holocaust. It is indispensable reading in the fields of Holocaust studies and twentieth-century Turkish and Jewish history.' Aron Rodrigue, Stanford University, California

'Guttstadt's work is a superb and much-needed corrective to the standard account of Turkey, Turkish Jews, and the Holocaust. With exhaustive archival research and a keen analytical eye, [she] has uncovered a somber and painful story of missed opportunities, bureaucratic obstacles, and the triumph of nationalism over humanitarianism.' Charles King, Georgetown University, Washington DC

'Guttstadt integrates Turkey, Turkish politics, and Turkish Jews into the emerging world of a racist Turkish nationalism alongside a Europe increasingly dominated by Hitler's National Socialism.' Choice

'Guttstadt successfully shows how Turkey's stance regarding its Jewish community in Turkey, Turkish Jewish citizens in Europe and Jewish refugees was motivated by nationalist and anti-minority politics in a way that dismantles the myth of tolerance vis-à-vis Jews as it has been propagated in recent years in order to fend of international criticism and to deny an Armenian genocide. Her contribution will be of immense value to all those interested in (a transnational perspective on) nationalism, anti-Semitism and the history of minorities in Turkey. It fills a gap in Holocaust research by extending the geographic horizon towards Turkey and its Jewish community. Tangentially it also revises the history of Turkish-German migration, letting it begin with late nineteenth-/early twentieth-century Jewish migrants. One can only wish the book a large readership.' Turkish Review

'This superb book gives the details of why Jewish life was so precarious, even after, and especially so, the secular Turkish Republic was founded. The author is thoroughly grounded in the Turkish sources, and has done research in fifty archives in eleven countries … this superbly and dispassionately well-researched book must become the standard reference for anyone looking to understand the precarious situation of the Jews from the establishment of the Turkish Republic, until the end of World War II. Moreover, it forms the basis for what happened to Turkish Jewry after World War II.' Sephardic Horizons

'Guttstadt's book is an invaluable contribution to recent publications focusing on North African and Sephardic Jews during World War II. Although victims of the Holocaust, these groups have received little attention in the field of Holocaust studies. The book is also a contribution to the literature on the complex responses of Middle Eastern and North African societies to Nazism and fascism as well as their attitudes toward 'their' Jews. It sheds light not only on a missing piece in the history of the Holocaust, but also on the history of Turkish Jews and of Turkey.' Esther Webman, International Journal of Middle East Studies

'Guttstadt's shocking study will change the way we think about the role of Turkey in the Sephardic Holocaust … Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust will become a standard text in Holocaust studies.' Marc David Baer, AJS Review