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Forged in fury
From early 1941 to April 1945, between three and six million Jews were butchered -- mostly in Eastern Europe -- by citizens of the Third Reich and those like-minded Christians who co-operated with them. This book tells of the war, the people, the SS officers, the Jewish ghettos, the concentration camps, the resistance, the heroism and the horror. In particular it follows the lives of the Jewish men and women who, in 1945, formed an organization called DIN or "judgment", whose mission it was to avenge those millions of Jews murdered by the Germans.
Between 1945 and 1946 DIN was responsible for over 1,000 deaths. This strange, secret organization continued to exist for more than three decades, in Europe, Israel and elsewhere. At its peak its members comprised farmers, merchants, journalists, government officials, a poet, even ministers of religion, all sharing the same voluntary and consuming task -- to hunt and kill.
312 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1951
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228 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 19, 2020
I had a really hard time getting a copy of this book, and based on the number of reviews here, it seems like it's just not that well-known, and not readily available to many people. I wish that weren't the case, because it is a deeply researched, gripping account of Jewish resistance to the Holocaust, based on first-person testimonials and well-footnoted official documents, including Nuremberg transcripts. I actually learned about it because it was referenced in John Le Carre's The Pigeon Tunnel (another must-read for anyone whose nerdiness runs in the same directions as mine).
I did feel uncomfortable with the fervently pro-Israel sentiments throughout the book, given how everything has fallen out with Palestine, but even though I didn't always agree with everything the author said, I think I can safely say that I learned more from this book than from any other book, movie, year-long special project in 8th grade, or even museum -- and I have been to the Holocaust museums in both DC and Berlin. (I know, I know, this does not make me a Holocaust scholar or anything, but it does at least make me a Holocaust nerd.)
The most striking thing that I learned from this book was how very many Nazis actually escaped justice, despite the Nuremberg trials. I read this book around the same time as Ta-Nehisi Coates was writing about the uproar surrounding the proposed TV series, Confederate, and it made me wish that he had read it as well. In his article explaining why the alternate-history theme of Man in the High Castle (which imagines a world in which the Nazis won World War II) was not considered offensive, my understanding of his argument was that it is because the Nazis were tried and punished, and that German society had a real reckoning with Nazism and has worked assiduously and effectively to prevent it. This book, along with more recent reporting on Nazis who kept their government jobs after the war (https://www.businessinsider.com/forme...) and a resurgence of Nazi sentiments in German society (https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-09-1...), makes the support for that argument a little shaky. I would argue that both post-slavery racism and post-war Nazism are problems in Western society that we still need to work on rooting out. This book really helps make clear what we need to fight against, and what the stakes are if we don't.
I did feel uncomfortable with the fervently pro-Israel sentiments throughout the book, given how everything has fallen out with Palestine, but even though I didn't always agree with everything the author said, I think I can safely say that I learned more from this book than from any other book, movie, year-long special project in 8th grade, or even museum -- and I have been to the Holocaust museums in both DC and Berlin. (I know, I know, this does not make me a Holocaust scholar or anything, but it does at least make me a Holocaust nerd.)
The most striking thing that I learned from this book was how very many Nazis actually escaped justice, despite the Nuremberg trials. I read this book around the same time as Ta-Nehisi Coates was writing about the uproar surrounding the proposed TV series, Confederate, and it made me wish that he had read it as well. In his article explaining why the alternate-history theme of Man in the High Castle (which imagines a world in which the Nazis won World War II) was not considered offensive, my understanding of his argument was that it is because the Nazis were tried and punished, and that German society had a real reckoning with Nazism and has worked assiduously and effectively to prevent it. This book, along with more recent reporting on Nazis who kept their government jobs after the war (https://www.businessinsider.com/forme...) and a resurgence of Nazi sentiments in German society (https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-09-1...), makes the support for that argument a little shaky. I would argue that both post-slavery racism and post-war Nazism are problems in Western society that we still need to work on rooting out. This book really helps make clear what we need to fight against, and what the stakes are if we don't.
January 28, 2014
It is fair to say that the subject material this book deals with is harrowing. The book describes the Jewish resistance during World War 2. The book is a hard read not just with the subject matter but also with the way it is written. It starts out in a novel style but as it progresses the facts overtake the story of the resistance movement. There are simply too many facts, figures and political explanations for this to be considered a novel. However the novel style writing also means there are not enough facts and figures for the book to be a text book. Instead this book is caught in no mans land between the two. Due to this I struggled through this book. Although I will take a lot with me from this book it was just not my sort of thing.
August 27, 2018
I was given this book and not sure about it. It was a very hard glimpse of the Holocaust. After reading it all the way through, I reread it with out the predetermined thoughts of what I had imagined it would be and loved the information... the meaning of the book is now very clear. A wonderful read, and one to ponder.
October 22, 2020
Written half a century ago, FORGED IN FURY is the first book to chronicle the activities of a group of Jewish concentration camp survivors who embarked on a campaign of revenge against their former tormentors. They simply could not allow themselves the luxury of getting on with their lives while the vast majority of unpunished Nazi war criminals were allowed to do the same. Calling themselves DIN, which suffices for "Judgment" in Hebrew, they formed a group whose core eventually consisted of about 50 people from all walks of life. Their goal was the targeted assassinations of Nazis who were guilty of the most heinous of crimes, and who were responsible for mass murder. Due to the lack of communications between Jewish ghettos and concentration camps while the war still raged, reprisals were carried out either individually or in small groups, without the knowledge that similar activities were going on in other ghettos and death camps. Not until the war's end did survivors become aware of the existence of other like-minded vengeance seekers. This enabled DIN to focus their abilities on specific targets. The story recounts some of the successes and failures of the group. Only with the benefit of hindsight can it be concluded that its most audacious plan for revenge, which was a failure, turned out to be a blessing in disguise.[SPOILER ALERT FOR THE NEXT THREE SENTENCES] The idea was to poison the water supply of five German cities, which would have resulted in the death of over a million citizens. It is hard to see the United Nations agreeing to hold a vote on the proposal to partition Palestine in 1947, thus creating a Jewish state, had the plan succeeded. Both events (the UN vote and the murder of a million Germans) would have occurred about the same time, and negative publicity would almost certainly have turned against the Jews, thus precluding a UN vote. The post-war period was a continuum of great stress for Jews, as energies were consumed in the formation and defence of the State of Israel.
Attrition rates were high for members of DIN, and the organization was disbanded in 1946. Former group members would cast their hopes for justice on the courts of the Western powers, which had been very adamant about seeking retribution against those guilty of crimes against humanity.
Alas, DIN and Jews in general were to be sorely disappointed. It was the risible results of the Nuremberg trials, which delivered a token wrist slap to the butchers of the Third Reich, that was the cause for DIN's resurrection. Only eleven death sentences were carried out as a result of the trials. Before the half point of the twentieth century, less than 300 Nazi criminals remained in jail for war crimes; many more were granted freedom within a year. The West German leadership pontificated that their military leaders at the end of the Second World War had had no mandate from the German people to surrender to the Allies. Ergo, they would not be bound by the terms of their surrender. Astoundingly, it also harrumped that Germany would bear no shame for its past. Those individuals who were guilty of vile human rights violations, instead of sneaking into their homes in shame through the back door, were given warm homecomings. All upper strata of German society soon became populated with ex-Nazis. These were all factors that former members of DIN could not tolerate, and their campaign of vengeance resumed in 1953. The organization had actually acquired much intelligence on former Nazis by the time of Adolph Eichmann's kidnapping in 1960. When the Israeli government publicized that they had the war criminal in custody, every ex-Nazi torturer, rapist, and mass murderer stampeded for the exits, thus rendering redundant much of the intelligence DIN had gathered on former Nazis. Within a few years, the organization disappeared.
FORGED IN FURY is apparently the only book Michael Elkins ever wrote. What a pity. He has that special ability to turn a phrase. The inside flap of the hardcover edition states that the author writes "...in white-hot anger...". Apt words. He's a master of sarcasm and dry wit. He records, for instance, that the nuns of the Vilna convent of St. Catherine's had sheltered a young Jewish woman for a year, providing her with the cover of false papers. He writes that she eventually took leave of the convent to act as a liaison between support staff in the Jewish ghetto "...and those Christians of Vilna who were Christian". In another case, he recounts the first meeting between a Fritz Grosz, who acted as a contact between DIN and its financial backers, and an unknown caller who implied that he could potentially be useful to the organization. Grosz wasn't sure if this was a covert Nazi sympathizer or the real thing. Elkins writes: "From the moment the caller opened his mouth, Grosz regarded him as though he were a well-dressed bomb. He couldn't just leave him there, ticking away on his doorstep, so he invited him in and they spent a time snuffling at each other...". I suppose appreciation of this type of dry humour is a subjective matter, but I couldn't help being amused over the description. In another example, he recounts the outrage of an SS Major who balked over having to deal with the gold teeth from Jewish camp corpses. He preferred these teeth to first be smelted before accepting them. The author refers dismissively to this ghoul as a "certified bastard".
Elkins is not reticent in acknowledging those non-Jews who bravely stood forth to aid others, simply due to the fact that the victims were human beings deserving of love and respect. He cites a number of examples, the most memorable of them being one Anton Schmidt. This was an Austrian who served in the German army, whose job involved returning lost soldiers to their original units. He was the first one to apprise the leadership of the Jewish Vilna underground that Adolph Eichmann was the mastermind behind the complex transportation system involved in moving Jews to the various death camps. Schmidt provided the leadership with the names of those he knew were guilty of murder, and soon became an invaluable asset to the organization. When it was whispered that Schmidt had eventually been betrayed into the hands of the Nazis, the underground leadership was forced to scramble for hiding places. An executioner's bullet being far less painful than interminable sessions of torture, the Jewish underground in Vilna waited on pins and needles to see what transpired. To his everlasting credit, Anton Schmidt kept faith with his fellow human beings by keeping his mouth shut. The author records that, after days of torture, he was dragged to the gates of the ghetto in a cart and, because he could not stand on his burned feet, was tied to a post and then shot by a squad of SS. In what was probably the last letter to his wife, Schmidt wrote that he had witnessed the murder of about 3,000 Jews in a meadow, and records his horror over witnessing the demise of young children being dashed to death against the trees. Besides the invaluable intelligence he supplied the underground, he is also credited with saving the lives of around 300 Jews. Another noteworthy sacrifice was that of the nuns, and in particular the Mother Superior, of the Sisters of St. Catherine convent in Vilna. When the Nazis discovered that they had been sheltering Jewish fugitives for a year, they were all hanged.
I was niggled that the book lacked an index, which would have benefited me greatly. I was also a tad anoyed by the fact that Elkins notes, in his forward, that he has changed some of the names, dates, and places, and has even gone so far as to invent some details. However, considering that 50 years ago, numerous DIN members and many ex-Nazis were still breathing, this was a reasonable measure to take to ensure anonymity.
Attrition rates were high for members of DIN, and the organization was disbanded in 1946. Former group members would cast their hopes for justice on the courts of the Western powers, which had been very adamant about seeking retribution against those guilty of crimes against humanity.
Alas, DIN and Jews in general were to be sorely disappointed. It was the risible results of the Nuremberg trials, which delivered a token wrist slap to the butchers of the Third Reich, that was the cause for DIN's resurrection. Only eleven death sentences were carried out as a result of the trials. Before the half point of the twentieth century, less than 300 Nazi criminals remained in jail for war crimes; many more were granted freedom within a year. The West German leadership pontificated that their military leaders at the end of the Second World War had had no mandate from the German people to surrender to the Allies. Ergo, they would not be bound by the terms of their surrender. Astoundingly, it also harrumped that Germany would bear no shame for its past. Those individuals who were guilty of vile human rights violations, instead of sneaking into their homes in shame through the back door, were given warm homecomings. All upper strata of German society soon became populated with ex-Nazis. These were all factors that former members of DIN could not tolerate, and their campaign of vengeance resumed in 1953. The organization had actually acquired much intelligence on former Nazis by the time of Adolph Eichmann's kidnapping in 1960. When the Israeli government publicized that they had the war criminal in custody, every ex-Nazi torturer, rapist, and mass murderer stampeded for the exits, thus rendering redundant much of the intelligence DIN had gathered on former Nazis. Within a few years, the organization disappeared.
FORGED IN FURY is apparently the only book Michael Elkins ever wrote. What a pity. He has that special ability to turn a phrase. The inside flap of the hardcover edition states that the author writes "...in white-hot anger...". Apt words. He's a master of sarcasm and dry wit. He records, for instance, that the nuns of the Vilna convent of St. Catherine's had sheltered a young Jewish woman for a year, providing her with the cover of false papers. He writes that she eventually took leave of the convent to act as a liaison between support staff in the Jewish ghetto "...and those Christians of Vilna who were Christian". In another case, he recounts the first meeting between a Fritz Grosz, who acted as a contact between DIN and its financial backers, and an unknown caller who implied that he could potentially be useful to the organization. Grosz wasn't sure if this was a covert Nazi sympathizer or the real thing. Elkins writes: "From the moment the caller opened his mouth, Grosz regarded him as though he were a well-dressed bomb. He couldn't just leave him there, ticking away on his doorstep, so he invited him in and they spent a time snuffling at each other...". I suppose appreciation of this type of dry humour is a subjective matter, but I couldn't help being amused over the description. In another example, he recounts the outrage of an SS Major who balked over having to deal with the gold teeth from Jewish camp corpses. He preferred these teeth to first be smelted before accepting them. The author refers dismissively to this ghoul as a "certified bastard".
Elkins is not reticent in acknowledging those non-Jews who bravely stood forth to aid others, simply due to the fact that the victims were human beings deserving of love and respect. He cites a number of examples, the most memorable of them being one Anton Schmidt. This was an Austrian who served in the German army, whose job involved returning lost soldiers to their original units. He was the first one to apprise the leadership of the Jewish Vilna underground that Adolph Eichmann was the mastermind behind the complex transportation system involved in moving Jews to the various death camps. Schmidt provided the leadership with the names of those he knew were guilty of murder, and soon became an invaluable asset to the organization. When it was whispered that Schmidt had eventually been betrayed into the hands of the Nazis, the underground leadership was forced to scramble for hiding places. An executioner's bullet being far less painful than interminable sessions of torture, the Jewish underground in Vilna waited on pins and needles to see what transpired. To his everlasting credit, Anton Schmidt kept faith with his fellow human beings by keeping his mouth shut. The author records that, after days of torture, he was dragged to the gates of the ghetto in a cart and, because he could not stand on his burned feet, was tied to a post and then shot by a squad of SS. In what was probably the last letter to his wife, Schmidt wrote that he had witnessed the murder of about 3,000 Jews in a meadow, and records his horror over witnessing the demise of young children being dashed to death against the trees. Besides the invaluable intelligence he supplied the underground, he is also credited with saving the lives of around 300 Jews. Another noteworthy sacrifice was that of the nuns, and in particular the Mother Superior, of the Sisters of St. Catherine convent in Vilna. When the Nazis discovered that they had been sheltering Jewish fugitives for a year, they were all hanged.
I was niggled that the book lacked an index, which would have benefited me greatly. I was also a tad anoyed by the fact that Elkins notes, in his forward, that he has changed some of the names, dates, and places, and has even gone so far as to invent some details. However, considering that 50 years ago, numerous DIN members and many ex-Nazis were still breathing, this was a reasonable measure to take to ensure anonymity.
October 26, 2011
This reads like a Frederick Forsyth novel, honestly. All the secret assassinations and the people from all walks of life coming together -- and the plan to poison the water supply of Munich. (Glad that never got off the ground. That crosses the line from revenge to terrorism.) It's well-written but I have a hard time believing it -- why haven't I heard of this all before?
November 10, 2008
The book talks about the life of the jews during WW2 and how they suffered. Sad enough they acted on their misery and since then up to now... Have been taking revenge on those who persecuted them, the book on the cover is written 'what binds Israel together...'
May 21, 2017
Yis-gah-dahl, v' yis-kah-dahsh, shemay rah-boh--- 'Be great and be holy, O Lord, our God.' The mourners lament, in Aramaic.
This book should not be rated lower than a 3 star rating. It is not the best WRITTEN book, but that should not be the reason people should read it for.
This book should not be rated lower than a 3 star rating. It is not the best WRITTEN book, but that should not be the reason people should read it for.
March 11, 2024
Having recently read John le Carre's 'memoir', The Pidgeon Tunnel, I was interested in a reference he made to the important contribution of Michael Elkins' book Forged in Fury during his research into his book The Little Drummer Girl. le Carre wanted to understand the Jewish 'psyche' and obsessive motivation for retribution, and he found it in this book. Now long since out-of-print (first printed in 1971), I located a copy on the secondhand market and was not disappointed.
Michael Elkins' book is about the holocaust and Nazi atrocities towards the Jewish people, but different from many other books on this subject, his focus was very personal, covering the impact on several people through various experiences, not only with the infamous extermination camps. He then covers the immediate post-war period when a group of Jewish people embark on widespread retribution, murdering Nazi war criminals who had escaped judgement by the victorious Allies and culminates with the infamous Plan A which intended to poison the water of over a million Germans (women and children, all judged by them to be equally as guilty as the Nazi SS). Fortunately, this did not eventuate, but Plan B did - the poisoning of over 1,000 SS POWs being held in Allied camps.
The book also explains the history of resettlement of Palestine and creation of the Israeli state, and the hatred for the Palestinians and Islamic world that resisted Israeli occupation.
Elkins was a former journalist, and the book is written in journalistic style rather than a detached academic treatise, but towards the end he is highly and emotionally critical of Allied 'laxity' in judging war criminals, and resistance to the relocation of Jewish people to a new state of Israel. His comments are damning, but not entirely accurate as he takes a Jewish perspective rather than analyzing the rationale and political realities (rightly or wrongly) of the Allies' approach. It was after finishing the book that I discovered the author, Michael Elkins, was Jewish, served with the OSS during the Second World War, and joined the Jewish retribution squads, facts he did not disclose and reflecting on his objectivity.
Nevertheless, this is a powerful, interesting, confronting, and engaging book which explains a lot about subsequent events involving Israel, including (but not condoning) Jewish attitudes towards Palestinians in Gaza and the obsessive determination for retribution with no moral constraints.
If you can find a copy of this book, get and read it. It is definitely a five-star read that would lend itself to a television series.
Michael Elkins' book is about the holocaust and Nazi atrocities towards the Jewish people, but different from many other books on this subject, his focus was very personal, covering the impact on several people through various experiences, not only with the infamous extermination camps. He then covers the immediate post-war period when a group of Jewish people embark on widespread retribution, murdering Nazi war criminals who had escaped judgement by the victorious Allies and culminates with the infamous Plan A which intended to poison the water of over a million Germans (women and children, all judged by them to be equally as guilty as the Nazi SS). Fortunately, this did not eventuate, but Plan B did - the poisoning of over 1,000 SS POWs being held in Allied camps.
The book also explains the history of resettlement of Palestine and creation of the Israeli state, and the hatred for the Palestinians and Islamic world that resisted Israeli occupation.
Elkins was a former journalist, and the book is written in journalistic style rather than a detached academic treatise, but towards the end he is highly and emotionally critical of Allied 'laxity' in judging war criminals, and resistance to the relocation of Jewish people to a new state of Israel. His comments are damning, but not entirely accurate as he takes a Jewish perspective rather than analyzing the rationale and political realities (rightly or wrongly) of the Allies' approach. It was after finishing the book that I discovered the author, Michael Elkins, was Jewish, served with the OSS during the Second World War, and joined the Jewish retribution squads, facts he did not disclose and reflecting on his objectivity.
Nevertheless, this is a powerful, interesting, confronting, and engaging book which explains a lot about subsequent events involving Israel, including (but not condoning) Jewish attitudes towards Palestinians in Gaza and the obsessive determination for retribution with no moral constraints.
If you can find a copy of this book, get and read it. It is definitely a five-star read that would lend itself to a television series.
Want to read
September 14, 2018Did a Jewish organisation take revenge against Nazis who remained unpunished after the war, in spite of being actively involved in the Holocaust? Never heard of them? That’s not surprising because nobody wrote about them until Forged in Fury in 1971 and the book (and the story) is obscure. I haven’t read this, but the idea is intriguing, so I’m going to write more on my book blog, Market Garden Reader: https://marketgardenreader.wordpress....
February 28, 2018
The book is badly written and unconvincing. I learned about it from Le Carre's The Pigeon Tunnel,
another badly written and full of misinformation book. Sometimes books and its authors disappoint.
I used to like Le Carre, his Smiley's trilogy especially. Oh, and I bought The Pigeon Tunnel because The New York Times Book Review had a very good review of it. Go figure.
another badly written and full of misinformation book. Sometimes books and its authors disappoint.
I used to like Le Carre, his Smiley's trilogy especially. Oh, and I bought The Pigeon Tunnel because The New York Times Book Review had a very good review of it. Go figure.
June 20, 2023
Fascinating book on survivors of the concentration camps taking revenge. Filled with information regarding the punishment, or lack thereof, of most of the Nazis responsible for killing 6 million Jews. Well written, but be warned it is very graphic and will leave you in shock at what one human can do to another.
August 9, 2020
I found this book in a charity shop and it is a profound account of an horrific time in history. It is factual and difficult to read. But should be read. And remembered.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews