Book Reviews: Underground: The Story of a People. By JOSEPH TENENBAUM. (New York: Philosophical Library. 1952. Pp. ix, 532. $4.50.)

• Published date: 01 December 1952
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295200500442
• Date: 01 December 1952
• Subject Matter: Articles

706

recent

period

is

distinctly

sketchy.

Only

thirty-five

pages

are

devoted

to

the

period

since

1919.

As

a

result,

those

topics

in

which

political

scientists

are

most

apt

to

be

interested

are

generally

disposed

of

in

a

paragraph

or

two.

The

author

gives

two

pages

to

Gandhi,

who

is

summarized

with

a

pontifical

pronouncement

that &dquo; ...

his

judgment ...

might

be

mistaken,

but

of

Gandhi’s

passionate

sincerity

there

could

be

no

doubt.&dquo;

The

book

concludes

with

the

passage

of

power

from

Britain

to

India

and

Pakistan

in

1947.

It

does

not

deal

with

more

recent

development

of

these

new

states.

ITHIEL

DE

SOLA

POOL.

The

Hoover

Institute,

Stanford

University.

Underground:

The

Story

of a

People.

By

JOSEPH

TENENBAUM.

(New

York:

Philosophical

Library.

1952. Pp. ix,

532.

$4.50.)

This

is

a

chronical

of

genocide,

a

roll

call

of

the

death

of

a

people

and

reduction

of

their

homes:

the

Jews

and

the

ghettos

of

Poland.

Each

is

ticked

off

in

order - Warsaw,

Lodz,

Czestockowa,

Lublin,

Bialystok,

Lemburg,

Wilno,

and

Cracow - the

same

awful

story

is

repeated.

First

a

brief

history

of

the

Jews

in

the

city

in

question

is

given.

Then

follows

the

arrival

of

the

Germans,

the

period

of

apprehension

and

false

hopes

that

somehow

the

Germans

will

permit

the

Jews

to

work

out

a

not-too-

intolerable

modus

vivendi;

then

warning

signals

of

what

is

to

come

as

the

Nazis

seal

off

the

ghettos

and

crowd

them

with

Jews

from

the

outside;

then

the

first

selections

and

transportations,

and

the

frenetic

and

anguished

efforts

of

the

less

noble

or

less

stoical

individuals

to

grasp

at

any

straw

that

may

save

them

from

the

ruthless

Nazi

dragnet

that

will

haul

them

to

the

slave-labor

camps

or

extermination

hell-holes;

then

the

gradual,

or

sudden

realization

that

there

is

to

be

no

escape,

as

there

is

no

retreat.

With

this

hideous

realization

resistance

finally

begins

to

take

shape,

always

belatedly

and

always

born

of

defensive

desperation.

A

hard

resistance

core

of

defense

fighters

forms,

always

pitiably

equipped.

Bunkers

are

dug

deep

into

the

cellars

and

under

the

streets.

The

sewers

become

avenues

of

communication.

The

Nazi

&dquo;actions,&dquo;

raids

for

sacrificial

victims,

run

into

surprising

resistance.

The

razing

of

the

ghetto

begins.

The

strug-

gle

- no

longer

for

survival - but

&dquo;to

die

with

honor&dquo;

is

on.

The

death

fight

may

last

for

days

or

weeks,

but

the

end

is

the

same:

blackened

rubble

and

not

a

known

Jew

surviving.

The

result?

&dquo;Before

the

era

of

mass

deportation

in

1942,

there

were

more

than

two

million

Jews

living

in

the

Government

General.

In

less

than

two

years

only

a

small

number

remained

alive.

Yet

as

late

as

May,

1944,

on

the

eve

of

the

summer

offensive

of

the

Soviet

Army,

there

were