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	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Politics & government

SAINTS AND LIARS

Deborah Dwork

The Story of Americans Who Saved Refugees from the Nazis

A gripping history that plumbs the extraordinary stories of American relief and rescue workers during World War II.

Saints and Liars recounts the remarkable story of Americans who went abroad to offer relief and stayed to rescue people targeted by the Nazi regime. Deployed by US organizations to Prague, Vilna, Shanghai, Marseille, and Lisbon, they gathered necessities for refugees' survival while trying to find them safe havens. Renowned historian Debórah Dwork tracks these rescue workers' heroic deeds as she lays bare the moral questions they encountered and their unpredictable and constantly changing circumstances. Among the group was the first female overseas representative of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee who, sent to Shanghai, negotiated with enemy Japanese to protect the refugee community. There was also the Unitarian couple aiding undocumented people?Jews, antifascists, and artists?in Lisbon while serving as American secret agents. Drawing on a deep well of archival documents, including recently discovered letters, diaries, and memos, Dwork chronicles both the tragedies rescue workers witnessed and the amazing successes they achieved. 35 black-and-white images, 6 maps Debórah Dwork is director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at the Graduate Center?CUNY. Author (with Robert Jan van Pelt) of Flight from the Reich and Holocaust, among other works, she lives in New York.

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Book Published 2025-01-14 by W.W. Norton

Comments

For anyone interested in the plight of refugees and the intensely committed people who provided relief and rescue in war-torn Europe, Debórah Dwork's deeply researched and riveting account is the gold standard. Focusing on the micro level, she investigated what happened behind the scenes as representatives of the Quakers, Unitarians, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee gauged the unpredictability of radically fluctuating government policies and risked secret, often illicit actions in order to aid 'destitute and shattered people.' A must read!

When genocidal dictators blow up the world, extraordinary people rise to the occasion. Debórah Dwork's powerful Saints and Liars depicts the lives of courageous Americans, of various religious denominations, who worked against odds and at great risk rescuing Jewish refugees from the Nazis. Dwork, noted for her groundbreaking work on children, gender, war and the Holocaust, shows us the human flaws and conflicts, administrate complexities, and sexismthese rescuers faced, endured and triumphed over. An important and timely book.

In Saints and Liars Debórah Dwork deftly examines five examples of rescue efforts in five citiesVilna, Prague, Marseille, Lisbon, and Shanghaibetween 1939-1943. With exhaustive research, Debórah Dwork peels back layers of complexity, each microhistory highlighting the importance of luck, timing, resourcefulness and connections. These stories seen simply from today's perspective could be flattened by a lesser writer as purely heroic. But Debórah Dwork's recounting shows that they were messy, plagued by egos, ambitions, miscommunications, sexism, real dangers, and the chaos of the times with shifting political and military realities. These rescuers were saints, but to accomplish what they did, they were also liars; they were driven and they were flawed. Debórah Dwork illuminates tiny bright moments of astonishing bravery, such as Japan's consul, Chiune Sugihara, who despite explicitly being told not to grant transit visas to Jews, issued thousands. Startlingly relevant in today's world-wide refugee crisis, Saints and Liars serves as a primer to all of us trying to understand the complex, messy and urgent work of rescue.

In this remarkable book Deborah Dwork confirms her place as the most profound historian of the Holocaust at work today. Brilliantly weaving together original analysis and piercing insight, she offers a whole new way of conceptualizing the tragedy of the Shoah. It is a truly transformative addition to the existing body of scholarship.

Prague, Vilna, Shanghai, Marseille, and Lisbon are the backdrop for this brilliantly conceived history of American relief and rescue efforts during World War II. Deborah Dwork's discerning eye has focused on five examples of individuals and couples whose courage and determination saved lives. In doing this, she not only tells an important story of human agency in the context of world events, but also provides a revealing and welcome glimpse at the quotidian and often overlooked motives, irrational impulses, and just plain luck that propel history just as they do our everyday lives.

In Saints and Liars Debórah Dwork tells a gripping story of individual American activists Unitarians, Quakers, Jews navigating the dark corners of wartime Prague, Vilna, Shanghai, Marseille, and Lisbon in an effort to save vulnerable people from the Nazis. Her book reads like a novel by Alan Furst or Joseph Kanon, while also delivering a powerful and moving portrait of what brave (though complicated) people could do in response to Nazi persecution. This is a brilliant work of historical reconstruction which, sadly, is also highly timely.