EBOOK Golden Harvest:Events at the Periphery of the Holocaust

It seems at first commonplace: a group photograph of peasants at harvest time,        after hard work well done, resting contentedly with their tools behind the fruits of        their labor. But when one finally notices the "e;crops"e; scattered in front of the        group, what seemed innocent on first view become horrific skulls and bones. Where        are we? Who are the people in the photograph, and what are they doing?The starting        point of Jan Tomasz and Irena Grudzinska Gross's Golden Harvest, this haunting        photograph in fact depicts a group of peasants--"e;diggers"e;--atop a mountain of ashes        at Treblinka, where some 800,000 Jews were gassed and cremated. The diggers are        searching for gold and precious stones that Nazi executioners may have overlooked.          The story captured in this grainy black-and-white photograph symbolizes the vast,        continent-wide plunder of Jewish wealth that went hand-in-hand with the        Holocaust.The seizure of Jewish assets during World War II occasionally generates        widespread attention when Swiss banks are challenged to produce lists of dormant        accounts, or national museums are forced to return stolen paintings. But the theft        of Europe's Jewish population was not limited to conquering armies, leading banks,        or museums. It was perpetrated also by local people, such as those pictured in the        photograph. Lyrical and often heartbreaking, A Golden Harvest takes readers across        Europe as it exposes the economic ravaging of an entire society. Beginning with a        simple group shot, the authors have written a moving book that evokes the depth and        range, as well as the intimacy, of the Final Solution.