The first comprehensive, comparative study of the 'Jewish Councils' in the Netherlands, Belgium and France during Nazi rule. In the postwar period, there was extensive focus on these organisations' controversial role as facilitators of the Holocaust. They were seen as instruments of Nazi oppression, aiding the process of isolating and deporting the Jews they were ostensibly representing. As a result, they have chiefly been remembered as forms of collaboration. Using a wide range of sources including personal testimonies, diaries, administrative documents and trial records, Laurien Vastenhout demonstrates that the nature of the Nazi regime, and its outlook on these bodies, was far more complex. She sets the conduct of the Councils' leaders in their prewar and wartime social and situational contexts and provides a thorough understanding of their personal contacts with the Germans and clandestine organisations. Between Community and Collaboration reveals what German intentions with these organisations were during the course of the occupation, and allows for a deeper understanding of the different ways in which the Holocaust unfolded in each of these countries.

Winner, 2023 Yad Vashem International Book Prize, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center

‘This study presents a fresh and innovative analysis of the Jewish Councils phenomenon in Western Europe during the Nazi period which has been a delicate and controversial topic since their very establishment. The fascinating detailed and in-depth research turns this book into essential reading for scholars as well as for the broader interested public.’

Dan Michman - Bar-Ilan University and Head of the Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research

‘Laurien Vastenhout has written the first major comparative study of the 'Jewish Councils' of Nazi-occupied Western Europe. Deeply researched and nuanced in its judgements of the councils' room for manoeuvre, Between Community and Collaboration is a significant contribution to scholarship which helps us understand the Holocaust as such.’

Dan Stone - Royal Holloway, University of London

‘The study is very worthwhile, also for a broader audience, and can easily withstand comparison with the highly praised work of Van der Boom.’

Geraldien von Frijtag Drabbe Künzel Source: Low Countries Historical Review

‘A much-needed addition to the study of the Holocaust in Western Europe.’

Jazmine Contreras Source: Holocaust and Genocide Studies

‘… a fascinating, complex, lively story, and, what's more, pleasant to read and accessible to a wide audience.’

Laurance Schram (in French) Source: Journal of Belgian History

‘[Vastenhout’s] broadening of sources and new insights are impressive.’

Geraldien von Frijtag Drabbe Künzel Source: Low Countries Historical Review

‘This is a valuable book that brings the West European Jewish councils into the broader discussion of the role of the Jewish councils during the war … Vastenhout’s book performs an immense service by moving us away from simplistic answers to … enormously complicated questions.’

Vicki Caron Source: The English Historical Review

‘With her clever book, Vastenhout makes an eminently important contribution to a deeper understanding of the Holocaust in Western Europe and beyond, by exploring the background and the range of the scope of action of the Jewish actors within the 'Jewish Councils' in the context of the respective occupation reality in a sharp analytical manner and inspiring further research.’

Markus Roth Source: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft

‘Vastenhout’s open and analytical investigation is very welcome.’

Sietske van der Veen Source: European Journal of Jewish Studies

‘[This] study sets standards when it comes to the transnational, comparative study of Jewish forced unions during the Holocaust.’

Andrea Löw Source: Bulletin des Fritz Bauer Instituts

‘The work, rightly acclaimed at the end of 2023 by the Yad Vashem Prize, thus demonstrates the full interest of a comparative and transnational history of the Shoah.’

Thomas Chopard Source: Francia recensio