Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust

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Lantern Books, 2002 - History - 296 pages

This book explores the similar attitudes and methods behind modern society's treatment of animals and the way humans have often treated each other, most notably during the Holocaust. The book's epigraph and title are from "The Letter Writer," a story by the Yiddish writer and Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer: "In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka." The first part of the book (Chapter 1-2) describes the emergence of human beings as the master species and their domination over the rest of the inhabitants of the earth. The second part (Chapters 3-5) examines the industrialization of slaughter (of both animals and humans) that took place in modern times. The last part of the book (Chapters 6-8) profiles Jewish and German animal advocates on both sides of the Holocaust, including Isaac Bashevis Singer himself.

The Foreword is by Lucy Rosen Kaplan, former attorney for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and daughter of Holocaust survivors. Her foreword, the Preface and Afterword, excerpts from the book, chapter synopses, and an international list of supporters can be found on the book's website at: www.powerfulbook.com

From inside the book

Contents

THE GREAT DIVIDE Human Supremacy and the Exploitation of Animals
3
WOLVES APES PIGS RATS VERMIN Vilifying Others as Animals
27
MASTER SPECIES MASTER RACE
51
THE INDUSTRIALIZATION OF SLAUGHTER The Road to Auschwitz Through America
53
IMPROVING THE HERD From Animal Breeding to Genocide
81
WITHOUT THE HOMAGE OF A TEAR Killing Centers in America and Germany
109
HOLOCAUST ECHOES
137
WE WERE LIKE THAT TOO HolocaustConnected Animal Advocates
139
THIS BOUNDLESS SLAUGHTERHOUSE The Compassionate Vision of Isaac Bashevis Singer
169
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HOLOCAUST German Voices for the Voiceless
201
AFTERWORD
231
NOTES
233
BIBLIOGRAPHY
271
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
281
INDEX
283
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

Charles Patterson is a writer, editor, therapist, historian, animal advocate, and award-winning author of ten books. Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Polish, Czech, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, Russian, and Japanese (with Portuguese and Hungarian translations on the way). Patterson's other books include Anti-Semitism: The Road to the Holocaust and Beyond, The Civil Rights Movement, Marian Anderson (winner of the Carter G. Woodson Book Award), The Oxford 50th Anniversary Book of the United Nations, and From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall (co-authored with Holocaust survivor Mr. Marian Filar). Patterson is a graduate of Amherst College, Columbia University (Ph.D.) and the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. He lives in New York City and is a member of PEN, The Authors Guild, and the National Writers Union.

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