The first extensive study of how living while circumcised affected the day-to-day efforts of Jewish men and women to survive the Shoah.
During the Shoah a circumcised male Jew trying to pass was always at risk. Scenes of threatened exposure, efforts to avoid such situations, and responses when they were unavoidable play significant roles in survivor testimonies and memoirs. Most studies that explore these issues focus on the readily visible or audible stereotypes of Jewishness—such as dark, curly hair; dark eyes; a curved nose; accented speech; distinctive surnames—before noting the danger posed by this corporeal feature that would eliminate virtually all doubts of Jewish identity. However, how circumcision affected the everyday choices, experiences, feelings, gender- and self-identities of Jewish men—and women— has yet to be fully explored by scholars of the Shoah.
Living While Circumcised addresses this gap by drawing on hundreds of survivor interviews, memoirs, diaries, and other written testimonies, as well as dozens of literary and cinematic works based on or adapted from survivors' accounts. Jay Geller details the wide variety of strategies individuals developed and the tactics they employed to avoid exposure during a police raid or ID check, medical examination or group shower, sex or children's games: from cross-dressing to assuming a Muslim identity, from claiming an operation for an infection to soaping one's groin, from ingenious distractions to playing against stereotype. Living While Circumcised thus documents an added dimension of Jewish resilience and resourcefulness during the Shoah.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Introduction: S(h)ibboleth: Circumcision and Jewish Survival During the Shoah
1. Naturally, They Were All Circumcised
2. Crossing Over
3. Medical Examinations / Éxamens médicaux
4. Showers and Other Body Washes
5. Children's Games and Other Pastimes
6. Sex and Other Intimate Acts
7. Explaining Away Circumcision
8. Muslim and Other Circumcised Identities
9. Epispasms and Foreskin Foresight
10. Uncircumcision
11. Bluff Calling and Other Recourses
12. Cross-Dressing
13. To Bris or Not to Bris
14. Postliberation
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Euphemisms for and Indirect References to Circumcision in Scenes of (Potential) Examination and Exposure in the Sources
Appendix 2: Audio/Audiovisual Testimonies Database Rubrics, Fields, Values (with Codes)
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Jay Geller is Professor of Modern Jewish Culture, emeritus, at Vanderbilt University, where he taught in the Divinity School and the Department of Jewish Studies from 1994 to 2021. He is the author of On Freud's Jewish Body: Mitigating Circumcisions (2007), The Other Jewish Question: Identifying the Jew and Making Sense of Modernity (2011), and Bestiarium Judaicum: Unnatural Histories of the Jews (2018). He has published numerous articles, book chapters, and reviews on aspects of the Shoah.
Review :
"To the best of my knowledge this is the only historical, scholarly book dedicated to cicumcision during, and to a lesser extent, the aftermath of the Holocaust. By default, and also by virtue, it will be the best book in the field for years to come. . . . This is a superb, stunning book."—Michael Berkowitz, author of Hollywood's Unofficial Film Corps: American Jewish Moviemakers and the War Effort
"Drawing on more than 500 audiovisual testimonies from the main collections in the US and Israel along with more than 150 written testimonies and even cinematic depictions, this book . . . reveals that, despite multiple research obstacles, audiovisual testimonies and published and unpublished memoirs alike contain substantial evidence that speaks to the centrality of circumcision in (male) Jews' struggles during the Holocaust. . . . This is an impressive research effort."—Thomas Pegelow Kaplan, author of The Language of Nazi Genocide: Linguistic Violence and the Struggle of Germans of Jewish Ancestry
