Omer Bartov, Brown University, author of Anatomy of a Genocide:
This is a remarkable account of the faith, devotion, and sacrifice of German Jewish World War I veterans, and of their utter betrayal not only by the Nazi regime, but also eventually by many of their former comrades. Geheran's well written and deeply researched book is a must read for all students of Germany, Jewish history, and anyone who believes that sacrifice for and love of nation will always trump xenophobia, racism, and bigotry. An important reminder in our own era of rising authoritarianism and conformism.
Geoffrey P. Megargee, author of Inside Hitler's High Command:
Geheran brings us the fascinating story of the collision of Nazi antisemitism with the courage of Jewish Great War veterans. There are surprises here, and a tale of honor in the face of impossible odds. This is an important book.
Andrew Donson, author of Youth in the Fatherless Land:
Comrades Betrayed is breathtaking in both depth and scope. No book up to now has been able to establish the limits of racial anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany so precisely.
Benjamin Ziemann, author of Violence and the German Soldier in the Great War:
This is a terrific book—extremely well-researched, tautly conceptualized, and engaging. Geheran brilliantly weaves individual life stories into his larger narrative, driving the story forward at a good pace, with crystal clear prose.
Dagmar Herzog, author of Unlearning Eugenics:
Geheran brilliantly explicates the contradictions cleaving the savage world of National Socialism, as exceptions made for decorated Jewish veterans workers petitioning to rescue a Jewish boss from Buchenwald, officers exempting former comrades from deportation to Chelmno—end up affirming the rationale of the larger genocidal project. A unique, remarkable, powerful book.
A fascinating tapestry is woven in the book, using personal stories of interventions "from above" in favour of former soldiers. Geheran's book certainly deals with a tough and complex moral issue, and the author tackles it remarkably well.
Based on a close analysis of memoirs, letters, and official documents, Geheran's well-researched account brings the veterans' voices to light and effectively writes this group into German and German-Jewish history. Comrades Betrayed is an impressive, well-crafted, and persuasive work, an enormously valuable contribution to German history, Jewish history, and the history of the Holocaust, which vividly and compellingly humanizes a unique group of the Nazis' victims.
The strength of Geheran's work lies in the impressive diversity of sources consulted. Comrades Betrayed is a significant contribution to our understanding of how this unique population of German Jews negotiated the Third Reich's multifaceted racial state.
Geheran's book certainly adds further depth to the history of the German-Jewish war veterans. Its real significance, though, lies in the final three chapters. Here, Geheran meticulously investigates how Jewish veterans' relationship to the war and to former comrades could lead to certain 'privileges', but all too often also to their destruction.
Geheran offers a particularly effective viewpoint with his analysis of these former soldiers' notions of masculinity and their relation to comradeship... [He] mobilizes an impressive array of archival and published primary sources to build an intriguing narrative.
Comrades Betrayed is an important new study of the experience of Jewish veterans during the years of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933) and the Third Reich (1933-1945). The book is based on extensive archival research, along with diaries, letters, and oral histories of Holocaust victims and survivors.
Geheran has written an extremely readable and well-researched book. It makes you proud to read about how these Jewish veterans maintained their sense of honor and military values which allowed them to defy the Nazis in the face of the discriminatory action taken against them.
Michael Geheran's archival research and sharp focus on the fate of the most protected sub-class of the persecuted Jews make Comrades Betrayed an invaluable if grim contribution to the history of a depraved government and warped society that murdered as many of its proudly loyal veterans as it could.