10 books like Good Neighbors, Bad Times Revisited

This riveting memoir tells the story of how Miep Gies and her husband hid Anne Frank’s family from the Nazis for over two years. Risking her life every single day—and almost getting caught several times—Miep brought food, emotional support, and news of the war to Anne’s family in their hiding space. The writing is beautiful and heartfelt. Miep claims she was only doing what any decent person would do—and there were many unsung heroes of the Holocaust—but she went far above and beyond to protect them. “It seems we are never far from Miep’s thoughts,” wrote Anne in her famous diary. I read this cover to cover while travelling in the Netherlands and was staggered by this woman’s courage.

This book recommendation is admittedly driven by current events.

Snyder describes the rock-and-a-hard-place situation Eastern Europe found itself in over the 20th century, trapped between two aggressive imperial powers.

He uses this exploration to, in part, blunt common Western criticism of Eastern European policies and decisions from this era – but there is a subtext that goes deeper, using the example of Hitler and Stalin to also present an Eastern European perspective on notions like security.

Going back to the 18th century the West has often been frustrated with Eastern Europe, but Snyder is presenting a stark picture of how Eastern Europe’s past might be relevant (and helpful) for the modern West. This was written before the current Ukraine war – but you’d swear it was written for it.  

Eva Mozes Kor was ten years old when she was sent to Auschwitz. As a survivor, she became an eloquent – and controversial – activist on behalf of forgiveness.  Her book tells the gripping story of how she freed herself from the burden of hatred.  Not everyone will agree with her stance, but everyone will be challenged and moved by it.

Steinman reaches out across a cultural divide to seek out Poles who are pursuing the truth about the past, however painful, and recovering the history of their lost Jewish neighbors. She brings to life the ultimately healing process of Polish-Jewish reconciliation. Her journey changed her, and it will change you.

I am recommending this memoir for its beauty and kindness, which is even more extraordinary when considering this is Eddie Jaku’s story of being a Holocaust survivor. He tells the reader that "life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It’s up to you." These are powerful words from a man whose life was changed forever when he was beaten, arrested, and taken to a concentration camp. For the next seven years, he witnessed the worst of mankind, the horrors of the death camps, first in Buchenwald and then in Auschwitz, and then the infamous Nazi death march. He lost many friends and family. But Eddie survived with his spirit intact, determined to live his best possible life and be happy. A truly surprising and inspirational book.  

I first met Peter here in Chapel Hill, and we became fast friends. A Holocaust survivor from Prague, Peter often spoke to my classes about his experiences. What made his talks so powerful was his ability to remember what it was like to be an eight-year-old boy living in a city under Nazi occupation, and to tell a story that is humbling, moving, and real. Never have I seen a speaker connect better with young people. Peter first became inspired to begin telling his story to students and others after confronting a Holocaust denier, and his many presentations laid the foundation for this book. Part history, part memoir, A Boy’s Journey is also a story about family and the need for tolerance and empathy in our world today. 

This novel was recently discovered in German archives and published again after years of obscurity. Otto Silbermann, a Berlin businessman, a fighter in The Great War, finds himself under attack by Nazi storm troopers in November of 1938. Forced to act quickly, his choices limited by draconian National Socialist laws, he decides the best way to avoid arrest while running for his life, is to travel by train. Absurdist, surreal, and filled with acerbic humor, The Passenger conveys the sense of dread, the isolation, and the feeling of being chased by death as well as any novel written about the Holocaust. The author was killed at the age of twenty-seven when the ship he was traveling on was torpedoed by a German submarine.   

A book that discusses perpetrators, bystanders, and victims while covering both Germany and the countries it invaded, and all in just over 300 pages? This could have been a dense, dry affair—but it emphatically isn’t. Peter Fritzsche, a leading historian of the Weimar and Nazi periods, skillfully weaves letters, diaries, and novels into a compelling account from which you come away with an understanding of what the Third Reich really meant for a variety of different people. Some enjoyed a feeling of mission and power; some muddled through and hoped to survive the war; some came to realize that they were about to be murdered. Most importantly, Fritzsche shows how many Germans came to endorse the Nazi vision of life as a never-ending emergency. 

Originally published in German, Wildt studies the role of the mid-level leadership of the Nazi SS who worked on the implementation of the “Final Solution” and the mass murder of the alleged racial and political enemies of the Third Reich.

Using a collective biographical approach and examining the individual backgrounds of these SS perpetrators, Wildt found that, contrary to popular belief, these men were not the so-called dregs of German society, but rather a cohort of ambitious, intelligent “men of action” many with advanced university degrees who came from borderlands areas throughout Germany. 

Whether with a pen or a pistol in their hands, these men proved adept at moving from desk duties to the field and were key actors in the implementation of mass murder.  

How many, and which individuals should be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. is a long-standing policy dilemma that people feel strongly about yet appears to have no easy solution.

Economist Borjas shows us how economists think about the issues involved. Where are we in the history of immigration to the United States? Which American industries and individuals benefit from allowing more immigrants in, and which are harmed by such a policy?

What policies would be better for the U.S. economy and the U.S. population as a whole? How are regions, states, and cities differentially affected? What trade-offs are involved in the available policy choices in this area?