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Bitter Harvest: Jews and Christians in one German City: Hamburg 1933-1945

7:00pm, 23 November 2004

Professor John Grenville 

In the years following Hitler's rise to power, Jewish-Christian relations were more varied than popularly supposed - as demonstrated in the case of Hamburg, a traditionally liberal city with a strong mercantile past. Professor Grenville uses data from offi cial records and private documents to present a vivid picture of a city in crisis. Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann was the Nazi in overall command. Although one of Hitler's favourites, he was not always as obedient and offi cious as his leader might have wished. There were instances where economic interests prevailed over ideology, with some Jewish fi rms still functioning in 1940. Professor Grenville explores this and several other 'grey' facets of Nazi Hamburg. 

John Grenville was born in Berlin and is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Birmingham. He is a visiting Professor at City University New York, the University of Hamburg, and the Peoples' University Beijing. He is the author of Lord Salisbury and Foreign Policy (first edition 1964, second edition 1970); Europe Reshaped 1848-1878 (first edition 1966, fourth edition 2000); Politics and Strategy. Studies in American Foreign Policy (first edition 1968, second edition 1970); and most recently Collins History of the Twentieth Century (first edition 1995, three subsequent editions and a new update scheduled for 2005). His forthcoming book on German-Jewish history is entitled Fortunate Years and Bitter Harvest. He is also Joint Editor of the Leo Baeck Institute Year Book.

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