Reviews & Media
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Edwin Black's research is striking in its dimension and scope. The vast uncovering of source
material and its extensive use are almost
overwhelming. He succeeds in crystallizing the
various aspects of an almost worldwide problem into fluid and
cohesive analysis.
Yoav Gelber, Yad Vashem, Israel Holocaust Memorial Black reconstructs in depressing detail the (Jewish world’s) strident
debates and
acrimonious struggles ...while pursuing the increasingly
unrealistic goal of bringing the
Third Reich to its knees.
Important new ground. Black’s research efforts extend far beyond the capabilities of one or even two authors.
A fascinating book creating controversy all across the country. Edwin Black
applied his established investigative journalism techniques to history. The result is an extraordinary book: The Transfer Agreement.
Meticulously researched... Black took five years to research and write
this incredible volume...Black poses the controversial question: ‘Was it
madness or was it genius?’ The many fascinated readers will have to
decide for themselves.
Black brings an incredible amount of material together. With uncanny
skill, he keeps it all under control. Five stars.
A compassionate longing for truth.
A passionate book certain to be controversial...(an) incredible job.
Black...gives particulars on...the great dilemma of 1933—whether to
concentrate on toppling the Nazi regime through boycott or the
extrication of German Jews before it was too late.
...outlines brilliantly the historic roots of German anti-Semitism.
...five years of exhaustive research...The undertaking was immense.
...an exhaustively documented and compelling book.
...a well-documented, highly charged book that is likely to stir
controversy.
On one level, this book is an exciting spy story. On another, it is a
heartbreaking account of anguished and bewildered human beings caught in
a nightmare situation.
As a work of historical journalism, this book is exhaustive and
compelling.
Edwin Black has succeeded beyond my hopes and expectations of doing
justice to the Jewish protagonists of this dreadful and depressing
history. He has not shirked his painful task but accomplished it in a
compelling, enlightened and sympathetic way.
This book will make an impression. It is controversial and will stir up the (Jewish) communities worldwide. Reactions pro and con will be heard.
The book is the topic of the day and is on the agenda everywhere.
It sounds like a plot for a movie on the late, late show . . . but it’s not a movie
plot. It’s true. All of it. And all of it is detailed in this controversial
book.
The most intriguing, interesting, exciting and thoroughly documented work
I have read in many years.
A contribution to our endeavor to see everything that creates and
created Jewish faith in one of our most fateful hours.
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Black...has meticulously documented this obscure but important slice of
world history...makes an essential contribution to an understanding of
Israeli politics and the strife in the Middle East today.
A struggle to write a painful chapter in Jewish history. What Black
began uncovering was a tangled account of an anguished moment in
history, one that he at the center had to piece together from...
forgotten archives, newspapers from the pre-WWII era and
government records.
Black has authored an exhaustive, compelling, well-written and edited A spellbinding, exciting book exploring new dramatic facets. Despite the voluminous literature on the Third Reich, Mandate Palestine, modern Zionism and the Holocaust, this subject had not been previously explored. It adds a significant new dimension to our understanding of this critical period. Sybil Milton, Simon Wiesenthal Center Truly a brilliant piece of work. It has captured the passion, ferocity,
exultation and yes, naiveté of that moment in history. . . an artistic
tour de force.
Excellent and revealing. Fills the vacuum in the history of both the
German economy and of the Zionist movement. This book is informative,
exciting, as well as challenging and morally disturbing.
It reads like a good spy book, something out of John LeCarre.
...riveting.
In the hands of a different writer, this material, with its copious footnoted sources, could have formed a much different story, damning Zionism
and the State of Israel . . . It does not. Black is trying to increase our understanding and appreciation of what we have in the Jewish State of
Israel and at what hidden costs.
I took it home and did not sleep half the night while I kept reading.
Using the techniques of a mystery thriller mixed with historical analysis, Edwin
Black has created an exciting, probing account of this critical point in modern history.
. . . scholarly yet readable, very readable. Its many complexities are woven into an organized while of great drama and it’s pulled off well.
A tremendous canvas filled with people and events of extraordinary dramatic impact.
A crisply written, richly documented history of a dark corner of Holocaust history . . . informs and enlightens without the rancor of retrospection.
Black is the first to investigate the origins of the 1933 agreement, the international
political and economic context in which it was drawn up, the leading persons involved,
the repurcussions within Jewish and Zionist organizations, and the long-term
results. . . . Black, who conducted research on three continents with the aid of research
assistants, has written a detailed, dramatic study of one of the first significant acts of
appeasement of the Third Reich and of Jewish history on the eve of the Holocaust.
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