Dr. Joyce Lazarus Publishes Book on a Post-Holocaust Crisis
This past summer, Professor of French Dr. Joyce Lazarus brought out her book In the Shadow of Vichy: the Finaly Affair, published by Peter Lang. It is the first study in English of a crisis in Jewish-Catholic relations in France in the years following World War Two that assumed international dimensions.
The affair began as a judicial case concerning the custody of two Jewish orphans of the Holocaust. “[It] had lasting consequences for interfaith relations and helped to hasten the revolutionary changes of Vatican II,” says Lazarus.
This month, Lazarus will join other scholars and historians in Paris at a conference on the Finaly affair. The two brothers at the center of the case will be present to share their reflections on the crisis in their early lives. ”This is truly living history,” says Lazarus. “One of [the brothers] has been corresponding with me for over three years. He contributed the foreword to my book.”
Lazarus is now working on the French translation of the book, which will be published in France and other francophone countries. “In the French version, I will include some of the new ideas raised at the Paris conference,” she says.