שנות ראינו רעה: פרקים בתולדות היהדות הדתית בתקופת השואה

Surveys the rescue of Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews during the Holocaust. Discusses, inter alia, the hardships of Jews who went into hiding, especially the religious hardships of those who survived posing as non-Jews; the rescue of rabbis and students in Lithuanian yeshivas; and the efforts of various rabbis and Va'ad Hatzalah groups, especially Rabbi Dov Weissmandel of the Slovakian Working Group. Provides details of Weissmandel's activities, quoting extensively from his writings. Surveys life in the ghettos, focusing on ghettos in Poland (with some material on Belarus and Lithuania) and on the lives of Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews. Inter alia, discusses the role of religious leaders and their halakhic rulings (especially the Rabbi of Piaseczno), efforts by Jews to maintain religious observance in spite of the hardships, organizations which provided aid, Nazi destruction of Torah scrolls and Jewish libraries, the preservation of Jewish history through archives, children's education and the efforts of outstanding educators, and various religious views during the Holocaust. Focuses on reactions of Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews to the Nazi mass murders and to life in the concentration camps. Notes that most European Jews, even after hearing about Nazi mass murders in the USSR in 1941, did not believe that such things would happen in other countries. Discusses, inter alia, the roles of Judenrat, resistance, and religious leaders in the ghettos; halakhic and ethical questions concerning the deportations; and spiritual resistance in labor and concentration camps. Ch. 4 (pp. 137-182) discusses the Holocaust in Hungary, noting that Hungarians refused to believe stories of Nazi atrocities even when confronted with them. Contains many photographs from ghettos and camps.