Editing An Eye for an Eye (Sack book)

{{Short description|1993 book by John Sack}}
{{Infobox book
| name = An Eye for an Eye: The Untold Story of Jewish Revenge Against Germans in 1945
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| image = An Eye For An Eye (book cover) by John Sack (1993).jpg
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| author = [[John Sack]]
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| genre = History
| publisher = [[Basic Books]]
| pub_date = October 1993
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| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover]])
| pages = 272
| isbn = 978-0-465-04214-2
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}}
'''''An Eye for an Eye: The Untold Story of Jewish Revenge Against Germans in 1945''''' is a 1993 book by [[John Sack]], in which Sack states that some [[Jews]] in [[Eastern Europe]], [[Czech Republic]], and [[Poland]] took revenge on their former captors while overseeing over 1,000 [[concentration camp]]s in Poland for German civilians. Sack provides details of the imprisonment of 200,000 Germans "many of them starved, beaten and tortured" and estimates that "more than 60,000 died at the hands of a largely Jewish-run security organisation."

==Discourse==
A professor of Jewish history at Brandeis University, [[Antony Polonsky]], said that his "research appears to be sound",<ref name="contro3">Crittenden, Jules (13 December 1993). [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/bostonherald/access/68169399.html?dids=68169399:68169399&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Dec+13%2C+1993&author=JULES+CRITTENDEN&pub=Boston+Herald&desc=Book+claiming+Jewish+revenge+vs.+Germans+creates+dispute&pqatl=google Book claiming Jewish revenge vs. Germans creates dispute], ''[[Boston Herald]]''</ref> but he and other reviewers have questioned the "extent of Jewish persecution of Germans", in Sack's book.<ref name="contr1">[[Streitfeld, David]]. (15 February 1995). [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/19508636.html?dids=19508636:19508636&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+15%2C+1995&author=David+Streitfeld&pub=The+Washington+Post+%28pre-1997+Fulltext%29&desc=Book+on+Jewish-Run+%60Revenge%27+Camps+Is+Pulled&pqatl=google Book on Jewish-Run `Revenge' Camps Is Pulled], ''[[The Washington Post]]'' ("A German publisher has abruptly canceled a book that investigates the Jewish role in running internment camps in Poland after World War II, saying the work otherwise could be "cause for some misunderstanding."")</ref><ref name="contr2">Kevles, Bettyann (23 December 1993). [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/60285088.html?dids=60285088:60285088&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Dec+23%2C+1993&author=BETTYANN+KEVLES&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+%28pre-1997+Fulltext%29&desc=BOOK+REVIEW+%2F+HISTORY+A+Post-Holocaust+Search+for+Revenge+AN+EYE+FOR+AN+EYE%3A+The+Untold+Story+of+Jewish+Revenge+Against+Germans+in+1945+by+John+Sack%3B+Basic+Books%2C+%2423%2C+252+pages&pqatl=google A Post-Holocaust Search for Revenge], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''</ref><ref name="holoc97">Streitfeld, David (7 February 1997). [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/11015226.html?dids=11015226:11015226&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+07%2C+1997&author=David+Streitfeld&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=%60Revenge%27+Talk+Scratched%3B+Holocaust+Museum+Disinvites+Author&pqatl=google `Revenge' Talk Scratched; Holocaust Museum Disinvites Author], ''[[The Washington Post]]'' ("Sack's talk was an outgrowth of ''An Eye for an Eye'', his controversial 1993 book about "a second atrocity" after the Holocaust.")</ref>

Polish historians including [[Tadeusz Wolsza]] from the [[Polish Academy of Sciences]] and [[Krzysztof Szwagrzyk]] from the [[Institute of National Remembrance]] inform that in 1945–1950 there were between 206 and 500 internment camps set up mostly by the Soviet [[NKVD]] at the former Nazi slave-labor camps in [[Greater Poland]] and across [[Silesia]], but the numbers reaching or ever exceeding 1,000 have no grounds in reality.<ref name="Wolsza">{{cite web|last=Wolsza|first=Tadeusz|author-link=Tadeusz Wolsza|year=2010|title=Obozy i inne miejsca odosobnienia na ziemiach polskich w latach 1944–1958|trans-title=Internment camps on Polish soil in 1944–1958|url=http://klub-generalagrota.pl/kg/baza-wiedzy/referaty/624,Obozy-i-inne-miejsca-odosobnienia-na-ziemiach-polskich-w-latach-19441958.html|access-date=15 October 2013|publisher=Klub Historyczny im. gen. Stefana Roweckiego}}</ref><ref name="ipn.gov.pl-1">{{cite book|last=Szwagrzyk|first=Krzysztof|author-link=Krzysztof Szwagrzyk|year=2005|title=Aparat Bezpieczenstwa w Polsce. Kadra kierownicza. Tom I: 1944–1956 (The Security Service in Poland. Directorate. Volume One: 1944–1956)|url=http://www.ipn.gov.pl/ftp/pdf/Aparat_kadra_kier_tom%20I.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104082816/http://www.ipn.gov.pl/ftp/pdf/Aparat_kadra_kier_tom%20I.pdf|archive-date=January 4, 2012|access-date=October 15, 2013|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance]] (IPN), Warsaw|pages=25, 59, 62, 535|format=PDF direct download: 3.63 MB|isbn=83-89078-94-5|quote=A report written by the Soviet [[NKVD]] General Nikołaj Seliwanowski dated 20 October 1945 stated that 18,7% of the field operatives in the [[Ministry of Public Security (Poland)]] were Jewish, including 50% of its departmental directors. Notably, all directors of the critical Department One were Jewish with no exception. Szwagrzyk himself used the existing records declassified after the [[Revolutions of 1989|collapse of the Soviet empire]] to estimate that in 1944-54 the real percentage of Jewish directors was 37.1% decreasing to 34.5% in 1954-56, before the end of [[Stalinism in Poland]]. – Szwagrzyk, p. 59.}}</ref>

According to [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]] writer [[Daniel Goldhagen]]'s review of the book in ''[[The New Republic]]'', most of the people working in these camps were not Jewish and Goldhagen argued Sack did his best to conceal this.<ref name="gold1">[[Daniel Goldhagen|Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah]] (27 December 1993). [http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/s/sack.john/press/goldhagen-on-sack.19931223 False Witness], ''[[The New Republic]]''</ref> Goldhagen cited a November 1945 report that only 1.7% of the members of the [[Ministry of State Security (Soviet Union)|Office of State Security]] were Jews as refutation of Sack's figure of 75%.<ref name="gold1"/> Sack responded that he had stated his figure for officers in Kattowitz in February, not all members in November, and that he had also written that hundreds of Jews left OSS during the year.<ref name=Sack4>Sack, ''An Eye for an Eye'', 4th edition 2000, pp. 174–175</ref> Sack said that he attempted to publish a response in a letter to the editor of ''The New Republic'' but the magazine refused it. Sack said that ''The New Republic'' agreed to publish his reply as an advertisement, but later reversed its position.<ref name=Sack4/>

Sack has responded to American critics of the book who say that it is "sensational and its charges inadequately attributed to source" by replying that his extensive research left little doubt that Jews ran the [[Zgoda labour camp|Świętochłowice "Zgoda" camp]] "from the bottom to the top". He added "It pains me as a Jew to report this".<ref name="Whitney1994">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/01/world/poles-review-postwar-treatment-of-germans.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm | title=Poles Review Postwar Treatment of Germans | first=Craig R. |last=Whitney | access-date = May 13, 2012 | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=1 November 1994}}</ref>

Sack expressed surprise at criticisms denying the accuracy of his claims, asserting that the main points have been repeatedly confirmed by others, the TV programme ''[[60 Minutes]]'' and ''[[The New York Times]]''<ref name="Whitney1994"/> among them.<ref>Stewart, James. [http://www.johnsack.com/dictionary_of_literary_biography_an_eye_for_an_eye.htm John Sack] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040416034715/http://www.johnsack.com/dictionary_of_literary_biography_an_eye_for_an_eye.htm |date=April 16, 2004 }}, in ''[[Dictionary of Literary Biography]]'', Retrieved May 7, 2012</ref>

In 1995, the German publisher [[Piper Verlag]] pulled the book after printing it, apparently in response to a review by journalist [[Eike Geisel]] that called it "antisemitic fodder".<ref name="contr1"/> According to Sack, Geisel claimed to quote a passage that doesn't exist in the book.<ref name=SackDE>Sack, ''An Eye for an Eye'', 4th edition 2000, pp. 175, 236.</ref> It was published by another German publisher{{which|date=December 2020}} instead.<ref name=SackDE/><ref>{{cite book | author = John Sack | title = Auge um Auge. Die Geschichte von Juden, die Rache für den Holocaust suchten | publisher = Kabel Verlag | year = 1995 | isbn = 978-3822503393}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist|33em}}

==See also==
* ''[[Other Losses]]'' (controversial 1989 book by [[James Bacque]] about the deaths of German POWs after the war)
* ''[[Nemesis at Potsdam]]'' (1977 book by [[Alfred-Maurice de Zayas]])
* [[Salomon Morel]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eye For An Eye}}

[[Category:1993 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:20th-century history books]]
[[Category:History books about Jews and Judaism]]
[[Category:History books about Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:History books about Poland in World War II]]