The title of this informative book does not do justice to its contents, which consist of much more than an account of the institutions of Jewish welfare in Breslau, the major city in Silesia renamed Wrocław after the conclusion of World War II, when large parts of Silesia became part of Poland. Miroslawa Lenarcik devotes close to thirty pages to the history of the Jewish community in Breslau from 1203 until 1933, and she covers a wide range of topics: the slow growth of the community, the difficulties encountered in settling in an area not well disposed toward Jews, the economic hardships of the newcomers, and the gradual establishment of various institutions such as synagogues, cemeteries, schools, and charitable organizations. By the early twentieth century, the community had evolved into the third largest—about 23,000—in Germany. Only those in Berlin (about 170,000) and Frankfurt (roughly 26,000) were larger.

The Breslau community had now also acquired a reputation for economic and cultural vibrancy. A sizable number of its members were relatively affluent, and the leadership put the resources to good use. It established an outstanding hospital and a fine school that offered a program of study in both secular and Jewish subjects, and it supported institutions that had taken the initiative in founding two religious movements that transformed Judaism. In the 1840s Rabbi Abraham Geiger, a learned man and an original thinker, laid the foundations of Reform Judaism by contending that although Judaism should preserve its essential religious principles, it should be changed in response to changing historical circumstances and modern philosophical thinking. In 1854, several prominent Jews, funded generously by the successful and progressive banker Jonas Fränckel, established the Jewish Theological Seminary, which, according to one scholar, developed into the “most important institution for the training of rabbis in Europe.” On religious issues, it adopted a position midway between extreme Orthodoxy and Reform, creating a synthesis of the two wings of Judaism. The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City deliberately followed in the footsteps of the seminary in Breslau and is now considered the major center for the training of conservative rabbis and for the scholarly study of Jewish religious texts and history from a conservative perspective.

After recounting these impressive achievements of that small community in Breslau, Lenarcik describes Hitler's rise to power and the antisemitic measures adopted by the Nazis. Reacting to the loss of a substantial portion of Silesia after Germany's defeat in World War I, the people of Breslau, who had for several decades supported moderate or liberal political movements, gave a higher proportion of their votes to the Nazis than the citizens of any other large city. And once the Nazis took over power, they initiated a harsh program of persecution of Jews, expelling them from many professions, ejecting numerous youngsters from public schools, and depriving Jewish businesses of their assets. The most lethal blow before the Holocaust was struck during the night of November 9–10, 1938 (Kristallnacht), when the Nazis carried out a massive pogrom against the Jews of Germany.

At that point in the narrative (p. 69), Lenarcik turns her attention to welfare institutions in Breslau. She allots thirty pages to the formation of such institutions under Christian auspices and then describes the specifically Jewish initiatives (p. 103): the creation of the Hevra Kaddisha in 1726, which catered to the sick and handled the burial of the deceased in accordance with Jewish religious precepts; and the formation of a Jewish hospital in 1760, which by the twentieth century was one of the best in the city and in the late 1920s catered to more gentiles than Jews (in 1927, seventy-five percent of the patients were non-Jews). By this time, the community also had established an elaborate system of financial aid to the poor. Between 1929 and 1935, the percentage of people in the Jewish community who received such help rose from thirty to forty-five. In this portion of the book, the author includes a brief account of the accomplishments of several capable and far-sighted women in raising the status of Jewish women.

In the last portions of the book the author focuses on the terrible suffering of the Jews as well as the gentiles during years of military conflict from 1939 to 1945. Her descriptions of the forced emigration after the war of Germans from large parts of Silesia (including Breslau) to make room for Poles from the eastern parts of Poland that were ceded to the Soviet Union are stark reminders of the pain endured by millions of citizens as a result of the peace settlement agreed upon by the victorious powers in Yalta. Lenarcik ends her study with a brief account of the suppression of Jewish institutions by the communist regime in the 1960s. But the very last pages of the book touch on a more uplifting series of events, a modest and in many ways surprising revival of Jewish institutions. Actually, the revival has been somewhat more extensive than Lenarcik could have expected at the time she completed her book. With the consistent support of the dynamic and liberal mayor, Rafal Dutkiewicz, and the remarkable efforts of Bente Kahan, the founder of a vibrant foundation, the Storch Synagogue, a major institution in the city until Kristallnacht, has been beautifully restored, cultural activities of Jewish interest have been revived, and there is a sense of confidence that the city of Wrocław is regaining some the luster long enjoyed by Breslau. It would be unrealistic to expect the emergence of a Jewish community comparable to the one that existed in 1933, but ten years ago no one would have predicted that Wrocław would be the center of as much Jewish cultural activity as it now enjoys.