Svenja Bethke is a lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Leicester.Sharon Howe is a freelance literary translator working from German. She is based in the UK.

"The author has written a highly competent, very readable, and […] fair-minded account of a disputed issue in the historiography of the Holocaust, one that makes a […] useful contribution to the literature. Both the subject itself and the author’s treatment of it seem to me deserving of scholarly and public attention."- Michael A. Livingston, Rutgers Law School (Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books) "To expert readers, this book provides an important contribution to the examination of ghetto life by adding a well-researched study on legal institutions in the ghettos…To non-expert readers, this book will be eye-opening as it plunges them into the messy, uncomfortable ‘choiceless choices’ that made up everyday life in the ghettos." - Amy Simon, Michigan State University (Central European History) "[Bethke’s] careful examination presents the nitty-gritty everyday of the last years and months of hundreds of thousands of people in horrible conditions. Bethke portrays them without false sentimentality as acting and thinking people who adapted, hoped, and tried to survive. Dance on the Razor’s Edge is a bold and important study on how negotiating and breaching rules shows Holocaust victims not as immoral but rather as human." - Anna Hájková, University of Warwick (American Historical Review) "An important and indispensable resource for those seeking insight into a subject that has been suppressed and rarely discussed in academic research." - Daniela Ozacky Stern, Western Galilee College (Holocaust and Genocide Studies)

• Acknowledgments Note on Names and Places Abbreviations Introduction 1. Nazi Jewish Policy in Eastern Europe and the Perspective of the Jewish Councils 2. Jewish Council Proclamations: Definitions of Criminal Activity 3. The Jewish Police as an Executive Organ 4. The Ghetto Courts 5. The Ghetto Penal System 6. Ordinary Ghetto Residents and Their Relationship with Internal and External Authorities Conclusion: Criminality and Law between the Poles of External Power and Internal Autonomy Notes Bibliography Index

Svenja Bethke is a lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Leicester.Sharon Howe is a freelance literary translator working from German. She is based in the UK.

"The author has written a highly competent, very readable, and […] fair-minded account of a disputed issue in the historiography of the Holocaust, one that makes a […] useful contribution to the literature. Both the subject itself and the author’s treatment of it seem to me deserving of scholarly and public attention."- Michael A. Livingston, Rutgers Law School (Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books) "To expert readers, this book provides an important contribution to the examination of ghetto life by adding a well-researched study on legal institutions in the ghettos…To non-expert readers, this book will be eye-opening as it plunges them into the messy, uncomfortable ‘choiceless choices’ that made up everyday life in the ghettos." - Amy Simon, Michigan State University (Central European History) "[Bethke’s] careful examination presents the nitty-gritty everyday of the last years and months of hundreds of thousands of people in horrible conditions. Bethke portrays them without false sentimentality as acting and thinking people who adapted, hoped, and tried to survive. Dance on the Razor’s Edge is a bold and important study on how negotiating and breaching rules shows Holocaust victims not as immoral but rather as human." - Anna Hájková, University of Warwick (American Historical Review) "An important and indispensable resource for those seeking insight into a subject that has been suppressed and rarely discussed in academic research." - Daniela Ozacky Stern, Western Galilee College (Holocaust and Genocide Studies)

• Acknowledgments Note on Names and Places Abbreviations Introduction 1. Nazi Jewish Policy in Eastern Europe and the Perspective of the Jewish Councils 2. Jewish Council Proclamations: Definitions of Criminal Activity 3. The Jewish Police as an Executive Organ 4. The Ghetto Courts 5. The Ghetto Penal System 6. Ordinary Ghetto Residents and Their Relationship with Internal and External Authorities Conclusion: Criminality and Law between the Poles of External Power and Internal Autonomy Notes Bibliography Index