Bodies and Souls - Annotated by Isabel Vincent (Paperback)

From the Back Cover

In the second half of the nineteenth century, several thousand impoverished young Jewish women from Eastern Europe were forced into prostitution in the frontier colonies of Latin America, South Africa, India, and parts of the United States by the Zwi Migdal, a notorious criminal gang of Jewish mobsters.

Isabel Vincent, acclaimed author of Hitler's Silent Partners, tells the remarkable true story of three such women--Sophia Chamys, Rachel Liberman, and Rebecca Freedman--who, like so many others, were desperate to escape a hopeless future in Europe's teeming urban ghettos and rural shtetls. Bodies and Souls is a shocking and spellbinding account of a monumental betrayal that brings to light a dark and shameful hitherto untold chapter in Jewish history--brilliantly chronicling the heartbreaking plight of women rejected by a society that deemed them impure and detailing their extraordinary struggles to live with dignity in a community of their own creation.

Review Quotes

"A clear, angry, important . . . work that treats significant matters with clarity and intelligence." - Kirkus Reviews for Hitler's Silent Partners
"Isabel Vincent has done a first- rate job of telling the story of Swiss perfidy during and after the war." - San Francisco Chronicle for Hitler's Silent Partners
"A thoroughly gripping tale." - Toronto Star for Hitler's Silent Partners
"Vincent shows great skill in piecing together their individual stories.... Vincent is a sympathetic chronicler and in uncovering the histories of these unsung women she demonstrates both tact and imagination. Her book, the only one to have tackled the touchy subject, is an informative and compelling read." - London Free Press
A shameful tale, and necessary in the telling. - The Globe and Mail
"[A] disturbing and wonderfully narrated book... Hitler's Silent Partners is gratifyingly precise." - Vancouver Sun for Hitler's Silent Partners
"Investigative journalist Vincent uncovers a little-known slice of Jewish history. . . . The story is fascinating . . . riveting and disturbing." - Kirkus Reviews
"Bodies and Souls is not merely the story of three Jewish women forced into prostitution, as its subtitle asserts, but also a retrospective look at the Jewish white slave trade, an obscene chapter in the history of vice.... the book sheds light on an obscure page of history that is both tragic and uplifting." - Montreal Gazette
"Vincent tells a tragic tale.... Compelling.... Bodies and Souls is an interesting read and provides a glimpse of a little-known part of our past." - Vancouver Sun