*Winner of the Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History

Resistance of the Heart offers a detailed account of the Rosenstrasse protest, in which non-Jewish German women publicly demanded the release of their Jewish husbands during the Holocaust. Drawing on archival records, court documents, and survivor testimony, Nathan Stoltzfus reconstructs how this protest unfolded and why it succeeded.

The book explores how personal relationships, public visibility, and sustained collective presence constrained the regime’s options at a critical moment. By examining this rare case of effective protest, Stoltzfus challenges long-held assumptions about passivity and powerlessness, and opens new perspectives on resistance within a totalitarian state.