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The Redeemers are the Jewish survivors of the European catastrophe who fought for the establishment of the Jewish state or sought to migrate to Palestine. The book is based on the author's experiences as an official of the Joint Distribution Committee in Europe. It treats mostly of political, organizational, and economic subjects, with no attempt at psychological or sociological analysis except for a general emphasis on heroic attitudes of the survivors who looked to the future. The book is highly dramatic, but there is no doubt that the story of the period after liberation properly lends itself to dramatic treatment. The author indicates his awareness that 'the narrative at times takes on the tone of fiction', but adds that every detail is authentic and that 'fifteen tons of documents in a half-dozen languages were drawn upon for accuracy'. He does not gloss over such undesirable activities of displaced persons as operations in the black market, but emphasizes the mitigating circumstances. General Clay, in a Prefatory Note, likewise emphasizes that much criticism of the displaced persons 'resulted from a failure to understand the conditions under which they were striving to attain once more a normal life', adding that 'the real glory of their story lies in how quickly within their camps they did reestablish moral values and learn to live once more as families within a community'.
The book offers a wealth of recent historical data and is valuable as a descriptive document. Readers interested in psychology will find in it a great deal about the human capacity for endurance of suffering and stress, and about the reversibility even of deep states of regression.