Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews - Softcover

Longerich, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199600732 ISBN 13: 9780199600731

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2012

Synopsis

This masterful history uses an unrivalled range of sources to lay out in clear detail the steps taken by the Nazis that would lead ultimately to the Final Solution. Focusing closely on the perpetrators and exploring the process of decision making, Longerich convincingly shows that anti-Semitism was not a mere by-product of the Nazis' political mobilization or an attempt to deflect the attention of the masses. Rather, from 1933, anti-Jewish policy was a central tenet of the Nazi movement's attempts to implement, disseminate, and secure National Socialist rule-and one which crucially shaped Nazi policy decisions.

Holocaust is perhaps most remarkable for its extensive use of the 1930s archives of the Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith, which re-emerged in the 1990s after years languishing in Moscow. The letters and reports from this archive document in detail the attacks suffered by ordinary Jewish people from their German neighbors. They show how, contrary to what has been believed in the past, the German populace responded relatively enthusiastically to Nazi anti-Semitism.

This long-awaited English edition has been fully updated by Longerich himself. It features revised appendices with notes and further reading, as well as a new preface by the author. In addition, Longerich has added new material on the Jewish victims and on the camps and the ghettos, and has extended the story from the end of the war right up to the present day. In all, it is the most complete treatment ever published on the history of this monumental tragedy.

Named a 2010 Book of the Year by Atlantic Monthly

About this title

About the Author

Peter Longerich is Professor of Modern German History and Director of the Research Centre for the Holocaust and Twentieth-Century History at Royal Holloway, University of London. His books include Heinrich Himmler: A Life, The Unwritten Order: Hitler's Role in the Final Solution, and The Systematic Character of the National Socialist Policy for the Extermination of the Jews.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Skeptics who maintain there is little of value left to learn about the Holocaust should read this superb and provocative work originally published in German in 1998. Now revised and published in English for the first time, it offers relatively new data as well as a convincing thesis regarding the genesis and execution of systematic genocide. Longerich rejects the assertions of so-called “structuralists” who view the “Final Solution” as a byproduct of the war, which implies that anti-Jewish policies simply “got out of control” under wartime stress. Rather, extermination of Jews was the logical result of the virulent race hatred of the Nazis. Furthermore, Longerich shows that this hatred of Jews was prevalent in Germany well before the Nazi ascension to power in 1933. As expected, it permeated parties of the Right, but it infected all aspects of German society. This is a scholarly work relying heavily on letters, reports, and statistics, but it does not neglect the shattering anguish of individual humans. This is a vital addition to the field of Holocaust studies. --Jay Freeman

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0199600732
• ISBN 13: 9780199600731
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 672