The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution (The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry) - Softcover

Breitman, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0874515963 ISBN 13: 9780874515961

Publisher: Brandeis University Press, 1992

Synopsis

Among the Nazi leaders, Heinrich Himmler was, as Richard Breitman observes in this ground- breaking study, an easy man to underestimate—short, pudgy, near-sighted, chinless. Yet Himmler holds a peculiarly memorable place in the roster of Nazi war criminals: he was the man most closely associated with the creation and operation of the Final Solution, the programme of formal mass murder responsible for the deaths of six million Jews in death camps. Thus, to understand the Holocaust it is first necessary to understand Himmler, and it is this The Architect of Genocide at last permits us to do. Drawing on thousands of published and unpublished sources—ranging from the Nuremburg War Crimes trial records to papers held in the Central State Archives of the October Revolution of the Ukrainian SSR in Kiev—Breitman shows us the man himself, growing from unlikeable boyhood to be the perfect bureaucrat, seemingly the antithesis of the mad policies he espoused. At the same time, with unchallengeable authority, he presents us with the hitherto mysterious and much—debated facts about the origins of those policies, establishing among other things that before the war, Himmler had plans to murder all German Jews who would not- or could not—leave the country and that as early as 1939, Himmler was considering the use of gas chambers and crematoriums.

About this title

About the Author

RICHARD BREITMAN is the author or co-author of nine books and many articles in German history, U. S. history, and the Holocaust. Breitman teaches at American University and is editor of the journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He served as director of historical research for the Nazi War Criminal Records and Imperial Japanese Records Interagency Working Group, which helped to bring about declassification of more than eight million pages of U.S. government records under a 1998 law.

From the Back Cover

Drawing upon previously untapped primary sources - including Himmler's own appointment books and office logs - the author conclusively counters efforts to portray the Holocaust as unpremeditated, the result of bureaucratic improvisation under wartime constraints. Breitman thoroughly examines Heinrich Himmler's character and life and explores the racial ideology and planning that led to genocide. He finds Himmler and Hitler to be complementary figures: Hitler envisioned the Nazi policy toward the Jews, and Himmler, the master organizer who controlled the SS and security forces, turned it into horrific reality.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brandeis University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0874515963
• ISBN 13: 9780874515961
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 348