Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: The Final Solution in History (Verso World History Series) - Softcover

Mayer, Arno J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184467777X ISBN 13: 9781844677771

Publisher: Verso Books, 2012

Synopsis

Was the extermination of the Jews part of the Nazi plan from the very start? Arno Mayer offers astartling and compelling answer to this question, which is much debated among historians today.In doing so, he provides one of the most thorough and convincing explanations of how the genocidecame about in Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?, which provoked widespread interest and controversywhen first published.

Mayer demonstrates that, while the Nazis’ anti-Semitism was always virulent, it did not becomegenocidal until well into the Second World War, when the failure of their massive, all-or-nothingcampaign against Russia triggered the Final Solution. He details the steps leading up to thisenormity, showing how the institutional and ideological frameworks that made it possible evolved,and how both related to the debacle in the Eastern theater. In this way, the Judeocide is placedwithin the larger context of European history, showing how similar ‘holy causes’ in the past havetriggered analogous – if far less cataclysmic – infamies.

About this title

About the Author

Arno Mayer is Professor Emeritus of European History at Princeton University. His many books include The Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War, The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions, Plowshares into Swords: From Zionism to Israel and Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? The “Final Solution” in History.

From Publishers Weekly

This sure-to-be-controversial reassessment of Nazism by a Princeton professor of history is certain to provoke, disturb, even outrage. Mayer, himself of European Jewish roots, maintains that "anti-Semitism did not play a decisive or even significant role in the growth of the Nazi movement and electorate." German ultra-nationalism, Social Darwinism and anti-bolshevism were more pivotal elements in the Nazi creed, he asserts. He further claims that the Nazi genocide of six million Jews was not inevitable, and that the Jews became scapegoats marked for annihilation only after Hitler's crusade against the Soviet Union ran aground. With a quick victory over the Red Army, he surmises, the Nazis probably would have deported the Jews en masse to the far interior of Russia. Mayer feels that the Holocaust has become the focus of a sectarian "cult of remembrance"; his stated aim is to restore that horrific tragedy to a historical context. As a corrective to the work of other historians, his massive, detailed study is sometimes challenging, but he overstates his arguments and uses evidence selectively.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Verso Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 184467777X
• ISBN 13: 9781844677771
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 544