The Final Solution (Holocaust Library)

Discusses the origins, development, and implementation of the Final Solution, in which six million Jews were systematically exterminated by the Nazis during World War II.

Gr 9 Up--This frank and mature series entry represents the latest trend in Holocaust study, which is to examine in-depth one facet of the whole, here the implementation of the Final Solution, the Nazi euphemism for murder. Following a chronology of events and an introduction defining and briefly explaining the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, and revisionism, Rice explains the points of view of four schools of Holocaust researchers: 1) the "intentionalists," who claim that Hitler and the Nazis intended to annihilate the Jews from the start; 2) the "functionalists," who minimize Hitler's role and argue that the mass extermination of Jews was more a product of a bureaucracy functioning out of control; 3) the "eclectics," who accept parts of both school of thought; and 4) the theory advanced by Daniel Goldhagen that the German people's anti-Semitic beliefs were the central causal agent not only of Hitler's decision to annihilate European Jews, but also of the perpetrators' willingness to kill and brutalize Jews. The Nazi program of anti-Semitism is tracked in the four stages agreed to by historians: exclusion (1933-1935); persecution (1935-1939); expulsion (1939-1941); and annihilation (1941-1945). The author's seamless synthesis of events and opinions by many diverse researchers and survivors is faultless, as is the clarity with which their conclusions and testimony are presented--with pivotal decisions and testimonies highlighted. There are no extraneous photographs, only those that impact upon the text. Notes are provided for each chapter. An outstanding book that integrates many sources, some new, and presents important primary and secondary sources.

Marcia W. Posner, Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County, Glen Cove,

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