The Holocaust: A German Historian Examines the Genocide

The Holocaust / Wolfgang Benz; translated by Jane Sydenham-Kwiet.

The history of the Holocaust keeps being written and rewritten in ever greater detail, but almost always by Jews. Wolgang Benz's book makes an important contribution by bringing the German perspective to this horrific event. A masterpiece of compression, the books covers all the major topics and issues, from the Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942, to stripping Jews of their civil rights, from the establishment of ghettos to the creation of killing centers and the development of an efficient system for extermination. The book also includes a chapter on "The Other Genocide: The Persecution of the Sinti and Roma," detailing the crusade against the Gypsies.

From the Foreword by Arthur Hertzberg:

Benz's account is the necessary 'first course' for anyone who wants to know about the Holocaust and to think further about its meaning for humanity. It is of particular importance that the historian who has written this book is a German. This account is trustworthy because its author combines within himself the rare authority of someone who belongs to the past of his nation. He has both understood and transcended its history in this century. The subject of the book, the Holocaust, is somber beyond words, but this account in Benz's words is a cause for hope.

Wolfgang Benz is professor of antisemitism research at the Technical University of Berlin. He has written numerous studies on the history of the Jews during the Third Reich, including The Jews of Germany, 1933-1945 and Dimension des Völkermords (Dimension of Genocide).Arthur Hertzberg is professor of Jewish Studies at New York University. He is the author of The Jews in America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter: A History (Columbia) and The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader.