Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution

by Ian Kershaw

• ISBN13: 9780300151275
• ISBN10: 0300151276
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2009-06-16
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

This book is the culmination of more than three decades of meticulous historiographic research on Nazi Germany by one of the period's most distinguished historians. The volume brings together the most important and influential aspects of Ian Kershaw's research on the Holocaust for the first time. The writings are arranged in three sectionsHitler and the Final Solution, popular opinion and the Jews in Nazi Germany, and the Final Solution in historiographyand Kershaw provides an introduction and a closing section on the uniqueness of Nazism. Kershaw was a founding historian of the social history of the Third Reich, and he has throughout his career conducted pioneering research on the societal causes and consequences of Nazi policy. His work has brought much to light concerning the ways in which the attitudes of the German populace shaped and did not shape Nazi policy. This volume presents a comprehensive, multifaceted picture both of the destructive dynamic of the Nazi leadership and of the attitudes and behavior of ordinary Germans as the persecution of the Jews spiraled into total genocide.

Author Biography

Ian Kershaw is a highly acclaimed historian and professor of modern history at the University of Sheffield. He is well known for his writings on Nazi Germany, especially his definitive two-volume biography of Adolf Hitler, Hitler, 1889–1936: Hubris and Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis. He lives in Manchester, GB.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Hitler and the Final Solution
'Working towards the Fuhrer': Reflections on the Nature of the Hitler Dictatorship	p. 29
Ideologue and Propagandist: Hitler in Light of His Speeches, Writings and Orders, 1925-1928	p. 49
Improvised Genocide? The Emergence of the 'Final Solution' in the 'Warthegau'	p. 60
Hitler's Role in the 'Final Solution'	p. 89
Popular Opinion and the Jews in Nazi Germany
The 'Everyday' and the 'Exceptional': The Shaping of Popular Opinion, 1933-1939	p. 119
German Popular Opinion during the 'Final Solution': Information, Comprehension, Reactions	p. 139
Reactions to the Persecution of the Jews	p. 151
Popular Opinion and the Extermination of the Jews	p. 197
German Popular Opinion and the 'Jewish Question', 1939-1943: Some Further Reflections	p. 210
The Final Solution in Historiography
Hitler and the Holocaust	p. 237
'Normality' and Genocide: The Problem of 'Historicization'	p. 282
Shifting Perspectives: Historiographical Trends in the Aftermath of Unification	p. 303
The Uniqueness of Nazism
Hitler and the Uniqueness of Nazism	p. 343
War and Political Violence in Twentieth-Century Europe	p. 361
Acknowledgments	p. 381
Index	p. 385
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