Holocaust The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews

by Longerich, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780192804365
• ISBN10: 0192804367
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-05-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In 1998, Peter Longerich published Politik der Vernichtung (Politics of Destruction), a stunning re-examination of the Holocaust. The book received universal acclaim, and is now generally recognized by historians as the standard account of this horrific chapter in human history. Now finally available in English, this masterful history uses an unrivalled range of sources to lay out in clear detail the steps taken by the Nazis that would lead ultimately to the Final Solution. Focusing closely on the perpetrators and exploring the process of decision making, Longerich convincingly shows that anti-Semitism was not a mere by-product of the Nazis' political mobilization or an attempt to deflect the attention of the masses. Rather, from 1933 anti-Jewish policy was a central tenet of the Nazi movement's attempts to implement, disseminate, and secure National Socialist rule--and one which crucially shaped Nazi policy decisions. Holocaust is perhaps most remarkable for its extensive use of the 1930s archives of the Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith, which re-emerged in the 1990s after years languishing in Moscow. The letters and reports from this archive document in detail the attacks suffered by ordinary Jewish people from their German neighbors. They show how, contrary to what has been believed in the past, the German populace responded relatively enthusiastically to Nazi anti-Semitism. This long-awaited English edition has been fully updated by Longerich himself. It features revised appendices with notes and further reading, as well as a new preface by the author. In addition, Longerich has added new material on the Jewish victims and on the camps and the ghettos, and has extended the story from the end of the war right up to the present day. In all, it is the most complete treatment ever published on the history of this monumental tragedy. A major contribution to an undeniably important subject. -- Ian Kershaw "A milestone in holocaust scholarship." --Christopher Browning, author of Origins of the Final Solution "Superb, perhaps the best overview there is, very distinctive...offers a lot of original primary research." --Mark Roseman, author of The Villa, The Lake, The Meeting "A formidable work of scholarship...the most authoritative account of the Holocaust that we have." --Jeremy Noakes, editor of Nazism 1919-1945. Vol 4: The German Home Front in World War II

Author Biography

Peter Longerich is Professor of Modern German History and Director of the Research Centre for the Holocaust and Twentieth-Century History at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has published widely on the subject, in English and German, including The Unwritten Order: Hitler's Role in the Final Solution, and The Systematic Character of the National Socialist Policy for the Extermination of the Jews. The latter formed part of his Expert Opinion in the notorious David Irving v. Penguin/Lipstadt trial. He is currently working on a biography of SS leader Heinrich Himmler.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Historical Background: Anti-Semitism in the Weimar Republic	p. 10
Racial Persecution, 1933-1939
The Displacement of the Jews from Public Life, 1933-1934	p. 29
Segregation and Comprehensive Discrimination, 1935-1937	p. 52
Interim Conclusions: The Removal of Jews from German Society, the Formation of the National Socialist 'People's Community', and its Consequences for Jewish Life in Germany	p. 70
The Intensification of the Racial Persecution of Non-Jewish Groups by the Police Apparatus, 1936-1937	p. 90
Comprehensive Deprivation of Rights and Forced Emigration, late 1937-1939	p. 95
The Politics of Organized Expulsion	p. 123
The Persecution of the Jews, 1939-1941
The Persecution of Jews in the Territory of the Reich, 1939-1940	p. 133
German Occupation and the Persecution of the Jews in Poland, 1939-1940/1941: The First Variant of a 'Territorial Solution'	p. 143
Deportations	p. 151
Mass Executions of Jews in the Occupied Soviet Zones, 1941
Laying the Ground for a War of Racial Annihilation	p. 179
The Mass Murder of Jewish Men	p. 192
The Transition from Anti-Semitic Terror to Genocide	p. 206
Enforcing the Annihilation Policy: Extending the Shootings to the Whole Jewish Population	p. 219
Genesis of the Final Solution on a European Scale, 1941
Plans for a Europe-Wide Deportation Programme after the Start of Barbarossa	p. 259
Autumn 1941: Beginning of the Deportations and Regional Mass Murders	p. 277
The Wannsee Conference	p. 305
The Extermination of the European Jew, 1942-1945
The Beginning of the Extermination Policy on a European Scale in 1942	p. 313
The Further Development of the Policy of Extermination after the Turning of the War in 1942-1943: Continuation of the Murders and Geographical Expansion of the Deportations	p. 374
Conclusion	p. 422
Notes	p. 436
Bibliography	p. 573
Index	p. 627
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