Synopses & Reviews
The man the New York Times has called "the preeminent scholar of the Holocaust" tells the stories of those who caused, experienced, and witnessed the great human catastrophe.
Synopsis
In this original analysis of the "Final Solution," Raul Hilberg, leading Holocaust scholar and author of the monumental The Destruction of the European Jews, breaks down society between 1933 and 1945 into three groups: perpetrators, who had an active role in the formulation or implementation of anti-Jewish measures, victims, who were identified, counted and isolated from non-Jews, and bystanders, who were not directly involved but saw or heard something of what was taking place.
Hilberg creates 24 "modules," each an independent chapter that described a subsection of one of these three groups. There is the chief perpetrator, Adolf Hitler, but also non-German governments who participated in the killing. Victims include refugees, people in mixed marriages, and survivors of the Holocaust. And the Allies and churches are notable bystanders. This dispassionate analysis of those who created the Holocaust, those who were destroyed by it, and those who were aware of it creates a remarkably detailed picture of the slaughter of more than 6 million Jewish people.
Raul Hilberg (1926 - 2007) was born in Vienna, Austria. Following the Anchluss in 1938, his family escaped to the United States. He served in the 45th Infantry Division and the War Documentation Department during World War II. Hilberg studied at Brooklyn College and Columbia University, and spent most of his career at the University of Vermont. His book The Destruction of the European Jews is considered to be the seminal study of the Holocaust.
"Reaches careful and persuasive conclusions ... The tone is characteristic of Hilberg's other work -- correct, restrained, and resolutely objective." -- New York Review of Books
Description
Includes bibliographical references and index.