The Holocaust

This study of the Holocaust blends traditional views of the fate of Jews with some of the recent scholarship on this topic, particularly as it relates to the fate of non-Jewish victims such as gypsies, the handicapped, homosexuals and others. The book begins with the historical roots of anti-Semitism going back to Greek and Roman times, and complements this discussion with a history of the Jewish people in each country in Europe. It then looks at the emergence of Austrian and German anti-Semitism, its impact on Adolf Hitler and early Nazis, and the history of European prejudice towards the Holocaust's non-Jewish victims, as well as the evolution of Nazi racial policy as it applied to Jews, gypsies, the handicapped and other groups from 1933 to 1939. The core of the book concentrates on the evolution and implementation of German Nazi and collaborationist policies towards the Jewish people and other minorities throughout Europe from 1933 to 1945. In this context the author discusses in depth the evolution of the concentration-camp and death-camp system, ghettos, the Final Solution, and questions of rescue and resistance.
He ends by considering the plight of Jewish and other survivors after the war, their struggle for reparations, war-crimes trials and investigations, and other post-Holocaust issues.