Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews

by Peter Longerich

Overview

A comprehensive history of the Nazi persecution and murder of European Jews, paying detailed attention to an unrivalled range sources. Focusing clearly on the perpetrators and exploring closely the process of decision making, Longerich argues that anti-Semitism was not a mere by-product of the Nazis' political mobilization or an attempt to deflect the attention of the masses, but that 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, from their earliest days in power through to the invasion of the Soviet Union and the Final Solution. As Longerich shows, the 'disappearance' of Jews was designed as a first step towards a racially homogeneous society - first within the 'Reich', later in the whole of a German-dominated Europe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191613470
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	04/14/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

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 ix

Introduction 1

Historical Background: Anti-Semitism in the Weimar Republic 10

Part I Racial Persecution, 1933-1939

1 The Displacement of the Jews from Public Life, 1933-1934 29

2 Segregation and Comprehensive Discrimination, 1935-1937 52

3 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 70

4 The Intensification of the Racial Persecution of Non-Jewish Groups by the Police Apparatus, 1936-1937 90

5 Comprehensive Deprivation of Rights and Forced Emigration, late 1937-1939 95

6 The Politics of Organized Expulsion 123

Part II The Persecution of the Jews, 1939-1941

7 The Persecution of Jews in the Territory of the Reich, 1939-1940 133

8 German Occupation and the Persecution of the Jews in Poland, 1939-1940/1941: The First Variant of a 'Territorial Solution' 143

9 Deportations 151

Part III Mass Executions of Jews in the Occupied Soviet Zones, 1941

10 Laying the Ground for a War of Racial Annihilation 179

11 The Mass Murder of Jewish Men 192

12 The Transition from Anti-Semitic Terror to Genocide 206

13 Enforcing the Annihilation Policy: Extending the Shootings to the Whole Jewish Population 219

Part IV Genesis of the Final Solution on a European Scale, 1941

14 Plans for a Europe-Wide Deportation Programme after the Start of Barbarossa 259

15 Autumn 1941: Beginning of the Deportations and Regional Mass Murders 277

16 The Wannsee Conference 305

Part V The Extermination of the European Jew, 1942-1945

17 The Beginning of the Extermination Policy on a European Scale in 1942 313

18 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 374

Conclusion 422

Notes 436

Bibliography 573

Index 627

Editorial Reviews

"A milestone in holocaust scholarship."—Christopher Browning, author of Origins of the Final Solution

"Superb, perhaps the best overview there is." —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

"Skeptics who maintain that there is little left of value to learn about the Holocaust should read this superb and provocative work originally published in German in 1998. Now revised and published in English for the first time, it offers relatively new data as well as a convincing thesis regarding the genesis and execution of systematic genocide. Longerich rejects the assertions of so-called 'structuralists' who view the 'Final Solution' as a byproduct of war, which implies that anti-Jewish policies simply "got out of control" under wartime stress. Rather, extermination of Jews was the logical result of the virulent race hatred of the Nazis. This is a vital addition to the field of Holocaust studies."—Booklist Starred Review

From the Publisher

In an extensive rewrite when the book was translated into English, with additional sourcing, Longerich (modern German history, Royal Holloway, Univ. of London) presents an expanded English-language edition of his famous 1998 study of the Holocaust, Politik der Vernichtung. He demonstrates that Nazi policy evolved inconsistently, with almost every new anti-Jewish measure beginning with a sometimes vague decree by central leadership, which local party bosses then implemented, often violently. Once the regime was certain of public support, or at least indifference, it implemented more concrete, harsher rules against the Jews, creating a self-sustaining cycle of radicalization that built up over six years. To Longerich the critical period for deciding upon genocide was not fall 1941 (per the Intenationalist model) or even 1933 (the Functionalist assertion) but the outbreak of war in 1939. The Nazi goal was to create an Aryan racial utopia, and the extirpation of the Jews was a logical product of what Hitler described as a war against international Jewry. VERDICT Based on an additional decade of research in newly available archives, Longerich's book is not a history of Nazism or a comprehensive study of the Holocaust, and thus is not suitable for lower-level undergraduates. It is essential reading for advanced students and scholars who study the Holocaust.—Frederic Krome, Univ. of Cincinnati, Clermont Coll.

Library Journal