The Path to Genocide: Essays on Launching the Final Solution

by Christopher R. Browning

Overview

The Path to Genocide studies three aspects of the events leading up to the Final Solution in Nazi Germany. First, Nazi's "solutions" to their self-imposed "Jewish problem" before resorting to mass-murder are examined, specifically ghettoization and early resettlement plans to expel Jews to Eastern Poland or the island of Madagascar. Second, the responsibility of shaping Nazi Jewish policy is shown to extend to the lower and middle echelon of government, through accommodation and conformity of a wide variety of perpetrators, including bureaucrats, doctors and policemen. Finally the role of Adolf Hitler in the decisionmaking process is examined, with a historiographical analysis of other accounts of his role. Browning argues that while Hitler did not operate according to a premeditated plan or blueprint, he did make the key decisions. This volume of essays provides perspectives on German Jewish policy both from the bottom of the government apparatus and from the top.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521417013
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/26/1992
Series:	Canto Book Series
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.78(h) x 0.67(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Part I. The Prelude to Genocide: 1. Nazi resettlement policy and the search for a solution to the Jewish question, 1939–1941; 2. Nazi ghettoization policy in Poland, 1939–41; Part II. Conflicting Explanations: 3. German technocrats, Jewish labor, and the Final Solution: a reply to Götz Aly and Susanne Heim; 4. The holocaust as by-product? A critique of Arno Mayer; 5. 'Intentionalism' and 'Functionalism': the decision for the Final Solution reconsidered; Part III. The Perpetrators: Accommodation, Anticipation, and Conformity: 6. Bureaucracy and mass murder: the German administrator's comprehension of the Final Solution; 7. Genocide and public health: German doctors and Polish Jews, 1939–1941; 8. One day in Józefów: initiation to mass murder; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...a handy stocktaking of scholarship on some key questions about the Holocaust." Central European History

"...the clarity as well as economy with which he writes, his firm grasp of the evidence and the balanced judgment he brings to its interpretation make this a most impressive performance....[Browning] uses his flair for uncovering new archival material to throw light on the attitudes and roles of a variety of people who became invlved in carrying out the Final Solution....Christopher Browning places himself in the front rank of historians of the Holocaust." Times Literary Supplement

"...well written, densely footnoted, and a significant contribution to understanding the critical events that led to the gas chambers." German Studies Review

"A magisterial, rigorously meditated study of how the industrialized murder of millions got under way." The New York Times Book Review

"...an impressive collection of essays by one of the foremost historians of the Holocaust." Dimensions

"Browning's arguments provide a sensible balance to those interpretations of the origins of the Holocaust that have focused exclusively on either Hitler or the Nazi system." Johnpeter Horst Grill, History

"A meticulously researched, harrowing look at the evil humanity is capable of." Doug Wyatt, Savannah (GA) News/Press

From the Publisher