An eminent Holocaust historian gives voice to both the perpetrators
and victims of Nazi Germany's prewar persecutions. Historian and
memoirist Friedlander (Reflections of Nazism, 1984; When Memory
Comes, 1979; etc.) here offers the first part of a two-volume study
of the Holocaust. This eloquent, richly documented history focuses
on the period from the rise of the Nazis to the onset of war in
1939, and traces how the Nazi regime gradually drew the German
nation into a war against its Jewish population, first harassing,
then isolating, and finally openly attacking Jews throughout
Germany. The author relies heavily on the words of both notorious
racists and everyday Germans, as well as the reactions of Jews and
gentile critics of the regime to its increasingly violent actions,
drawing from letters, diaries, speeches, and newspaper articles.
The first shot was aimed at the "excessive influence" of Germany's
Jews on her cultural life, and it's documented here with excerpts
from the letters of famous composers, painters, and writers,
including Thomas Mann's correspondence with Albert Einstein. This
portrait of the German people is not unmixed: While we encounter
professors who were all too pleased to have their Jewish department
heads and colleagues dismissed as threats to Aryan culture, we also
read a German businessman's description of the seizure of Jewish
shops by entrepreneurs who were "like vultures swarming down . . .
their tongues hanging out with greed, to feed upon the Jewish
carcass." The institutionalized ostracism and pauperization of
Germany's Jews was fueled, according to Friedlander, by "a
synthesis of murderous rage" and polluted idealism, created by the
Nazi regime and embraced by the German people. Not surprisingly,
the notes and list of works cited here take up 80 pages. The
exhaustive spade work makes this the richest, fullest study of its
kind. The reader comes as close as one would ever want to get to
Nazi Germany of the 1930s. (Kirkus Reviews)
A magisterial history of the Jews in Nazi Germany and the regime's
policies towards them in the years prior to World War II and the
Holocaust. Written by arguably the world's leading scholar on the
subject. Himself a survivor, Friedlander has been a leading figure
in Holocaust studies for decades and this book represents a
definitive summing up of his research and that of hundreds of other
historians. NAZI GERMANY AND THE JEWS: THE YEARS OF PERSECUTION is
perhaps the richest examination of the subject yet written, and,
crucially, one that never loses sight of the experiences of
individuals in its discussion of Nazi politics and the terrible
statistics and technological and administrative sophistication of
the Final Solution.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!