Title: War and genocide : a concise history of the Holocaust /
Authors: Bergen, Doris L.
Year: 2016
Subjects: Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); National socialism.; Antisemitism Germany History; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Causes; World War, 1939-1945 Causes.; Germany History
Abstract: In examining one of the defining events of the twentieth century, Doris L. Bergen situates the Holocaust in its historical, political, social, cultural, and military contexts. Unlike many other treatments of the Holocaust, this revised, third edition discusses not only the persecution of the Jews, but also other segments of society victimized by the Nazis: Roma, homosexuals, Poles, Soviet POWs, the disabled, and other groups deemed undesirable. In clear and eloquent prose, Bergen explores the two interconnected goals that drove the Nazi German program of conquest and genocide—purification of the so-called Aryan race and expansion of its living space—and discusses how these goals affected the course of World War II. Including firsthand accounts from perpetrators, victims, and eyewitnesses, her book is immediate, human, and eminently readable.
Contents: Introduction : Holocaust, war and genocide : themes and problems -- Dry timber : preconditions -- Leadership and will: Hitler, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, and Nazi ideology -- From revolution to routine: Nazi Germany, 1933-1938 -- Open aggression: in search of war, 1938-1939 -- Brutal innovations : war against Poland and the so-called euthanasia program, 1939-1940 -- Expansion and systematization : exporting war and terror, 1940-1941 -- War and genocide : decisions and dynamics in the peak years of killing, 1942-1943 -- Flashover : the killing centers, 1942-1944 -- Death throes and killing frenzies, 1944-1945 -- Conclusion : legacies of atrocity.