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This analytical text serves as a remarkable introduction to Holocaust studies. Bartov offers revisionist interpretations of the role played by the Wehrmacht and the German tactics of war, such as the blitzkrieg, as a means by which to conceal German extermination practices. Further, this book examines the introspection of German citizens at the time of World War II, post-war changes in America, and the atmosphere of fear that permeated Europe during the war.
In order to fully understand the events of the Holocaust, one must comprehend the circumstances surrounding the Second World War and the pervasive theories of race propagated by the Nazi Hitler's regime. Bartov does an excellent job of offering a survey of the war and explains in detail, from different perspectives, the origins of the Nazi Reich's policies concerning the Holocaust.
'''2)''' Roger Griffin, ed., ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0192892495/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0192892495&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=4f12dfa23013b4bbe5210c8cf7cc20d0 Fascism]'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).
Aside from a basic knowledge of World War II, understanding the basics tenets of fascism is essential to understanding the genocide of the Holocaust. Griffin compiles a provocative collection of primary sources in the form of propaganda articles, essays, and the text of speeches given by prominent leaders of fascism. The reader is not limited to Nazism Hitler's as it is broken down by time period and country. The books moves from the fascist movement in Italy that began in the 1920s to the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s. Other fascist movements are included, however; for the purpose of Holocaust studies, the one hundred-fifty pages devoted to Germany’s movement is essential to understanding how the Holocaust unfolded.
Included are texts of speeches and articles written by Goering, Goebbels, Hitler, and Himmler. The lesser known writings are of equal importance as the Holocaust was not one single event, rather it was a process that grew over a decade. For example, Walter Gross, the 1933 director of the Office for Education in Demographic Politics and Maintenance of the Race, penned an article in 1941 entitled, “Improving the Stock,” wherein he describes the “defective elements” of “racial hygiene” in order to justify the eugenics programs already in place prior to the death camps. He discusses the “definitive elimination of parasites [Jews]” that Heydrich termed the Final Solution a year later at the Wannsee Conference. Understanding what happened at places such as Auschwitz is less important than understanding ''why'' such atrocities happened at all.
This work is so important in that it reminds students, and established historians alike, that not all Germans supported genocide. The German war machine pulled this group, and many others, into the Holocaust. These men were not conscripted into military service to fight a war on behalf of their country, they were activated as a police battalion tasked with murdering other ordinary citizens, who just happened to be Jewish. Browning, therefore, not only details their actions, he also studies this group through a psychological lens as individual men asked to do what was previously deemed unthinkable. Critical readers will find this book indispensable and it is recommended to all students of the Holocaust and can be used in the discourse of any genocidal study.
'''4)''' Christopher R. Browning, ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BS34NCY/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00BS34NCY&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=4c696ed437a21722f194d93301e90d12 The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi N azi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942]'' (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004). Christopher Browning produced yet another essential analysis of the Holocaust. Specific in scope, this book illustrates what took place during the crucial time between the German invasion of Poland and the onset of mass transportation of Jews to death camps. After Germany conquered Poland, nearly two million additional Jews fell under Nazi the Reich's control. This meticulous work, in both research and analysis, traces Hitler's plan of extermination from ethnic cleansing to mass murder. Further, it highlights the importance of Poland as an ersatz training ground for genocide. This book is perhaps best suited to the advanced scholar who has limited her area of study. The notes and bibliography will prompt the student to further study the structure of the Holocaust.
'''5)''' Mark Roseman, ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312422342/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0312422342&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=5d0c6bb985f36bdcc80c0c38c94fb901 The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution: A Reconsideration]'' (New York: Picador, 2002).
