The enactment of the German extermination policies that resulted in the murder of six million European Jews depended upon many factors, including the cooperation of local authorities and police departments, and the passivity of the populations, primarily of their political and spiritual elites. Necessary also was the victims' willingness to submit, often with the hope of surviving long enough to escape the German vise. The Years of Extermination, the completion of Saul Friedländer's major historical opus on Nazi Germany and the Jews, explores the convergence of the various aspects of this most systematic and sustained of modern genocides. In this unparalleled work--based on a vast array of documents and an overwhelming choir of voices from diaries, letters, and memoirs--the history of the Holocaust has found its definitive representation.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Very Dry, Scholarly Work:
This is the kind of work whose rating depends exclusively on what kind of reading experience you're looking for. If you are a scholar of the Holocaust and German policies during World War II as it relates to the "Jewish problem", this will perhaps be the gold standard. If, on the other hand, you're merely in search of an educational and captivating read, you'd best look elsewhere. At its core, this book is a compilation of hundreds of sources that chronicle the evolution of Nazi policies from... more info
a great work.minus a small detail:
very scholarly great book . but a couple of pictures would have been a good idea.
Astonishing history of our darkest hour:
First of all set aside a long time to read this. The author devotes a great deal of detail into establishing his theories and then proves them one by one. First of all he destroys the myth that either the German people or anyone in the occupied countries did not know what was going on. In fact he clearly demonstrates that many played active roles in if not betraying Jews, they chose to be blind to their plight. We also get an in depth view of how the German killing machine turned killing and murder... more info
An Essential Study of Nazi Germany and the Jews:
This is truly a magisterial study of the Holocaust (Shoah), well deserving of its award of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, and follows the author's earlier volume covering the 1933-1939 period. It runs some 663 pages of text, includes 128 pages of meticulous notes, and 51 pages of bibliographic references. It places heavy reliance not only on contemporary documents, but also on published and unpublished memoirs and diaries (such as that of Victor Klemperer, also reviewed on Amazon). The... more info
