Deutsche gegen Deutsche : das Schicksal der Juden, 1938-1945

Noting that a comprehensive study of the distinctive experience of German Jewry after the "Kristallnacht" pogrom has so far been lacking, continues the story, beginning with the restrictions and financial exploitation decided upon in a meeting called by Göring on 12 November 1938. Details subsequent anti-Jewish measures intended to eliminate Jews from German society, to humiliate and dehumanize them, to force them to emigrate, and finally to deport them to the ghettos and concentration camps of the East, and there to exterminate them. Nazi propaganda portrayed the Jews as dangerous enemies; most of the non-Jewish Germans acquiesced or participated actively in their persecution. Discusses the reactions of ordinary Jews and of the Jewish leadership, warning that they should not be judged by hindsight but according to the information that was available to them at the time and the contingencies under which they had to make their decisions. Decries efforts by apologists for Germany, as well as by nationalist or Orthodox Jews, to blame the Jews for their fate; the entire blame falls on the Germans. 1. Aufl. 315 pages ; 22 cm.