The Holocaust : the Third Reich and the Jews

"This new Seminar Study presents a straightforward, matter-of-fact analysis of the encounter between the Third Reich and the Jews. David Engel sets out to clarify the basic facts and to explore the possible reasons why 5.8 million European Jews died in its course. Rejecting the notion that the Holocaust must be approached with awe and trembling, the volume examines the documentary record that historians have been studying for over fifty years and outlines the problems and disagreements scholars face in interpreting it. Like a murder investigation, the book sifts evidence relating to the motives, means, and opportunities for the killing of European Jewry. In doing so it raises some vexatious and sharply contested questions: Why was it a German government that perpetrated the mass murder? What led that government to the conclusion that all Jews had to die? Could the murder have been prevented or its scale reduced had victims or bystanders acted differently? The main text is supported by some newly translated source material in the Documents Section and a range of additional tools including a glossary of terms, a bibliography, a chronology of the main events and four detailed maps."--Page 4 of cover. Includes bibliographical references (pages 125-135) and index. vi, 148 pages : maps ; 22 cm