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Holocaust

SuperSquirrel

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I was wondering if anyone knew any good books on the holocaust. I've been wanting to learn more about it but I'm not sure what books to try on it.
 
"The War Against the Jews 1933-1945" by Lucy S. Dawidowicz.

A thorough, well documented and surprisingly unemotional account.
 
"The Racial State" by Michael Burleigh - it's a great account of the transformation in a very short amount of time of a democratic, 'normal' country into one where racism, violence and hatred were if not accepted then certainly tolerated by the civilian population. It's not on "the Holocaust", per se, but on the sociology, ideology and anthropology that allowed it to happen.
 
volatile said:
"The Racial State" by Michael Burleigh - it's a great account of the transformation in a very short amount of time of a democratic, 'normal' country into one where racism, violence and hatred were if not accepted then certainly tolerated by the civilian population. It's not on "the Holocaust", per se, but on the sociology, ideology and anthropology that allowed it to happen.
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Burleigh's "The THird Reich" is also quite good. To be honest, he does a certain amount of recylcing from "The Racial State" (Not a grave sin; many non fiction writers who write a lot about the same topic do this) but he covers a lot that he did not cover in "The Racial State" because it was outside the main subject of the book (Foreign Affairs, which he only touched on in "The Racial State", get full treatment here).
 
SuperSquirrel said:
I was wondering if anyone knew any good books on the holocaust. I've been wanting to learn more about it but I'm not sure what books to try on it.
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I guess it depends on what aspects interest you.

Wiesel's Night, Dawn, and Day are personal accounts.
Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism attempts to put it in context as a consequence of a certain political style, by comparing and contrasting Stalin's blood purges on the other side of the Iron Curtain
Michael Shermer's Denying History is written as a refutation of denialists.
 
A good-ish starting point would be Saul Friedlaender's The Years of Extermination, which won a Pulitzer Prize this year, and should be out in paperback. The preceding volume The Years of Persecution is also good.

Dawidowicz is outdated and contains some major errors. Gilbert is really just a chronicle without analysis, but covers a lot of ground.

I'd recommend Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of European Jews, but the latest edition is more than $100 and the abridged edition is nae good. If anyone reads German then Hilberg auf deutsch is the cheapest, most comprehensive study available.
 
Nick Terry said:
I'd recommend Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of European Jews, but the latest edition is more than $100 and the abridged edition is nae good. If anyone reads German then Hilberg auf deutsch is the cheapest, most comprehensive study available.
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The German translation is EUR 19,95 at amazon.de. What a difference in price :jaw-dropp . Do you have any idea why (and no, hardcover vs. paperback doesn't account for more than 10-20 dollar/euro).
 
Eichman in Jerusalem does a great job of making the Holocaust a real event.
 
The Diary of Anne Frank, Schindler's List as well as The Pianist.

If you're looking for a movie, I'd recommend Shoah and if it's about WW2 in general, I'd strongly recommend The Sorrow and the Pity.

My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor and if you're interested in her story, you can PM me or email me at JaneSchmo@hotmail.com.
 
ddt said:
You'd nearly think at that price, yes :). That's even cheap for German paperbacks. High time to clean up a bit, put up another bookcase and drive to Kleve/Cleves :D
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Is it correct that it's three books by the way?
 
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