Michael Berenbaum
Robert Wistrich’s Hitler and the Holocaust is a concise yet distinctly authoritative history of the Holocaust. . . . Anyone who wants to read one book on the state of our understanding of Hitler and the Holocaust as we enter the new century would be well advised to begin with Wistrich. Never polemical and always meticulous, restrained in his prose and fair in his analysis, once again he displays a mastery of his subject and full command of even the most recent of scholarship.
Simon Wiesenthal
Everything I have done during the past 56 years and continue to do serves one purpose: The prevention of a repetition of the horrors that I and others survived. This book will continue the important work of inspiring others to pursue that same goal, and will provide them with the understanding upon which any such pursuit must be based.
Publishers Weekly
Wistrich, professor of modern Jewish history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has masterfully condensed four decades of Holocaust research into an accessible and informative book that will benefit specialists and lay readers alike. This new addition to the Modern Library's Chronicles series of short histories is organized thematically, exploring 2,000 years of anti-Semitism, the context and events that yielded the Third Reich and what differentiates the Holocaust from other 20th-century genocides. As depicted here, the few rays of light offered by the noble actions of Denmark, Italy and Bulgaria are snuffed out by the Protestant and Catholic churches' inactivity, the shameful behavior of Britain and the U.S., and the atrocious actions of Germans and other Europeans, particularly the German allies. Wistrich (The Jews of Vienna in the Age of Franz Joseph) continually refers and responds to other Holocaust studies; of particular interest is the controversy concerning "ordinary men" and "ordinary Germans" that erupted with Daniel Jonah Goldhagen and Christopher Browning's studies. Wistrich draws a connection between the infamous Nazi euthanasia program and later developments, and briefly discusses the debate between "functionalists" (those who believe the Holocaust to be an outcome of the war) and "intentionalists" (those who believe Hitler always intended to exterminate the Jews). The general reader will be interested in Wistrich's detailed description of the decision to implement the "Final Solution." The most provocative chapter, though, is surely the last, on "Modernity and the Holocaust." Most commentators (secular and religious) have argued that the Holocaust represents the completeantithesis of Western civilization, but some scholars interpret it as the logical, brutal outcome of Western modernity's bureaucratic, technocratic and rationalist impulse. Wistrich's balanced, nuanced discussion is illuminating. Agent, Andrew Wylie. (On-sale: Oct. 2) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Organized thematically, this work by Wistrich (Neuberger Professor, Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem) presents a concise view of the major issues of the Holocaust, from Hitler's ideology to the questions of local collaboration and Allied policy. Although most short studies degenerate into oversimplification, Wistrich is generally fair to the major historiographical issues and usually avoids the polemics so common to discussions about such issues as why the Allies didn't bomb Auschwitz. Some of the most controversial issues are raised in the chapter "Between the Cross and the Swastika," which discusses the role of Christianity and the Christian churches in the Holocaust. For example, Wistrich is critical of the Catholic Church hierarchy and in particular Pope Pius XII's refusal to condemn Nazi racial laws publicly. Yet he is careful not to condemn all Christians, although he does address the impact that centuries of Christian anti-Semitic dogma had upon events. Although well written, this book does assume a certain familiarity with events. Those who need a quick reference framework can read R.S. Botwinick's short A History of the Holocaust (Prentice-Hall, 2001) to good advantage. Recommended for all libraries. Frederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A good general history that's also a relentlessly depressing example of a subject that can never make for light reading. Wistrich (Modern Jewish History/Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem; Antisemitism, 1992) reminds us that anti-Semitic references first appeared in the New Testament. There, Jews were denounced as enemies of the faith, obsessed with money, sex, and power. Massacres began with the Crusades and occurred regularly through the 19th century. While 18th-century Enlightenment ideals and the rise of democracy eliminated much of violent persecution from western Europe and its colonies, a vigorous anti-Semitism persisted in even advanced nations. Hitler, however, was different. The author writes of Hitler's youth in vividly anti-Semitic Vienna and discusses the writers who influenced his thought and that of 20th-century Europeans, right-wing opinion as well as the mainstream. As a historian, the author seeks explanations, so he had assumed historical anti-Semitism explained the Holocaust. In fact, it explained only anti-Semitism. Hitler's obsession with wiping out the Jews was his alone. Attacks on Jews played a minor role in the electoral success of Hitler's party. If he had continued as a garden-variety anti-Semite, the Nazis would have gone along. The mechanics of the Holocaust make dismal reading: on the Allied side, every leading political and religious figure behaved badly; but most dismal of all, the author points, the Nazis could have killed nearly as many Jews simply working alone. An effort to kill every Jew was impossible without universal cooperation, of course-from national governments through local police through leaders of the Jews themselves. So in country after country,officials often cooperated with frightening enthusiasm. Later, many people who did so explained that they were forced to, that refusing would have provoked even worse Nazi atrocities of retaliation. But they were wrong. In every country that refused to cooperate (Bulgaria, Finland, Denmark, Italy), the Nazis simply grumbled and turned their attention elsewhere. A solid addition to a vast literature.
