Hitler's Shadow War

Jewish Book World

Offers an incisive introductory survey of the Holocaust from the ideological inception of modern anti-Semitism through the rising tide of anti-Jewish persecution in the 1930s and culminating in the Final Solution. I would strongly recommend the book for use in college courses on the Holocaust or the Third Reich, and it is appropriate for advanced high students as well.
— Abraham J. Edelheit

Booklist

For anyone seeking to come to terms with the depravity of the Holocaust, Hitler's Shadow War will be required reading.

CHOICE

McKale's book is a stunning achievement that will be read eagerly by students and scholars of the Holocaust. ... If readers at any level, or any library, were to purchase one book on the Holocaust, Hitler's Shadow War would be the recommended choice.

History: Reviews Of New Books

Donald McKale's latest book is a detailed study of Nazi Germany's Jewish persecutions and the Holocaust. Drawn mainly from the abundant secondary literature in English, the work surveys the familiar territory, however in great detail.

History: Reviews Of New Books

Donald McKale's latest book is a detailed study of Nazi Germany's Jewish persecutions and the Holocaust. Drawn mainly from the abundant secondary literature in English, the work surveys the familiar territory, however in great detail.

Jewish Book World

Offers an incisive introductory survey of the Holocaust from the ideological inception of modern anti-Semitism through the rising tide of anti-Jewish persecution in the 1930s and culminating in the Final Solution. I would strongly recommend the book for use in college courses on the Holocaust or the Third Reich, and it is appropriate for advanced high students as well.

Martin Blumenson

McKale presents a chillingly detailed and documented account of the Nazi insanity motivating the murderous attempt to exterminate the Jews in Europe. In view of the massive manpower, construction, transportation, energy, and other resources expended in this task, winning World War II, for the Nazis, was nothing more than a step toward success in the Holocaust.

Booknews

McKale (humanities, Clemson U.) has written widely about Germany and the Nazi Party. Here he surveys the history of the Holocaust to show how the concept of racial war strongly influenced Hitler's thinking and actions before and after World War II, and how he believed the Holocaust and the war were closely connected. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kirkus Reviews

Wide-ranging study of the Holocaust argues that WWII was something of an afterthought for the architects of genocide. "Hitler and his Nazi associates used the war in Europe, with its massive violence, as a cover or camouflage for the real war they meant to fight," writes McKale (History/Clemson Univ.). That was the war against Jews, no matter where in the world they lived; anti-Semitism was central to Nazi thought and practice. Pragmatic considerations kept Hitler from immediately attending to his promise in Mein Kampf to rid Europe of Jews on coming to power in 1933; propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels explained that "both domestic and foreign pressures prevented a more radical anti-Jewish policy," a point that sorely displeased party radicals and may have contributed to the purge of Ernst Rohm's SA soon thereafter. Measures to remove Jews from business proved unpopular and were not uniformly enforced, McKale adds; the disappearance of Jewish business leaders would have endangered Germany's recovery from depression, and Jewish firms employed many Aryan workers. Still, when rising international opposition to German expansionism made war inevitable, the Nazi regime renewed its campaign against the Jews with murderous force. Even then, the author notes, not all Germans and not even all Nazis shared the regime's hostility to Jews. Members of the killing units on the Eastern Front who refused to participate in the slaughter were quietly reassigned to other posts; "none suffered punishment for their refusal to involve themselves in the grisly work," McKale argues, which puts the lie to postwar protestations that had Germans opposed the genocide they would have been shot. The author alsoobserves that most ordinary Germans did in fact know full well of the murders taking place all around them-and so did the Allies, at least as early as 1941. Breaks little ground and enters a crowded field, but nonetheless: a useful one-volume survey.