Holocaust - General & Miscellaneous

The Holocaust Encyclopedia

Name: The Holocaust Encyclopedia
Author: Walter Laqueur
ISBN: 9780300084320

by Walter Laqueur (Editor), Judith Tydor Baumel

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Overview

: The Holocaust has been the subject of countless books, works of art, and memorials. Fifty-five years after the fact the world still ponders the enormity of this disaster. The Holocaust Encyclopedia is the only comprehensive single-volume work of reference providing both a reflective overview of the subject and abundant detail concerning major events, policy decisions, cities, and individuals. Up-to-date and designed for easy access, the encyclopedia presents information on the major aspects of the Holocaust in essays by scholars from eleven countries who draw on a number of sources-including recently uncovered evidence from the former Soviet bloc-to provide in-depth studies on the political, social, religious, and moral issues of the Holocaust as well as short entries identifying events, sites, and individuals. The book also has more than 250 photographs, many of them rare, and 19 maps.

The volume includes:

Raul Hilberg on concentration camps and Gypsies
Ruth Bondy, Israel Gutman, and Dina Porat on major ghettoes
Roger Greenspun on the Holocaust in cinema and television
Richard Breitman on American policy
Michael Berenbaum on theological and philosophical responses
Saul Friedländer on Nazi policy
Michael Hagemeister on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Michael R. Marrus on historiography
Christopher R. Browning on the Madagascar Plan
Robert S. Wistrich on Holocaust denial
James E. Young on Holocaust literature

Synopsis

The volume includes:

Raul Hilberg on concentration camps and Gypsies
Ruth Bondy, Israel Gutman, and Dina Porat on major ghettoes
Roger Greenspun on the Holocaust in cinema and television
Richard Breitman on American policy
Michael Berenbaum on theological and philosophical responses
Saul Friedländer on Nazi policy
Michael Hagemeister on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Michael R. Marrus on historiography
Christopher R. Browning on the Madagascar Plan
Robert S. Wistrich on Holocaust denial
James E. Young on Holocaust literature

Jehuda Reinharz

The book reaches beyond facts and details to reveal the depths of the Holocaust experience and its aftermath. It will surely emerge as indispensable for the study of the Holocaust.

About the Author, Walter Laqueur

Walter Laqueur, co-chairman of the International Research Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., is among the world's preeminent historians of modern Europe and a leading authority on the Holocaust. He is the author of nearly twenty books on World War II, the Holocaust, fascism, and Soviet politics. Judith Tydor Baumel teaches modern Jewish history at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

The Holocaust has been the subject of thousands of memoirs, historical studies, works of art, and memorials. The Holocaust Encyclopedia, edited by renowned scholar Walter Laqueur, is designed to be an exhaustive, up-to-date, single-volume reference work about this horrific event and the people it almost destroyed. The encyclopedia contains comprehensive articles on the concentration camps; the major ghettoes; the Holocaust in cinema and television; Nazi policy; American policy; Hitler; and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The sources include recently uncovered documents from the former Soviet bloc and archives on several continents. A major work.

Jehuda Reinharz

The book reaches beyond facts and details to reveal the depths of the Holocaust experience and its aftermath. It will surely emerge as indispensable for the study of the Holocaust.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The last two decades of the 20th century witnessed a veritable explosion of Holocaust scholarship. We have endowed university chairs devoted to Holocaust studies, and museums and monuments to the Shoah bloom. Yet the public at large is no closer to an understanding of those momentous events today than we were two generations ago. Now comes a book that can at least partly remedy that situation. Editor Laqueur, a notable Holocaust historian (Generation Exodus, Forecasts, Feb. 19), has done a masterful job of bringing together more than 100 contributors from nearly a dozen countries, including such leading scholars in their fields as James Young, Stanley Payne, Michael R. Marrus, Raul Hilberg, Israel Gutman, Saul Friendl nder, David Cesarani, Daniel Carpi and Christopher Browning. The result is a comprehensive one is tempted to say exhaustive, but the subject can never be exhausted volume. Of particular value are a 17-page chronology of events; the bibliographical essay by Robert Rozett, director of the Yad Vashem Library in Jerusalem; and Adam Kaczkowski's haunting and powerful photographs. These are joined by approximately 250 illustrations that cover all aspects of the Nazi extermination program but also offer intimate portraits of the culture of Jewish life in Nazi-occupied Europe. Entries range in length from a few sentences to a dozen pages on Hitler, anti-Semitism and Auschwitz. Laqueur asks, "Is it possible now, more than fifty years after the Holocaust, to write about it with authority?" The encyclopedia itself is authoritative, and Laqueur argues that "it is most unlikely... that any future revelations will necessitate a radical revision of the present picture." Finally, Laqueur is eloquent and humble in acknowledging the epistemological shortcomings of this (or any) work on the subject: "Documents cannot possibly tell the full story; they do not smell, they do not starve or freeze, they are not afraid." But this is no ordinary reference work; in it we can indeed see and even smell the horrors of the Final Solution, and yes, we are afraid. (Apr. 19) Forecast: There will undoubtedly be much media attention paid to this momentous book, aided by its publication on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Cochair of the International Research Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, Laqueur has assembled a virtual "Who's Who" of Holocaust scholars to provide both brief and detailed entries on the major players, events, concepts, and themes in contemporary Holocaust studies. Although the encyclopedia provides only brief articles on individuals, with the exception of figures such as Adolf Hitler, it refers readers to more detailed analyses in thematic articles, where these individuals receive their due. Fortunately, these longer entries do not come at the expense of information on individuals but treat their topics thoroughly. The encyclopedia also contains articles of contemporary relevance, such as "Holocaust Denial" and "Cinema and Television." Bibliographic references are not included, even with longer entries, although there is a bibliographic essay at the end of the volume. While Donald Niewyk and Francis Nicosia's recent The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust (LJ 3/15/01) is more a research tool for those doing in-depth investigation, the Laqueur volume is a wonderful compendium of state-of-the-art research and an easy reference for readers on all levels who need factual and conceptual information. Jointly, the two works cover most of the topics that should be addressed. Recommended for all libraries. Frederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.