First of all set aside a long time to read this. The author devotes a great deal of detail into establishing his theories and then proves them one by one. First of all he destroys the myth that either the German people or anyone in the occupied countries did not know what was going on. In fact he clearly demonstrates that many played active roles in if not betraying Jews, they chose to be blind to their plight.

We also get an in depth view of how the German killing machine turned killing and murder into an efficient, factory like process. This is what is so scary about this process. Lastly, he makes it clear that this was a German process with great assistance from the occupied countries, thus dispelling the myth of this being the SS or some "bad eggs." This book is finally brave enough to tell the truth about the Holocaust.

This is truly a magisterial study of the Holocaust (Shoah), well deserving of its award of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, and follows the author's earlier volume covering the 1933-1939 period. It runs some 663 pages of text, includes 128 pages of meticulous notes, and 51 pages of bibliographic references. It places heavy reliance not only on contemporary documents, but also on published and unpublished memoirs and diaries (such as that of Victor Klemperer, also reviewed on Amazon). The author has a unique perspective, since he was born in Prague in but grew up in France between 1940 and 1944 during the Nazi occupation. He spent part of this period in a Catholic boarding school and considered converting. His parents were both lost.

There are many fine books on the Holocaust. But Friedlander's work is unique and distinctive in contribution. He does not just recount in graphic detail how the extermination program progressed (although there is plenty of this horror discussed), he explains how it developed. It is not until page 339 that he even gets to the Wannsee conference. Rather, he focuses upon how the Nazi Jewish policy evolved from harasment to racial extermination. The author makes the somewhat surprising argument (to me at least) that the Nazis did not start out at the beginning of the war or earlier to exterminate the Jews of Europe. Rather, the policy evolved as the war developed and various demands encouraged this program to be developed. In fact, it is not until late 1942 or early 1943 that the extermination policy was implemented by the Nazi leadership. Truly an interesting argument to say the least.

Given the author's previous biography of Pius XII, there is much discussion of the Catholic Church's reaction to all this. The author also discusses the Jewish Councils set up by the Nazis and whether they sacrificed the "less valuable" Jews in an effort to spare the more elite groups--another interesting topic. The book proceeds chronologically from 1939 through to 1945. Friedlander is able to balance a large number of topics skillfully as he develops his narrative. Many individual countries and their involvement in Holocaust implementation are discussed. The competing goals of extermination versus the use of Jews as slave laborers in defense industries is also covered. The author also wants to make it explicitly clear that ordinary Germans well knew that extermination was underway. Finally, one of the most surprising aspects to me was the author's explanation of how the determination to complete extermination only increased as it became obvious the war had been lost.

Friedlander could have written an emotional account, given his background. Instead, we see the work of a master historian true to his craft and unwilling to sacrifice professional standards in his analysis of a topic that surely was of the greatest pain to himself. We can all benefit from his professional dedication.

This is a magisterial book, as one of the critics defined it. Not only does it contain an exhaustive research, poignant diarists' quotations, and a vast collection of amazing facts (such as the refusal of the Hungerians to surrender their Jews to Hitler, or the indifference of starving and desperate parents to the deportation of their children), it also, and most importantly, "nails" the Nazi crimes and criminals as no other book has ever done. In the presence of this book, Holocaust deniers will be forever silenced. Furthermore, I can hardly imagine the pain Prof. Friedlander, a Holocaust survivor whose parents were murdered by the Nazis, had subjected himself to in writing this tome of a book. It is a brave, sacrificial work.
I agree, though, with some of the critics' complaints that the book, although riveting, is at times a difficult slog. Maps and pictures would have helped. Also chapters' titles would have helped. In the notes section, printing the chapter #s and the pages #s at the top of the page would have helped a great deal. But isn't it the function of the editors to notice such things? My most important criticism, though, concerns Friedlander's omissions. The Nazi evil sears the pages, as it did the Jews, and the victims' cries for help plow like an ax, as Kafka would put it, in the frozen sea within us. One cannot forget those screams, cannot take the ax out and toss it to oblivion. The bystanders, too, are revealed in their shame and cowardice, like thousands and thousands of shadows crowding the gladiatorial arena. But one group of people is noticeably missing: the heroes who risked their lives to save Jews. Wallenberg is given a brief mention in half a sentence; the Danish rescuers are mentioned in a mere short paragraph; and Schindler and Hannah Senesh are not even mentioned. Thousands of heroic gentiles are listed in the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., but Friedlander has found no room for even some of them in his book. If an act of courage is mentioned, it is disposed of quickly, as if it did not matter. But it did, and it does. Granted, Friedlander's subject moves in a different direction, but his omitting of the heroes does them--and all humanity perhaps--a grave injustice.

Nazi Germany and the Jews is a two volume set on Nazi Germany's satanic persecution and murder of six million Jews. Volume I deals with the years of persecution suffered by the Reich's Jews from Hitler's takeover of the state in 1933 until the outbreak of World War II in September 1939.
Saul Friedlander is a survivor of the Holocaust growing up as a Jew in occupied France.Friedlander teaches the Holocaust at UCLA. His second volume "The Years of Extermination:1939-1945" is destined for classic status as one of the essential books on this most lamentably horrible time in European and human history. The book is over 700 pages in length and reads quickly due to the author's abilities to tell the tragic story with clarity and dispassionate reportage.
With the conquest of Poland the Nazis established countless concentration camps in conquered territory. By 1941 with the Nazi's invasion of the Soviet Union and the entry of the United States the final solution decision was made to kill all of the Jews in Europe. Himmler and Heydrich of the SS with their underlings such as Eichmann began to put this murderous and ungodly plan into execution. Millions of Jews, Gypsies, POW's, political dissidents, Communists and others died in the gas chambers of hellholes such as Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Treblenka and Sobibor. I learned from this book that at the end of the war the Nazi marched almost one million Jewish prisoners Westward causing more untold murders and savageries. This book will boggle your mind with horror and make you aware of the heart of darkness which beat in the heart of the merciless mechanical beast known as Nazi Germany.
Friedlander teaches us that Europe was an Anti-Semitic atmosphere but in Germany Hitler used this prejudice to seize power. Hitler believed the Jews were behind Communism and was a rabid amoral leader who would brook no mercy for Jewish men, women or children. We see the cruel Nazi night seize the light of life in every occupied nation from France to Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Scandinavian Countries, Greece & the Balkans and any place Jews could be found.
Rather than a dry recounting of facts the author also includes poignant diary entries from Jews who suffered the persecutions and in most cases death at the hands of the Nazis. The most insightful diaries, in my opinion, were those of Anne Frank in Holland and Victor Klemperer who was married to an Aryan German woman. Friedlander also includes first person reports of atrocities by German soldiers, civilians and top Nazi figures such as the Mephisto Joseph Goebbels the master of Nazi Propoganda.
Friedlander's book is not perfect. Maps and illustrations would add greatly to future editions. One prays that such an event will never take place again. This book is a testament and witness to the shoah victims whose six million voices speak through the words of an excellent historian of a black chapter in our race's time on this earth.

A truly monumental work that simply outpaces many other related literary endeavors appearing over the past 30 years. Reads easily and without the stodgy encumbrances of many history books. A must read for anyone interested in the Holocaust.

This massive work is a disappointment in style. The writer's prose seems calculated to make the reader's work difficult, and there is no excuses for one who knows the pitfalls of academic writing to quickly breach the first rule of research-based treatises - don't burden the language by turning three or four sentences into a single one. The book is constructed from language so cluttered, with sentences so convoluted, that the narrative is weakened and folowing the exploration of causality (the real point of the book)becomes more and more frustrating. The tangled prose is one thing. Another is the self-referencing ("as we shall see," "when we previously met them in an earlier chapter," "later,this will be exlored in full") which somehow got past the subs. The only memorable prose is the searing quotations of those who were consumed first by hopelessness and then by the machinery of murder. One cannot help but recall Primo Levi's assertion that the best witnesses of the Holocaust were consumed by it.
At the end of reading this book, it is difficult to recall lines of thought, apart from the public nature of Hitler's determination to wipe out European Jewery, and the nature of the Vatican's indifference, which bordered on complicity. But this has been covered elsewhere and to better effect. So I found it hard to warrant the claims made by some reviewers that the book contained revelations. If you are looking for clearly expounded research that provides a memorable reading experience, this book is not the last word.

In April of 2008 this book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. This fact alone is a reliable indicator that the work is of high quality and it is absolutely worth dedicating oneself to its 663 pages. It is a massively researched tome by a UCLA professor of history of the darkest and most cruel period of the 20th century: the Holocaust. In fact, as far as I know, the only comparable time in our recorded history is the Spanish Inquisition. It's very sad indeed that the most sadistic individual to ever walk on this planet can realistically be compared to the tribunals set up in the name of the church.

Many people possess the notion that the Holocaust was all Adolph Hitler's doing. Such false concept is prevalent throughout the world and is decisively disproved by the author. Anti-Semitism permeated not only the Third Reich but all of Europe for millennia. Professor Netanyahu in his magnum opus The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain traces it as far back as the 6th century B.C. Later in the Roman Empire Jews surrendered Jesus Christ to the proconsul of Judea for execution and this latter act has evolved into anti-Semitism that has been witnessed in Europe ever since. Unfortunately for millions of European Jews, Hitler's ascend to chancellorship procured him political and military means to carry out his diabolical blueprint to exterminate that ancient race. However, nearly everyone in the Nazi party was anti-Semitic, that's why the extermination crusade went so smoothly, stumbling on no resistance within the German bureaucratic circles. Initially the campaign was carried out "diplomatically" so no considerable protest was made by the German people either. Hitler's ambitions for the Reich were almost sacred in the eyes of the Germans and they followed him blindly, transgressing upon the most fundamental right of every man: the right to live. And it is naive to contemplate that they did not realize the magnitude of their sinister deeds, for the dynamics of the killing changed with time to cover the massacres.

But let's briefly examine other European nations during the period of German occupation. The only people to explicitly declare their repugnance for the anti-Jewish laws were the Dutch. The Dutch were considered Arian by Hitler's racial doctrines and that's why they were allowed some autonomy when it came to governing themselves. So when they began protesting the persecutions it had to be handled delicately and covertly. In other European countries the process was not impeded by the conquered peoples. As I mentioned above, anti-Semitism had been part of the European society for a very long time and constant deportation and annihilation of the Jews did not incite any pity, at least not in the beginning. Even the Church, that benevolent institution, the advocate of human rights and needs, did not exert any substantial influence to stop the genocide. In fact, the Church had been the most infamous persecutor of Jews for centuries, hence during the years of the extermination being passive in the face of such mass murder was perfectly within its guidelines of conducting business.

I wish to believe that the Western civilization has reached the apex in evolution of human rights. It's difficult to conceive a second Holocaust; it has only been 63 years since the first one ended. Many would say the same about another global war; however, I'm convinced that the creation of nuclear arsenals by the leading nations of planet Earth would only give us two options in case of titanic military escalation between nuclear powers: total annihilation or no world war. Genocides, on the other hand, will never cease to exist. As I am writing this, a genocide is being executed in Sudan and as with every genocide, any action to halt it is delayed. We may create a thousand Nurembergs, Geneva Conventions, or Tokyo trials, not deterring many who wish to perpetrate such crimes against humanity. International tribunals cannot change human nature.

In April of 2008 this book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. This fact alone is a reliable indicator that the work is of high quality and it is absolutely worth dedicating oneself to its 663 pages. It is a massively researched tome by a UCLA professor of history of the darkest and most cruel period of the 20th century: the Holocaust. In fact, as far as I know, the only comparable time in our recorded history is the Spanish Inquisition. It's very sad indeed that the most sadistic individual to ever walk this earth can only realistically be compared to the tribunals set up in the name of the church.

Many people possess the notion that the Holocaust was all Adolph Hitler's doing. Such false concept is prevalent throughout the world and is decisively disproved by the author. Anti-Semitism permeated not only the Third Reich but all of Europe for millennia. Professor Netanyahu in his magnum opus The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain traces it as far back as the 6th century B.C. Later in the Roman Empire Jews surrendered Jesus Christ to the proconsul of Judea for execution and this latter fact has evolved into anti-Semitism that has been witnessed in Europe ever since. Unfortunately for millions of European Jews, Hitler procured political and military means to carry out his blueprint to exterminate the Jews. However, nearly everyone in the Nazi party was anti-Semitic, that's why the extermination crusade went so smoothly, stumbling on no resistance within the German bureaucratic circles. Initially the campaign was carried out "diplomatically" so no considerable protest was made by the German people either. Hitler's plans for Germany were almost sacred in the eyes of the Germans and they followed him blindly, transgressing upon the most fundamental right of every man: the right to live.

But let's examine other European nations during the period of German occupation. The only people to explicitly declare their repugnance for the anti-Jewish laws were the Dutch. The Dutch were considered Arian by Hitler's racial doctrines and that's why they were allowed some autonomy when it came to governing themselves. So when they began protesting the persecutions it had to be handled delicately and covertly. In other European countries though the process was not impeded by the conquered peoples. As I mentioned above, anti-Semitism had been part of the European society for a very long time and constant deportation and annihilation of the Jews did not incite any pity, at least not in the beginning. Even the Church, that benevolent institution, the advocate of human rights and needs, did not exert any substantial influence to stop the genocide. In fact, the Church had been the most infamous persecutor of Jews for centuries, so during the years of the extermination being passive in the face of such mass murder was perfectly within its guidelines of conducting business.

I wish to believe that the Western civilization has reached the apex in evolution of human rights. It's difficult to conceive a second Holocaust, even though it has only been 63 years since the first one ended. Many would say the same about another world war; however, I'm convinced that the creation of nuclear arsenals by the leading nations of planet Earth would only give us two options: total annihilation or no world war. Genocides, on the other hand, will never cease to exist. As I am writing this, a genocide is being executed in Sudan and as with every genocide, any action to halt it is delayed. We may create a thousand Nurembergs or Tokyo trials, not deterring many who wish to perpetrate such crimes against humanity. Even though laws change, human nature doesn't.

I have never read anything by Saul Friedlander before. I'm not really a Holocaust historian, though I've read a few books on the subject. I tend to be more of a student of World War II history in general, and of the military aspects of things in particular. This book, however, attracted me because it won the Pulitzer, and frankly it doesn't disappoint: it's well-written, judicious, and very intelligent and comprehensive, and the author does an excellent job of putting everything in context and explaining what occurred.

The book begins with the start of the War, and discusses first the various efforts to resettle Germany's Jews, the dilemma the regime encountered when they conquered Poland, and finally the solution that they came up with to deal with the issue: extermination. The author discusses each period fairly objectively, frankly more objectively than I would have thought possible. Objectively, of course, Hitler and the Nazis wind up being described as insane mass-murderers. The author moves seamlessly from the discussion of various measures that were taken towards extermination with the diaries of various Jews who were caught in the Holocaust, and of various German soldiers and civilians who commented on how the Jews were treated.

This is a very very good book. It's hard to imagine saying you enjoyed reading it: it's a chronicle of mass murder, after all. But the book is extremely well-written and documented, and the facts are remorseless in their clarity. The author puts to bed two hoary old myths that have troubled me for years: most of the German population had at least some idea what was going on, and there was no propaganda or cynical aspect to the Nazi ideology: they were really that anti-semitic, and would have been even if opposed by the populace.

I would recommend this book to almost anyone interested in the Holocaust or 20th Century history.

well this book willbe along the work of maybe raul hillberg book published along time agoone of the great reference work on this turning point in twentieth century history. but a couple of pictures would have made this book more interesting for the average reader

well this book willbe along the work of maybe raul hillberg book published along time agoone of the great reference work on this turning point in twentieth century history

A beautiful book about monstrous beings. I have read many works on that terrible period of our earth; Friedlander's is one of the best. This is another list of warning signs for us. It contains data on what to guard against to retain sanity amongst us; but, there are reasons to suspect the signs are again surfacing, this time in our country.