A History of the Holocaust: From Ideology to Annihilation

Examines the causes of the Holocaust and the people involved.

Told with scrupulous attention to detail and accuracy, this text provides important background information on Jewish life in Europe, the functions of the hierarchy within the Nazi government, and the psychological foundations of prejudice.

Unlike other texts on the subject, A History of the Holocaust gives students an idea of just who the victims of the Holocaust were. In fact, the author tells this story from a unique point-of-view, having experienced Nazi Germany as a child.

Learning Goals

Upon completing this book readers will be able to:

• Describe the sequence of events that led to the Holocaust
• Understand the people that were victims of the Holocaust and the ways they responded to the events as they unfolded
• Draw their own conclusions about controversial topics related to the Holocaust

1) Brief Table of Contents

2) Full Table of Contents

1) Brief Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Nature and Roots of Antisemitism

Chapter 2: The World That Was Annihilated

Chapter 3: The Nazis’ Rise to Power

Chapter 4: Hitler and Three who Served Him

Chapter 5: Germany under the Nazis

Chapter 6: History of German Jews to 1939

Chapter 7: Hitler’s War

Chapter 8: From Ideology to Isolation

Chapter 9: Annihilation: Theory and Practice

Chapter 10: The Industry of Death

Chapter 11: Resistance Against All Odds

Chapter 12: Rescue: Little, Late, but

Chapter 13: After the Deluge

2) Full Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Nature and Roots of Antisemitism

Some Dynamics of Prejudice

Personality and Prejudice

The Costs

Origins of Antisemitism

Christianity and the Jews

The New Faith Established

The Medieval Church and the Jews

Early Ghettos

The Reformation

The 18^th Century

The French Revolution and Reaction 

The Impact of Industrialization

Twentieth Century

The New Antisemitism

Anti-Jewish Racism

Chapter 2: The World That Was Annihilated

The Victims

Polish Jewry

Shtetl Life

Cultural Achievements

The Rebirth of Poland

Chapter 3: The Nazis’ Rise to Power

The Totalitarian Prerequisite

The Treaty of Versailles

The Weimar Republic

The Nazis Enter History

The Party Platform

The SA

The Failed Beer Hall Putsch

The Aryan Superiority Myth

Legitimizing Hitler

The End of the Republic

Chapter 4: Hitler and Three who Served Him

Hitler’s Ideological Antecedents

The Irrationality of the Holocaust

Pseudo-Intellectual Roots

Psychological Hypotheses

Hitler: A Man of Paradoxes

Three Executioners of the Fuehrer’s Will

Hermann Goering

Joseph Goebbels

Heinrich Himmler

Chapter 5: Germany under the Nazis

Destruction of the Republic

The Last

The Reichstag Fire

Political Centralization

The Party and the Government

Governing the Reich

Party Organization

The Blood Purge

Workers

Economic Policy

Farmers

Business

Public Education

Training the Nazi of the Future

The Catholic Church

Hitler and the Protestant Churches

Nazi Justice

Chapter 6: History of German Jews to 1939

Emancipation

Can Jews Be Accepted as Germans?

Economic Antisemitism

Political Antisemitism

Jewish Reaction: The Reform Movement

Is Zionism the Answer?

The CV Reaction

World War I

The Weimar Years

Jewish Responses to the Nazi Danger

Who Is a Jew?

 Early Legal Restrictions

The Nuremberg Laws

Kristallnacht

VOICES: Papa’s Slippers and Crystal Night

The Aftermath

Chapter 7: Hitler’s War

Lebensraum

The European Climate

Nazi Diplomacy

Inertia in France and Great Britain

Bloodless Victories

Austria—Fiasco and Victory

The Sudeten Germans

Appeasement at Munich

The Czech Finale

The Startling Hitler–Stalin Pact

The War at a Glance

The Defeat of Poland

Himmler’s Vision of Poland

The War in the West

Governing the Conquered Nations

Great Britain Alone

VOICES: Excerpts from Windmills, War, and Water

The Balkans and Operation Barbarossa

The Turning

Chapter 8: From Ideology to Isolation

An Overview

Tracking Jews

Despoiling the Victims

Types of Concentration Camps

Himmler’s Empire

Ghettos

Functions of the Judenraete

The Lodz Ghetto: A Case in Point

The Warsaw Ghetto: Another Case in Point

Chapter 9: Annihilation: Theory and Practice

Mobile Killing Squads

The Wannsee Decision

Some German Reactions

The Gas Van Experiment

Chapter 10: The Industry of Death

Gas Chambers

The Many Forms of Deception

Sonderkommandos

Auschwitz’s Organization

Cheaper Than Slaves

Hunger

VOICES: Jolie’s Soup

The Hungarian Tragedy

Surviving a Concentration Camp

The Doctors

Camps in Central Europe

Theresienstadt and Ravensbrueck

The Death Marches

Chapter 11: Resistance Against All Odds

VOICES: My Mother and the Rosenstrasse Protest

The Warsaw Ghetto Revolt

Results and Significance

Camp Revolts: An Overview

With the Partisans

Chapter 12: Rescue: Little, Late, but

VOICES: My Parents—My Heroes

The Final Solution Revealed

Delay and Obstruction in the United States

American Jewry

Survival in Bulgaria

The Danes Mobilize for Rescue

Accounting for the Danish Achievement

The Vatican and the Holocaust

The Protestant Churches

Ordinary People

Hidden Children

Chapter 13: After the Deluge

Postwar Germany

Survivors in Limbo

Seeking a Refuge: The United States

Seeking a Refuge: Palestine

Justice for the Murderers?

The Nuremberg Trials: 1945–1946

Further Trials

DeNazifying the Military

Germany and the Jews Today

Stolen Art: An Unfinished Legacy

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