Editorial Review

While living in Argentina in 1960, Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was kidnapped and smuggled to Israel where he was put on trial for crimes against humanity. The Read more

Reviews (39)

Evil as the absence of ....
In writing her book, "Thinking," Arendt claims that it was Eichmann's absence of thought that underlay his evil deeds; and that her conclusion drew her to write the book ("Thinking").
Very problematic theology
This is a philosophical book passed off as history.It is also a renowned and famous book.Arendt, famous for her affair with Nazi philosopher Hiedegger even after the Holaust and an expert on totalitarianism, presents the thesis that without the help of the collaborationist Jews in many of the Nazi occupied countries those Banal men who were 'just following orders' such as Eichman could not have acheived the Holocaust.Thus she pus the blame for the Holocaust squarely on the 'actions' of Jews while reserving no judgement for the Nazis who ran the camps(themsleves mostly collaborators such as French, Austrians, Ukrainians, Germans from non-German lands and Poles), those Nazis are 'banal' which is to say 'boring' and therefore uner the rubric of moral relativism their actions cannot be judged, after all anti-semitism was part of their 'culture' it was not their fault they murdered 6 million people, because some of those people went willingly.
i'VE JUST RE-READ THIS
AND WHO COMES TO MIND? W. CHENEY. RUMDSFELD.RICE.SANTORUM.GONZALES.
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Subjects:  1. 1906-1962    2. Eichmann, Adolf,    3. Europe - General    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History: World    7. Holocaust    8. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    9. Jerusalem    10. Middle East - Israel    11. War crime trials    12. Eichmann, Adolf    13. Europe    14. History / Jewish    15. International humanitarian law    16. The Holocaust   

Reviews (15)

Five Minutes Past the Thousand-Year Reich . . .

The Nuremberg Interviews.
VERY GOOD DETAILS PERTAINING TO THE THOUGHT PROCESSES OF BOTH THE ACCUSED AND THE WITNESSES. WELL ORGANIZED AND WRITTEN IN A MANNER THAT IS EASY TO FOLLOW.

Over familiar ground
An interesting presentation if you have not read Gilbert and others. Otherwise, somewhat of a disappointment. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. Germany    3. History - General History    4. Holocaust    5. International    6. Interviews    7. Law    8. Nuremberg    9. Nuremberg Trial of Major Germa    10. Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946    11. War criminals    12. Witnesses    13. History / Holocaust   

Reviews (2)

In one reading -- an Amazing Book -- Mazel Tov
I too am a child of Holocaust survivors. I read this book (picked up by surprise in a bookstore) in one several hour reading. It is touching, moving, eloquent, great art, and deeply personal. Life and death, of all sorts. Happiness and sadness, of all sorts. I'm deeply appreciative for the author's letting the world in on her (my) life.
Insightful yet tragic... the Holocaust continues to shape people
The Holocaust occurred over six decades ago, and the survivors of this episode are aging and dying.In fact, calling the Holocaust an "episode" seems to be trivializing one of the darkest periods in human history.I apologize for any such characterization.The Holocaust was a monstrosity, an aberration, a blot on the record of humanity.Millions died.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Children of Holocaust survivors    6. Comic books, strips, etc    7. Historical - Holocaust    8. Holocaust    9. Holocaust survivors    10. Jewish Holocaust Personal Narratives    11. Jews    12. Ontario    13. Personal Memoirs    14. Toronto    15. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs   

Reviews (28)

Rudolf Hoess' Mistress Interviewed
After Dachau was liberated, Army intelligence interviewed a woman at the camp who claimed to have been Rudolf Hoess' mistress while at Auschwitz. What details they could check were confirmed, and her interview became part of a Seventh Army report issued a few weeks later, a report that has been republished as Dachau Liberated: The Official Report (ISBN: 1587420031). For those who want to understand the infamous Hoess, that interview of "E.H." provides a much-needed check on his obviously self-serving autobiography.Here's a short passage from her interview:
IT WAS NOT HOESS' FAULT
There is another autobiography of Hoess titled "Commandant of Auschwitz:The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess".I would be interested in reading that account but am curious how that could differ from "Death Dealer".Given the circumstances the man at the end of his life did not have a whole lot of time to write different autobiographies.My guess is the two books are essentially the same.
The Final Solution:An Inside View
On April 16, 1947, Rudolph Hoess, the infamous Kommandant of Auschwitz was hanged in his former concentration camp for, "crimes against the Polish people."While awaiting trial, Hoess, who knew he would pay for his crimes with his life, sought to renew the spiritual connection he had eschewed as a youth.Accordingly, he recounted his time in the SS for his captors.His story is also that of the darkest side of the Third Reich.
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Subjects:  1. 1900-1947    2. Auschwitz (Concentration camp)    3. Biography    4. Concentration camp commandants    5. General    6. History - Military / War    7. Hoss, Rudolf,    8. Military - World War II    9. Nazis    10. Personal narratives, German    11. World War, 1939-1945    12. Biography: general    13. Höss, Rudolf    14. The Holocaust   

Reviews (6)

An account from one of the survivors
A good book written by one of the few survivors of the uprising.The author tells a harrowing story about what seemed to be a hopeless situation for the Jewish fighters as the Nazis decimated the ghetto around them with bombing and fire.The Jewish resistance fighters held off the Germans longer than the Polish army did.The author freely admits that he is not a writer and the story gets a little rough in spots but overall a good book from an insider who was there and lived to tell his heroic story.

Good Account. Not a great book.
The author is sincere and spontaneous in telling his personal experience. The description of events, places and facts is also very well. But from the very beggining it is clear that the author is not a writer (or, at least, not a good one.)
The young man that survived
Kazik was a 19-year-old Jewish lad who survived the Nazi terror and systematic mass killings of Jews, the Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943 and the Warsaw uprising of 1944.
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Historical - General    5. Historical - Holocaust    6. Holocaust    7. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    8. Jewish Holocaust Personal Narratives    9. Jewish resistance    10. Jews    11. Military    12. Persecutions    13. Personal narratives    14. Poland    15. Warsaw    16. World War, 1939-1945    17. Biography: historical    18. Biography: political    19. European history: Second World War    20. History / General    21. Jewish studies    22. Second World War, 1939-1945    23. The Holocaust   

Reviews (2)

Intelligent and thought provoking study of Israeli nationalism
For anyone who is interested in the field largely known as 'holocaust studies', as well as in the middle-eastern conflict, this is a must read. Zertal explores aspects of Israeli nationalism and national identity, tracing it to events in the past (Tel Hai, the death of Y. Trumpledor etc) but also, more centrally to the book's theme, tracing it to more recent historical events such as the second world war and the holocaust.
Israel's Politics of Nationhood
This is a fantastic book -- it actually starts before the Holocaust with the battle of Tel-Hai and the death of Yosef Trumpledor and touches also on the ghetto fighters, the Exodus affair, the Kastner trial, the Eichmann trial, the 1967 war, and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin -- focused on exploring the treatment of the Holocaust and related issues by the Israeli political elite (especially Ben-Gurion) in their quest to craft an "Israeli national identity." As mentioned, the book touches on a number of different incidents and issues, but the keystone is the Eichmann trial and Hannah Arendt's book "Eichmann in Jerusalem" and the controversy that accompanied it. It is quite clear that Zertal is an admirer of Arendt, and has published on Arendt and her work before. It is well footnoted and very accessable (that is, you don't have to be an academic to really get a lot out of this book). ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Attitudes    2. Historiography    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Holocaust    7. Holocaust survivors    8. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    9. Israel    10. Jews    11. Middle East - General    12. Asian / Middle Eastern history: postwar, from c 1945 -    13. History / Middle East    14. Middle East    15. World history: from c 1900 -   

Reviews (4)

Germany's Everlasting Shame
This book is quite simply a horror story.It is over 260 pages of man's inhumanity to man.I base my four star rating on one horror story after another throughout the book.Each person's misery is certainly to be respected, but how people who pass themselves off as human beings could treat other individuals with such despicable behavior defies explanation.Women would hold up their children so they could watch the "fun" taking place at the expense of the Jewish people.This night of November 10,1938 called Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, in which Jewish synagogues and Jewish places of business were destroyed all over Germany not to mention the loss of life these people experienced, was supposedly due to a Jewish person taking revenge on his family's expulsion from Germany by shooting an individual in a German embassy in Paris, France, on November 7, 1938.I've had the chance to meet Martin Lowenberg who was 10 years old at the time of Kristallnacht, and heard him tell his experience of horror at the hands of Hitler's thugs.What is especially frightening is that ordinary Germans got caught up in the terror and relished the role they, too, could play in this everlasting shame on their country.Let us not be so naive to think this could not happen again.

not his best effort
Interesting, but spends way too much time in minute details.And..plenty of the book had nothing to do with Kristallnacht.

compelling eyewitness accounts
The personal narratives that Gilbert found for this book are its most compelling aspect. The overall picture of Kristallnacht has been known for decades. And Gilbert's accounting of that, while written with his usual skill, basically covers well trodden ground.
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Subjects:  1. 1933-1945    2. Europe - Germany    3. Germany    4. Germany - History - Third Reich (1933-1945)    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History - Military / War    8. History: World    9. Holocaust    10. Jewish - General    11. Jewish Holocaust    12. Jews    13. Kristallnacht, 1938    14. Military - World War II    15. Persecutions    16. History / General   

Reviews (2)

Painstaking detail
This is a great sociology text regarding the concentration camp and its scary system.I have read several books about WWII and the Holocaust, but this has a totally different angle.If you have ever studied the sociology of control, crime, or time, this is a must read.It is an academic work, but definitely good leisure reading.

It was excellent
This book was so good.It helped me to do a project and now I read it just for fun.I loved it so much it is scary.I have read other books like this one, but they didn't help me as much like this one.The otherbooks weren't very interessting to read for fun, this one is.You shouldread it because it is the best book in the world.I guarrenty it! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Europe - Germany    2. History    3. History - General History    4. Holocaust    5. Military - World War II    6. Sociology    7. Anthropology    8. European History    9. European history: Second World War    10. Germany    11. History / Germany    12. Inter-war period, 1918-1939    13. Jewish Studies    14. Second World War, 1939-1945    15. The Holocaust   

Reviews (5)

worth reading, but short on objectivity
Oversimplified and relentlessly negative.Filled with sweeping negative generalizations that ignore abundant evidence of positive characteristics of the Third Reich personalities.The caricatures painted of the key figures in the Third Reich are laughably unrealistic.As a serious history reference, this is a terrible book.It is so bad that it's actually worth reading: its sheer awfulness makes it a great example of how NOT to write a serious non-fiction book.

Blitz biographies and absence of explanations
What you get in this book is pretty much what the title promises you. The author (J.Fest) plunges into a psycho-social analysis of the Nazi elite and attempts (succesufully) to shed some light on the people who moved the strings of Nazism in Germany. Essential reading on the Third Reich
Michael Burleigh's recent work "The Third Reich - A New History" was widely praised for its novel explanation of Nazism in the context of religion. Anyone who has read Joachim Fest's excellent book however will, among other things, know that this particular analysis was hardly new or innovative.Read more

Subjects:  1. 1933-1945    2. Biography    3. Europe - Germany    4. Germany    5. History    6. History - General History    7. Holocaust    8. Military    9. National socialism    10. Nazis    11. Politics and government    12. History / Holocaust    13. History-Europe - Germany   

Reviews (125)

Brilliant book
Finkelstein exposes the corrupt wanna-be Jews who exploit the Jewish Holocaust for financial gain.
Cleaning house on the holocaust memory.
The main premise of this book is that after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the powers-that-be in the U.S. saw Israel as a geopolitical asset in the Middle East. Johnson, in particular, decided to tap that asset in the interests of the Cold War. Thus, Jewish organizations siezed the opportunity and in lock-step with U.S. interest, began to exploit the memory of the holocaust, supposed "victim" status, and claims of anti-Semitism in support of Israel. Could this theory be true?
Three and-a-half stars. Prof. Finklestein is very close to being on point. And it has cost him dearly!
I first heard Norm Finkelstein speak
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Subjects:  1. Foreign public opinion, Americ    2. Foreign public opinion, American    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Holocaust    7. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    8. Influence    9. Jewish - General    10. Jewish Holocaust    11. Public Opinion    12. United States    13. Europe    14. Jewish studies    15. The Holocaust   

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Colonies    3. Europe - Germany    4. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union    5. Germany    6. History    7. History - General History    8. History - Military / War    9. History: World    10. Holocaust    11. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    12. Military - World War II    13. Ukraine    14. World War, 1939-1945    15. ZìHytomyrs§ka oblast§    16. History / Holocaust    17. Second World War, 1939-1945    18. The Holocaust    19. holocaust; Nazism; colonialism; World War II; Hitler; Himmler; empire; imperialism; genocide; Jews; slave labor; Third Reich; Germany; Soviet Union; nationalism; Eastern Europe; occupation; Vinnytsia; Zhytomyr; Berdychiv   

Editorial Review

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Victor Klemperer (1881-1960), honored as a frontline veteran of World War I, was a distinguished professor at the University of Dresden. A scant few months later he was merely a Jew, protected from deportation to a death camp only by his marriage to an Aryan. He suffered every other indignity to which German Jews were subjected, from losing his job to having his driver's license revoked to being denied permission to own a pet, and all are recorded with bitter clarity in his diary entries, which cover the years 1933 to 1941. (A second volume continuing through 1945 will be published in English in 1999.) The German edition of this book caused a sensation when it was published in 1995, and it's easy to see why: the relentless, quotidian nature of Nazi racism comes through forcefully in Klemperer's litany of daily humiliations and insults, a painful chronicle of situations in which readers can readily imagine themselves. Like Anne Frank, but with a more adult understanding of political fanaticism and human weakness, he makes the abstract horror of genocidal persecution very intimate, very personal, and very real. Read more

Reviews (39)

A powerful and uplifting account of life under the Nazis
I have read many books on the history of Europe and World War 2, but for the most part they cover the big picture - the major events and key participants.Victor Klemperer's diaries ("I Will Bear Witness") describe how people like himself were tossed about by the arbitrary power of the Nazis. This record of his personal experiences from 1933 to 1945 makes the history come vividly alive in all its horror and sadness.
As it really was!
The two volumes should be required reading in EVERY course on Western history - could easily form a unit credit in themselves. But all is human; after the American declaration of war, friendly gentiles remarked to him that he must be happier, and that indeed they had noticed there were more of his kind to be seen recently on the streets - only for him to point out that his kind had recently been banned from riding on the trams!
a REAL must read
Few books have effected me like this book did.I can really think of nothing to say other than I truly believe the world would be a better place if everyone read this book and the follow up volume.
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Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Diaries    3. French teachers    4. Germany    5. Historical - Holocaust    6. History    7. History: World    8. Holocaust    9. Personal Memoirs    10. Philologists    11. Teachers    12. Biography: general    13. European history: Second World War    14. Fascism & Nazism    15. History / Holocaust    16. Second World War, 1939-1945    17. The Holocaust   

Reviews (36)

Insightful
I found this book useful in balancing the media's portrayal of the Vatican as a hideout for Nazis during WWII.
A complete and total waste of words.
This book tries to defend the defenseless, and misses the entire culpable behavior of Pope Pius XII.Diaries, letters, reports, and books that attempt to excuse Pope Pius XII are guilty of condoning the very actions that this title attempts to hide in "The Myth Of Hitler's Pope".The book fails to point to the one thing the Pope could do, that was totally within the Pope's power, and what the Pope should have been expected to do: "Expel the wicked man from among you."1 Corinthians 5:13.
The sad truth is that liberal histories lied
John Cornwell and others have systematically lied and deceived the world about the role of the Church and specifically Pope Pius the XII in the Holocaust.Instead of assisting Hitler, the Pope and the Church did all it could reasonably be expected to do (and so much more) to stem the tide of death. As a Catholic, it is nice to see a Jewish Rabbi to set the record straight.
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Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Catholic Church    3. Christianity - History - Catholic    4. Christianity and antisemitism    5. General    6. History    7. History - General History    8. Holocaust    9. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    10. Judaism    11. Political Science    12. Politics/International Relations    13. Relations    14. Sociology - General    15. Biography: general    16. Europe    17. European history: Second World War    18. Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church   

Reviews (7)

How The Germans Accepted Nazism And Hitler
Robert Gellately's "Backing Hitler" may be the most thought provoking, extensive study as to how and why the German people ultimately embraced both Nazism and Adolf Hitler during the course of the Great Depression and World War II. Gellately makes the startling claim that most Germans were aware of Nazi atrocities - though not necessarily the worst - and yet found them tolerable as a means to combat crime. Indeed, he notes how Germans embraced Nazism as a succesful antidote to the financial and cultural corruption they'd seen in the 1920's and early 1930's during the Weimar Republic. With the notable exception of the Holocaust, Nazi goverment officials and agencies such as the Gestapo and the SS did not hide the existence of concentration camps and torture from the general public, but instead, allowed them to be published both in Nazi popular journals and daily newspapers (And the Holocaust itself was not hidden, except for its most virulent, deadly phases, in which Jews were dealt with via "special handling", the Nazi euphemism for genocide.). Only towards the end, during the final months and weeks of the war, did the German public see the most brutal aspects of the Nazi regime. Yet surprisingly, many Germans continued to support the regime until the very end. Gellately's premise may seem unoriginal in light of Daniel Goldhagen's popular book indicting the entire German nation for the Holocaust, yet unlike Goldhagen, Gellately offers substantially more persuasive evidence to demonstrate how a social consensus was reached within German society in support of the Nazi regime. Gellately's book may be the seminal work looking at how the Nazis successfully used the media in disseminating their philosophy to Germany.

Interesting and Thought Provoking
Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany by Robert Gellately is a interesting and thought provoking study of what the German people knew and when they know it.Gellately does a fine job delving through the historical achieves, especially old newspapers, to give the reader an insight into what information was available to the German public. Interesting Mess
I looked forward to reading this volume with great anticipation.Unfortunately, I was disappointed.While the subject matter is certainly interesting, the editing (or lack thereof) is so unacceptable as to make several lengthy passages almost completely unintelligible.For my money, "Hitler's Willing Executioners", which covers the same topic, is much more well-constructed, if a bit dry at times. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1933-1945    2. Concentration camps    3. Europe - Germany    4. Germany    5. Germany - History - Third Reich (1933-1945)    6. History    7. History - Military / War    8. History: World    9. Holocaust    10. Jewish Holocaust    11. Military - World War II    12. National socialism    13. Psychological aspects    14. Race relations    15. European history: Second World War    16. History / Germany    17. History, World | European | Germany    18. Hitler, Adolf    19. Political structures: totalitarianism & dictatorship    20. The Holocaust    21. World history: Second World War   

Reviews (5)

Easy Read. Very Informative.
I had to read this book for a US History class and I was very impressed by the book. At no time was I bored with the book. It's actually very captivating and informative. If you really want a short book that is full of information and does not get boring read this book.

The terrible scope of the horror
Most of the previous accounts of Auschwitz that I've read have been personal accounts, most recently Rudolph Vrba's Escape from Auschwitz.While these personal accounts are quite powerful and serve to put a human face on a tragedy of almost inconceivable scope, they are only slivers of the big picture.This book provides a broad overview of the history of Auschwitz, compiled from eyewitness accounts, transcripts of war crimes trials, and the memoirs of Rudolf Hoess and other Nazi's involved in the camp.While it lacks the emotional impact of a more personal account, this book helps shed some light on the scope of the horrors of Auschwitz and Birkeneau and the holocaust in general.By itself, it is an important overview, but if read together with the stories of individual survivors, it provides context for understanding the personal accounts.

Nice and Easy
This is a good little book about Auschwitz.It is extremely thin and easy to read (128 pages).If you just want to know a little bit about Auschwitz and are not inclined to read one of the heavy books on the subject then this may be a good alternative.I found it easy to read and did not lack any of the intensity found in the bigger volumes on the subject.It is very detailed.It is also a great book to introduce yourself on the operations of the death camps.This book may spark your interest and you may want to read further on the subject.I finished it in only a few hours.Nice and easy reading. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Auschwitz (Concentration camp)    2. Auschwitz (Poland: Concentrati    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Holocaust    6. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    7. Jewish - General    8. Jewish Holocaust    9. Jewish holocaust (1933-1945)    10. Military - World War II    11. Personal narratives    12. Poland    13. History / Holocaust   

Subjects:  1. Anthropology    2. Anthropology - Cultural    3. Archaeology / Anthropology    4. Field work    5. General    6. Social Science    7. Sociology    8. Sociology - General    9. Other prose: from c 1900 -    10. Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural    11. The Holocaust   

Reviews (16)

The enabling preconditions, actual events and aftermath of the Holocaust.
Three books in one: A detailed 1) history, 2)timeline and 3)personal vignettes that create a rich hologram-like view of the enabling preconditions, actual events and aftermath of the Genocide of the Jews of Europe at the hands of the Nazis.