In examining one of the defining events of the twentieth century, Doris Bergen situates the Holocaust in its historical, political, social, cultural, and military contexts. Unlike many other treatments of the Holocaust, this history traces not only the persecution of the Jews, but also other segments of society victimized by the Nazis: Gypsies, homosexuals, Poles, Soviet POWs, the disabled, and other groups deemed undesirable. With clear and eloquent prose, Bergen explores the two interconnected goals that drove the Nazi German program of conquest and genocide—purification of the so-called Aryan race and expansion of its living space—and discusses how these goals affected the course of World War II. Including illustrations and firsthand accounts from perpetrators, victims, and eyewitnesses, the book is immediate, human, and eminently readable.

Doris L. Bergen is the Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto. She is the author of Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich (1996); War and Genocide: A Concise History of The Holocaust (2003), and editor of Lessons and Legacies VIII (2008).

Doris L. Bergen's profile page

A meticulous, sensitive account of the Nazi race wars that combines a powerful narrative and explanatory drive at the same time as it illuminates individual lives and fates with searing precision. While giving full weight to the antisemitic core of Nazi racism, Bergen also shows why it claimed so many other groups of victims, and pursues it to its appalling climax in the wars of imperialist conquest and exploitation launched in 1939. This is a distinctive and remarkable achievement, as assured as it is readable.

Jane Caplan, University of Oxford

A striking introduction to the complexity of Holocaust history—precisely because despite being a very short book it does not in any way attempt to evade the complexity and context for Nazi violence against Jews. . . . It is an impressive introduction to the Holocaust which will certainly serve its readers well.

Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal Of Jewish Studies

Doris L. Bergen, professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto, has written perhaps the best concise history of the Holocaust published to date. She provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this complex subject. Writing with clarity and sensitivity, and based on the latest research, she places the Holocaust in its historical, cultural, social, and military contexts. The narrative is powerful and engaging, and the analysis is balanced and compelling. In this compact volume, fully illustrated with photographs and maps, Bergen covers all the major issues surrounding the Holocaust. She discusses not only the persecution of the Jews, but other groups victimized by the Nazis: Gypsies, the disabled, Poles, Soviet POWs, homosexuals, and political opponents of the regime. She also provides firsthand accounts from perpetrators, victims, and eyewitnesses thus adding the human dimension of the tragedy that is so often left out of other textbook treatments of the subject. The book is very readable, compelling and informative and highly recommended to expert and novice alike.

Jewish Book World