The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945 (Studies in Jewish His tory)

US: Oxford University Press, 1991. Paperback. Very Good. When The Holocaust first appeared in Israel in 1987, it was hailed as the f inest, most authoritative history of Hitler's war on the Jews ever publishe d. Representing twenty years of research and reflection, Leni Yahil's book won the Shazar Prize, one of Israel's highest awards for historical work. N ow available in English, The Holocaust offers a sweeping look at the Final Solution, covering not only Nazi policies, but also how Jews and foreign go vernments perceived and responded to the unfolding nightmare. The Holocaust is astonishingly comprehensive. Yahil weaves a gripping chron ological narrative that stretches from the Norwegian fjords to the Greek is lands, from Amsterdam to Tehran--and even Shanghai. Her writing is balanced , objective, and compelling, as she systematically explores the evolution o f the Holocaust in German-occupied Europe, probing its politics, planning, goals, and key figures. Yahil uses her command of the many relevant languag es to marshal an impressive array of documentary and statistical evidence, driving her narrative forward with telling details and personal accounts--s uch as a survivor's description of her perseverance during a death march, o r the story of the Struma, a boat that sank with over 700 Jewish refugees w hen the British refused to receive it in Palestine. Along the way, she destroys persistent myths about the Holocaust: that Hitler had no plan for exterminating the Jews, that the Jews themselves went peacefully to the slaughter. Though Yahil finds that Nazi policies were often inconsistent, particularly during the years before the war, she conclusively demonstrates that Hitler was alwa.