Holocaust : The Third Reich and the Jews

Front cover
Front cover

The Holocaust
The Third Reich and the Jews


David Engel







SEMINAR STUDIES IN HISTORY
General Editors: Clive Emsley & Gordon Martel

"Seminar Studies in History...provide a means of bridging the gap between specialist articles and monographs and textbooks. They are written by acknowledged experts on the subject who are not only familiar with current thinking but have often contributed to it. Their format, well-tried and effective, combines information, analysis and assessment effectively. The selections of documents, included from the outset of the series when document work was hardly in vogue in schools, not merely illustrates points made in the text but provides an effective medium for discussion on the issues raised. The further reading guide has stimulated countless students to take their interests further. The structure of the series may not have changed through time but the format has, with attractive four-colour covers and larger pages....Seminar Studies are still, despite all the opposition, a market leader."
Teaching History
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This new Seminar Study presents a straightforward, matter-of-fact analysis of the encounter between the Third Reich and the Jews. David Engel sets out to clarify the basic facts and to explore the possible reasons why 5.8 million European Jews died in its course. Rejecting the notion that the Holocaust must be approached with awe and trembling, the volume examines the documentary record that historians have been studying for over fifty years and outlines the problems and disagreements scholars face in interpreting it.

Like a murder investigation, the book sifts evidence relating to the motives, means, and opportunities for the killing of European Jewry. In doing so it raises some vexatious and sharply contested questions: Why was it a German government that perpetrated the mass murder? What led that government to the conclusion that all Jews had to die? Could the murder have been prevented or its scale reduced had victims or bystanders acted differently?

The main text is supported by some newly translated source material in the Documents Section and a range of additional tools including a glossary of terms, a bibliography, a chronology of the main events and four detailed maps. Wonderfully written, David Engel's book is a taut, compact narration that appeals to the intellect as much, if not more, than to the emotions. It is sure to be welcomed by students in departments of History, Politics and European Studies as well as by anyone trying to get to grips with this complex and far-reaching subject for the first time.


David Engel occupies the Skirball Chair in Modern Jewish History at New York University.








The Holocaust
The Third Reich and the Jews




David Engel









Probable price: £7.99
Probable publication: September 1999


Extent: 152pp

Draft Back cover
SEMINAR STUDIES IN HISTORY
General Editors: Clive Emsley & Gordon Martel

Seminar Studies in History...provide a means of bridging the gap between specialist articles and monographs and textbooks. They are written by acknowledged experts on the subject who are not only familiar with current thinking but have often contributed to it. Their format, well-tried and effective, combines information, analysis and assessment effectively. The selections of documents, included from the outset of the series when document work was hardly in vogue in schools, not merely illustrates points made in the text but provides an effective medium for discussion on the issues raised. The further reading guide has stimulated countless students to take their interests further. The structure of the series may not have