Synopsis:
By the author of the acclaimed and ground-breaking Ordinary Men, The Origins of the Final Solution is the most detailed, careful, and comprehensive analysis to date of the descent of the Nazi persecution of the Jews into mass murder. Arguing that genocide was not a preconceived plan but rather a discovered possibility, Christopher Browning explains how the decision to murder the Jews en masse emerged in stages and by a process of elimination that gradually foreclosed plans for their expulsion from Europe. Only in the interval between late September and late October 1941 did the desire to 'remove' the Jews intersect with the discovery of acceptable means of killing them on a large scale and with the euphoria of expected victory in Russia, all of which followed on from two years of 'race war' and 'racial imperialism' in eastern Europe that prepared 'ordinary Germans' for this fateful task. Thoroughly researched and lucidly presented, this book is a groundbreaking work in the history of the Holocaust, one that will undoubtedly be studied for decades to come.
Review:
"The definitive work on the road Germany took toward the Final Solution during the crucial first three years of the war."― István Deák, New York Review of Books (István Deák New York Review of Books)
"This magisterial work does offer us something new―an unrivaled account of how the Nazi leadership ended up with a policy of industrialized mass murder of Jews as it fought a war of territorial expansion against the threats supposedly posed by Polish nationalism and Soviet Bolshevism. Probably no one is better qualified for this task than Christopher R. Browning. . . . In this summation of more than 20 years of research, he explains how the grand design emerged. . . and points the way to a reintegration of the whole subject in a much broader history of nationalist conflict, forced population movements and colonial settlement."―Mark Mazower, New York Times Book Review (Mark Mazower New York Times Book Review)
"Superb. . . .[Browning] has created an eloquent, painstaking narrative of how the Final Solution evolved until it 'could evolve no further in concept. It remained only to be implemented through action.'"―Joshua Rubenstein, Wall Street Journal (Joshua Rubenstein Wall Street Journal)
“Extraordinary. . . . Browning has obviously mastered every pertinent document available―from archives in Germany, the United States, the former Soviet Union, and Israel―and assimilated them all into his sometimes day-by-day account of the development of Nazi policy. In sifting the evidence he makes clear what’s known and what’s not, what’s probable, what’s possible, and what’s unlikely; with rigor and unusually incisive writing style he places events, decisions, and debates in a precise historical context. . . . And above all, with exactitude he lays bare his own suppositions as he transparently builds his arguments and his narrative. A masterpiece of the historian’s art.”―Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly (Benjamin Schwarz Atlantic Monthly)
“The more Nazi leaders talked of radical solutions, fundamental solutions, total solutions, eradication, total liquidation and final solutions, the more obvious it became what finality would consist of. Browning takes us there, step by step, false lead by false lead, with never-failing intellectual mastery. It is difficult to see this work being superseded in the foreseeable future.”―Times Literary Supplement (Times Literary Supplement)
"An internationally renowned historian of the Holocaust, Browning explains the evolution of Nazi anti-Jewish policies from discrimination and expulsions to outright systematic murder. . . . Based on a superb mastery of the archival sources and the secondary literature, Browning leads his readers through the step-by-step radicalization of Nazi policies in the critical months after the outbreak of WWII. . . . Even though Hitler rarely issued explicit orders, Browning shows he was intimately involved each step of the way. . . . This book is sure to become the standard work on the emergence of the Holocaust."―Publishers Weekly starred review (Publishers Weekly)
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