The Nazi Holocaust: Its History and Meaning

by Ronnie S. Landau

Overview

The Nazi Holocaust is one of the most momentous events in human history. Yet, it remains on many levels a baffling and unfathomable mystery. By shunning simplistic 'explanations' Ronnie Landau has set out, in a clear, thought-provoking and enlightened fashion, to mediate betweeen this vast, often unapproachable subject and the reader who wrestles with its meaning. Locating the Holocaust within a number of different contexts - Jewish history, German history, genocide in the modern age, the larger story of human bigotry and the triumph of ideology over conscience - Landau penetrates to the very heart of its moral and historical significance. Deeply concerned lest the Holocaust, as a 'unique' phenomenon, be cordoned off from the rest of human history and ghettoized within the highly charged realm of 'Jewish experience', he is at pains to show that transmitting understanding of the Holocaust is about connecting with all humanity.Intended both for the general reader and for students and academics (especially in history, psychology, literature and the humanities), this work is an important breakthrough in the struggle to perpetuate the memory of a tragedy which the world is all too ready to forget.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857728586
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/12/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	424
Sales rank:	932,345
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Ronnie Landau is the former Educational Director of the Spiro Institute for the Study of Jewish History and Culture, Head of Humanities and Principal Lecturer at the City Literary Institute and Visiting Lecturer in Modern Jewish History at both Leo Baeck College and the International Study Centre of Queen's University (Ontario). Founding Director of the British Holocaust Education Project, he currently teaches Classical languages at Sussex House School in London.

Table of Contents

Author's Preface to the Third Edition ix

Author's Preface to the Second Edition xv

Author's Preface xix

Additional Reading xxv

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Historical, Educational and Moral Significance of the Holocaust 3

Part 1 The Background and Context

Chapter 2 Survey of Jewish History: c.300 BC to c. 1700 27

Chapter 3 The European Jew and the Modern World 51

Chapter 4 Nazism and Modern Germany: From National Unification to Hitler's Accession to Power 80

Part 2 The Holocaust: a History

Chapter 5 Nazi Germany, 1933-8: Anti-Jewish Policy and Legislation 123

Chapter 6 Nazi Europe, 1938-41: From Kristallnacht to Ghettoization in the East 144

Chapter 7 The Holocaust, 1941-5: From Dehumanization to Annihilation 174

Part 3 Themes, Issues and Protagonists

Chapter 8 Perpetrators, Victims and Bystanders 199

Chapter 9 The Jewish Question: Public Opinion in Nazi Germany 242

Chapter 10 The Aftermath and Impact of the Holocaust 265

Notes 291

Bibliography 303

Appendix A Euphemisms of Death 317

Appendix B Yossel Rakover's Appeal to God 319

Appendix C The Jewish Question - Excerpts from Hitler's Writings 328

Appendix D The Programme of the National- Socialist German Workers' Party 337

Appendix E The Nuremberg Laws 341

Appendix F German Foreign Ministry Memorandum 344

Appendix G Numbers of Jews Murdered in Europe 348

Chronology of the Holocaust (1933-45) 349

Glossary of Basic Terms 362

Principal Characters 367

Index 374

Maps

The Jews of the Roman Empire, 100-300 AD 38

Expulsions, 1000-1500 46