The Holocaust in historical perspective

Abstract

Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazi regime embarked on a deliberate policy of mass murder that resulted in the deaths of nearly six million Jews. What the Nazis attempted was nothing less than the total physical annihilation of the Jewish people. This unprecedented atrocity has come to be known as the Holocaust. In this series of four essays, a distinguished historian brings the central issues of the holocaust to the attention of the general reader. The result is a well-informed, forceful, and eloquent work, a major contribution to Holocaust historiography. The first chapter traces the background of Nazi antisemitism, outlines the actual murder campaign, and poses questions regarding the reaction in the West, especially on the part of American Jewish leadership. The second chapter, "Against Mystification," analyzes the various attempts to obscure what really happened. Bauer critically evaluates the work of historians or pseudo historians who have tried to deny or explain away the Holocaust, as well as those who have attempted to turn it into a mystical experience. Chapter 3 discusses the problem of the "bystander." Bauer examines the variety of responses to the Holocaust on the part of Gentiles in Axis, occupied, Allied, and neutral lands. He attempts to establish some general lines of behavior, while admitting his inability to understand certain responses, such as that of Bulgaria. The fourth chapter, 'The Mission of Joel Brand," deals with the most dramatic rescue attempt made during the war. Bauer argues that the offer to ransom Hungarian Jews was a fa{u00E7}ade for an attempt by the SS to negotiate a separate peace with the Allies. This rigorous historical analysis leads to some far-reaching conclusions in both the historical and ethical realms.