Why?: Explaining the Holocaust

Front Cover
W. W. Norton & Company, Jan 17, 2017 - History - 432 pages

Featured in the PBS documentary, "The US and the Holocaust" by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein

"Superbly written and researched, synthesizing the classics while digging deep into a vast repository of primary sources." —Josef Joffe, Wall Street Journal

Why? explores one of the most tragic events in human history by addressing eight of the most commonly asked questions about the Holocaust: Why the Jews? Why the Germans? Why murder? Why this swift and sweeping? Why didn’t more Jews fight back more often? Why did survival rates diverge? Why such limited help from outside? What legacies, what lessons?

An internationally acclaimed scholar, Peter Hayes brings a wealth of research and experience to bear on conventional views of the Holocaust, dispelling many misconceptions and challenging some of the most prominent recent interpretations.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Why Another Book on the Holocaust?
1856
Why the Germans?
1898
Why Murder?
1939
Why This Swift and Sweeping?
Why Didnt More Jews Fight Back More Often?
Why Did Survival Rates Diverge?
Why Such Limited Help from Outside?
What Legacies What Lessons?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Copyright

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Why?: Explaining the Holocaust
Peter Hayes
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Common terms and phrases

Adolf Eichmann Allies American antisemitism army Auschwitz Austria Bauer became began behavior Belzec Berlin British called Cambridge University Press Catholic century Chelmno Christian Church citizens commander concentration camps death camps deportations died Dutch east Eastern Europe economic Eichmann Einsatzgruppen emancipation escape European fate final France French gas chambers gassing Genocide German Jews Germany’s groups Hayes Heydrich Himmler History Hitler Holocaust Hungarian Hungary ibid immigration inmates Jewish Jewish community Jewish Council Jewish population Jewry killed Kristallnacht later leaders living Lodz Majdanek March Mauthausen military million months murder Nazi Germany Nazi regime Nazism non-Jewish non-Jews number of Jews occupied Operation Reinhard Oxford University Press Palestine Party percent perpetrators persecution Pius XII Poland Poles Polish political pope postwar prisoners refugees religious remained resistance Romania RSHA slave labor Sobibor survival survivors Third Reich Treblinka United victims Wachsmann Warsaw Ghetto Wasserstein World World War II York Zyklon

About the author (2017)

Peter Hayes is professor of history and German and Theodore Zev Weiss Holocaust Educational Foundation Professor of Holocaust Studies Emeritus at Northwestern University, and chair of the Academic Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Bibliographic information

TitleWhy?: Explaining the Holocaust
AuthorPeter Hayes
PublisherW. W. Norton & Company, 2017
ISBN0393254372, 9780393254372
Length432 pages
Subjects ›  ›  › 

History / Jewish
History / Modern / 20th Century / Holocaust
History / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General
Social Science / Jewish Studies
  
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