- Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial (Feb 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060928786
- ISBN-13: 978-0060928780
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,812,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
Himself a survivor, Friedlander has been a leading figure in 'Holocaust Studies' for decades and this book represents a magesterial summing up of his research and that of hundreds of other historians. It should remain a standard work for students and others for many years NAZI GERMANY AND THE JEWS is perhaps the richest examination of the subject yet written, and, crucially, one that never loses sight of the experiences of individuals in its discussion of Nazi politics and the terrible statistics and technological and administrative sophistication of the Final Soloution.
--This text refers to an alternate
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About the Author
Saul Friedlander was born in Prague in 1932. He fled to France where he survived the war in hiding. He arrived in Israel in 1948 and took part in the Israeli War of Independence. Since 1987 he was been Professor of Holocaust Studies at UCLA. In 2008 he was awarded the general non-fiction Pulitzer prize for his book THE YEARS OF EXTERMINATION: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945. He lives in Los Angeles.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The history of Nazi Germany and the Jews has never been told before in such a convincing fashion. Friedlander's knowledge of West European history and culture is second to none, a fact which enabled him to write, for the first time, a "total" history of the crucial, but often neglected years prior to the War. Like a master artist, the author weaves the history with the memories, the voices of the victims with those of the perpetrators, the every day lived experiences with high politics. While rich in telling details, Friedlander makes sure that we never lose sight of the larger picture; of the abnormality in the midst of seemingly normal existence.
Professor Friedlander's interpretation of Nazism is highly nuanced and therefore convincing. He sucessfully avoids two common pitfalls: to write this history "backward" and construct its narrative in "black and white." His life-long dedication not only to the study of Nazism, but also to the problems of its historical represntation are clearly obvious in the innovative manner with which he approaches the subject. In his distinctively understated style he is both highly evocative and extremely analytical.
With the second volume, which is due to follow, we will have gained a comprehensive understanding of Nazi Germany and the fate of the European Jews, written by a historian, who is a thinker, who is a master story teller.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Saul Friedlander documents the tragic loss of moral courage and responsibility among the vast majority of Germans some seventy years ago, and how this loss allowed the growing oppression and persecution of their fellow citizens, the Jews. While so-called revisionists and Holocaust deniers focus on the still barely-imaginable campaign of murder carried out by the Germans and their willing helpers from the Baltic to the Balkans, Saul Friedlander's account is of the mounting radicalisation of anti-Jewish policies and public indifference to the Jews' fate. The text is deeply depressing, but is essential reading for anyone who is trying to come to terms with the crimes of the Holocaust itself. Holocaust deniers use the "holes" in accounts of the Holocaust to support their shoddy, deranged arguments. A reading of this book provides massive, incontrovertible evidence of the Nazis' murderous hatred for the Jews and the policies they used to deny them any kind of life in Germany before the war. An unforgettable voyage into a time of mass moral insanity
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19 reviews
63 of 63 people found the following review helpful
Intriguing Study Of Nazi Persecution of Jews 1933-1939
3 July 2000
Format:Paperback
This first in a two volume work by acclaimed historian is a remarkably objectivean , comprehensive and scrupulously scholarly work and represents a very critical contribution to historians' efforts to comprehend just how and why one of the most civilized and sophisticated countries in Europe descended into the systematic attempt to exterminate the Jews. The book proceeds along a chronological axis in recounting the slow but inexorably tightening of restrictions on the Jewish population within Germany during the years of the mid to late 1930s.
While centering his account of what went wrong in Nazi Germany during the pre-war years, he also humanizes his narrative considerably by interspersing individual accounts of people caught confused and unaware of what was really occurring in the crucible of cultural change. As substantiated in other recent accounts such as Victor Klemperer's "I Shall Bear Witness", Jews were very slow to recognize just how malevolent and serious the national Socialists were about ridding Germany of its Jewish population and also nationalizing and "Aryanizing" their resources and assets.
It is important to note that the author does not overlay any overall interpretive spin of his own, intent more on presenting the best evidence of what was going on than in coming to any premature general interpretation of what the mass of evidence in total might mean. This is not to suggest he offers no interpretation; on the contrary, he offers a series of brilliant insights in various aspects of the evidence. But unlike other recent authors like Goldhagen, he makes no sweeping interpretative conclusions based on all of the evidence he presents. Also, one must remember that this is the first of two volumes, and one would expect that he intends to fully conclude his systematic and chronological presentation of all of the available evidence before engaging in that sort of interpretative analysis.
In sum, I find this work to be an excellent book that is engaging, well-written and argued, and a joy to read despite its tragic and dispiriting subject matter, and a book that offers an amazing look at a wide variety of different perspectives and social situations within the Third Reich as it descended into the abyss. After finishing this volume I immediately ordered the second volume, which is slated for formal publication release later this year. This is a work that belongs on the bookshelf of any serious student of the Holocaust.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Thorough, authoritative .. a must read
17 Feb 2000
Format:Paperback
This book presents one of the most balanced, comprehensive, and authoritative analyses of the pre-war Nazi era I have read. As usual, Friedlander avoids the pitfalls of either a purely intentionalist or functionalist position and chooses to present the reader with something in between. This book is a must read for anybody seriously interested in understanding Nazi policy and ideology vis-a-vis German Jewry.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Excellent, informative, absorbing, and different.
1 Mar 1998
Format:Hardcover
Perhaps the enduring value of Friedlander's book is its focus on the sociology of the holocaust and its origins in the corruption of social institutions, which provides a lesson--and a warning--for all seemingly stable, civilized societies. This, after all, should be the "message" of the holocaust for non-Jews, as much as for Jews. The information in this book, weaving together facts and figures with the occasional poignant human interest story to illustrate a point, is quite different from the standard holocaust historical writing of who did what to whom, when and how, and is therefore a quantum leap in our understanding of the phenomenon which shall nevertheless forever remain ultimately incomprehensible. While I appreciate the comment of the reviewer who found the language tough going, sometimes, that reader might find, it is worth the rough going. Unfortunately, they will only find that out when they have finished, and are able to look back on the voyage of discovery which they have completed. This book is such a voyage. Personally, I look forward with much anticipation to the second volume. --Irving Wiesen.
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