Resistance to the Holocaust
During the Holocaust many Jews took up arms to fight their
oppressors. Because much of this active resistance was in eastern
Europe, it is been only recently that it has been studied by
historians.
Yuri Suhl (Ed.), They Fought Back, Schocken Books
(1978)
Shalom Cholawski, Soldiers From the Ghetto, The Hertzl
Press (1980)
Israel Gutman, Resistance: the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,
Houghton Mifflin (1994)
"Euthanasia"
The first people to be systematically murdered by the Third Reich
were not Jews or "gypsies" (properly the Roma and Sinta), but Germans
who were considered "useless eaters" and "life not worthy of life."
More than 70,000 were murdered, many in gas chambers, before Hilter was
compelled by public pressure to end the campaign. Even after the public
end of the program, the murder of the sick and helpless continued in
the Third Reich:
Henry Friedlander, The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From
Euthanasia to the Final Solution, University of North Carolina
Press, Chapel Hill (1995)
Michael Burleigh, Death and Deliverance: 'Euthanasia' in
Germany c. 1900-1945, Cambridge University Press (1994)
Persecution of the Jews before the "Final Solution"
The Holocaust occurred in various stages. Before the extermination
of the Jews, the Third Reich persecuted Jews both with perversions of
law and violence.
Saul Friedlander, Nazi Germany and the Jews: Volume 1,
HarperCollins, New York (1997)
Kristallnacht
The systematic, organized violence against the Jews began on
November 10, 1938 with a progrom known as Kristallnacht. This progrom
is considered one of the most important steps that lead to the attempt
to exterminate Jews:
Anthony Read and David Fischer, Kristallnacht: The Unleashing
of the Holocaust, Peter Bedrick Books, New York (1989)
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
and his obsessions will always remain at the center of the Holocaust.
While it is probable that no-one will ever understand him completely,
we must try. The Holocaust History Project especially recommends
Professor Fleming's book on how the philosophy of National Socialism
developed into the Holocaust.
Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, Harper and
Row, New York (1962)
Joachim Fest, Hitler: A Biography, London (1974)
Gerald Fleming, Hitler and the Final Solution,
University of California Press, Los Angeles (1982)
John Lukacs, The Hitler of History, Knopf Press (1997)
Ron Rosenbaum, Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins
of His Evil, Random House, New York (1998)
Other Accomplices
Adolf Hitler, of course, did not act alone. Many high officials of
the Third Reich were as intent as he was in the persecution of the
Jews. Unfortunately good biographies of many of these people are rare.
These book should help you understand how they thought:
Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality
of Evil, Peter Smith Pub (1994)
Jochen Von Lang (Ed.), Eichmann Interrogated: Transcripts from
the Archives of the Israeli Police, Da Capo Press (1999)
Gitta Sereny, Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth,
Vintage Books (1996)
Dan Van Der Vat, The Good Nazi: The Life and Lies of Albert
Speer, Mariner Books (1999)
The Third Reich
Adolf Hitler and his accomplices did not just take over Germany.
They tried to create a new Germany based on their ideology. These books
will help you to understand what was done and how it affected Germany.
Martin Broszat, Hitler and the Collapse of Weimar
Germany, Berg, Oxford (1987)
William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,
Simon & Shuster, New York (1960)
J. Noakes and G. Pridham (Eds.), Nazism 1919-1945,
(Vols. 1-4) University of Exeter Press (1996,1998)
Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich, Macmillan Press,
New York (1970)
Joseph Borkin, The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben,
The Free Press, New York (1978)
David Bankier, The Germans and the Final Solution: Public
Opinion under Nazism, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford (1992)
The SS
The SS gradually grew in power as the Third Reich endured. It was
the agency that was not only primarily responsible for imposing the
ideology of National Socialism but carried out the extermination of the
Jews
Gerald Reitlinger, The SS: Alibi of a Nation, Viking
Press, New York (1957)
Charles W. Syndor, Soldiers of Destruction, Princeton
University Press (1990)
Albert Speer, Infiltration, Macmillan Books (1981)
Heinz Hoehne, The Order of the Death's Head,, Pan
Books, London, 1969
Helmut Krausnick, Hans Buchheim, Martin Brozat, Hans-Adolf Jacobsen,
Anatomy of the SS State, Walker and Company, New York
(1968)
Edward Crankshaw, Gestapo: Instrument of Tyranny, Da
Capo Press, New York (1994)
Robin Lumsden, The Black Corps: A Collector's Guide to the
History and Regalia of the SS, Ian Allen Publishing, Surrey,
England; Hippocrene Books, New York (1992)
Doctors in the Third Reich
The ideology of the Third Reich permeated and corrupted all aspects
of life in Germany. Science and medicine were no exception. The Third
Reich found men willing to ignore the historic ethics of their
profession and participate in some of the most horrible crimes
perpetrated in the Third Reich:
Robert Jay Lifton, The Nazi Doctors, Basic Books (1986)
Robert N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the
Nazis, Harvard University Press (1988)
Justice in the Third Reich
No institution in Germany was more corrupted by the Third Reich than
the system of justice. The courts enforced the ideological laws of the
Third Reich against Jews and the harsh measure that oppressed ordinary
Germans almost without protest.
Ingo Muller, Hitler's Justice, Harvard University Press
(1991)
H.W. Koch, In the Name of the Volk, Barnes & Noble
(1989)
The military and the Third Reich
The role of the military in a modern state is a mixture of military
professionalism and politics. The same was true in the Third Reich.
Telford Taylor, Sword and Swastika, Barnes & Noble
(1952, 1980)
Harold C. Deutsch Hitler and His Generals, University
of Minnesota (1974)
The Einsatzgruppen
During the invasion of the Soviet Union the Third Reich formed four
units which followed the armies and murdered opponents of the Third
Reich and Jews. They were called the
Einsatzgruppen.
During their existence they murdered more Jews than were killed at
Auschwitz. They were gradually phased out as the gas chambers of the
concentration camps came into use.
Ronald Headland, Messages of Murder, Farleigh Dickenson
University Press (1992)
Yitzhak Arad, Shmuel Krakowski, and Schmuel Spector (Eds.),
The Einsatzgruppen Reports, Holocaust Library (1989)
Auschwitz
Auschwitz
has become the symbol of the Holocaust. Over 1,000,000 Jews were
murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz or died from starvation,
disease, torture, shooting or in the horrible medical experiments
carried out there. The gas chambers were only one part of a large
industrial complex.
Danuta Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, Owl Books (1989)
Deborah Dwork and Robert-Jan van Pelt, Auschwitz: 1270 to the
Present,, W.W. Norton and Company, New York (1996).
Yisrael Gutman and Michael Berenbaum (Eds.), Anatomy of the
Auschwitz Death Camp,, Indiana University Press in association
with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (1994)
Rudolph Hoess (Steven Paluski, Ed.) Death Dealer: The Memoirs
of the SS Kommandant of Auschwitz, Da Capo Books (1992)
Miklos Nyisli, Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness
Account, Arcade Paperbacks (1960)
David Olere, Witness: Images of Auschwitz, D & F
Scott Pub Inc (1998)
Bernd Naumann, Auschwitz: A Report on the Proceedings Against
Robert Karl Mulka and Others Before the Court at Frankfurt, Pall
Mall Press, London (1966)
Jadwiga Bezwinska and Danuta Czech, KL Auschwitz Seen by the
SS, Howard Fertig, New York (1994)
Filip Müller, Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the
Gas Chambers, Stein and Day, New York (1984)
Rebecca Fromer, The Holocaust Odyssey of Daniel Bennahmias,
Sonderkommando, University of Alabama Press (1993)
Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on
Humanity, Collier Books (1995)
Wieslaw Kielar, Anus Mundi: 1,500 Days in
Auschwitz/Birkenau, Times Books, New York (1972)
Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: A Woman's True Story of
Auschwitz, Academy Chicago Publishing (1995)
Sara Nomberg-Przytyk, Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque
Land, University of North Carolina Press (1986)
Marco Nahon M.D., Birkenau: The Camp of Death, The
University of Alabama Press (1989)
Other concentration camps
There were literally hundreds of concentration camps established by
the Third Reich. Only a few were camps where systematic extermination
occurred. Others were camps for slave labor or the confinement of
enemies of the Third Reich.
Eugen Kogon, The Theory and Practice of Hell, Farrer,
Strauss (1950)
David A. Hackett, The Buchenwald Report, Westview Press
(1995)
Yitzak Arad, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation
Reinhard Death Camps, Indiana University Press, Bloomington
(1987, 1999)
Eugen Kogon, Hermann Langbein, and Adalbert Rückerl (Ed.),
Nazi Mass Murder: A Documentary History of the Use of Poison
Gas, Yale University Press (1993)
Raymond Phillips (Ed.), The Trial of Josef Kramer and
Forty-Four Others (The Belsen Trial), William Hodge and Company,
Limited, London (1949)
Barbara Distel, Ruth Jakusch, Concentration Camp Dachau
1933-1945, Comitè International de Dachau, Munich (1978)
Mitchell Bard, Forgotten Victims : The Abandonment of
Americans in Hitler's Camps, Harper Collins (1996)
The world and the Holocaust
One of the most controversial aspects of the history of the
Holocaust, is how the outside world reacted and whether the actions of
the
United States
or other nations could have been more effective in preventing the
Holocaust or saving its victims.
Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies, Holt,
Reinhart and Winston, New York (1981)
Arthur Morse, While Six Million Died , Random House;
1968
David Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews, Pantheon, New
York (1984)
Leonard Dinnerstein, America and the Survivors of the
Holocaust, University of Columbia Press (1982)
Walter Laqueur The Terrible Secret, Owl Books (1980)
William R. Perl, The Holocaust Conspiracy: An International
Policy of Genocide, Shapolsky Publishers, New York (1989)
Robrt Abzug, Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the
Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps, Oxford University Press
(1985)
Deborah Lipstadt, Beyond Belief: The American Press & the
Coming of the Holocaust 1933-1945, The Free Press, New York
(1986)
Tom Bower, Nazi Gold, HarperCollins (1997)
The Nuremberg trials
After the surrender of the Third Reich, the criminals who had
perpetrated the crimes of the Third Reich were placed on trial. The
most famous of these was the trial before the
International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg
of the surviving leaders of the Third Reich. Later there were trials of
individuals accused of the crimes. While there are many books on the
first trial, there is unfortunately no general history of the later
trials.
Robert E. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg, Harper & Row
(1983)
Whitney Harris, Tyranny on Trial, Southern Methodist
University Press (1954)
Joseph Persico, Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial, Viking
Press (1994)
Bradley F. Smith, Reaching Judgment at Nuremberg, Basic
Books (1977)
Bradley F. Smith, The Road to Nuremberg, Basic Books
(1981)
Telford Taylor, The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials,
Little Brown (1992)
Eugene Davidson, The Trial of the Germans: An account of the
Twenty-two Defendants before the International Military Tribunal at
Nuremberg, University of Missouri Press (1997)
G. M. Gilbert, Nuremberg Diaries, DeCapo Press (1995)
Hillary Gaskin, Eyewitnesses at Nuremberg, Arms and
Armor Press (1990)
Airey Neave, On Trial at Nuremberg, Little, Brown
(1978)
Historians and the Study of the Holocaust
As with any historical event, the perceptions of historians change
as new material is unearthed and new insights developed. These books
explain how historians have viewed the Holocaust:
Lucy Dawidowicz, What is the Use of Jewish History?,
Schocken Press (1992)
Lucy Dawidowicz, The Holocaust and the Historians,
Harvard University Press (1981)
Raul Hilberg, The Politics of Memory: The Journey of a
Holocaust Historian, Ivan R Dee, Inc. (1996)
Michael Marrus, The Holocaust in History, Meridian
Books (1987)
Children in the Holocaust
One of the questions most asked of The Holocaust History Project is
about the chilling fate of the children caught by the Holocaust. These
books are suitable for younger readers.
Elie Wiesel, Night, Bantam Books, New York (1960)
Anne Frank (et al.), The Diary of Anne Frank: The Critical
Edition, Doubleday Books, New York (1989)
Hana Volavkova (Ed.), Chaim Potok, I Never Saw Another
Butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration
Camp, 1942-1944", U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, (1993)
Kitty Hart, Return to Auschwitz: The Remarkable Story of a
Girl Who Survived the Holocaust, Atheneum, New York (1983)
Denial of the Holocaust
Since the end of World War II, a movement which
calls itself "revisionism"
has developed. Frequently the denial of the Holocaust is covered by a
pretense of serious "scholarship." Almost invariably this is a
transparent excuse for outright anti-Semitism and an attempt to
resurrect Adolf Hitler as a respectable leader of Germany. We have also
included some works on the anti-Semitic philosophy that formed the
ideological base of Hitler's philosophy:
Deborah Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust, The Free Press
(1993)
Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Assassins of Memory: Essays on the Denial
of the Holocaust, Columbia Univ Press (1994). (This book is
available in its entirety
in English
and
en français
at the website
http://www.anti-rev.org/.)
Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things, W.H.
Freeman (1997)
Ralph Ezekial, The Racist Mind, Penguin Books (1995)
Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide, Serif Press (1967,
1996)
Leon Poliakov, The Aryan Myth, Barnes & Noble
(1971)
Internet resources
The Holocaust History Project was founded from the realization that
the starting point for research today is often a search of the
Internet. Fortunately there are many good places to find information
about the Holocaust. These are the some of the most informative sites
available.
Our website, The Holocaust History Project, is at
http://www.holocaust-history.org/.
The Nizkor Project is at
http://www.nizkor.org/.
The Einsatzgruppen page is at
http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/
.
The Cybrary of the Holocaust is at
http://www.remember.org/.
A description of all the concentration camps is at
http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/.
A site maintained by victims of the medical experiments at Auschwitz is at
http://www.candles-museum.com/.
A site detailing the treatment of the gypsies is at
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/holcaust.htm.
A site which analyses the subsequent trials of the German military who committed war crimes is
http://law.touro.edu/Publications/internationallawrev/vol6/part5.html.
Two sites which would be of special interest to teachers are:
http://www.levandehistoria.org
and
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/holo.html.
We maintain a list of internet links at: http://holocaust-history.org/links/
The Holocaust History Project dedicates this reading list to Stig
Hornshøj-Møller (1949-1999), who dedicated his life to
educating the world about the Holocaust.
more short essays...
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