The Extermination of the European Jews (New Approaches to European History)
Cambridge University Press, 3/17/2016
EAN 9780521880787, ISBN10: 0521880785
Hardcover, 528 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 3.3 cm
Language: English
This major reinterpretation of the Holocaust surveys the destruction of the European Jews within the broader context of Nazi violence against other victim groups. Christian Gerlach offers a unique social history of mass violence which reveals why particular groups were persecuted and what it was that connected the fate of these groups and the policies against them. He explores the diverse ideological, political and economic motivations which lay behind the murder of the Jews and charts the changing dynamics of persecution during the course of the war. The book brings together both German actions and those of non-German states and societies, shedding new light on the different groups and vested interests involved and their role in the persecution of non-Jews as well. Ranging across continental Europe, it reveals that popular notions of race were often more important in shaping persecution than scientific racism or Nazi dogma.
1. Introduction
Part I. Persecution by Germans
2. Before 1933
3. From enforced emigration to territorial schemes
1933–41
4. From mass murder to comprehensive annihilation
1941–2
5. Extending mass destruction
1942–5
6. Structures and agents of violence
Part II. Logics of Persecution
7. Racism and anti-Jewish thought
8. Forced labor, German violence and Jews
9. Hunger policies and mass murder
10. The economics of separation, expropriation, crowding and removal
11. Fighting resistance and the persecution of Jews
Part III. The European Dimension
12. Legislation against Jews in Europe
a comparison
13. Divided societies
popular input to the persecution of Jews
14. Beyond legislation
non-German policies of violence
15. In the labyrinths of persecution
survival attempts
16. Conclusion
group destruction in extremely violent societies
Bibliography
Index.