Nazi Policy, Jewish Workers, German Killers - Hardcover

paper 0-521-77490-X Given the recent headlines about the slave-labor reparations settlement in Germany, this new study from distinguished Holocaust historian Browning (Ordinary Men, 1992, etc.) is an important event. The six pieces herein, an expansion of Browning's 1995 Trevelyan lectures, fall, as the author notes, into three pairs. The first two consider policy-making processes that led to the Final Solution; the middle two focus on the tensions between pragmatism and ideology in the Reichs treatment of Jewish slave labor; and in the final pair Browning returns to the topic of Ordinary Men, using fresh evidence to re-examine the behavior of those who committed mass murder. The field of Holocaust studies changes by leaps and bounds, with new evidence becoming available almost daily as files from the former Soviet bloc and still unread materials from the Nazis themselves are evaluated by scholars. Much of what Browning has to say here grows out of such newly available materials. Although the conclusions he comes to are not significantly different from positions he has previously held, new details emerge that allow him to add nuance and depth. Hence, although he still persuasively maintains that the decisions leading to the Nazi attempt to murder all of Europe's Jews were an incremental, ongoing decision-making process that stretched from the spring of 1941 to the summer of 1942, his access to previously unavailable diaries of Joseph Goebbels and communications among Nazi leaders enrich our understanding of the ongoing internal tug-of-war over when and how to achieve that gruesome goal. Similarly, recent studies of regional decision-making give a fuller picture of the interplay of local and national interests in the carrying out of the mass murders. Browning is a methodical, if somewhat dry, writer and the result is an indispensable addition to the Holocaust bookshelf, though most valuable to specialists. Estimable scholarship, intelligently presented, but not a casual reader's book. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

"The essays contain a great deal of interesting material....Browning's current contribution to this debate is very welcome...." The New Republic

"...the book as a whole is very readable, with the individual lectures being shining examples for concise and clear argumentation...Together, these lectures are the best introduction to current issues in serious Holocaust Studies available at the moment. I would highly recommend the book to any student or scholar looking for a succinct summary and critical discussion of the state of knowledge in this field." H-Net Reviews

"Browning is one of the leaders in the study of the Holocaust, and the essays in this book confirm his reputation. The essays explore important and often neglected aspects of the Holocaust, and are original, well argued and incredibly well researched. In the book he focuses on the victims and the perpetrators, using oral testimony on documentary evidence. There is a lot of drama in each story, and I found them quite stimulating. Together they offer both interesting theoretical perspectives, and substantive new information. Like his many other publications, this book deserves a wide readership." Robert Gellately, Strassler Professor in Holocaust History, Clark University

"In the 'fateful months' following Barbarossa, a series of decisions would be taken. One of these decisions would emerge as what the Nazis called 'the Final Solution to the Jewish Question,' a program of systematic and total mass murder, to begin and be completed as soon as feasibly possible, and for the first time with clear priority for the implementation of Jewish policy over the various other Nazi demographic schemes affecting ethnic Germans and Slavs." -from Chapter 1

"Thus does Browning demonstrate how interplay between policy and perpetration worked smoothly in creating the most efficient murder machine in history-German killers. Not easy reading, but vital arguments. See for yourself." Winston-Salem (NC) Journal