The Holocaust: Roots, History and the Aftermath (review)

There has been over the last ten years a plethora of textbooks and comprehensive histories of the Shoah. The cynic in me asks, do we really need another one? After reading the Crowe book my answer is a definite yes. I have used most of the major textbooks and histories in my 25 years plus of teaching undergraduates the Shoah, and the Crowe book is by far one of the most usable and readable that exists.

The first two chapters effectively and critically outline for the reader the history of Jewish religious, cultural, and political development as well as the development and evolution of anti-Jewish prejudice and hatred. Each chapter of the book contains a detailed chronology of events and provides the reader with a clear and well developed narrative. Often textbooks and histories ignore or give short shrift to a comprehensive understanding of the question of who the Jews are and what the impact of 2000 plus years of anti-Jewish hate and prejudice has been. Crowe's analysis of the impact of the noted forgery, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," on the development of Nazi ideology is very important, as is his third chapter on Adolph Hitler's roots and his anti-semitism. What makes this chapter significant is Crowe's effective use of and analysis of Hitler's speeches and writings in developing the trajectory of his hate and prejudice.

Chapters Four and Five are some of the best writing on the impact of eugenics and the development of the so called "Euthanasia" on Nazi policies leading to the creation of the "Final Solution." Explaining how hate can be crafted into public policy is at the core of Crowe's writing. His discussion of the policies of the Nazis toward not only Jews, Roma, and the handicapped, but also to the Nazi slave labor program gives us a substantive and comprehensive understanding of the programmed structure of the Nazi political and economic world.

Chapters Six through Eight cover the theoretical and practical developments of the Nazis' "Final Solution." Each of the killing centers and the development of the killing center industrial complexes of Auschwitz and Majdanek are explained in chilling detail. Chapter Eight's focus is on the "Final Solution" country by country through Western Europe and the Nazi allied states. This chapter is a roll call of complicity, collaboration, and invidious evil that ran rampant over Europe.

It is in Chapter Nine that Crowe most effectively lays out the case against those nations who stood by as supposed neutrals as the Nazis wiped out millions of Jews, Roma and the handicapped. Crowe shows the moral bankruptcy of the neutral nations who for the most part put aside any moral vision for economic and political profit from the expropriated valuables of the destroyed European Jewish communities. What is especially telling are the stories of neutral countries' treatment of their nationals who were involved in rescue of Jews. The story of Portugal's treatment of Sousa Mendes is indeed heartrending.

The final chapter packs a great deal of primary source material into Crowe's analysis of the liberation, war crimes trials, and the status of refugees. Crowe has produced one of the most concise and fully developed narratives of this part of the Shoah available.

This book is also very valuable for students of the Shoah because of its excellent references, which are divided into primary sources and secondary sources. Each chapter is packed with connections to other readings and material for further research. Finally, Crowe's appendices give important statistics of both Jewish and Roma deaths as well as rescuers recorded in Yad Vashem's Righteous Among the Nations.

In conclusion, this is an excellent book, well researched and extremely readable. Crowe has done something very valuable in providing such a resource for any course on the Shoah.