Description
Book SynopsisWaitman Wade Beorn's The Holocaust in Eastern Europe provides a comprehensive history of the Holocaust in the region that was the central location of the event itself while including material often overlooked in general Holocaust history texts. First introducing Jewish life as it was lived before the Nazis in Eastern Europe, the book chronologically surveys the development of Nazi policies in the area over the period from 1939 to 1945. This book provides an overview of both the German imagination and obsession with the East and its impact on the Nazi genocidal project there. It also covers the important period of Soviet occupation and its effects on the unfolding of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. This text also treats in detail other themes such as ghettoization, the Final Solution, rescue, collaboration, resistance, and many others. Throughout, Beorn includes detailed examples of the similarities and differences of the nature of the Holocaust in various regions, in the words of
Trade ReviewBeorn has produced an excellent and accessible survey on the history of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. Individual chapters could readily be used to shape or supplement primary source readings in introductory and upper-level undergraduate courses on the Holocaust. Moreover, the footnotes and “suggested reading” lists at the end of each chapter will undoubtedly provide instructors with ideas for other works that they can include on their future syllabi. * H-Judaic *
Beorn provides a fine overview of numerous key issues surrounding the Holocaust in Eastern Europe … [A] critical, concise and clear overview of current trends in Holocaust research, as they relate to some of the Holocaust’s main actors and sites of genocide … [The] volume offers valuable background information, sources and questions for addressing one of the greatest catastrophes of our time. * German History *
In recent years the focus of Holocaust historians has shifted eastwards. In this accessible and cutting-edge book which neatly synthesises this research, Waitman Beorn explains why Eastern Europe was indeed "the epicentre of the Final Solution". A very valuable resource for all students and scholars of the Nazi genocide of the Jews. * Dan Stone, Professor of Modern History, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK *
Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Beyond the Pale: Pre-war Jewish Life in Eastern Europe 2. The Origins of the Nazi State 3. Nazis and the Imaginary East 4. The Soviet Interlude 5. Poland: The Nazi Laboratory of Genocide 6. War of Annihilation: The Invasion of the Soviet Union 7. Ghetto Life and Death in the East 8. Hitler’s Eastern Allies 9. The Final Solution 10. The Kaleidoscope of Jewish Resistance 11. Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Rescuers Conclusion Index
