A History of the Holocaust (Single Title Social Studies) [Hardcover]

Yehuda Bauer (Author), Nili Keren (Author)

Book Description

Series: Single Title Social Studies | Publication Date: January 2001

The author traces the roots of anti-Semitism that burgeoned through the ages and provides a comprehensive description of how and why the Holocaust occurred.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 10 Up-A thorough and well-documented discussion. Bauer gives an overview of Jewish history beginning 2000 years B.C.E. and notes the many conflicts and discriminations the Jewish people have suffered throughout time. Placed within that context, the initial disbelief from many Jews regarding the plan of complete annihilation becomes much more understandable, although the author reports the cases of Jewish resistance and help from outside sources. Unfortunately, though, the end result is one with which we are all too familiar. The organization and exhaustive coverage are first-rate, and this revision of a 1982 title includes information not available earlier from both Eastern and Western countries. The "what" and "how" are included here, but there is also an attempt to discover the "why," and that is what lifts this title into the realm of an advanced study of a difficult topic. An excellent resource.

Paula J. LaRue, Van Wert Middle School, OH

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Children's Press(CT); Revised edition (January 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0531155765
• ISBN-13: 978-0531155769
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Teens > Historical Fiction

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful History, April 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A History of the Holocaust (Paperback)

I had the opportunity to use Yehuda Bauer's book in a universtiy course on the history of the Holocaust two years ago. Now that I am a history teacher, I found myself looking for the text that I foolishly sold. In his book Bauer provides an overview of the Jewish people and then takes you through the the major events (WWI, the Weimar Republic, rise of Hitler)in history and how they contributed to the massacre of millions in the Holocaust. Bauer's chapter by chapter analysis of the events surrounding the Holocaust is the reason that I came back to look for the text. Whether you are interested in this era of history or are perhaps an educator about to teach it, you will find valuable information within this book to help you synthesize and present the information. I plan to use parts of this book in the World History class that I am teaching.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Generally Good Summary of the Course of the Holocaust, May 11, 2008

By 

Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A History of the Holocaust (Single Title Social Studies) (Hardcover)

This review is based on the 1982 edition. This book traces the Holocaust from early anti-Jewish teachings, the emergence of racial anti-Semitism, the rise of Nazi ideology, the decision to murder the Jews, the implementation of the Holocaust, rescue attempts, Jewish resistance, theological and philosophical implications, etc. Bauer soundly repudiates any notion of the German death camps being erected in German-occupied Poland because of the presumed anti-Semitism of the local population (p. 210). It was simply a matter of practicality.

Bauer notes that more than half of prewar Polish Jews were nonreligious (p. 177). Hlond-like comments about "Jews-as-freethinkers" can be understood in this light.

To his credit, Bauer recognizes the essential difference between traditional Christian teachings about Jews and those of the later Nazis: "The term anti-Semitism was apparently first used by a racist ideologist in Germany, Wilhelm Marr, in 1878 and 1879...But in an increasingly secularized society in which there was no belief in Jesus, the question of who was responsible for his death seemed irrelevant. Marr, Duehring, de Lagarde, and the other racists, violently anti-Christian, saw Christianity--quite rightly, of course--as derived from Judaism and therefore utterly condemnable. They needed a `modern', `scientific' term, hygienic, neutral, that would not include the word Jew." (p. 43)

When elaborating on efforts of the German-occupied nations to warn the outside world about what was being done to the Jews, Bauer writes: "The Polish government-in-exile had been the first official body to lend unhesitating credence to the reports on planned mass murder. Since June [1942], they had been bombarding the Americans and the British with demands to recognize the facts and to do something about them." (p. 300)

Bauer touches on the Nazi genocides of non-Jews: "Three million Poles were murdered by the Nazis during the course of the war, by methods best defined as selective genocide. The Polish intelligentsia, the Catholic priesthood--especially in western Poland--and a large peasant population fell victim to the Nazi desire to eliminate the proud Polish nation. In contrast to other European nations, practically no political figure in Poland cooperated politically with the Nazis." (p. 286). Bauer doesn't mention the fact that the Germans were not in a position to murder many more Poles than they did because they needed Poles as forced laborers, and because it would've been too disruptive during wartime (see Peczkis Listmania: Forgotten Holocaust: Nazi Genocide of Poles).

Owing to the overview nature of this book, it has some obvious errors. For instance, Bauer dwells on the poverty of prewar Polish Jews (pp. 61-62). This was only true of a fraction of them. Despite measures taken to reduce Jewish economic dominance, the average Jew was still wealthier than the average Pole. Bauer's remarks about the AK (p. 265, 285) and the NSZ (p. 285) are untrue, and the latter are nothing more than a repetition of Communist propaganda (from Shmuel Krakowski (p. 367, Ref. 8), a Communist).

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The painful truth of the Holocaust, April 24, 2006

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A History of the Holocaust (Single Title Social Studies) (Hardcover)

Yehuda Bauer is one of the most important historians of the 'Holocaust'. In this work he traces the history of the Jewish people. And he provides background historical explanation on the murder of over one - third of the Jewish people by the Nazis and their assistants. He writes with clarity and deep understanding of the subject.