The Holocaust

Donald L. Niewyk

This volume brings together some ... important and stimulating contributions to our understanding of Nazi genocide. These readings have been selected for the purpose of acquainting students with a variety of views, some of classic stature, others very recent. After an introduction that contains a brief historical overview of the Holocaust, [the book] explores problems of definition and origins [and then] looks at the motivation of Holocaust perpetrators. [Next, it] compares conflicting views about the victims' survival strategies and women's experience of the camps [and] examines charges that the victims failed to put up any significant resistance to their tormentors. [The book then] inquires into the attitudes and actions of bystanders while the victims were being murdered [and] finally ... considers the possibilities that some Jews might have been saved from the gas chambers through military action or intercession by outside forces. - Preface.