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0 of 2 members found this review helpful.Very detailed book of Nazi Germany & the Jews
“A very detailed account of Nazi Germany and the Jewish people. Gives lots of views from different citizens of the time through diary entries. A very good book.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-08-03. -
1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
A "different" account of the Holocaust
“ I have read several accounts of the Holocaust and also survived it. Friedlenders' second volume of "Nazi Germany and the Jews - the Years of Extermination, 1939-1945" is uniquely valuable among the general historical accounts of the Holocaust because it presents numerous documents and eye-witness accounts. This makes the story emotionally accessible and "real", but it also makes for a very upsetting reading. Anyone seriously interested in the subject should buy this book.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-02-25. -
1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Eyewitness Accounts of the Horror That Was the Holocaust
“Freidlander has strung together a narrative of the horrors of the Holocaust as seen in the eyewitness accounts of Victims, Perpetrators, Bystanders, and survivors. Each chapter is the culmination of the accounts of journals kept by as diverse a group as schoolchildren such as the famous Anne Frank, Various Jewish leaders, simple shopkeepers, laborers and farmers, German soldiers, Slavic witnesses, and a multitude of others.
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-12-29.
The book is very hard to read yet compelling. I could only read 10-20 pages at a sitting without becoming upset at man's inhumanity. The life reported in the eastern Ghettoes is especially grim as people report in a manner of fact manner "Oh only 20 people starved to death yesterday." Diaries just suddenly end abruptly as the writers succumb to starvation and illness or are taken away. The deaths of children are especially hard to take.
It is amazing that save in Hungary which resisted Nazi pressure until occupied and Denmark where the population managed to smuggle most of their Jewish neighbors to safety in Sweden (my father in law had two uncles in the Danish resistance who's health was wrecked after being arrested by the Gestapo in 1945)most of the rest of occupied Europe actively cooperated with the roundup and deportation of the Jews to the Death Camps. Vichy France being a notorious example.
The failure of Jewish leaders to realize what was happening until too late is also present in their writings. They thought that their Segregation would be the same as in other periods of European History where their ancestors had endured abuse but the population had survived. By the time they realized that they were being set aside for extermination it was too late and they tried their best to keep as many as they could 'safe' for as long as possible.
The German diaries show that the SS and Wehrmacht soldiers who committed the deeds were not psychopaths but normal people doing their duty. One Auschwitz Doctor described his evil deeds then finished with a report of what he and his wife had for dinner.
The book would be a good place to start for a narrative history of the Holocaust. We are touched by some of the writers humanity and appalled by the inhumanity of many more. Perhaps if enough people read their stories another such Human Tragedy might be prevented.” -
0 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Among the best of the best -- both volumes.
“Among the best of the best -- both volumes.
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-12-16.
Among the many Holocaust and Nazi Germany scholars who praise these volumes as fundamentally important books is Yehuda Bauer. He includes an analysis of the first volume in his book "Rethinking the Holocaust" (2001). ” -
11 of 14 members found this review helpful.
Very Dry, Scholarly Work
“This is the kind of work whose rating depends exclusively on what kind of reading experience you're looking for. If you are a scholar of the Holocaust and German policies during World War II as it relates to the "Jewish problem", this will perhaps be the gold standard. If, on the other hand, you're merely in search of an educational and captivating read, you'd best look elsewhere.
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-10-16.
At its core, this book is a compilation of hundreds of sources that chronicle the evolution of Nazi policies from 1939-1945. Sadly, while the author quotes from numerous diaries and journals, the individual experiences of many of the victims comprise but a small part of the narrative; far too small in my opinion. Instead, the text is loaded with literally hundreds of excerpts from Nazi speeches and policy papers, all variations on the underlying theme of, "We're going to kill all the Jews". As a result, the writing is dry to say the least.
This book has perhaps two hundred pages of end notes and source material, an indication of its scholarly weight. Again, if you're doing research or enjoy such writing, this is the book for you. I think it says something that the writer, on a topic as emotionally laden as the Holocaust, left this reader feeling nothing, whereas other books on the topic have left me in tears.”
