Nazis and the Holocaust

Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland by Jan T. Gross, Princeton University Press, 2022.

Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience  by Gitta Sereny, Vintage Books, 1983.  Austrian Policeman After the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi Germany,  Franz Stangl an Austrian policeman, went to work for the Nazis. Cripples His first assignment was to participate in the involuntary euthanasia of undesirables, those deemed to be unfit to live, such as those who were mentally ill, mentally retarded, or physically crippled. Sobibor After the euthanasia of the unfit, Stangl

Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland  by Christopher R. Browning, Harper Perennial; Revised Edition, 2017.  German Police Battalion This book is an objective and careful analysis of a German police reserve battalion-during World War II. Police Battalion 101 was made up of middle-aged men from Hamburg. Most of them were not Nazis, psychopaths or anti-Semites. Herding Jews This police battalion herded Polish Jews onto trains destined for s

IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation, Expanded Edition, by Edwin Black, Dialog Press, 2012.  German Subsidiary IBM had a German subsidiary in the years leading up to World War II. At that time, IBM was not an electronic computer company, but rather a manufacturer of mechanical machines for processing Hollerith paper cards. IBM manufactured various types of Hollerith machines: punchers, sorters, proofers, ve

The Splendid Blond Beast: Money, Law and Genocide in the Twentieth Century  by Christopher Simpson, Common Courage Press, 1995.  Armenian Genocide The Armenian genocide of 1915 was lead by a group of young Turkish military officers named the Ittihad, and informally referred to as “The Young Turks”. They deported the Armenians in Anatolia southward, to Syria. The Ittihad then declared their property abandoned, and the stolen loot became patronage for the Ittihad supporters. Th

The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl: How Two Brave Scientists Battled Typhus and Sabotaged the Nazis  by Arthur Allen, W. W. Norton & Company, 2015.

Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, The Nazis, and The Swiss Banks  by Mark Aarons and John Loftus, St. Martin's Griffin, 1998 (Revised edition).  Croatia and the Ustasha Croatia was a Roman Catholic part of Yugoslavia. A nationalist political organization called the Ustasha gained political power in the months before the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia. After the Nazis invaded, the Ustasha collaborated with the Nazis. The Ustasha  helped the Nazis kill Jews and Gypsies. On their own, the

Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust  by Richard Rhodes, Vintage, 2007.  The Jews in Hitler's Mind While Hitler pandered to the envy that many poor German gentiles had for the prosperous Jews, he himself seems to have been more motivated by paranoia rather than by envy. The Jews were seen by the Nazis as parasites and looters.  Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany losing WWI. Hitler also believed that the Bolshevik revolution in Russia was

Kristallnacht  by Martin Gilbert, HarperCollins, 2006.  Assassination November 7, 1938: Herschel Grünspan shot diplomat Ernst vom Rath at the German embassy in Paris. Hitler used this act as an excuse to punish the Jews in Germany and Austria. Broken Windows Windows of Jewish shops were broken (crystal night). Arson against many Jewish synagogues. Mobs looted Jewish businesses and homes. Jewish hospitals, schools, old age homes and orphanages were also attacked. Many crimes w

America's Nazi Secret: An Insider's History  (2nd edition) by John Loftus Belarus The book is a revised edition of a book Loftus originally published in 1982 as The Belarus Secret. Belarus is also known as Byelorussia, White Russia, and White Ruthenia. Its capital is Minsk. Belarus was partitioned between the Soviet Union and Poland by the Treaty of Riga (1921). Some Belarusians nationalists collaborated with the Nazi's during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in World Wa

The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust  by Jeffrey Herf, Belknap Press, 2008.  Nazi Propaganda The author describes Nazi propaganda against the Jews. It provides an interesting insight as to how Hitler’s mind worked. The Nazis criticized the Jews of Germany for avoiding military service and avoiding manual labor. Hitler blamed the Jews for their loss in World War I, the Bolshevik revolution and the Great Depression. Secret Power The Nazis beli

Why the Germans? Why the Jews?: Envy, Race Hatred, and the Prehistory of the Holocaust  by Götz Haydar Aly. Metropolitan Books (2014). Germany Excellent history of the growth of German prejudice against Jews during the century leading up to the Holocaust. First, the traditional prejudice against the Jews based upon their religion was replaced by envy and shame of the greater economic success of the emancipated Jews. Racism Then the Nazis gave the German people a rationalizati