The first of a two-volume study on Hitler's Final Solution, this important work comes from a noted Holocaust survivor. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This first of two volumes will be followed by The Years of Extermination. In explaining his particular mode of historical narration in the two works, Friedl\x8a nder says that at the basic level, he follows the chronological sequence of the events--their prewar evolution in this volume, their monstrous wartime culmination in the next. Utilizing substantial new documentation (there are almost 100 pages of notes and a bibliography), the author examines not only Hitler, Nazi Party officials and functionaries, the business and professional elite, members of the Christian establishment, and the Jews but also ordinary Germans. Friedl\x8a nder assesses Nazi attitudes and policies and the function of Hitler's ideology in the implementation of the Nazi regime's anti-Jewish measures. Friedl\x8a nder's ambitious and scholarly work is an important contribution to understanding why Germany, one of the most advanced nations in Europe, would embark on a systematic attempt to destroy the Jews. --George Cohen

FYI: The forthcoming second half of this two-volume work is titled The Years of Extermination. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved